LIFE LIST UPDATE – No. 1: Attend a Beulah Campground service

'Old timey' Beulah Camp transportation.

I’ve lived in the vicinity of the Beulah Campground for a number of years now, and I’ve always wanted to go to a church service there. I officially added this to my “life list” last year and finally took the time to attend one of these services on Saturday morning.

It’s hard to grow up in Monroe County and not hear at least a little something about the Beulah Campground services. Now in its 72nd year, the South Alabama Holiness Camp Meeting Association, commonly called the Beulah Camp, was established in July 1941. Services were first held in June 1942 with the purpose of “promoting and directing an annual camp meeting which is interdenominational, and which is for the spread of Wesleyan doctrine of entire sanctification or scriptural holiness."

Services are held annually at the camp, usually starting on the first or second Thursday in June. The camp is located at 798 Beulah Campground Road, about 1-1/4 mile south of State Highway 136, between the towns of Excel and Repton. For more information about the camp’s history, visit its official Web site at www.beulahcampmeeting.org.

One of the neat things about the Beulah Camp services is that it’s “old timey.” Similar to the brush arbor services of old, Beulah Camp services are held in a mostly outdoors setting. The main services are held beneath a large pavilion, and the audience sits on large, old-style pews. Decades-old songbooks are also used, and the service on Saturday morning featured a foot-washing ceremony, which is something that I’d never seen before in person. Some of those in attendance also drove to the services in vintage cars like the one pictured above.

I especially enjoyed Saturday morning’s service because the featured speaker was the Rev. Lance Sawyer, a native of Monroe County. Sawyer, 43, is currently the pastor at the First Baptist Church of Muskogee, Okla., and if you’ve never heard him preach you’re missing out. He’s a gifted, inspiring, old-fashioned preacher and one of the finest communicators I’ve ever heard in a pulpit. Mixing stories and humor to get his message across, he’s able to make his point to a wide variety of listeners. I’ve never listened to one of his sermons and not walked away wanting to try to be a better person.

Many of you may be familiar with Sawyer because of his outstanding radio program, which aired locally up until recently on one of our local radio stations. I was sad to hear on Saturday that Sawyer had to discontinue his local radio program because it no longer has a sponsor. If you know of anyone interested in sponsoring his program to get it back on the air, please let me know. It will be money well spent.

In the end, I enjoyed the opportunity to finally attend one of the services at the Beulah Camp and will likely do so again. How many of you have ever been to one of these services? What did you think about it? Let us know in the comments below.