Memories

Some Sunday nights I find myself missing a relic from the past.  Sunday evening worship.  While it is almost an unheard of thing in this day, back in the day when I was younger and things were so much different, Sunday evening worship was as certain as Sunday School.  It was never attended as well as Sunday morning worship as most of the Methodists with whom I was mostly acquainted got enough of church earlier in the day.  Growing up in a parsonage meant I had no choice.  It the door to the church was open, I was expected to enter.   Looking back is to realize it was not as bad as I thought it to be at the time.  

My friends got to stay home on Sunday evening and watch "The Ed Sullivan Show," or "Bonanza" while I sat in church.  I must confess that I was not psychologically impaired by missing those television shows and that I was surely blessed without knowing it by being on one of those Sunday night pews.  Things happened on Sunday night that did not happen on Sunday morning.   Sunday night worship left such an impression that it was always something offered when I was giving leadership to the churches assigned to me.  We sang those old gospel songs from the brown Cokesbury Hymnal.  It was a time when the preacher might call for testimonies from the congregation and there were always some who were eager to stand and speak.  It was also a time when Brother Walter, or someone like him, might be called upon to pray and in such moments we were often led into the heart of real life disciple of Jesus Christ.  Of course, the thing most remembered were the moments we gathered around the altar to pray at the end of the service.  There are churches from my past which bear the imprint of my knees upon its wooden altars.  

I guess somewhere along the way folks got too busy for returning to the church a second time on Sunday.  Perhaps, it became a tradition no one needed anymore.  Maybe Ed and the Cartwright family became too big an attraction.  I am no sociologist though I have some thoughts about what happened, but one thing I do know.  I miss those Sunday nights of worship and long tonight to be immersed in such spiritual waters again.