What’s In A Name?

Those with little knowledge of the Ozarks, it’s people and its heritage, might ask why a chapel named “Our Shepherd Of The Wilderness Road?” Although the following essay addresses that question, one must be aware of the deep spirituality, the degree in which the Holy Spirit moves through these old Ozark Mountains. We would remind you the reader, of Psalm 121 verse 1;

I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.

Many have found great solace in this verse, especially those that live in rural mountainous regions such as the Ozarks of south Central Missouri. Both those that have been here from birth and those that visited here and never left after discovering the spirituality of the hills and its people, look to these old hills, created by God, for inspiration and strength as they walk along that proverbial wilderness road, that trail that no body knows how old.

The Wilderness Road

There is an old road, through the hills of the central Ozarks, an old road that no body knows the exact age or origin of. Until about two centuries ago, the trail was use by wild game as a migratory route, taking buffalo and elk from summer pastures in north central Missouri to the warmer winter grazing land of North Arkansas. The first Americans, the indigenous peoples used it as a easy road through the hills as it followed the ridge tops versus the more difficult routes of the deep valleys that were often choked with downed trees and under brush.

The first settlers to arrive in the region in the early 19th century found this road indispensable as it connected Springfield in the North to the farming settlements along the White River. Years later with the arrival of the first Rail Road in Springfield the Wilderness Road became a popular wagon route for transporting produce and livestock from the farming communities along the White and points further south such as Harrison Arkansas to the rail head at Springfield. Of course the wagon masters on their return trips south, carried needed manufactured goods from Springfield to these rural farming Ozarks villages. In it’s heyday, some historians claim that as many as 200 wagons were passing along the trail per day.

Until the rail road was finally extended to Branson a century ago, the old route was used by “Gentile” sportsman seeking the excellent fishing and hunting opportunities along the White river. It was along a part of this same Wilderness Road, the road that “nobody knows how old,” that a young minister, turned author, traveled along to visit the Midwestern sportsman’s “paradise” of that era. Near Branson, Harold Bell Wright fell in love with the hill country and its people and penned the fictional novel “The Shepherd Of The Hills” which quickly became a best seller and sold over a million copies. For years, readers of the novel flocked to Branson to see the farm stead where the drama was set, many traveling along the old Wilderness Road.

With the coming of the national highway system the old road was eventually paved and carried two or three generations of vacationers to the tourist mecca of Branson and the Tri-lakes region. But now the old road that wound along the ridge tops has become the road less traveled, with modern two and four lane superhighways replacing the old route. Its modern day counterparts are now choked with traffic; cars, trucks, and recreational vehicles, just as it once was choked with elk, buffalo herds, and horse drawn wagons.

The Shepherd of the Hills

In the novel, an old minister arrives in the hill country, quietly searching for his son that disappeared into the region, and while there the old man finds employment as a shepherd but quickly becomes a “shepherd” of men, the locals seeking him out for guidance after he had gained their trust and acceptance. Reading the novel quickly reveals the depth of the spirituality of the character of the old shepherd as well as that of the author.

With the release of the book, an insert was glued inside the front cover that read;

You will ask, perhaps, of this story the same old question: “Are the characters in the book real people? Does the old Shepherd live outside these pages? Is there a real Sammy Lane and a young Matt?” You shall say. To me, they are very, very real. I seem, somehow, to have known them always.
“And the places, too,” you will ask, “are they real?” Somewhere in the Ozark Hills, you will find, if you care to look for them, a sheep ranch in a Mutton Hollow, a mill, a cave, and a Dewey Bald. But you must see them all from a house that stands above the mists.
The mountains are of God’s building; the forests, of His planting. In no uncertain language they speak their message and declare the laws of their Creator. Of their strength and peace they will give to all who seek to know their teaching. If in these pages you feel, ever so lightly, the touch of their Spirit or are moved, ever so little, by their call; if, indeed, you find here the “Trail that is, nobody knows, how old,” I shall have written not in vain. Harold Bell Wright July 6 1907 [1]

Wright made several references in “Shepherd of the Hills” to the road or trail that nobody knows how old, but his words become a metaphor for a road other than the Old Wilderness Road, a road that as Wright describes it follows the ridge tops in the light of God’s grace, in contrast to the road that follows the bottoms of the dark valleys. A road that Jesus mapped out for us, one that may be rough, winding and rugged like these old Ozark Mountain’s but one that leads to the light and love of the Father.

Wright as a minister and later as an author was an out spoken critic of a church that he saw as increasingly too concerned with the needs of the organization and not the needs of the people. A church too involved in social issues and oblivious of the suffering of the people that made up the church.

Wright determined to use “applied Christianity”, and in his Pittsburg (Kansas) ministry resolved to meet the spiritual needs of the community, not the social needs. He abolished the church organization set up for making money and stressed helping the poor and guiding the young. Still, Wright was not satisfied with the results of his applied Christianity, so he devised the idea of writing a story depicting the actual conditions in Pittsburg and decrying “churchanity”, the attitude of being more concerned with the church than with Christ. Writing late at night and influenced by Charles M. Sheldon’s In His Steps, a book which asks the question, “What would Jesus do?” in a number of situations, Wright planned to read his finished book in installments to his congregation as moral lessons. The result of this writing was (a book titled) That Printer of Udell’s, originally entitled Practical Christianity.

Even though literary critics did not like his novels, Wright struck a chord with the lower and middle classes of the American public, much as Dickens did with the English reading public.  In a sense both were muckrakers–Dickens for child labor laws and Wright for social change in the churches. Wright’s time was the era of social gospel and the attempt of the churches to interpret social questions in the light of the teaching of Jesus. Wright preached “applied Christianity” in several of his books. The churches were in serious trouble as countless Americans no longer attended, and those who did attend criticized the church for its costliness, showiness, and concern with social functions.

Wright was more of a preacher than a novelist, a fact he readily admitted. He never concealed the didactic purposes behind his stories. Wright simply wrote to illustrate his themes. His themes emphasized that true religion should be a part of daily life, not merely a Sunday ritual; that simple country folk living close to nature are morally superior to wealthy urbanites; and that the evils of the American social structure could be corrected by true men and true women who lived according to Christian principles. [2]

A century later, we are seeing many of the same characteristics in the modern day church that Wright saw in the denominations common to his day. Social issues, over shadowing spirituality, gospels or teachings that have little if anything to do with Christianity. And need we ask what Wright would have thought of today’s mega churches and the church growth movement?

Today just as in Wright’s time, today we read statistical studies and poll results that indicate a growing unrest among the laity, even figures that indicate that people are leaving the various denominational churches, and in some cases never to return. We are even seeing ministers that are banding together and calling for a return to spirituality and a departure from social and political issues, that only portray the church as mean spirited and uncaring of the needs of the real people that make up society. A failure of the church to do as Jesus would have done.

Our Shepherd Of The Wilderness Road

A century after Wright’s popular books, here in the Ozarks, we find those that are called to be Shepherds of man. Those whose hearts God has touched, calling them to go in search of “the wandering” to find those left behind by a church that has seemingly become too centered on wealth and materialistic gain. Too centered on building empires and less focused on helping people while they “walk that trail nobody knows how old.”

The ministry team at Our Shepherd Of The Wilderness Road felt blessed to find the inspiration to begin this ministry.  A ministry that strives to embody Wright’s philosophies of “Applied Christianity” A ministry that sees a great deal of truth in Wright’s feelings that true religion should be a part of daily life, not merely a Sunday ritual.  And that the shortfalls of the American social structure could be corrected by true men and true women who live according to Christian principles.

Therefore this ministry is dedicated to that Great Shepherd of men, our Lord Jesus Christ, who is our guide and companion as we walk that path, that wilderness road, along the high winding and rugged ridges, ridge tops that bask in the light of the Father’s glory, upon that trail that nobody knows how old.

[1]Gerry Chudleigh’s Harold Bell Wright web site; http://www.hbw.addr.com/shepherd.htm

[2]Dr. Joyce Kinkead “Harold Bell Wright; The Man And His Work” http://www.hbw.addr.com/kinkeadintro.htm