Rick Burnette
CBF Field Personnel, Florida
About 20 years ago, while serving with CBF Global Missions in northern Thailand, I was given a book, The Man Who Moved a Mountain by Richard C. Davids (1970, Fortress Press). This biography of Rev. Bob Childress (1890-1956) resonated with me on various levels.
Childress was a Presbyterian minister born and raised in southwestern Virginia at the climax of a very violent period in Appalachia during the early 20th century.
From my time in western North Carolina, I gained an awareness of those days, learning about my dad’s great grandfather, an infamous moonshiner who shot and killed a revenue officer in 1920. I listened to Grandaddy Crawford’s accounts of witnessing drunken brawls. I also heard that the granddad of one of my classmates had been a local fugitive after taking someone’s life, although we knew him as a nice, old Holiness preacher.
My 1960s and 70s mountain community bore no resemblance whatsoever to those violent days and I’ve often pondered how such a change could have happened. The life and ministry of Bob Childress might offer a clue.
Childress’ impoverished turn-of-the-century community was soaked in alcohol, overrun by guns, stained by constant violence, unable to support a decent educational system and undermined by fiery, fatalistic preachers who failed to speak out and act against these evils.
Overcoming his own rough period of youth, with encouragement from a young Presbyterian preacher, Childress began to reach out to hurting neighbors while serving as a lay preacher. While in his 30s, he felt the call to be a full-time minister. Despite having only an eighth-grade education, the former blacksmith powered his way through high school and college, finally receiving a degree from Union Seminary in Richmond prior to ordination.
On June 3, 1926, Childress and his family moved to violent and impoverished Buffalo Mountain, not far from where he was raised. The next three decades of ministry were built on his neighborliness, prophetic voice and constructive action.
In addition to preaching and teaching, the pastor reached out to the most violent in the community. He convinced many of the futility of gun culture, persuading them to disarm, thereby gaining friends as well as church leaders from among former rogues. He also made inroads among local alcohol producers and dealers, as well as the uneducated Hardshell Baptist preachers, whose fatalistic theology had helped to perpetuate bloodshed.
To enable more children to attend the Presbyterian school and stimulate the local economy, the pastor advocated for bridges and improved roads. With an abundance of timber on Buffalo, he established a sawmill that employed local men. The pastor also engaged another local asset, rocks, using them to construct six sturdy and attractive stone churches around Buffalo Mountain.
Childress died of a heart attack in 1956, leaving behind a legacy of local cooperation, reduced violence and poverty, improved infrastructure, and a functional educational system, as well as healthy church communities.
While serving in CBF Global Missions’ efforts in northern Thailand and southwest Florida, the testimony of Bob Childress has inspired me. His example, in recognition of God’s loving presence, illuminates needed integrated and collaborative ministerial approaches in response to physical, spiritual and societal challenges around the world.
Pray. . .Give. . .Go.