Benton residents rotate services among churches of different denominations

The body of Christ may be small in Benton, but the left hand knows what the right hand is doing. 
   
That’s because the Baptists, Methodists and Presbyterians who call the tiny Lowndes County farming community home practice a religion of cooperation that keeps those hands locked in fellowship every Sunday and brings new meaning to the term “interdenominational.”
   
“We like to refer to ourselves as MethoBapTerians,” Brenda Lane, Benton Baptist Church’s secretary, said with a laugh. 
   
The three Benton churches, that’s combined membership numbers barely top 100, rotate their services throughout the month and combine their congregations accordingly. 
   
“We have our own Sunday School, and the Methodists and Presbyterians have theirs, but everybody meets at one church service,” Lane said. 
   
“On the first and fourth Sundays, we do Baptist services at the Baptist church, and the Methodists meet on the third Sunday and we all come together for that. And on the second Sunday, we meet at the Presbyterian church.”
  
 Vacation Bible School and revivals follow the same pattern, and there is even a multichurch community choir, currently led by a Methodist but accompanied by a Baptist organist.
   
“We have a dynamic choir,” Lane said. “You think of little country churches, but we sing some tough songs. We do a lot of the old standards, but we do a lot that you’d be surprised to hear some of the stuff we’re doing.”
   
Though seemingly nontraditional, the arrangement has a proud tradition. 
   
John Trailer, 65, said it’s been happening as long as he can remember. “When I grew up, it was like that; it started before I was born.” 
   
Trailer is a deacon at Benton Baptist and has been a member all his life. His great-great-great-grandfather was one of the first pastors of the church in the 1840s.
   
“Well, in one way, I guess it’s a matter of survival for all three. The different congregations do more than just one church together. The small community just draws us together,” he said. “We’re friends. We don’t look at each other as Methodists or Presbyterians or Baptists, but we know there’s a difference in beliefs. They have to listen to ours, and we have to listen to theirs.”
   
The Methodist and Presbyterian pastors live out of town, but the Baptist pastor, when there is one, lives in the Baptist church pastorium and serves as the default community minister.
   
“We are looking for a new pastor right now, and that’s one of the things we ask — could he handle living in a community like this, and could he be a pastor to the other churches?” Trailer said. “Even when we look for a pastor, we throw in things like that because socially, we’re all together.” 
   
Regarding doctrinal differences that divide their denominations, if not their town, Lane said they agree to disagree. 
   
“I mean, we’ve got … sprinkling and immersion, but each church does their own sprinkling or immersing, and we don’t really get hung up on that. We know that it’s not a salvation issue, and God’s going to take care of us,” she said. “We just get together to worship Him.”