COUNTRY CHARM: RURAL CONGREGATIONS THRIVE ON CLOSENESS, FAMILIARITY

The congregation at Immanuel Lutheran Church near Tilsit has met for more than 150 years in its building along Highway F. Fields and farms surround the church grounds.

A lichen-covered tombstone leaned against a pine tree in the Fairview General Baptist Cemetery. Though not connected to the nearby church on County Road 211, the cemetery has tombstones that date back to 1847.

Like a cluster of summer wildflowers that blooms along a roadside, rural congregations add color to the American landscape.

Housed in simple clapboard or stone structures, they don't offer the latest in modern technology nor do they need to. Whatever they lack in extravagances these congregations make up for in history and familiarity.

In an age when cities thrive, rural churches continue to survive. In part, their survival is based on the role they play in a community, said Dr. Frank Nickell of the Center for Regional History at Southeast Missouri.

"They are sort of community churches that serve the people there," Nickell said. "There's the closeness of families and people who live in the area."

Also, many of the rural congregations are meeting in historic buildings or once gathered at a historic site. Old McKendree Chapel in Jackson is the oldest Protestant church building -- west of the Mississippi River -- still standing. The Whitewater Presbyterian Church originally held its meetings along the bank of the Whitewater Creek.

While some rural congregations gather each week to worship, other church buildings remain empty except for an annual homecoming celebration.

Surrounded by fields of soybeans and the sound of cattle lowing in the distance, the "little German church" offers a serene landscape for visitors. The congregation no longer meets each week at Trinity Methodist Church along Highway N west of Whitewater, but gathers annually for a homecoming in August.

Behind the building, tombstones -- some inscribed in German -- stand in single-file rows. Two wooden benches lean against a shade tree.

Many of the church's original members were German and records were kept in their native language. When the church was first built, it faced west. But with the addition of Highway N, the building was turned so that its doors face south, said Margaret Poinsett, secretary of the church and cemetery association.

She and her husband, James, were one of the last couples to be married in the church in 1967.

White siding was adding to the structure about two years ago to help preserve it, she said. The windows, many still with the original glass, were enclosed in Plexiglas.

Though small in number, most rural congregations still gather for worship. "There's a relationship that serves to meet the needs of people who live close together, rather than traveling 35 or 25 miles to a large church where they only casually know people," Nickell said. "People have kept it going often at a great sacrifice."