On Sunday morning, church services are broadcast on almost every TV channel in America. They are either presented as a live performance or in a carefully edited pre-recorded format. If you miss the television version, mega churches stream their programs on the internet. Eleventh Street will take you back to a time when a worship service had no television monitors in the lobby or microphones on stage. Sermons were not memorized and preachers did not deliver their message in exactly twenty-two minutes, timing their message to accommodate production guidelines. Preachers did not wear expensive suits or dress down in stylish pre-washed jeans and sandals. It was a time when the "greatest generation", as Tom Brokaw once called them, began to recover from a worldwide war; to begin their life anew. At Eleventh Street, the men who sat attentively in their pew had fought many battles, both abroad with weapons and at home with the tools of their trade. Wives and sweethearts had waited and prayed for them during the war. But now, they were reunited and sitting together in church. The congregation worshiped in the only way they knew, joyfully and with hope. Without a television audience to observe their every move, they rejoiced and sometimes shouted. The service may have lasted longer than twenty-two minutes, but they knew they had been to church. After the war, all Lucas Marcum wanted was peace, a genuine and lasting peace. First, he fell in love with Maggie. A wife who restored a love of life and hope for a family. Then he reunited with a preacher from back home in Kentucky, a man everyone called "Pastor". Through all of Lucas's trials and temptations both before and after the war, Pastor never forgot him or cast him aside. It was then, the time he stepped through the door of a small Baptist church in Hamilton, Ohio, that Lucas thought he had finally found the peace he sought. It was Pastor who led him to the altar of repentance. At church, he met Shorty who became his spiritual mentor, teaching him as much of the Bible as Lucas could absorb. With Shorty as a guide, the path to peace was in view. But Lucas was soon reminded that even a good man is vulnerable to the imaginations of evil and scheming men. Surviving hand-to-hand combat in World War II did not equip Lucas for the war of worship to follow at his new-found church. In the Pacific Islands, Lucas knew where the enemy hid. In church, he mistook murmuring between pews as the prayer of a penitent saint. Lucas was not trained or prepared to fight the wolves in sheep's clothing that would scatter the flock of Eleventh Street. These wolves hunted in packs and did not kill with the first bite. Rather, they tore at the very soul of their live prey, prolonging the agony of ultimate defeat. Though preachers and their pack of followers can inspire and nurture, they can also disillusion and destroy. Eleventh Street is a story of redemption revealing a struggle for the soul. Lucas is tempted to backslide and to fight in his own strength, but is ever mindful of the lessons learned from Pastor and Shorty. Lucas seeks a lasting peace, but the fatigue of spiritual battle takes its toll.
