“Church is Not Going to Kill You”

Midway Baptist Church in Midway, Alabama. 

Midway, Alabama, is on Highway 83 in Conecuh county. There are two Midway’s in Alabama, but this is the real Midway.

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My heart is always in the country, especially early on Sunday mornings

My heart is always in the country, especially early on a Sunday morning.  Sunday mornings in the south, are some of my sweetest memories. 

Sitting on Grandma’s front porch, watching the cars pass by as each passenger in the car would raise their hands as they passed and you politely raise yours just to say How Y’all. 

Being a little “Yankee” kid, with a funny accent, I could never understand why people were so friendly to wave as they passed by Grandma’s house.  I recall thinking they sure do know a lot of people. 

 I recall going to church one hot summer evening, and the church was packed; it might have been a revival or guest preacher.  The best little memories of Grandma, aka Miss Josephine, and my Aunts, we were all very young, singing good old church hymns, stays embedded in my mind.

While I did not have the full experience attending the Midway Baptist Church, I love stopping by, visiting my family buried in the church cemetery.

Mom, where do we go to church?

On a trip south in the early 1990’s I took my children Mario and Francesca to the Midway Baptist Church with my Aunt and Cousin.  Mario was probably about nine, and Francesca would have been around four years old.   

The Preacher asked everyone who brought a visitor to church to introduce them, and then he asked each visitor to “tell us a little about yourself.”

The Preacher asks “Mario, where do you go to Church?”

Mario was in the pew in front of me, and he quickly turned to me looking perplexed said: “Mom, where do we go to church?”

I said, well, you were baptized Catholic, blessed in the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and last year you wanted to be Jewish.

After that, I don’t recall the Preacher asking me to say anything about myself.  I’d say he had me figured out.

Mario went to Montessori, and they celebrated different religions. The week around Hanukkah, they ate Latkes and Applesauce more than a few times, and that was it, he was an immediate convert. 

He came home one day, very seriously said Mom, I want to be Jewish.  I said, Why?  He said I love Latkes and Applesauce, can you make that sometime?

I remember enjoying the Preacher’s sermon, and as we walked out of the church, he stood at the door shaking hands. 

When it was my turn, he took both of my hands and shaking very firmly said: “Ann, let me tell you something, church is not going to kill you.” 

I never advocate not going to church.  My church experience growing up was a good one.  It must have been because a lot of my stories are about attending Sunday services and the observations of a child, who was a good preacher, and who needed the Dale Carnegie course.

I could do stand up on more than a few of my memories.  The funny people I got the biggest kick out of watching as I sat in the last pew in the church. 

If you are searching for things to write about, write about a church experience.

• What did you observe as a child? As a teen?
• What did you learn in church that you implemented in your life?
• You might write about your commitment to attend church for your entire life
• What sermon have you never forgotten?
• Who was your favorite Preacher?
• What was funny?  What was fun?

Craig Morgan – That’s What I Love About Sunday

The Story of Brother Day and His Kingdom of One

Indiana Morning – How Great Thou Art