Hmmm.
I’ve been in small Baptist churches throughout Alabama, Georgia and Florida the past 7 decades, but must admit I have somehow missed the “shouting about hellfire” stuff you apparently had to suffer through.
Was a member with a southern gospel group as well. Grew up in a small Baptist church in North Florida, and today I still go to a southern small Baptist church. Lived in the South my entire life, but for some reason I do not recognize the southern small Baptist church you describe.
It was all small churches. What is kinda funny is that the other members of the band were also Baptist and one day we did a “show” at a “christian” denomination. After the sermon, the guitar player said to me, “That was a weird sermon. It was like the pastor was just talking you me.”
Yeah. :)
I went to a baptist church in Seattle. There was none of that yelling nor the fire and brimstone message. Not much, anyway.