Making the Rounds
By Clint Cooper
Chattanooga Times Free Press
The Rev. Stephen Yeaney is the modern equivalent of the 18th- and 19th-century circuit rider in the United Methodist Church.
Pastor of the West Side Parish in the Cleveland District, he leads services at three small churches in three counties every Sunday morning.
"Some preachers don't want to be bothered with these small churches, but that's traditional Methodism," said Donna Yeaney, a Texas native who met her New Yorker husband when he was in seminary at Southern Methodist University.
In early American Methodism, a circuit was made up of two or more local churches served by traveling preachers on horseback. According to "The Circuit – Riders in Early America Methodism" by Dr. Robert Simpson, "they traveled light, carrying their belongings and books in their saddlebags. ... Their assignment was so large it might take them five or six weeks to cover the territory." Yeaney is one of only two ministers in the Cleveland District who serve three churches each week. No minister in the denomination's Chattanooga District has three churches weekly, but six ministers still serve two churches.
The "Conference Journal 2002" lists 69 parishes with at least three churches. Three of the parishes have six churches.
The Rev. Meg Poister, pastor of Daisy UMC, said a shortage of ministers willing to serve small churches has forced the large number of parishes with three to six churches within the Holston Conference.
"We're one of the few conferences that still has large circuits," she said. "I don't think you'll see many outside of the Southeast."
Both Poister and her husband, Bill, pastor of Sale Creek UMC, have served four-church parishes. Poister also has served a three-point parish. "When you have three or four churches, you learn a whole lot of stuff quickly that might have taken you several more years to learn otherwise," she said. "It's an intensive learning experience."
The West Side Parish is composed of Eastview UMC in Meigs County, Savannah UMC in Hamilton County and Mount Zion UMC in Bradley County.
"They are three very different churches," Yeaney said. "Eastview is an old-fashioned Methodist church, Savannah is a Baptist-wanna-be Methodist church and Mount Zion is a very charismatic, pentecostal church."
Trying to be more visible
On a recent Sunday morning, the Yeaneys got in their blue Dodge Durango about 8:35 and left their home next to Mount Zion UMC for an 11-minute drive to Eastview. Erin and Heather, the two Yeaney daughters still living at home, were to meet their parents when they arrived at Mount Zion.
"They don't want to hear me preach three times," Yeaney said.
The Yeaneys were the second to arrive at Eastview, a tiny white church flanked by woods and not far from the Hiwassee River. The wooden chart behind the altar area indicated there are 36 members on the roll and that 16 attended the worship service the previous Sunday.
Yeaney told a visitor that a Cub Scout group meets weekly in the fellowship hall at the rear of Eastview.
"We're trying to make the church more visible in the community," he said.
At the start of the 9 a.m. service, Yeaney chatted amiably with the members, the large majority of which were more than 40 years old. He told them he wants to have weekly bulletins available by the first Sunday in Advent in early December. Who, he wanted to know, is in charge of the Christmas wreath?
In his prayer, he asked that the church be able to continue in the community and that it become known that "here is a place of refuge from the pain of the world."
Eastview, Yeaney said later, is the only one of his three churches whose membership would like the three churches on his parish to combine. The others would rather keep things as they are, he said.
Yeaney's sermon was on Jesus' parable of the talents taken from Matthew 25. The church was to hold Sunday school after he left. Following the end of the service, he took a moment to chat with members but headed quickly to his next stop.
Country club church
Once the Yeaneys left for Savannah UMC, Donna Yeaney called her daughter on a cellular phone about some supplies she would need to bring to Mount Zion. A brief drive back down Highway 58 and a quick left on Snowhill Road brought the Yeaneys to an attractive church on the side of a hill on the northeast edge of Hamilton County.
Yeaney joked about Savannah being the "country club" church of the three because of its relative wealth. The church, he said, nearly closed 10 years ago but now is in an excellent location to grow because of the county's continued development up Highway 58. To that end, he wanted the church to soon begin working on a 10-year visioning plan.
The church history indicates the building once served as a one-room school, he said, and that claims are it was used as a hospital during the Civil War. Its steeple was erected only six years ago in memory of a member who died of AIDS, he said.
The inside of the white church is shaped like a cross. Behind the altar, the portrait of Jesus is an original work by Ben Hampton, a local artist who once attended Savannah, a member told a visitor to the church.
Yeaney sat behind a pulpit as the worship leader opened the 10 a.m. service. During his prayer, the minister reminded the church that "we are family." When he read the text from Matthew, many members followed along in their own Bibles. His sermon, like at Eastview, was on the parable of the talents, but he tailored it for Savannah members.
Following the service, the minister led the congregation in a discussion about the merits of purchasing a slightly used piano. The members could choose the one currently being loaned to the church for several thousand dollars or repair the one they had been using for several hundred dollars. It was apparent from the discussion the old piano had been repaired several times before.
"When we suddenly don't have (a piano) in church, it takes away from our music time," Yeaney said.
A member made the suggestion that the congregation purchase the newer piano, that the church had the money to do so. A voice vote was unanimous. Moments later, the Yeaneys were on the move again.
Where everyone knows your name
A plaque at Mount Zion indicated that church was started in 1811. The piano, organ, drums and guitar used in the service indicated its music was more up to date. A chart on the wall showed that 36 people attended the previous week's service.
During Yeaney's chat with the rural congregation at the beginning of the latestarting 11:15 a.m. service, the members gave an audible groan when it was mentioned a local family recently suffered the loss of a young horse. Additional discussion concerned the church's participation in the upcoming Bradley County Christmas parade. The pastor, who already had a part in Mount Zion's Christmas drama, also was likely to be in on the creation of the church's parade entry.
Unlike at Eastview or Savannah, members joined Yeaney at the altar for prayer, a member sang a solo and four youngsters joined the pastor for children's time. A hidden action figure in a cloth bag during children's time proved to be a yellow Butt-Ugly Martian, a character from a cartoon on Nickelodeon. The pastor, who was oblivious to the contents of the bag, managed to turn the awkward moment around. He quickly explained how the character had armor like each of the children have armor given to them from God.
The Scripture reading was again from Matthew 25, and Yeaney's sermon was again on the parable of the talents. Instead of giving it behind the pulpit, though, he came down from the altar area and preached closer to those in attendance. When the service ended around 12:25 p.m., Bradley Central High School student Jake Willcut told a visitor he is not a member of the church but attended because he "got saved here.
"You can come here and know everybody," he said.
Chaplain in charge
Pastoring a several-point charge can be frustrating, Yeaney said, but it also has its good points. "It takes a lot of energy," said Yeaney, who is in his third year in the appointment.
Small churches in a parish are usually not large enough to do programming, he said. They're also more difficult to grow because the pastor can't be involved in Sunday school and the youth often don't know each other. When a suggestion is made to get the churches together for a special event, he said, pastors end up dispelling the myth they're trying to combine them.
"It's difficult to get them to come together on a continual basis," he said, "but (they feel) it's all right for a pastor to travel. It becomes frustrating."
The result, he said, is "you become more of a chaplain, but I'm trying to change that mindset." However, Yeaney said, "they're family-type churches, community churches. They're close knit. People are there when a need arises. When there's a problem, everybody knows about it and tries to help remedy it."
The members echo those thoughts.
"You get to have a relationship with other people," said J.W. Burgess of Eastview UMC.
"It's a family," said Jim Bryan, the worship leader at Savannah UMC. "Everybody knows each other, and everybody's willing to help. It works out well for us, but it's pretty tough on him."
Clint Cooper is faith editor of the Chattanooga Times Free Press and a member at First Centenary UMC in Chattanooga. Reprinted with permission.
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