Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, May 2, 1993                   TAG: 9304300131
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-8   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY  
SOURCE: FRANCES STEBBINS
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG                                LENGTH: Long

THEY DON'T FLOCK TO CHURCH WHEN PASTOR'S ABSENT

Sometimes a seeker misses the pastor of a church and that can make a lot of difference.

So it was last Sunday when I visited Christiansburg Church of the Brethren at 310 S. Franklin St. directly across from Sunset Cemetery. The Rev. Donald B. Peters, the 35-year-old pastor, was returning from a two-week vacation in Florida, and the 11 a.m. service was in the hands of Sidney Palmer, a long-time deacon, and Dr. Lawrence J. Kyle Jr., a speaker from the Montgomery Gideon Camp.

Palmer said the absence of the pastor "Just about cut our attendance in half." Sixty-five adults and children left many empty pews in a worship area that could seat four times that many.

The choir, too, which Palmer said usually has about a dozen singers, had only four women dressed in spring green robes. Two, Lola Clowers and Janet Calhoun, were joined by the music director, Dr. Caisy Ho, whose vocation is teaching at New River Community College. The trio presented a contemporary Christian anthem, "Until Then."

With Peters away, retired Hercules employee Palmer served as worship leader and filled me in on the life of the congregation. It is one of three Churches of the Brethren in Montgomery County and dates from 1909 when it met nearer downtown. Thirty-five years ago, members relocated to what was then the southern suburbs and today enjoy a spacious hilltop tract with ample parking and a manicured lawn bright with spring flowers. More recently an addition was made to the rear.

Palmer is gratified that the church now is fully accessible to those in wheelchairs. The women's group raised funds to build the ramp several years ago. Today leaders of Churches of the Brethren in the Virlina District have adopted handicap accessibility as a priority.

Worship ritual is simple in Churches of the Brethren, a denomination established in Germany nearly 300 years ago and represented by fewer groups in the New River Valley than in nearby Floyd, Franklin, Botetourt and Roanoke counties.

There were few variations last Sunday to the usual announcements, prayer by the pastor, reception of the offering, hymn singing, a special musical selection and the half-hour message.

Ho, the song leader, did augment the 1951 burgundy-colored Brethren Hymnals with two contemporary spiritual songs, "Create In Me" and "With All My Heart." Not in the hymnal, they were sung from an overhead projector, but got less response than two song-book standards from the 19th century, "This Is My Father's World" and "I Love to Tell the Story."

Small children remained with their families for the first 15 minutes of worship. Then the 2- to 5-year-olds recessed to "Childrens' Church." A half-dozen older youngsters remained.

Young adults of student age were not evident; Palmer said the newer Blacksburg congregation now carries on a ministry to them. Growth in Christiansburg, he noted, "about keeps pace. We fill up this building for funerals sometimes."

Though the service last Sunday was not typical, those who came had a chance to learn of the work of the Gideons, an evangelical Christian organization of business and professional men best known for the Bibles they place in many public places.

Kyle, a Blacksburg dentist, used a text from the book of Isaiah, the last portion of that prophetic work which Bible scholars say was written decades after the first 39 chapters and exhibits a bright and optimistic outlook. It reflects the need of God's people to tell others of his goodness and to "Come to the waters."

A member of the independently constituted conservative Harvest Baptist Church in Blacksburg, Kyle said he has been a Gideon for 15 years. He said after the service that he is among a half dozen men who speak by invitation to groups in Montgomery County. About 20 men are in the camp, the name given to local units, but not all offer the informational messages such as he gave to the Christiansburg Brethren.

"Five or six times year," Kyle said, he offers such statistics as the 156 nations in which Gideons are permitted to distribute their Scriptures and urge conversion experiences. Russia and other countries formerly in the Soviet bloc now offer a new field for evangelism. An estimated 400,000 Bibles are being given out there each month, Kyle related.

Along with his statistics on the growth of the Gideon movement, Kyle told two stories of how the Bibles changed lives. One concerned a serviceman killed in combat clutching his New Testament given him free by Gideons. The other - which moved the speaker to a shaking voice and which he said later came from a man at a recent regional gathering - concerned a young business trouble-shooter who, after being deflated on the job and finding nothing else to read in his motel room, turned to the Gideon Bible there and "recognized himself a terrible sinner."

Now, said Kyle, the man is active in both Gideons and his "fanatical church where they preach heaven and hell." Fanatical for the speaker obviously was meant as a compliment.

Gideons, who generally give away King James Version Bibles but now offer these with some updating of language, are men of prayer and shared faith, Kyle told the congregation. Their Bibles are found not only in travelers' lodgings but also in hospitals, such as Montgomery Regional; in jails, such as those in nearby counties, and the Bland Correctional Farm.

Special testaments also are presented nurses and collegians, but regrettably, in the speaker's view, they are barred from public-school classrooms because the American Civil Liberties Union sees this as a violation of church and state separation.

When a Gideon comes to a church - often to fill in, as Kyle did, for an absent pastor - he is permitted to receive a special offering to further the evangelistic work of the men's group. This offering netted $87 at the Brethren visit which Palmer thought encouraging considering the "off Sunday."

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.