Years ago, when my daughter was in gymnastics at DEENOS (back when it was in Springfield), I would often chat with other parents as we waited for the girls to finish practice. I recall a conversation I had one evening with the mother of a new girl in the class.

After the woman explained they were from the west coast and had just moved to the county, I naturally asked, “How do you like it here?”

“It’s all right. We’re getting used to it,” she said.

I sensed the move had not been particularly smooth, but didn’t want to pry. So I responded, “Yeah, moving can be difficult — especially if there is a culture difference.”

Well, that statement opened a floodgate of things her family had to get used to. It was if she saw in me someone who understood “culture shock” and, apparently, someone who was dying to hear everything wrong with Effingham County (compared to whatever utopia she came from.)

I frankly can’t remember the entire list because I got stuck on the first thing. The very first item this new transplant listed as evidence of her suffering was this, and I am not making this up: “Everyone is so into church here! That’s all people do!”

Seriously.

The expression on her face when she said it was what you might expect from someone changing the diaper of a child who’d been given Gerber’s new Three-Alarm Chili.

I could tell this was probably not the time for a discussion of faith. So, I simply responded, “Well, I suppose it’s all in how you look at it.”
Yet, we would do well to consider that we really do have a “culture” in Effingham. And yes, that culture usually involves religious worship. I suppose the shock others have that worship is typically part of the life of a resident of Effingham County is matched only by our shock that it would be a shock. To us, it’s just part of life — a given; and it’s who we are.

That conversation came to mind this week when the American Bible Society and the Barna Research group released their new list of America’s most “Bible-minded” cities — a ranking based on each city’s Bible-reading habits and beliefs.

Every single one of the top 10 cities is located below the “Mason-Dixon” line. That is, the Bible Belt is still firmly buckled.

Number one? Chattanooga, Tenn., where 52 percent of people are Bible-minded. When asked to define “Bible-mindedness,” Barna described individuals who “report reading the Bible in a typical week and who strongly assert the Bible is accurate in the principles it teaches.”

Number two, Birmingham, Ala., is close behind at 51 percent. While cities in Effingham are too small to make the list, Savannah is 13th at 42 percent. My guess is that if Effingham County as a whole could enter the game, Chattanooga wouldn’t stand a chance. I would estimate the percentage of our residents who would be classified as Bible-minded to be upwards of 60-65 percent.

Still, that estimation notwithstanding and assuming we are no different than Savannah, consider the culture shock for the average person moving here from upstate New York, where only 10 percent of people are Bible-minded. Or Boston or San Francisco, where only 11 percent and 15 percent of people, respectively, are so designated. Some nine out of ten of new transplants from those areas may encounter a culture where, to them, “everyone is so into church.”

Of course, to most of us, our faith and our church life is part of our identity. We maintain that part of our life because we can do no other. Our faith grounds us, defines us, and leads us.

The “shock” for many of us is how people can make their way through the brokenness that comes from living in a sinful world without being grounded in God. And that means we don’t just have an interest in God; we have a relationship with God. The Bible is key to helping us strengthen that relationship.

To me at least, this is a very endearing part of life in Effingham County. And I give thanks regularly for those who have helped my wife and I raise our children here with the Bible foremost in their minds.

When I told the woman waiting at DEENOS, “It’s all in how you look at it,” she did not ask me how I looked at it. Had she done so, I would have explained to her that I will consider my life a success if someone looks at me some day and says, “Bob, your kids are so into church!”
Like I said, it’s all in how you look at it.