CHASING AMERICAN LEGENDS

Ep7 Teaser

Episode 7 – Changing Seasons

 

Ep7 Behind the Scenes Bonus Specials

Extended Scene at PoleGreen Church

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Changing Seasons

We started off our road trip to Virginia with a lot of excitement for Trey’s graduation at Liberty University. Knowing how hard he worked to get to that point, made my momma’s heart so proud of him. We wanted to soak in our time with him and make the most of our trip by making some stops along the way that incorporated history and life lessons. Learning about the life of pastor Samuel Davies and John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg were a perfect addition to the trip. I think the pastors of the Revolutionary period played such important roles in our history. Muhlenberg was a minister for a season and then a soldier for another season. We try to teach our kids that God may call you to changing seasons of your life and that’s ok, and no matter what your “profession” is, you can impact your community, your state, and nation. Just be ready to answer the call. Learning from the heroes of history is so inspiring to us. There are stories upon stories of patriots young and old who lived ordinary lives and then stepped up to fulfill their calling when the time was right. I’m thankful that all you have to do to find a hero is look back in history!

—Kara Green

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The Adventure:
While traveling to Lynchburg, Virginia, Rick tries to squeeze in as many
historic stops as possible as the family learns about Changing Seasons.

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Historic Polegreen Church in Virginia
On the way to Trey’s graduation ceremony, our family stopped by a few key historical locations to try and drive home a few life lessons during this season of change. The first of these was the memorial to Polegreen Church, also known as the Hanover Meeting House, which was destroyed in the mid-1800s. Even though the building is gone, the history that exists within the memorial was powerful and moving.

Originally licensed in 1743, the Hanover Meeting House was the home of quite a few American heroes. It was originally licensed at a time when the Government of the area protected an official denomination (The Anglican Church) and discouraged other religions from gathering for worship. The Hanover Meeting House was one of just four places that

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were originally licensed as “reading houses” under different denominations. All four places that were licensed to preach decided to bring in a 23-year-old Presbyterian minister by the name of Samuel Davies.

Samuel Davies
In 1747, Samuel Davies became the first non-Anglican minister licensed to preach in Virginia. He became prominently known for his contributions to the religious and political climates of the colony, his education of black slaves, and his mentorship of Founding Fathers like Patrick Henry. Henry grew up listening to Davies preach at the Polegreen church each Sunday, and was then required by his mom to recite each sermon back to her on their trip home. Henry greatly admired Rev. Davies’ preaching and eloquence as a teacher, and credited Davies with “teaching me what an orator should be.” When Davies passed away in 1761, his sermons were well known and influenced how other clergy preached at the time. By the time the Revolution began years later, his sermons were among the most widely circulating collections of sermons in the colonies.

Rev. Davies had a heart for teaching slaves how to read, because if they could read, then they could understand the Bible, and that was his goal. He was really a trail-blazer because he did the things that no one before him was willing to do.

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Rev. Davies was also heavily involved in the education system, becoming the 4th President of Princeton University, where he raised the standards for admission and for the bachelor’s degree and instituted monthly orations by members of the senior class. Isn’t it incredible how religious our early education institutions were?

Emmanuel Church
The next stop for the family was at Emmanuel Church in Woodstock, Virginia. While it is not the original building in which John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg preached in, his congregation built this church after their original building was destroyed. To honor Muhlenberg, the congregation incorporated words in memory of him on one of their windows. Not only is the church beautiful, but you could feel the history as you walked through the sanctuary. The true treasure of the trip was getting the chance to flip through Muhlenberg’s Bible, the very one from which he preached his famous “seasons” sermon. From the pulpit Rev. Muhlenberg often preached on the principles of liberty, preparing his congregation for the day they could be called on to support the

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cause of freedom. In January of 1776, Rev. Muhlenberg preached a farewell sermon to his congregation from Ecclesiastes 3, “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under Heaven, a time to be born, and a time to die… A time to weep, and a time to laugh… A time of war, and a time of peace. It is a time for war!… It is time to act! Many of us came to this country to practice our religious freedoms. It is time to fight for those freedoms that we hold so dear… I am a clergyman, it is true. But I am also a patriot — and my liberty is as dear to me as to any man. Shall I hide behind my robes, sitting still at home, while others spill their blood to protect my freedom? Heaven forbid it! I am called by my country to its defense. The cause is just and noble. I am convinced it is my duty to obey that call, a duty I owe to my God and to my country. In the language of the holy writ, there was a time for all things, a time to preach and a time to pray but those times have passed away. There is a time to fight, and that time has come now!”

At the end of his sermon he threw off his clerical robes to reveal a full military uniform. That day, it is said that he recruited 300 men from his congregation to join him in becoming the 8th Virginia Brigade.

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There is nothing more exciting for us as a family than when we get the chance to actually see original documents or artifacts that date as far back as the Revolutionary War. To see and read from Muhlenberg’s treasured Bible, while learning about the man himself, was a once in a lifetime opportunity.

John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg
John Muhlenberg, a patriot pastor, accomplished many things in his life. Before he was a well-known Lutheran minister, he had actually served with a German regiment of dragoons in the 1760s. That experience allowed him to raise his own regiment of troops in the Revolutionary War and be
commissioned a Brigadier General in the Continental Army by the end of the war. He not only fought for freedom during the war, he lived for it afterwards as well. He served in many political positions in order to refine and protect the freedom that he had fought and sacrificed for. He was a member of the Continental Congress, served in State

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positions, and was even appointed by President Thomas Jefferson to the supervisor of revenue for all of Pennsylvania. He also worked closely with his younger brother…

Frederick Augustus Conrad Muhlenberg
Frederick Muhlenberg was a Lutheran minister who preached for most of his early life. Frederick Augustus was a pastor at a Lutheran church in New York, and he strongly disagreed with his brother’s outspoken view on politics from the pulpit.

Frederick wrote to John Peter saying, “You have become too involved in matters which, as a preacher, you have nothing whatsoever to do…”.

John Peter responded back to his brother by stating, “I am a Clergyman it is true, but I am a member of the Society as well as the poorest Layman, and my Liberty is as dear to me as any man, shall I then sit still and enjoy myself at home when the best blood of the continent is spilling?”

John Peter even accused his brother of being a Tory sympathizer.

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Frederick Muhlenberg then saw the devastating side of war up close when the British desecrated his church in New York and he and his family were forced to flee the city and move deep into the Pennsylvania countryside. However, after two more years of continual unrest, Frederick had a change of heart and joined the patriotic cause and went on to be involved as a member of the Continental Congress, the State House of Representatives, and eventually was elected the first Speaker of the House for the new American Government.

Brothers and pastors, these two men started off with very different opinions and paths, but ended up serving in Congress together helping pass the First Amendment that now protects our religious liberty.

Graduation
Trey completed his entire B.A. in Economics in just 18 months. He earned 42 hours in his final three months through a combination of online classes, CLEP tests, and his senior level classes at Liberty University.

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Liberty is the largest private university in America and the largest Christian University in the world. Located on more than 7,000 acres in Lynchburg, Virginia, Liberty offers 450 programs from the certificate to the doctoral level, and is the home to more than 100,000 residential and online students. Of the more than 17,000 graduates in Trey’s class, he was the youngest at 17 years of age. After watching Trey work so hard to accomplish such a big goal, we were all excited for him to say the least!

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Closing Thoughts:

I’m so intrigued by the story of the Muhlenberg brothers. It reminds me how there’s truly nothing new under the sun. Even today, many families and friends are often very much on opposite sides of political and religious issues. I’m grateful though that John Peter & Frederick were willing to recognize the changing seasons in their lives and follow His calling, wherever that took them. That is something that we have tried to instill in our kids. If you have a dream or goal and God gets you there, hold that dream loosely in your hand, because if that season of your life changes and you are called to something different, you won’t be disappointed to let that dream go.

—Kara Green

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Discussion Questions

Essay Questions