Dayton, TN 37321

In Dayton you can spend practically every night worshiping: the Wednesday night prayer meeting, the gospel sing on Thursday, a Friday night “Jesus Jam” (Jesus is an “awesome dude,” one teen explained), and a performance by the Dayton Christian Ballet on Saturday. To the question “Why are folks in Dayton so passionately religious?” Daytonians would answer: “Why is everyone else not?”

There are places to live, and there are communities. Dayton is a community. It’s a town where generosity is a given, whether in the form of a casserole or a grant for a local college, a place where kids grow up without the threat of drive-by shootings. It is founded on the rock-hard conviction that the world—not to mention Dayton, Tennessee—runs by the grace of God.This is Bible Belt country. The defining question is not “What do you do?” but “What church do you belong to?”

Dayton is the county seat of Rhea (pronounced ray) County, where there are some 130 churches for 28,000 people, from small rural wood frames to the mainstream big brick First Baptist downtown. There’s a lot to give thanks for. First, the setting. Dayton snuggles in the Tennessee River Valley between the Smoky Mountains and the long slow roll of the Cumberland Plateau. Then the salt-of-the-earth people—about 6,000 of them—who work and pray hard. There’s a healthy economy, based on manufacturing plants like La-Z-Boy, which assembles 3,000 recliners a day, and a near-record low unemployment rate of 4.4 percent. Last, but far from least, is the Rhea County High School football team. To bear witness to a victory of the Golden Eagles is the closest thing to heaven on earth.

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