Articles from the Pastor

Below are articles in .pdf format written by Pastor John Belden addressing the more common spiritual issues affecting the people of Letcher county. If you do not have .pdf document software installed, you may download the free Adobe Reader from the Adobe web site using the link to the right.

• Are you free indeed?
• What do little sins grow up to be?
• How would you like to live in a glass house?
• Don't get immunized!
• Ten things the devil doesn't want you to know
• Cry like a baby
• Can good people earn heaven?
• What's your standard?
• Don't be a white cat
• What's a preacher to do?
• Can Jesus save good people?
• Is the world really made up of all kinds of people?
• Are doctors for sick people?
• What Mawmaw would want you to know
• When feeling bad is good
• Who cares about sin?
• Are children born sinful?
• "He's a good kid. He just has a problem with stealing cars."
• Are you sure your good boy is really good?
• Are your expectations too low?
• Let the little children come
• Let God's word examine Lindsay Lohan's example
• Is wisdom crying out in the streets of Letcher county?
• Don't bring your children to church
• Wanted: Full-time Youth Pastors
• Wanted: Domestic Engineer for Human Development
• Fathers, do your children need protection from you?

Books - Appalachian History

This is the story of Robert W. Childress, a local-born man who left to attend Union Seminary and came back as a Presbyterian minister. It is a good place to begin for those who want to understand the mentality of early Appalachian settlers.
This is the best place to start if you want to understand the attitudes of Appalachian people in the '50s and '60s. Weller was a Presbyterian minister who worked in Appalachia for several years. He mastered the customs and ways of thinking common to the region. While much has changed in Appalachia since the time of writing, the ways of thinking that Weller identifies are still engrained to some degree in the people here. One of the major weaknesses of the book is that it doesn't offer the gospel as the solution.