How Hackleburg Became a 13-Pie Church

How Hackleburg Became a 13-Pie Church is the account of a fictitious United Methodist Church in a small town in Indiana. An excerpt from the 13-pie chapter.

Grandma Hester Holloway runs the Hackleburg potlucks. She is the Spiritual Advisor, Quality Control Engineer and Chief Executive Officer. It is not that she has been elected by anyone for these officers or that her name appears that way in the church directory. She has been appointed directly by God, like Melchizedek, without beginning or end. She makes sure the chairs are set up, the tables are decorated and the food is arranged by category. She assumes responsibility for the official start of the potluck, the church version of "Gentlemen, start your engines:" "Okay, preacher, you can say the prayer now." Hester also dispenses blessings. A remark like ,"Why, Helen, your scalloped potatoes were wonderfully delicious tonight," confers more honor than being written up in the The Farm News.

This is all based, of course, on biblical principles, communicated faithfully by Hester herself. She's been around long enough to have educated a couple of generations of Hackleburg cooks. Whether in Sundays school or Wednesday night Bible study, Hester preachers the Word, usually from Leviticus. People at Hackleburg don't know a lot about Romans, but they know a lot about Leviticus.