Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 1, 1992 TAG: 9202280008
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-4 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: FRANCES STEBBINS
DATELINE: MERRIMAC LENGTH: Long
As has long been true in rural settlements, a lot of life centers on the church. An old-fashioned ringing bell called worshipers at 10:55 into the cheerful assurance of Merrimac Pentecostal Holiness building.
There the Rev. Jerry Sloss, pastor for 19 years, and about 175 folk of all ages were leaving Sunday school and taking their places in the nave with its lavender stained-glass windows, burgundy padded pews and artificial greenery. I was among the few who had not arrived earlier for the education period.
But coming into Merrimac Pentecostal Holiness, representative of a faith widely found in the New River Valley, I was conscious not so much of what I saw as what I heard.
Several gospel musicians using piano, organ, horns, tympani and electric guitars were warming up the interior in tones that outdid the bell in the steeple. Soon the instrumentalists were joined by a 15-member choir; its men and women wore street clothes. They gave the music their all and accompanied it with clapping.
They started off with "Where the Roses Never Fade," a 1942 number from the hymnal "Praise! Our Songs and Hymns," a tan volume with an assortment of traditional sacred songs and gospel favorites. So absorbed were we with the music that the collection plate passed almost unnoticed.
"Are you ready to go?" song leader Bob Yates asked the congregation.
"Yeah! Amen! Alleluia!" came from a small group of men sitting near the musicians. And on they went through three numbers accompanied by clapping and toe tapping from the elderly as well as teens in the balcony and young adults, a few of whom brought infants.
Other children were singing elsewhere. Sloss told me later they are divided into preschool and elementary school groups and have their own worship.
Fifteen minutes into the service, when some worshipers had felt moved by the Holy Spirit to pray or sing in language I could not understand, Sloss asked the now-seated congregation for their prayer requests. Many personal conditions were mentioned - illness and unemployment being the most common - and one man thanked God for his healing and asserted that God is coming soon.
Sloss, a slender man of 50 with a quiet manner contrasting with the exuberant musicians, then asked a layman to include the petitions in a prayer for which all stood. Throughout its five minutes, background music was played as eyes were wiped.
Two more hymns followed. Their tempo varied. "Holy, Holy, Holy" from the 19th century, despite its brass accompaniment, was sung in a more subdued fashion than was the 1950 number by John Peterson, "Springs of Living Water." Worshipers went through the second hymn twice and applauded at the end. Then the choir members joined their families in the pews; the major musical portion of the service was over and it was time to attend to the pastor.
But before Sloss could begin his sermon, an elderly woman rose near the rear. She apologized for interrupting the flow of the service, but Sloss invited her to say what was in her heart.
The woman said she had been in the hospital for treatment of a foot that showed signs of gangrene; doctors "couldn't feel no pulse and they were set to give me surgery after 20 X-rays and five injections."
The operation was delayed, however, long enough for the patient to undergo a sense of God's healing. When doctors checked further, they found the limb a normal color and the apparent blockage of blood vessels relieved.
" `You don't need no surgery,' my doctor told me, and he couldn't understand why. I just told him the big doctor done it. He still couldn't understand, but he sent me home. . . . It's a miracle in my life. You pray that I'll always stand up for my divine healing."
The testimony, said Sloss, was a fitting beginning for his sermon based on Paul's assertion to the people of Phillipi that God will supply all needs out of his riches and desire to give glory to Christ Jesus.
"If you still have a job and the bad economy hasn't hurt anyone you care for, you may not understand yet how good it is to have a God you can look up to ," Sloss began. "We all want to think we can handle it by ourselves."
God enriches peoples' lives in proportion to the way they give of themselves in love to others, and he blesses those who act in human kindness, the pastor noted. But people often see God as limited to human achievements and do not trust him to do anything for them personally.
God as the all-powerful creator "is not just a grand old man, an old-fashioned gentleman who lives in heaven and doesn't understand computers or radar," Sloss said.
"He never lets us down. . . . He won't let us off. . . . He won't let us go."
God cares for his people through their worst sins and years of indifference and gives them a hunger for something better than their empty lives, Sloss concluded, as he invited public profession of faith or renewal of earlier vows.
The service ended with subdued singing of "Oh How I Love Jesus" and worshipers' welcoming each other with handshakes before leaving their pews.
Merrimac Pentecostal Holiness has served the towns' rural fringes for more than a half-century. The original building from World War II days was about 30 years ago joined to a newer structure, making space for education and worship. Sloss said a handicapped member several years ago prompted the church to provide access to the nave by a ramp; a worshiper in a wheelchair used it Sunday. However, rest rooms in the main buildings still must be reached by interior stairs.
Less than a year ago, the Merrimac congregation occupied a large fellowship hall and recreation center on two acres across the road from the church. Easily accessible for the handicapped, it has ample parking and space for several hundred at fellowship meals and large rallies. It also is equipped for several types of recreation, and as such, Sloss said, represents outreach in the community.
Sunday Sojourner appears monthly in the New River Current. Its purpose is not to promote a particular point of view but to inform readers of a variety of worship styles.
by CNB