A few people have noticed the change in the bulletin front in the last couple of months, and asked me where I was getting the nice "poems." Many of you knew right away they were lyrics from some of the old time songs we used to sing, and encouraged me by telling me they were some of your favorite old "lost classics" too. I put them on the front because, I suppose, it highlights an evolving way we sing to God, that waxes and wanes as the times change.

For instance, when I was a kid it seemed like there was this real strong push to sing songs that had unison in them. I can't imagine people sang any better or worse than they do now, but there was certainly a few lessons preached on humility, on not showing off when you were singing, and how the majority of people sang the melody just fine. There was a backlash against anything that looked denominational, and it was preached there were no "soloists or choirs" in the church of the New Testament. Thus a lot of the "fun" songs with moving parts were discouraged and the songs with everyone singing all the time emphasized. I recall it got so bad when we'd visited a church down in W VA for a meeting and one of these "radical" songs was led the elders got up and apologized for the song leader's choices.

Then in the late 70's there was a push to "encourage kids to stay in church" and songs with parts took center stage. No longer did songs tell stories, it was more praise God by breaking everything up into the four parts and the harmony became the unofficial focus. Not that it was preached that way, but there WAS preaching about making it "more enjoyable for the teenagers." That old songbook was replaced with a livelier one. Nowadays, well, I think we are in another phase of this departure with old songs being "modernized" to make them full of parts for parts sake. Yet nobody ever said church songs had to be dirges!

Case in point - Just a little talk with Jesus. I've heard lessons preached on this song many times. First off, it was too "lively" back in the old days when unity was stressed and so it was shunned by many churches. Doubts were cast on it for the "error" that we prayed to Jesus. Don't you know we only pray to "God"? (I guess that in those days God=Father, and Jesus!=God) We take it for granted that the song books have the "scripture of inspiration" at the top of the page, but when I was a kid this wasn't always so. I really, truly believe that because of this song in particular that later revisions of the songbook came out in defense of the intent due to the reluctance to accept it.

I am, I admit it readily, nostalgic for these old songs that we sang when I was young. When I was first baptized into Christ, most people used a KJV and sang these old songs, and like familiar friends they have comforted me all these years as I sing them around the house or in the car (often confounding my wife with yet another song I can remember word for word, but can't remember to carry a cup down to the sink from my desk!) It seems a shame to have them be lost, for the wonderful melodies they had and the beautiful stories they told, in such detail. And we do sing some of them, which I am grateful for. But it almost seems like eating vegetables - "Hey I ate a vegetable last week! And I ate one the week before, too! Once a week is enough"

But I hear tell that when we get to heaven we'll sing a new song, so I suppose I should just get used to it! <smile!>

Randy