As woke up this morning to this old song, I thought, I must be a person who does not accept change too good. During my working career, my position often required me to "sell" our associates on changes the company was making. Often, the changes were good but sometimes, in my opinion not so good. We would say things like, change is inevitable, change is good, change is needed. Sometimes, I would wonder if we were making changes just to make changes. And in almost 45 years, you can be sure I saw lots of changes.
Thinking about my life and the many years of church attendance there has also been a lot of change in some ways. Back 50 years or so ago, when I was singing, we would sing at many different churches, several different denominations and as I remember, for the most part you could not tell one from the other. I sang at Baptist, Methodist, Church of God, others and I even remember singing at a Salvation Army service. We sang at benefit singings held in auditoriums with different groups. The groups may sing a little different, some had more musical instruments than others, but again for the most part there was not a lot of differences. The churches looked similar, the singing, preaching and worshipping was for the most part the same. Perhaps, I was just never exposed to a lot of diversity.
Over the past several years, some of the differences in our churches have become more apparent to me. A lot of churches look different from the outside. It's even hard to tell from their signage their particular denomination. Inside, their sanctuaries often look more like a performance theatre with flashing lights, smoke and loud music. Ok, I appear to have moved to my soapbox and may appear to being critical and I don't mean to be. It's just change for me and as I said sometimes, I don't deal with change too good. But I'm trying. A few Wednesday nights ago, I wore jeans and athletics shoes to prayer meeting and choir practice. (Honestly, it didn't feel right and I was uncomfortable but I was trying. LOL)
I guess in my feeble attempt, what I'm trying to say, I for one, still enjoy the old time way of preaching, praying, singing, shouting as the old song goes. I'll soon be 66 years old and I think if it was "good enough" for my Mom and Dad, my Grandmother and Granddaddy, my great grand parents, then its "good enough" for me today. And again, I don't intend to be critical of new ways. I've even prayed that God would open my heart to understand and enjoy some of the more "modern ways" of worship. I realize change can be good but for me, right now, "I'd Rather Be An Old Time Christian" than anything I know.
"I'd Rather Be An Old Time Christian" is an Albert E. Brumley song written in 1934. I wonder how many times I have heard this song over the years. I remember the Kingsmen Quartet sang it almost every time they were in concert during the 70's. I have heard other groups, choirs and congregations and they all seemed to sing it with great joy. I have to admit, as I hear it and sing it, I'm proud to be an old time Christian.
If you like the old time way or the new ways, I hope you will enjoy hearing this version of the song that I awoke to this morning! Wishing you an amazing Tuesday!!!
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