Tinney Chapel Today

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Photos by Bill and Linda Stevens.

To A Teacher
By Angela Wylie

Conveyor of knowledge,
Wisdom, and
Encouragement
A faithful and fearless teacher who
Has let us to
Delve deeply in the scriptures;
Pairs and Spares
And
The Remnants that
Remained.
Those whom God has blessed
We have remained steadfast and loyal
Reading the Word, verse by verse
And often word by word
Asking for Divine enlightenment

Led by a scholar
Whose
Untold hours of research
Has quenched the thirst of the desires of our hearts
And enriched his own knowledge

Our teacher
Our local part of the
Priesthood of Believers
Our quintessential teacher of
The quintessential small group
Who has quenched our thirst
For knowledge
With the wellspring
Of information, commentary,
and
Multiple versions
Parallel and vertical
Rooted in ancient language
And re-grown in our hearts
Giving flower to deeper understanding
And birth to stronger faith

Thus we dwell in the Word of God
Thus we respect and honor
This great teacher
Honorable elder
Patriarch
Friend
We thank you Joe Dan

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The Messenger

After 30 years as a missionary, and seven Spirit-driven visits to China--where most Christians worship in secret because of official persecution--Winnsboro’s Rev. Dan Hubbell, who turns 73 this year, is not inclined to slow down. In fact, he hopes to leave this world in the line of duty: “With one foot boarding an airplane and the other on the tarmac,” he quips, not at all in jest.

Training new Christians to spread the Gospel message, and equipping them to train others, is the nearest thing to a mission statement for Rev. Dan. He has honed his School of Scripture down to 30 days of full-time immersion, wherever this globe-trotting Gospel guardian may be teaching at any given time: China, India, Africa, for instance.

Something over 520 “teachings” in 16 categories make up Rev. Dan’s core curriculum, which actually involves more than 2,000 individual points of The Light. It isn’t just based on Scripture. Rather, it’s pretty much Scripture only, and Rev. Dan does not get into commentary or interpretation unless someone questions him for a better understanding of a specific Scripture. He thinks of himself as a facilitator rather than a commentator.

But Rev. Dan does prefer to begin each training session by sharing his own “life journey,” followed by the same input from each of his student disciples. “Each one of us has a story to tell, and each of us is gifted in some way for ministry,” explains Rev. Dan. “God places in each of our lives something we would like to do for His Kingdom, and we all need to tell that story, to others as well as to ourselves.”

For detail on Rev. Dan’s ministry and his School of Tyrannus teachings, based on Acts 19:9-10 go to his website: http://www.churchrestoration.org/

Rev. Dan’s wife Laurel is herself a missionary, but to local, domestic fields, mostly through prison ministry at the Johnston Unit in Winnsboro. When he departs on each journey to foreign fields, Rev. Dan always kisses Laurel goodbye with the same words of farewell, which she understands completely: “I’ll see you here when I get back, or I’ll see you up there when we all get to Heaven.”

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Tinney Talk, Observations by Joe Dan Boyd

MOLLY MATHIS, TINNEY CHAPEL’S NEW PIANIST, started taking piano lessons at the tender age of seven, under the guidance of Willa Wilfong, then one of Winnsboro’s best-known private music teachers. The decision for Molly to do that was not her own, as she grew up in the family of Jeanne and Ross Mathis, a local physician, in which it was “understood” that little girls take piano lessons, no questions asked! “Miss Wilfong taught classical piano, was a strict disciplinarian, and brooked no nonsense,” recalls Molly. “She could tell if you hadn’t practiced between lessons, and if you hadn’t, she whacked your hands with a small stick as ‘encouragement’.”

“I TOOK PIANO LESSONS FROM GRADE TWO THROUGH GRADE EIGHT,” says Molly. “In high school, I switched to organ lessons from Sallie Lucy Old, another iconic figure of yesterday’s Winnsboro music scene. That’s 11 years of music lessons, and the difference between the two instruments—piano and organ—is pretty simple: You can fudge a little on the piano, but not the organ. Miss Old always said that the organ is totally unforgiving.”

MOLLY BECAME PIANIST FOR FIRST CHRISTIAN CHURCH of Winnsboro when she was a freshman in high school, although Molly was then a Presbyterian. It was her initial introduction to playing church music, and both parties—she and the church—were sufficiently satisfied for her to continue until she graduated in 1964. “I love church music,” says Molly. “I think it’s beautiful, spectacularly so. I’ve always been fond of such hymns as Faith Of Our Fathers, Holy Holy Holy and The Church’s One Foundation.”

MOLLY HAS BEEN CHALLENGED TO PLAY UNFAMILIAR HYMNS since arriving at Tinney Chapel, and she thrives on that: “I had never played either Lord of the Dance or All Glory Laud And Honor until recently when they were on the program here at Tinney Chapel and I thought both were beautiful.”

AFTER GRADUATION MOLLY STOPPED PLAYING, to meet the demands of raising a family and tend the fires of a demanding career in marketing. “Only occasionally did I play for my own pleasure during those years. When I retired, I moved from New York City, back to the rural East Texas of my youth and Ronny Ellison invited me to visit Tinney Chapel.”