Located in southeast Ohio in the Appalachian foothills, the churches of Athens County are nestled within small towns, plains, and hollows.
Here, Christianity is the predominant religion with around 53% of the county identifying as Christian, according to the 2020 Census of American Religion. This is slightly below the national average with 65% of the country identifying as Christian, according to Pew Research Center.
Christian beliefs and Christian inconography are intertwined within the fabric of America. A drive down an American road often comes with sightings of crosses and allusions to Jesus Christ or God. I was interested in seeing how this national context manifested itself within the rolling hills of southern Ohio.
Throughout 2021 and the spring of 2022, I attended services in a least one church in each of the 14 county townships to photograph the people who make up the congregations of these rural churches. There are 95 Christian congregations throughout the county, according to the 2010 report by the Association of Religion Data Archives. I ultimately photographed 31 services at 29 churches in the county.
I came to this project without any current religious affiliation and no agenda on evaluating organized Christianity. I was interested in meeting the individuals who devote their Sundays and Wednesday evenings to occupying these country churches. I photographed the people who I’ve seen at times drive through icy roads or trudge through the snow to flip on the lights and transform these buildings into houses of worship and centers of community two days out of the week. At each service, I heard repeated from those attending the idea that the church was the linchpin that brought people from around the county together to celebrate being in the company of one another and of God.
In many churches, generations of members smile from photos on the walls as they no longer sit in the pews with those who occupy them now. “When I started coming here there was probably 18 or 20 people,” said Carolyn Flood, a congregant of Union Methodist Church, in Union, Ohio. “The older generation just leaves… they go to heaven.” Yet, the churches who do have children attend work to involve them in the service and aim to pass on their traditions. Unless younger generations return to the churches, they could sit empty.
“Father we are going to do what we can to get more people in this church,” said Robert Van Bibber, the pastor of Connett Methodist Church, during his sermon. “We pray to fill it till the seams are bursting.”
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Diana Burns looks out the window of the House of Prayer church to see if anyone else is coming to the service in Glouster, Ohio. Four people attended the Wednesday service and the pastor couldn’t make it because of worry over a storm that was forecasted for the evening. The church is in a transformed garage attached to a home one of the congregants owns. “We got a few people,” Burns said. “We’re not big but we come and worship in fellowship.”
Susan Brooks raises her hands as Pastor Rob Clark places his hand on her head, while the congregation prays for her during the Sunday evening service in Albany, Ohio. Brooks’ nephew had been "saved" — the Christian belief that when someone accepts Christ as their savior, their sins are absolved and they will be allowed into heaven — earlier in the service and afterwards she asked if they would pray for her as well. Rob Clark said he has been preaching since 2004 and has been a pastor for about six or seven years. He said they took over this church after it had been closed for over a year. He had grown up and been "saved" in this church when he was a child. “The Lord called me back in the place that I started,” he said.
Jeremy Hayes gives a sermon during the Sunday morning service at Cornerstone Ministry outside Albany, Ohio. “I think of y’all as family, some of you are family,” he said. Jeremy’s father Roger Hayes is the pastor of the church. They originally held service within Roger’s house and eventually found this location, known as Chase Church for the local family that helped created the church in 1833, and were able to move in. Roger Hayes said that by the time they obtained it, the church was about to collapse and had broken windows and birds living within it.
The congregation at Stewart Methodist Church in Stewart, Ohio, stand up to sing a hymn during the Sunday morning service. Eleven people attended the service. The group believed that some of the normal attendees had stayed home due to snowfall the night before.
A piece of wood blocks the entrance to the Mineral United Methodist Church in Mineral, Ohio. The town no longer uses the older church and now holds services in a newer building across the street.
Pastor Rob Clark places his hands on the head of Levi Hayes, 12, while his parents, Angie and Jeremy Hayes, stand behind him and pray for him during a Wednesday evening service at In Time Faith Believers at the Church on the Hill in Albany, Ohio. Jeremy Hayes was asked by Clark to give a guest sermon at the church that evening. In the sermon, Hayes described how children need to be “drug” to church like he was in order to learn about Jesus. “You can’t miss what you don’t have,” Hayes said during his sermon. “Give them Jesus... [they are] the generation that knew not God. The Bible talks about that and I think we’re almost there.”
Leona Winegardner hugs Shayla Taylor, 10, at Faith Baptist Church in New Marshfield, Ohio. While her husband, Adelbert Winegardner, left, holds the Bible study session for adults, Leona and a parent from the group play games upstairs with the kids in two groups: one for the teens and one for the younger children.
December Johnson, 11, falls out of her chair after Gage Taylor, 12, pushed her to get it when the music stopped during musical chairs with Ashlee Lowry, 11, Joshua Parks, 11 and Justin Johnson, 13, at Faith Baptist Church in New Marshfield, Ohio. Leona Winegardner, right, runs the church with her husband. This was the first time the children’s group had been split up into a teen class and a class for younger children.
Myrtle Gabriel, left, and Karen Frost talk to each other prior to the start of the Sunday morning service at Stewart Methodist Church in Stewart, Ohio.
Pastor Willard Love leads a Wednesday Bible study in the back room of Airline Union Church outside Albany, Ohio. The Bible study was held in-person with some members choosing to join online through a livestream. Love has been a pastor for 53 years with 16 years at Airline. The church itself is 147 years old. “We just keep at it and God takes care of us,” Love said.
Chase Church is seen among the surrounding hillside outside of Albany, Ohio. The graveyard behind the church contains graves of Athens County residents dating as far back as the 1800's, who include Civil War veterans.
Larry Kent, Glen Goins, Ann Goins, Joyce Brown, and Judy Churchheus sing the final verses of “Amazing Grace” during a gospel music jam session at Graham Chapel Church outside Shade, Ohio.
Cindy Hendrix has a cross of ashes drawn on her forehead by Barbara Conover on Ash Wednesday at Alexander Baptist Church outside Athens, Ohio. The church had a small service at 5 p.m. so congregants could receive their ashes before returning home for dinner. The pastor was unavailable to conduct the service so one of the members organized it and read the opening scripture.
Pastor Rob Clark raises his hand in worship while singing a hymn during a Wednesday evening service at In Time Faith Believers at the Church on the Hill in Albany, Ohio.
Shirley Tribe lays on the ground and speaks in tongues while Pastor Rob Clark gives his interpretation of what she says and Roberta Flack is helped up by Bernard Cheatwood during a Sunday evening service in Albany, Ohio. The process is called being “slain in the spirit” and caused both Tribe and Roberta Flack to fall to the ground after being touched on the head by Clark.
After asking a question during a Wednesday Bible study session, Pastor Richard Eaton acts out The Ascension of Jesus, when Jesus went to heaven, to try and get participants to guess the right answer at Vanderhoof Baptist Church. Eaton, who is also an electrician at a chemical plant, started being a pastor in 2013. He said he had been in church since he was a kid, but as he got older and into his 20's he began to speak more in church. “This is something that God is drawing me to,” he said.
In the attendance book for Connett Methodist Church’s 120th anniversary service on September 17, 2017, an attendee wrote “God bless this church with people." Robert Van Bibber, the pastor, said he comes to the church for the fellowship of the people and to spread the gospel. “Father we are going to do what we can to get more people in this church,” Van Bibber said during his sermon. “We pray to fill it till the seams are bursting.”