Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, October 29, 1995 TAG: 9510310004
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-18 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: FRANCES STEBBINS
DATELINE: ELLISTON LENGTH: Long
Indeed they don't want you to feel like a stranger long at Elliston Church of God whose steeple, along with that of the Southern Baptist congregation, dominates the village on U.S. 460 just west of the Montgomery County line. Before I even opened the door of my car last Sunday night a longtime member beckoned me in.
She pointed out both the ramp and restrooms conveniently inside the front door. And soon I was greeted with handshakes and "honeys." Well before the 6:30 evening worship began with the rumble of drums, clashing of cymbals and other instruments amplified, both Pastor Ronald K. King and his wife, Glena M. Jessee King, had made themselves known.
A two-hour Spirit-filled evening had begun for about 75 worshipers that included several guests like me.
Over the several years that I have sojourned at New River Valley churches, I have become familiar with various degrees of Pentecostal worship. It is intended to be joyful and emotional, and is, undeniably, noisy. Its major ingredients are rousing singing, prayer and preaching, long preaching as King did last Sunday night. He began at 7:15 after the warm-up time of two 20th century revivalistic hymns, "The Old Rugged Cross" and "Victory in Jesus" and several gospel music numbers presented by himself and his wife and Loretta Yopp.
The sermon continued until shortly after 8 p.m. when it merged into a healing ritual for the bodily and spiritual troubles of any who wished prayer and the laying on of hands. A major portion of the congregation went to the front of the church where King and several lay persons embraced or otherwise touched the afflicted. Often the pastor in a loud voice commanded "evil spirits" to depart. As individuals had their needs met, many departed while a few remained for a final blessing at 8:30.
It was, as one woman told me, "the way to start the week right."
The Kings have led the Elliston church for 23 years. Originally from Wythe County, King came to Elliston and a small frame church in the early 1970s. Soon the congregation entered on a major building program which resulted in the church of traditional design atop a steeply sloping lot. It was made fully accessible to those in wheelchairs a year ago.
The old church is remembered in a painting by Glena King who told me that despite her chronic affliction with the progressive disease of lupus, God has enabled her to both paint and write for his glory. Officially the assistant, "she's really my co-pastor," her husband said.
Congregations like the Elliston Church of God belong to a denomination with headquarters in Cleveland, Tenn. Founded about 100 years ago as part of a massive revival meeting in California, these churches are not connected with another Church of God group with headquarters in Anderson, Ind. Both are widely represented through the Appalachians.
Unlike many congregations that aim to work up emotional fervor early in the service by the use of overhead projectors and spiritual songs written in the past 30 years, the Elliston members use a 1951 Church Hymnal with shaped notes issued by the Tennessee Printing and Music Co.
Certainly the spirit moved in "Victory In Jesus" as well as in the final number, "When the Saints Go Marching In." People clapped, trembled, raised arms and prayed in words understood only to themselves and to God. Under the gold-colored carpet, the floor shook.
King's sermon title taken from the small New Testament book of Jude was "Controlled by the Spirit." Punctuated by "Hallelujahs!" "Praise Gods" and the unintelligible speech Pentecostal Christians use for prayer and singing but can quickly turn off at the command of the preacher, the message was an appeal to allow the Holy Ghost to arm against the power of evil.
Like Jesus in the desert who was approached by Satan, even the most devoted Christian can be tempted to turn away from godly precepts, King asserted, his brow dripping with sweat induced by his pacing across the church and calling on his people to take none of their strength for granted.
"Fear is the opposite of faith. They can't live together," King shouted.
Most churches are not meeting people's needs today, the pastor said. Instead folks are enslaved by alcohol, drugs and tobacco as well as by gluttony for food. For those who are so addicted, compassion, not judgment, is needed. King told of trying to free a man from compulsive smoking.
"He can quit! The Spirit will liberate him - and you," he asserted as he shifted into spiritual speech and his wife followed with an understandable appeal for all to be healed.
Services at the Elliston church are at 11 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. on Sundays with the education time at 10 a.m. A Wednesday night family training time takes place at 7:15, and twice monthly there are healing prayer services at which, King said, "the Spirit really moves."
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