New Hope Church

From: Chris Smotherman (chris@bedrock.hotcc.com)
Story type: Ghost
Location: Shelbyville, TN
Source: Form Submission

New Hope Church is infamous for its dark history. It's been rumored that devil worshipers would hold rites there (until it burned down a few years ago).

Two rather disturbing experiences I've had there are as follows:

The first one occured after dark, when I and two friends of mine decided to pay a visit. It was nearing twilight, and unfortunately none of us thought to bring a flashlight. We aimed the car headlights in through the empty windows (no glass or frames) and walked in. The first thing one usually sees when they walk into the church is a large, crude painting of a skull in profile on the wall opposite the door. Naturally, we all stared at that as soon as we entered. Now, note that the light from the headlights is shining on the wall between the skull and door. To our surprise, there was only three of us, but FOUR shadows! Our shadows were clear and distinct, but the fourth was large, and slightly fuzzy! There was nothing between the car and wall that could of created this "dark spectre." We tried to duplicate this effect (during the daytime!) to no avail. This church is located RIGHT next to a cemetery, so there could be any number of spirits roaming this area.

The second one, occurred on the way there. It was rather simple. The headlights of the truck we were driving in would cut in and out like there was a short in the wire. We'd drive onto that road, and they would start cutting out, but as soon as we'd get back onto the main road, they acted like they worked perfectly. The friends I was with at the time would not drive back down this road after this experience!