First Baptist Church Franklin, North Carolina

When she welcomes hikers at the breakfasts at First Baptist Church, Franklin, Patsy has a spiel she recites almost every morning. "You can come up for seconds, thirds, and fourths, we're not keeping track. If you leave here hungry it's your fault, not ours. Today's menu is bacon and pancakes, but if you're taking a zero day*, you're welcome to join us again, when the menu will be..." Returning guests join her in saying, "Pancakes and bacon."

The Appalachian National Scenic Trail (or A.T.) begins at Springer Mountain, Georgia, and goes on 2100 miles into Maine (almost everyone who plans to hike the whole route -- they're called thru-hikers -- goes south to north because that's how the weather works). Franklin, North Carolina, is about 110 miles along the trail, and an official stopping point for hikers. Years ago, a hiker came to First Baptist and asked for breakfast. In 2008, the church began officially serving breakfast for hikers, every day for several weeks at the height of the thru-hiker season.

We heard about the breakfast from a friend of ours who is a thru hiker this year. She told us that if we didn't have a church yet for North Carolina, we'd have to go to First Baptist in Franklin, so Mindy phoned the church and asked whether we could help serve breakfast while we were in town. The church secretary assured her that we would be welcome. When we arrived at church on Thursday morning (at 6:45, well before the sun was over the mountains), we found the kitchen full of workers cooking pancakes and bacon on several griddles.

The senior pastor, Dr. Robert Brown, invited me to ride along when he drove one of the two the church vans to pick up hikers. We drove to a local hostel, and a dozen people filled the seats. Robert asked where people were from; I remember hearing Virginia, Florida, and Pennsylvania. During the ride there were discussions of the joy of showers and the importance of good footwear.

We dropped everyone off and went to look for other hikers, but the other van had already gotten them, so we went back to the church. All the jobs were covered, so I got to the end of the food line. Three good sized pancakes were on my plate with a healthy serving of bacon. Besides butter and syrup, there were also a variety of other topping options (pumpkin butter, apple butter, and Mennonite raspberry jam among them). There's a random collection of cookies in zipper bags on the table, and hikers are happy to take them as a treat for later.

 

Hunger is a companion on the trail, so most breakfast guests make frequent returns for more. Though some vegetarians go through the line, most people are thrilled with the bacon. Bacon was dreamed of on the trail, and in the church kitchen those dreams come true. Some are thrilled by the orange juice ("No scurvy today!" someone said).

But the food isn't the only offering of the morning. Connie wanders from table to table taking pictures of guests with a digital camera. She prints them up while the hikers are eating, so it's almost like having a Polaroid taken. Pens, paper, and envelopes wait on the table for people to write home. You'd think that with cell phones, people wouldn't care anymore about mailing photos and notes home, but they do. And the church takes care of the postage, even if it's to New Zealand or the Netherlands or another part of North Carolina. Patsy tells hikers, "You've made it a hundred miles, and somebody wants to know that you're alive and getting a good meal," so most hikers write a letter and enclose the picture. We even heard that a hiker proposed by means of a breakfast photo in a letter from First Baptist.

Posters on the walls offer the opportunity to sign as proof that they've been through and to look up others who've gone before (Usually they sign their trail names; almost everyone has an alias.) Every poster is headed "Class of" whatever year it was, and both last year and this year had to have an extra sheet of paper added.

After a half hour or so, Pastor Robert gets the attention of everyone and says, "I'm going to talk for two minutes You can time me.” He tells a story about running a race and reads verses from Hebrews 12: 1 & 2 about running the good race and fixing our eyes on Jesus. And he was done in less than two minutes. Robert has just a few of these short talks that he puts into rotation for the month or so that breakfast is served. We were around for only four mornings (and one of those mornings, Jack Jarrett, the associate pastor, spoke), so we didn't hear a repeat.

I asked Robert about the people who walk the trail, especially the people who walk the full trail which takes about five months. He said that many hikers are going through transitions in their lives: divorce, loss, even retirement. During our first breakfast, about two and a half weeks into this year's season, Patsy announced that they'd reached 500 guests. Our fourth and final morning, they'd served almost 700 meals. Something else special happened that morning. The church was given acknowledged for their work in promoting Franklin as an A.T. community (along with a check to "buy more bacon").

Often I heard hikers thanking the servers. "You're angels," said one man. One woman thanked Patsy for the work the church did, but Patsy replied, "We as a church get much more than we give to you. The work of the breakfasts brings us together in the church as a community."

The church has, of course, other outreach ministries besides the breakfast. They have Good News Clubs that bring Biblical teaching to local elementary schools. We helped serve at a Saturday Community Lunch that provides a good meal for those in need, along with a free store offering clothes and toiletries. In a few weeks the church will be sending a work team to serve in Honduras.

And the Wednesday Bible study, Sunday School, and worship service we attended clearly presented the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Just the church does all it can to see that hikers don't leave the breakfast hungry; the church works to see that no one in the congregation will suffer spiritual hunger.

*A "zero day" is when a hiker takes a day off hiking.

Statistics

Service Length: 1 hour 8 minutes

Sermon Length: 23 minutes

Visitor Treatment: Ushers at all possibly entrances to the sanctuary handed out bulletins; each bulletin had a tear-out sheet for visitor information, prayer requests, and requests for further information. There was a greeting time near the beginning of the worship service, and several people we'd met during the week came to say hello to us. Strangers also said hello during the greeting time.

Followup by Tuesday Morning: none

Our Rough Count: 98

Probable Ushers' Count: 145

Snacks: none, although Sunday School classes tend to have coffee, tea, and snacks

Musicians: piano (man), organ (man), choir (4 men, 9 women), and director (man)

Songs: "Come, Holy Ghost" (organ prelude)

"How Great Thou Art" (choir call to worship with congregation quietly joining in)

"Majesty"

"There is Power in the Blood"

"Love Lifted me"

"Rise and Shine" (children's march when children came for their story)

"Speak to my Heart"

"Jesus Shall Reign" (organ postlude)

Miles to church: 2.5

Miles from start: 11,274

Total 2016 Miles: 11,019

Church website: fbcfranklin.org

First Baptist Church, Nevada City

A Piner High School connection led us to visit Nevada City First Baptist Church for our first stop in Rural/Small Town Churches Month. When I asked for church visiting suggestions on Facebook, my old friend Dave suggested we visit his son-in-law's church. ("It's a small world" said a woman we chatted with in the church, "But I wouldn't want to paint it.")

We arrived in town a while before the service time, so we wandered around. There are a number of historical landmarks and buildings dating back to the days of the Gold Rush (and earlier -- the area was once a Maidu village.) Most places were still closed  -- except several coffee places -- but we saw a museum, the county buildings, and the library's used book sale, along with New Age bookstores and a marijuana dispensary. The town is charming but perhaps has a dark side (like Charming, a reference for Sons of Anarchy fans). Next door to the First Baptist Church is a place called "Divine Spark" that serves the homeless (or "houseless", the organization's preferred nomenclature). A large crowd was waiting at the building for grocery bags, clothing, shoes, food for pets, and breakfast. First Baptist also serves the "houseless" of the community with lunch on Mondays and Wednesdays.

We met Dave and his wife Debi outside the church just before the service. The building had been built by a Congregational congregation and was simple but elegant. One of the deacons asked Dave if he'd consider serving as an usher. After we sat down, the same deacon asked Dave if he might be able to serve communion that day because an usher hadn't shown yet (but the other usher made it in time).

After the welcome, the congregation sang happy birthday to Betty, who was later described to us as a sweet, godly woman. This was the first church we visited in a very long time that didn't have a screen in front and the first in a many weeks that used a hymnal (copyright 1989 by an imprint of  Hope Publishing which was founded by Mindy's great grandfather). I'm afraid I tend to sing a little too loud when it's hymns (and a Gaither chorus) from my younger days. Two women led the singing accompanied by a husband and wife team playing piano and a standup bass.

There was a short but lively greeting time. Among the announcements was one for adult Sunday School that had just started, studying the book of Revelation (led by Pastor Roland, who has published a book on the End Times). Their schedule for Sunday School is three months on and one month off. Also, a midweek study on healing is beginning this week. (We had lunch after church with Pastor Roland, and he said that since healing and deliverance were central to the ministry of Jesus, he would like have both become a part of the ministry of First Baptist.)

Communion was served prior to the sermon, though apparently the usual church practice was to serve it after the sermon the first Sunday of the month. Pastor Roland said that they were "tradition breakers" but that it was okay, since there's no prescribed order of service in Scripture.

The sermon was on the first two verses of Romans 12, the urging of the Apostle Paul to sacrifice our bodies in worship and transform our transform our minds into conformity to God's will. It was stated that every day we must present ourselves and everything we have to the Lord's service. Pastor Roland argued that we must transform our minds to no longer conform to the patterns of the world. The example of caterpillars and butterflies was given, suggesting we should perhaps cocoon ourselves in away from the world enclosed with Biblical truth so this transformation can be completed.

The service ended with two more songs, the final one serving as a benediction. Afterward, a number of people went upstairs for coffee and snacks. We were glad to see an electric chair lift on the steep staircase (Mindy had been wondering how some of the elderly members of the congregation were able to get to the upstairs fellowship room, which was also the location for the adult Sunday school class. Betty, whose birthday it was, used the chair to glide up the stairway).

As I mentioned, we went with Pastor Roland and his wife, Andrea, as well as our friends Dave and Debi, to lunch. But we were delayed. Some people who had missed breakfast at Divine Spark came by, and so Pastor Roland offered them food. He went back into the church to find the leftovers from coffee time.

I talked with Dave about the church. He and Debi are able to attend the church they've attended for years in Grass Valley along with this church. He understandably wants to be with his daughter (whom Mindy considers "one of the sweetest people in the world"), his son-in-law and any grandchildren that will make their way in the world. He said he appreciates the family atmosphere in the church. That is something that a megachurch in a large city has great difficulty replicating.

Statistics:

Service Length: 1 hour 8 minutes

Sermon Length: 29 minutes

Visitor Treatment: Two gentlemen stood at the entrance to greet and give bulletins. We were welcomed and asked if we were visiting. Just inside, a man introduced himself as a deacon and asked if we were visiting (he also hugged us). As we waited for the worship service to begin, several people introduced themselves and asked if we were visiting for the first time. During the worship service, there was a lively greeting time, and several others introduced themselves.

Our Rough Count: 40

Probable Ushers' Count: 50

Snacks: coffee, lemonade, water, fruit, pastries and donuts in an upstairs fellowship room after the worship service

Songs: All for Jesus

            Jesus is Lord of All

           There is a Redeemer

           I Surrender All

           Make me a Servant

Miles to place: 164 miles

Total California Miles: 7,794

-- Dean