The Gospel According to John Bill Bob Mark- A Smoky Mountain Version Based Upon and Adapted from the Gospel of Mark

About the Book

This "Smoky Mountain Version" (SMV) of the Gospel of Mark is about getting the "Word" out- hillbilly style.

It begins with John Bob the Baptizer appearing on Rich Mountain in Townsend Tennessee of the Great Smoky Mountains. In these mountains, located in the southern region of Appalachia with popular culture "knowing" these parts as "hillbilly country", John Bob begins with a baptism of preparation because God is "about to do somethin' special in these parts". John Bob is only preparing the way however.

Jesus arrives from Newport, Tennessee and comes to be baptized by John Bob.

The good news of God is now off and running-running as fast as "swelled and muddy river water".

This Jesus, however, is distinctly Wesleyan and Appalachian in this version. He calls people to acknowledge and accept the offer of God's justifying freedom as an experienced love and to participate in the challenge of God's sanctifying freedom that transforms both the individual and the world. God's freedom begins by "freeing" the person to "be" simply. Furthermore, God transforms the individual into one of God's loving "hillbillies". God redeems and reconstitutes the community for the purpose of nurture, care and challenge- with a hillbilly flavor.

Using the style of "Jack Tales", a storytelling technique of Appalachia, the SMV appropriates a Wesleyan demonstration of God's present, saving and transforming grace in the Jesus of Mark's Gospel.

About the Author

Bruce W. Spangler is an ordained minister in the Holston Conference of the United Methodist Church, presently under special appointment as the Minister-in-Residence with a "downtown" homeless ministry in knoxville, Tennessee. Rev. Spangler holds degrees from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville(BA), Candler School of Theology, Emory University, Atlanta(MDiv), and Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington D.C.(DMin)