Treasure in Earthen Vessels

Unlike most local church histories oozing with self-congratulations Treasurein Earthen Vessels is an honest critical assessment of a rural congregation thatbuilt a small unpretentious church in a community that subsequently witheredunder the strain of economic realities and labor-saving technologies.In September of 1919 two Baptist families met in an old creaky three-roomwooden schoolhouse to organize a church in the newly-established community ofMcAdoo Texas. This book details the contributions of legacy families committedto living a simple Christian life through the struggles and joys of a rural Baptistcongregation. The congregation also must navigate the geographical socialcultural political religious economic and technological forces often arrayedagainst them.By exploring the contextual history of this Baptist congregation as a case studythe book not only chronicles what happened to rural churches and communitiesexperiencing the depopulation of the Great Plains over the past century butalso why a cherished way of life simply vanished.