I finally took a break from researching historic churches to write my presentation for the Spotsylvania Presbyterian Church Men’s Ministry Breakfast. I’m the guest speaker for the September fellowship, and I am very much looking forward to the opportunity to speak to my fellow SPC members.

Although I have a couple existing presentations in my pocket dealing with religious subjects in the Civil War, I wanted to create something brand-new and customized to fit the ‘discipleship’ theme that we will be doing in our fall church programs. I decided to take six subjects that fit the concept of ‘discipleship’ in one way or another, and use that as the basis for the program. I titled this one “FAITH UNDER FIRE: Discipleship during the War Between the States.”

Starting with the definition taken from Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary which states: “A disciple of Christ is one who: (1) believes His doctrine (2) rests on His sacrifice (3) imbibes [receives] His spirit (4) imitates His example,” I then present stories of varying degrees of discipleship that I think we can all learn from. I also tried to do a balance of North vs. South in order to appeal to everyone. Our church has a lot of transplanted northerners, myself included. Most of us however, are long-standing Virginia converts.

* First up is Reverend Father William Corby (Irish Brigade Chaplain), a shepherd for Christ who showed courage through his faith - a courage that spread throughout the ranks of his flock.

* Next is Confederate President Jefferson Davis who set a precedent for religious tolerance when he assembled the first administration in American history that included Protestants, Catholics and Jews.

* Third is Nathan Bedford Forrest who went from an 'unsaved' slave-trader to a born-again Christian. If he can do it, certainly we can change our own ways, whatever they may be. (Critics will be pleased to know that I make a point of doing the Dr.Jekyl vs. Mr.Hyde aspect of ‘the Wizard.’ That’s the entire point of his inclusion here.)

* ‘NBF’ is followed by his polar opposite, ‘The Christian General’ Oliver Howard, a man of God who ultimately became a man of the people - all people - regardless of the color of their skin.

* I then move onto religious revivals and renewals during the conflict. (The one ‘positive’ thing about war – it can make people religious rather quickly whether they realize it or not. I am sure that there have been plenty of agnostics and atheists who have prayed to God from a foxhole.)

* As we live and worship in ‘The Crossroads of the Civil War’ I have to include some local lore. I chose the obvious story of Sgt. Richard Rowland Kirkland who is also known as the ‘Angel of Marye’s Heights.’

* Finally, I close with a wonderful and thought provoking prayer that was believed to have been found on the body of a dead Confederate soldier.

I created an 18-slide Power Point show to compliment the piece with a photo of each individual and a page with associated verses of Scripture. I call them the "Building Blocks For The Prayer Warrior." (I hate bullet-point slides and refuse to use them.) I’ll take some pics at the event and be sure to share them with you here. I’ll also be getting a transcript to post over on my website along with the PPT slides. Stay tuned.

On a side note, I took ‘the Boy’ out to practice driving around Spotsylvania Battlefield and Courthouse area today. (He’s getting quite good.) We also made a brief stop on the way home at the Confederate Cemetery. Stretching our legs, we discovered three ‘combined’ graves that I had never noticed before. All three were Yankee graves for the Lufkins (Samuel, Loren, Otis) who fought and died with Maine. I’m not exactly sure who these guys were, and I am a little confused by their inclusion together in the cemetery.