Washing the Disciples' Feet
Vignettes of White Oak Original Free Will Baptist Church of Bladenboro, North Carolina
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The more that I have thought about my formative years in White Oak Free Will Baptist Church, the more I realize what a profound influence its members, its services, and some of its leaders had on my over-all personal development, spiritual and otherwise. The membership included many members of my extended family (almost exclusively on the maternal side), so that attending services on Sunday morning was like a large family reunion. Included on the church rolls also were a half-dozen or so fascinating personalities who often and unexpectedly enlivened the on-going proceedings that made services interesting for other members of the congregation. Furthermore, the fiery sermons by ministers--whose energetic efforts to preach the Word and the necessity of being "born again" sometimes left them wet with perspiration, and whose sermon content rested almost solely not on formal, institutional study of the Scriptures but on divine, spiritual inspiration and revelation--certainly kept the attention of young people like myself. For youngsters, their descriptive views of heaven and hell as the ultimate outcome of one's life journey were frightening indeed. But it was the music, the wonderful hymns that we sang, that had a tremendous impact on my spiritual journey, Even today when I hear some of these old songs, so full of faith, theology, and spiritual yearnings, sang in my present church, my mind flashes back to hearing them as a boy being sung by the congregation of White Oak, the words and music conjuring up personal, spiritual emotions and even the facial expressions of some of the members as they sang.
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About the Book
Washing the Disciples' Feet is a book of reflections upon my growing-up experiences in the White Oak Original Free Will Baptist Church in Bladenboro, North Carolina. As a teenager whose immediate and extended family provided not only the congregation's majority membership but also the leadership from the founding of the church until my departure for military service, I was positioned to observe, participate and, especially, to be influenced by church doctrine and practices, by church leaders and influential members, and by the general harmony and occasional conflict that occurred among its members. Like dozens of other young people--principally my cousins--whose families dominated the congregation, White Oak Church was instrumental in shaping my character as it did theirs. Through vignettes concerning life in the church during my youth, this book is intended to pay tribute to past members of a religious institution that continues to thrive though in a different age.
About the Author
George G. Suggs, Jr., a North Carolinian who grew up attending White Oak Original Free Will Baptist Church, was educated at Wake Forest University and the University of Colorado-Boulder (PH D '64) with post-graduate fellowships at Northwestern and Brown Universities. A retired history professor, he resides in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.