Hartselle Camp Meeting continues after more than a century

Every summer for 119 years, believers in Jesus Christ have gathered together at the historic Hartselle Tabernacle to sing, fellowship and worship together during the annual Hartselle Camp Meeting.

Organized in conjunction with a youth camp, the goal of the week-long revival is to proclaim faith in Jesus Christ and a lifestyle of scriptural holiness. An interdenominational gathering of Christians, Hartselle Camp Meeting has brought crowds to the open-air pavilion tucked away on Tabernacle Road.

Camp Meeting president Rob Cain said even though the event is one of the longest-standing religious gatherings in the state, in some ways, it is Hartselle’s best-kept secret. He said he hopes more people through the years come to know and benefit from the long-standing tradition.

“What we need to do is to raise the visibility of the Tabernacle, allowing future generations to experience the same life-changing impact that the proclamation of the gospel of Christ has had there for the past 119 years,” he said.

Cain has served as the president of Hartselle Camp Meeting for more than a decade, but even when he began in that role, the pastor and preacher was no newcomer to the organization.

“It was under the Tabernacle that I was saved and became a follower of Christ. That was 38 years ago, and I haven’t gotten over it yet,” Cain said. “That decision resulted in a life of full-time Christian service. I know of countless other students who began their journeys of faith under the rustic Tabernacle, as well – and God is by no means through using the Hartselle Camp Meeting.”

Morgan County sheriff-elect Ron Puckett is one of those students. He also said he came to Christ as a teenager while hearing the gospel preached at the Tabernacle. Puckett said his years at Hartselle Camp Meeting undoubtedly prepared him to be a better person and Christian – and his faith has been strengthened in innumerable ways by his involvement then and now.

“As a young Christian, you get fired up at youth events or church events, but one thing you can learn there is how to carry that over,” Puckett said. “You learn over time that the faith and the feelings you feel and the experiences you have at Camp Meeting can be the same faith and the same feelings and experiences that you can carry the rest of the 12 months of the year – how to sustain your faith, how to read the Bible better, how to have better devotions and how to walk closer to the Lord the rest of the year.”

Puckett said the trend of camp meetings in Alabama is dying off, but he sees no slow down when it comes to the place where he became a servant of Christ.

“There’s probably been many times that it could have just folded,” Puckett said, “but because you have people who are committed to serving the Lord and people who want to see the ministry of the Tabernacle continued, I think that’s exactly why we still have it today. No. 1, the Lord carries – he has allowed it. How could we do all that we do without the Lord providing? He still has his hand on the Hartselle Camp Meeting, and I think because of that, we continue to see good things happen – lives changed and souls won to heaven.

“Things are going strong. There are enough people who have the vision who want to see the Tabernacle continue the way that is has,” he added. “You can really see that when we need something done. We have an outpouring of money and volunteers and supporters. That’s what it takes to make the Camp Meeting continue.”