Old Time Religion
In the early to mid-50s, churches flourished as a result of the Allied triumph over Germany and Japan, ending WWII. People believed God had blessed our country with victory and churches filled with worshippers giving thanks to God for peace. This was a time before television made such an impact on our life styles. Many congregations had revival services as a way to pay homage to God and to encourage church attendance. People would come to church beginning on a Sunday evening and attend every week night for two weeks ending on a Friday evening. They would not meet on the middle Saturday to allow families to prepare for Sunday morning worship services.
Preparation for these revival meetings and the order of the worship services stayed pretty much the same: The man (there were no female evangelists in those days) who would to the preaching for the revival would arrive at the church a week or two before the services began. This gave him and the resident minister time to survey the community for people who were unchurched, and to pray for God’s blessing as they prepared the services.
The services themselves began with three or four revival type hymns; then a church leader or resident minister would pray; deacons, followed by passing the offering plates. Next, someone or a group would present some special music, setting the mood for the visiting preacher’s sermon. An invitation hymn immediately followed the sermon inviting people to believe in Jesus Christs and become a part of the church family; after a closing hymn the minister would give a benediction to end the service. Depending on how long the preacher would preach or if anyone stepped out to join the church, the service would last from ninety minutes to two hours.
My husband, Pete, had a fine tenor voice and he was also a talented song leader. I played the piano well enough to handle most hymns. On invitation, we traveled to many churches, mostly small, country congregations, in Henry, Rush, Shelby, Delaware and Madison counties in the early 50s, leading the singing and preparing special music for many revival meetings The people were mostly farm folk, so they did not have much cash. As a result, many times the offerings taken to underwrite the services were hardly enough to pay for the gas it cost to drive there and hire baby sitters (We had two small children at the time). Also by the end of two weeks, everyone, including us, was worn out. But I can also still remember meeting some wonderful people, hearing a variety of good sermons and seeing people step out to accept Christ and join a church. I was in my early 20s at the time, a city girl from Los Angele who was a brand new preacher’s wife, having never experienced anything like this before. It is no wonder I can remember it so well.