Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, August 22, 1993 TAG: 9308200108
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-17 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Frances Stebbins
DATELINE: RIPPLEMEAD LENGTH: Long
Today there is scarcely room - even on an August Sunday when vacations cut into church attendance - for everyone to get a seat in a worship area for about 350. The graveled parking lot surrounded by wooded area near New River is congested despite its ample size. Shirt-sleeved folk of all ages stream into the log building as a cluster of teens gathers on the porch. Out of sight are another 100 people, the small children and those caring for them.
Riverview Baptist is clearly a center of conservative Christian activity - the term "independent fundamentalist" also suits Wilburn - for Giles County. Wilburn calls it a country church, which its surroundings do suggest. It, however, resembles more the late 20th century suburban congregations found throughout America where moralism, evangelicalism and political activism exert power through sheer numbers and strong convictions.
In the narthex of Riverview Baptist, a woman passed out leaflets at the close of last Sunday's worship. They invited takers to a Christian Coalition Leadership School scheduled during the week in Wytheville. Electing "candidates with Christian values" was a goal.
On another table, people signed a petition to keep pornographic materials off ABC TV affiliates. Still another handout compared "Proper Education" with "Outcome Based Education," a proposed public school system that fundamentalist Christians say will undermine parental control and reduce individual achievement.
Wilburn, 42, did not promote these activities in his half-hour SUNDAY SOJOURNER FRANCES STEBBINS sermon. Instead he presented "A Short Course in Satanology." Consisting of more than a dozen texts from the King James Version of the Bible, the sermon gave the devil a literal quality and presented the personification of evil as a man to be fought with personal zeal.
The literal approach to the Bible is what he was taught at the North Carolina Bible college and is what he's getting at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University seminary in Lynchburg, Wilburn said. His members in the green-padded pews follow his sermons in their Bibles.
The devil - no abstract thought, but the kind of force that ought to make a Christian stay away from temptation, not boast of his power to resist it - eventually will perish in a lake of fire, Wilburn said, quoting Revelation. Perishing there, too, he asserted, will be everyone who has not made Jesus their lord.
Some who call themselves Christians but who joke about the devil and consider him no more than a cartoon character are flirting with serious temptation, the pastor said.
A Christian, said Wilburn - not shouting as some ministers do, but flashing a wide smile and a few jokes occasionally - will be as aware of the devil's evil as he is of Jesus' saving love. In a sinful world, both exist together.
The familiar symbols of fighting and resisting, which some more liberal Christians have rejected, appeared appropriate to Wilburn. Using the will that God gave humanity, people can avoid situations into which Satan enters, he concluded.
Following his sermon, the pastor prayed for those who would strengthen their arms against evil by committing their lives to Christ. Eight people, including a lapsed Roman Catholic and a family recently moved from Colorado, were among those introduced to the congregation when the service ended at 12:15 p.m. That many join the church nearly every Sunday, Wilburn said afterward.
Family emphasis is a big factor in Riverview growth, Wilburn and his associate pastor, Rich Powell, 28, agree. Leaders use a lot of the James Dobson conservative Christian counseling material. Across the parking lot from the church, an even larger structure has taken shape and teams of men are gradually creating a family life center for recreation for all ages. This, say the pastors, will keep the family centered on the church.
Doing manual work on the church has become routine at Riverview. The move from an old frame chapel across the New River was accomplished in 1984. Three years later the present worship area - worth at least $500,000, Wilburn said - was occupied for about $135,000 worth of materials.
Now, with regular full houses at 11 a.m., "we're praying about adding a service in the fall," the pastor said.
Wilburn said Riverview has grown "because people are hungry for the word, and I preach it like it is."
Powell, his younger associate, said Riverview's comprehensive program brings in many children and youth, and some parents follow. Awana Clubs, a conservative Christian equivalent of Scouting, is a strong force. The bulletin indicates ball teams, men's and women's fellowships, leadership training classes and a Claytor Lake luncheon cruise.
Though unaffiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention and its strong missionary emphasis, Riverview congregation supports many Christian workers in America and elsewhere. Their pictures are displayed in the narthex, where a ramp conveys those in wheelchairs into the service area.
Several hymns were sung at Riverview, with Carolyn Macneal accompanying at the piano. About 30 men and women in street clothes made up the choir, which started the service with an anthem. Applause followed.
New hymnals published by Word for evangelical Christian groups and containing Scripture readings were first used at Easter, Powell said. While men were receiving the offering, Tim Douthat, a Radford University music major, presented several familiar hymns on the trumpet.
Powell and his wife presented their second child, newborn Lindsay, for dedication. As a Baptist, she will choose her own time for immersion baptism late in childhood, but the dedication prayer and gift of a pink-bound New Testament "makes her a part of our church family," the associate pastor explained.
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