Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, August 6, 1995 TAG: 9508070007
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-10 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: FRANCES STEBBINS
DATELINE: BEAVER CREEK LENGTH: Medium
In the old church a few miles away, Graham's grandfather, the late Herman Spangler farmed for a living and served the church on a volunteer basis.
Much has changed at Beaver Creek. It is almost a suburb of the courthouse town of Floyd, with homes built in the past few years dotting the rolling countryside near where Virginia 8 meets rural Virginia 730. Major additions have made the exterior of the little block church an attractive landmark.
Inside, the congregation is enjoying its newest addition, a bright foyer with stained-glass windows that is reached on both sides by ramps from the spacious parking lot. On the other side of the renovated building is a well-equipped play area. The addition, a product of the designing and carpentry skills of long-time member Percy A. Reed, cost less than $100,000 because most of the construction was done by skilled workers in the church.
With its facilities upgraded to care for the growing Floyd population, Beaver Creek remains rural in its feel. The immaculate graveyard next to the church - the parsonage is on the other side - honors former parishioners.
The pastor, the Rev. Richard Thomas Sr., was visiting family in the Midwest and taking a Billy Graham evangelism course. Dean Graham, Donna's husband, made me welcome in his role as chairman of the deacons. I felt fortunate to hear guest preacher Glenn Stevens, who became manager of Camp Bethel Conference Center in Botetourt County earlier this year.
Brenda Hylton, the music director and a church member for 25 years, has a big voice and gets what she called a "Christian gospel" sound out of those in the pews. Preference at Beaver Creek definitely is for the "old-fashioned gospel" hymns. All the hymns were familiar from childhood with the emphasis on sin and the need for salvation.
About 90 people of all ages attended service on the last Sunday in July. The children who stayed with their families for the service joined Pat Stevens at the front for the story of Martha and Mary, as well as the Luke 21 passage about being ready for Jesus' second coming.
"If Jesus came to your house at 2 o'clock today, what would you do?" Stevens asked, drawing laughs from the elders when one child said she'd take a nap and another offered to feed him macaroni.
Her husband continued the theme in his 20-minute sermon, "Ready or Not - Here I Come!" Relating it to the childhood game of hide and seek, Glenn Stevens, who preached in his shirtsleeves, said most Christians have become cynical and unbelieving about the second coming. No wonder, he pointed out, that numerous religious movements, including one which gave birth to several American denominations, have been based on predictions of an event which has not happened, at least in a literal sense.
Like the Greek fable of a boy who repeatedly lied about a wolf killing a town's sheep and then got no help when it really happened, Christ's followers now tend to joke about what every book of the New Testament mentions, Stevens said. Stevens called it "audacity," however, for anyone to presume to say exactly when Jesus will return, for it is asserted in Scripture that only God knows this.
Not only, said the preacher, will Jesus return one day, but he will do this when least expected. That is why daily soul searching and confession of omissions to God is essential for anyone who would be prepared.
Sojourner appears monthly in the New River Current to inform about a variety of worship styles.
by CNB