How Hackleburg Became a 13-Pie Church

You see, Hackleburg Methodist Church is a fictional congregation in rural Indiana, and through the years it’s given us characters such as: Marybele Hasselbaum, the head of the Women’s Society of Christian Service, who kept everything running smoothly until she unexpectedly died at 82, without a hand-picked successor Lush Larkin, former saloon owner who once was lost but was gloriously found (owner of Susanna, the Methodist dog.) Aunt Minnie Rittenhouse, who shepherded the Jesus’ Little Sunbeams class by reading from the Big Blue Bible Story Book and allowing some normal creative destruction. Members of the Hackleburg Church Choir, who sang joyfully, if not always on key. In the history of the Hackleburg church, we also hear of 13-pie potlucks (the loaves and fishes potlucks during hard times); weather-dependent picnics; rivalries with the Baptists; Methodist cuss words, like heavens to Betsey and fizzle-fazzle, and the grace of God, which seemed to get those Hoosier Methodist through every trail-still speaking to each other (most of the time).