Churches suffered in many ways during the Civil War. Armies took over churches to use as hospitals or barracks, and some church buildings were burned. Some congregations stopped meeting and never reorganized. Baptist and Methodist churches in Tennessee lost one third of their memberships as a result of the war from death, discouragement, and people moving away.
After the war ended, churches rebuilt their buildings and began to reach out and serve again. Religious publications that had ceased during the war were published again. The publishing house of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South was located in Nashville; and denominational offices soon moved there too. The Southern Baptist Convention headquarters and publishing house of the were also established in Nashville. Before war, many blacks had been members of white congregations even though they sat separately in services. Now, social segregation was reflected in the fact that many black congregations had been organized. Many of these churches because art of Northern black denominations that had been organized before the war, such as the African Methodist Episcopal Church (Formed in 1816) and the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Zion (1820). Black Baptist and Methodist churhes accounted for 85 percent of Tennessee's black church membership. Unlike many other churches, the Methodist Episcopal Church actively sought black members. The National Baptist Convention was founded by African-Americans in Nashville in 1886. Black baptists underwent other regrouping and had various denominational names over the next several years; but the largest single group, the National Baptist Convention of the USA, still has its headquarters in Nashville.
Many churches struggled with ideas that swept through American society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. in the 19th century German preacher school began to question whether the Bible was from God, whether we has to obey the Bible, and whether Jesus was God. These ideas spread into American preaching schools and church publications. Churches and preachers lined up on one side or the other. Some churches moved away from faith, and others held on to their strong faith in the Bible. Another point of division was the idea of the social gospel. Some people believed that helping the physical needs of mankind, not soul-saving, was the real mission of the church. Liberal churches saw a renewed conservative churches reacted against it and focuses on evangelism.
Perhaps in reaction to the trend of liberal thinking about God, the 1870s and 1880s saw a renewed interest in spiritual revival. The holiness movement emphasized the work of the Holy Spirit in bring about more dedicated life. One Specific result of the movement was the formation in the early 1900s of the church of the Nazarene by thousands who left the Methodist church and other denominations.
Sundays Schools became very important especially among Baptists, as means of teaching the Bible. The Baptist Sunday School Board establishes ins headquarters in Nashville in 1891. Youth ministers devoloped in many churches and denominations, taking the form of such groups as the Epworthy League and the methodist Younge People's Organization. woman;s church organinazations allowed woman to be more visably involved in supporting home misson efforts.
A major battle during this period involved whether people should drink and or sell alcohol. The Anti-Saloon Leagues and other groups had heavy involvement from church leaders. The passage of the Four Mile Law in 1877 prohibited the sale of alcoholic beverages within four miles of a school outside of any incorporated town. The Prohibition party nominated Gallatin minister David Kelley to run for governer in 1809, several years before the national Constitutional amendment on prohibition was ratified. The temperance issue caused many churches to use grape juice instead of wine in communion.
Sam Jones was one of the South's best-known evangelists in late 1800s, He first preached in Nashville in 1885. He condemned the liquor businesses in the city during a meeting later that year, a well-known Nashville figure responded to the invitation: Captain Tom Ryman, who owned several riverboats known for their alcohol and gambling. The change in his life was dramatic and genuine. Ryman oversaw the construction of the Union Gospel Tabernacle, completed in 1891, as a place for jones and others to hold future evangelistic meetings. Eventually it became a multi-purpose facility that was renames the Rayman Auditorium in 1904 and served as te long time home of the Grand Ole Opry. The original pews in Rymon Aditorium were never replaced with chairs. When the new Opry House was built at Opryland in 1974 to be the new home of the Opry, pews where again used for the seating.
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