Joey Fann started holding Bible studies themed around the classic 1960s sitcom The Andy Griffith Show in the late 1990s, and the effects are still being felt today.  Fann’s 2001 book The Way Back to Mayberry: Lessons From a Simpler Time (B&H Books) helped propagate the movement that has inspired hundreds of churches to launch their own Mayberry-themed Bible studies and even sparked its own annual conference.

This year’s sold-out Life Lessons from Mayberry: It’s All There in Black & White conference at LifeWay Christian Resources’ Ridgecrest (N.C.) Conference Center was attended by more than 500 people from 18 states. Attendance has doubled in the three years it has been held at Ridgecrest.

“God has provided this means for us because the show has such practical lessons,” said Debbie Whisenant, the event's creator and producer. “It's not a lot of deep theology, but it's how to treat your fellow man. It's how to treat people right. I think what most people need is just inspiration to live a better life based on biblical principles.”

This year's conference featured Karen Knotts, daughter of Don Knotts who played Barney, the show's bumbling but well-meaning deputy and perhaps its most beloved character; LeRoy McNees, who appeared on two first-season episodes; and tribute artist Allen Newsome.

While none of the show’s episodes have an overtly Christian message, each has themes that are directly connected to Scripture—restlessness, pride, gossip, strife, deception, arrogance and vanity.

“I do know that Andy Griffith was quoted as saying that he insisted on there being a moral in every episode, something that we could learn from it,” Whisenant said. “I just really feel like God must have had His hands on some of those writers and their scripts, even though some or maybe all of them weren't Christians.”

• Prev
• Next