Those who think washing feet in church is sort of odd and quaint often find humor at the expense of feet-washers. I guess it doesn’t hurt for us to laugh at ourselves. Laughter can be good medicine. R. Inman Johnson told the following (probably made-up) story of the New Harmony Church’s origin:
“A little foot-washing Baptist church over in Georgia got concerned over the complication of the foot-washing procedure as the membership grew. By unanimous vote, they decided they’d wash just one foot instead of both feet. Then the church split over which foot to wash.”
The Arkansas Baptist newsmagazine published this story, November 16, 1961 (p. 23). A little extra humor hides in the name of the church – New Harmony. How often we Baptists call our church splits Fellowship, Harmony, and Unity!
Interestingly, washing feet has held an unusual and unique place in the annals of Baptist history, one Baptist leader advocating it while another decries it. For example, in 1882 J. R. Graves called J. B. Gambrell, who in 1877 founded The Mississippi Baptist Record, “the champion advocate of feet-washing in the Southwest.” According to a preacher whose father was in the founding of the Mt. Zion Association in East Texas, and who himself became an ordained minister in it soon thereafter, recorded that almost all the churches of the once practiced feet washing. Within 100 years, none of them did. I do not know for sure, but I suspect at some point, as he became a leading Southern Baptist minister, J. B. Gambrell, probably quietly dropped any mention of feet washing. R. Inman Johnson taught speech and music for many years at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.
The Tennessee Baptist, May 5, 1882, p. 8
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