Early Church Life – Worship Styles, Tragedy and “Protracted” Meetings

Sometime ago, I heard someone suggest that kneeling to pray is a practice that “change agents” have recently introduced into the church that has been contrary to our practice throughout the years.  They are wrong about that.   It was commonplace in the thirties, although I don’t remember the women kneeling.   I don’t know why.  Maybe that was thought to be some form of “usurping authority” over men.  The men would often move from their seat out into the aisle so they would have plenty of room to kneel.  There were no real pews, just some benches, so there weren't any kneelers.

As it is now, our music back then was congregational, acapella singing. I remember a certain song leader.   I don't actually recall his name.   I thought he was wonderful.   I especially like it when he led “A Beautiful Life,”   Even that little country church could do an impressive job with the bass lead in the chorus.   Our song leader was killed in a car-train wreck along with his wife and daughter.   My parents took me to the funeral, which was probably the first one I ever attended.   They had the funeral at the gymnasium in Fairy, and the place was packed.  He apparently was well thought of throughout that area.

In the summertime, the churches held “protracted meetings.”   I think they called them that, because they would extend the length of the meeting if the attendance and conversions held up.  Most of the time they were of one to two weeks in duration.  They tried to schedule them after the “crops were laid by” which was sometime in August when the farmers weren’t quite as busy as they were the rest of the summer. 

The sermons were long and I sometimes grew restless.  Mama usually took a pillow because she knew I would be asleep before it was over.   Before I went to sleep I was fussy and made noises.   Daddy had a way of dealing with that.  He would pinch my leg.  The more I distracted the audience, the harder he pinched.  I finally got the message.   The pinching would stop if I would be quiet.   

People often went forward at the invitation, which was usually something like “Just as I Am” or “Softly and Tenderly.”   Sometimes it would be “O Why Not Tonight?”  Many people were baptized during the course of the meeting.      The church building did not have a baptistry, so we drove to the Bosque River for baptisms.   Car lights were shined on the water and baptisms took place in the river.   Candidates for baptism usually knew they intended to go forward in advance, so they took extra clothes with them.  There were no baptismal garments.