Old Time Religion

Do y'all remember the song? "Gimme that old time religion. (repeat 2 more times), cause it's good enough for me." What a simple song. I am a huge fan of the old hymns and gospel standards. I will get into why I love the old hymns in a future post. When I was a kid I went to two different denominational church's. Would depend on if we were with my dad or mom, they divorced when I was young. If it was dad, then it was a baptist church. Mom, it was Pentecostal, where my great grandmother, Mamma Bill, would attend. We never knew her real first name. Both church's would do the two types of music that I love, but of course way different. I didn't mind attending the different church's because I was young and didn't really pay attention to the theologies of the two. It was a time when, if you were a kid, you had to go. There are things I do remember that I started looking forward to. Like at the Baptist church, I remember the sign on the wall that would give attendance numbers, how much was collected in offerings, and what pages the hymns we would be singing. I remember being excited about that, not sure why. You would walk in and everyone would be milling around, mostly drinking coffee or eating a breakfast pastry that some older Christian woman would have made or bought to bring in. We didn't have coffee bars, bookstores, or full service cafe's. Then like on cue, we would all shuffle into the sanctuary, sit in our pews and wait patiently for the pastor tell us kids to head into Sunday school. Does anyone remember how fun that was. Most of the time we were required to memorize scripture. Who does that to kids, geez. Talk about pressure. Trying to remember your math or English was hard enough, but trying to remember the word of God good grief. Then we got to go back in with the grown folks. There sang a couple of hymns. We sang songs like "Holy, Holy,holy", "All hail the power of Jesus", "There is power in the blood" My personal favorite was "Just a closer walk with thee". Everyone had their part, men would sing their part, and the women theirs. If I saw that on the board, I was excited. Again all organized. Then would come the message of the morning. Scripture, not a lot of filler at all like we see sometimes today. Then there would be an altar call, another song, then we would be dismissed. Some would stick around and talk, but mostly we would hurry out, because my dad is a huge Cowboys fan. Occasionally there would be a dinner on the grounds. Those were fun. Kids playing outside, either ball or just acting goofy. So when attending the baptist church everything was so organized. I never realized that as a kid, but being grown I think I would have been bored a bit with that. Now onto the Pentecostal church. The first time I went, I was terrified. What was wrong with these people? The music was already playing. People would be milling around like the Baptist, but it was loud. People talking about all the blessings they experienced during the week. Men were dressed in suits, women dresses, no makeup or jewelry. It was really upbeat actually. There were also people in the sanctuary already singing and praising and some having hands laid on them. The worship part was exciting. Lots of instruments and my personal favorite, the tambourine. Oh my I loved that thing. The singing portion was the best. It seemed to go on forever. Songs like "The Upper Room", "Soon and very Soon", "How i got over" There would be clapping, jumping around, shouting and hands raised. It was exhillerating. As the song was ending, if there were some still feeling the Holy Spirit, the music would continue. Now for the scary part, as a kid I had no idea what people were doing, speaking what seemed like a foreign language. It was only when I was older it was called tongues. Then came the message. The preacher was really lively and there would be shouting and loud amens while he was teaching. What? That didn't happen with the baptist. I liked it. And don't get me started on the baptisms, very jubilant. Both were small church's. The messages very simple, if you don't accept Christ, then you go to hell. It seems now days, church's try to be flashy. The bigger the better. And most that I've seen has watered down the Gospel. Why is that? To make it more comfortable? Were the old time ways not good enough? Back then it was King James Bible with all the, thees and thows. We knew what the red lettering was in the New Testament. We didn't talk in church or else! We didn't use secular music as worship, hoping to pick out some sort of Christian meaning. What happened? What changed? Just questions, I actually know. The secular society has said so many times that "well God has evolved so maybe it's true". Remember "if it's repeated enough...".

So when your at church today, listen to what is being taught. Is it scripture littered with filler and you just didn't catch it? Or is it Old Time Religion? There is a song that I love from the late, great Mahalia Jackson, "I'm gonna live the life I sing about in my songs". Have a great Sunday y'all!