Sweet Home Tennessee

Okay, so I changed the title of the song a little, sue me. :o) And technically, Tennessee is not my "home." I was born and raised in Illinois. Ever since I was a little girl, though, I have always wanted to live in Tennessee. I don't know if you remember those tourism commercials for Tennessee that had that little jingle, "Come to Tennessee. We're playing your song." Anyway, those commercials were running when I was a little girl. Ever since I saw those commercials, I was fascinated with Tennessee. Then, when I was probably about 12 or so, we went to Hendersonville, Tennessee for my cousin's wedding. It's where his wife was from. Anyway, driving through the hills and seeing the beautiful old plantation home they got married at (it was a bed and breakfast then) made me fall head over heels in love with Tennessee.

Fast forward a few years, and I met a guy on the internet. He just happened to be from Tennessee. We fell in love and got married. (No, not just because he was from Tennessee. That was just a bonus.) He moved to Illinois, and we lived here until 2005 when he graduated college. Then, his friend from Tennessee called and said that he had found a job for him, and once he found a place, we all moved to the town where my husband was raised. I had been there a few times in the course of our relationship, and I always loved it. I liked Nashville too, which was where his mom lived, and even though that's where David's job was, I refused to live in the city. I am a small town girl. So, we lived in Dickson which is about 45 minutes west of Nashville. We started going to a church, which we liked, but through a series of events, we discovered that there were things going on there that we didn't agree with. I won't bore you with the long story, but we ended up leaving the church. We searched around for a while and were getting kind of frustrated because we couldn't find another church we liked. Finally, we decided to try one last church in the area, not expecting much. From the moment we walked in, it felt like home. The people were amazing, the worship was wonderful, and the church was alive and growing. It was the perfect church for us, so we joined. We LOVED our time there, but eventually, after David lost his job, we felt God calling us back to Illinois. I was kind of excited about moving back because I missed my family. On the other hand, I was really sad because I loved Dickson and the church.

So, we moved back up here, and God really blessed us. David has been preaching more than ever and is actually now the interim pastor for a church. I have missed Tennessee ever since we left, and even more so since David has been preaching/pastoring. Not because I don't enjoy joining my husband in his ministry. I do. It's just that the churches around here are nothing like the churches down South. I never realized how dead the churches up here were until I moved South and came back. I hate to tell you people, I love you, but most of your churches are either dead or dying a slow agonizing death. The church my husband is the interim pastor for has about 10-15 faithful members. And those members are happy just to warm a pew once a week. That's right, once a week. They only have services on Sunday morning. The worship is dead. It sounds like they are singing at a funeral or something, and when David preaches, it's almost like he is preaching in a morgue. I guess in a way, all that is kind of true, sadly. The church in dying and not far from closing their doors. It is horrible to think of any church closing their doors. It's only one of two churches in this small town. The fields are white for the harvest! The only problem is, the workers aren't in the field and refuse to do so. They've never done it before. That's the Baptist mantra. "We've never done it that way before." To change a bunch of Baptists is like trying to push an elephant up the stairs! My granfather was a Southern Baptist minister, and he always said that the Baptist theme song should be, "I Shall Not Be Moved." How true that is!

Anyway, David has been doing the evangelism alone, knocking on doors because no one else will. In fact, while he was knocking on doors, he came to the house of another pastor that has been pastoring for years and believes very strongly in door-to-door evangelism. He was shocked that David was even out witnessing. He was pleasantly surprised because not very many churches around here do it. They think it doesn't work. It does, and I've seen it work! As David likes to say, and has said in a sermon that ruffled a few feathers, "It doesn't work because you're not doing it!!"

People are out there searching and begging for something, and we need to be taking Christ to them! In the little community around the church David pastors there were 3 suicides in the span of 2 weeks! Three in two weeks!!! Doesn't that tell them something?!?!?! These people NEED to hear the Gospel! They are begging for answers! Had the Gospel been taken to these people, perhaps their lives would have been spared. Perhaps they would have felt like their lives were more important, like they had something to live for! God could do so much with this church, and we believe He wants to. We just have to convince the members to let Him.

Whew! Sorry! I will step down off my soap box now. I think David is rubbing off on me. :o) Anyway, the point of this blog was, although reading back through it I think it turned into something else, I MISS TENNESSEE! I know God has us here for a reason, maybe to use David to build this little church up and reach out to the community around it. I don't know. I just know we are supposed to be here. I would never want to go against God's will, and I love watching God work through my husband and use him in His ministry. And I know that He is using me too. When your husband is called to be a pastor, you are called to be a pastor's wife. It's definitely a calling. I hope I can live up to what God wants me to be. I am trying. Anyway, I know God wants us to be here, but I can't help but feel that my heart is in Tennessee.