The "Snack"

The “Snack”

I miss the old hymns. For most of my career, I served on the staff of successful, growing churches. In the last couple of decades, these churches have tended away from the old hymns. They prefer choruses. Choruses are usually shorter than hymns. They are very melodic. Often, the main melody and lyrics are repeated over and over. These large churches have learned what the present generation likes. That’s why they are large and successful. They have installed giant screens in the front of their auditoriums, and the words of the choruses are projected. This is a good idea. The faces of the congregation are looking forward and upward. The faces are not looking down at hymnals. This is a good idea. Still, I miss the old hymns. One of the old hymns is “Showers of Blessing.” It is on page 495 of the Baptist Hymnal. The first stanza goes like this: “There shall be showers of blessing; this is the promise of love; there shall be seasons refreshing, sent from the Savior above.” Beautiful lines, wouldn’t you say?

I grew up in rural North Carolina, in Cleveland County, in a place called “Number One Township.” Yep, that sounds a bit strange to me too. But I guess it’s better than growing up in number two! I lived way down a dirt road. If you continued on down that road you were REALLY in a rural area. Not many people lived on down that road.

It was Vacation Bible School time in rural North Carolina. It was in the mid sixties. All of the faithful church members were urged to find “needy” children and to bring them to Vacation Bible School. My family were faithful church members. Oh, were we faithful! So it was that we found a couple of urchin children from further on down that dirt road we lived on. They were called Johnny and Ball. I have no idea if some mother named her little kid “Ball,” or if that was a nick name. We only knew these kids as Johnny and Ball. We were returning home from Vacation Bible School one day. Our four kids plus Johnny and Ball were packed into our modest car. One of our guests was playing with some trinket that his brother had made in “Crafts.” The craft session was always a big hit in Vacation Bible School. Ball was watching his brother, who was playing with the trinket. . Suddenly he said, “You bwoke it; you bwoke it; you bwoke it. I’ll beat chore tail.” Another day in the annals of rural Vacation Bible Schools.

“Dinner on the Ground…” what a splendid tradition of rural churches all across the south! My personal favorite was “All day singin’ and dinner on the ground.” The food! Oh my Lord, the food! Fried chicken, country ham, potato salad, and my personal favorite…a vanilla sheet cake with vanilla icing. My mom always brought this cake. I’d kill or die for a piece of it today! My dad was a builder. He was somehow involved in the table set-up. It involved pieces of ¾ plywood and saw horses…not those folding phenomena available at the “Home Depot” today. These were handmade saw horses. They didn’t fold; they stacked. I’m not sure we quite understand how to celebrate life today. Football players understand. They celebrate every dramatic play with dramatic antics…slapping each other on the helmet; leaping into the air; frantic high-fives. These rural churches knew how to celebrate life. At least, they did so with their dinners on the ground.

So it was. Patents’ night for Vacation Bible School occurred on the Friday night following the week of Bible study, music, mission study, and, of course, crafts. And so it was that parents’ night was followed by dinner on the ground. And so it was that dinner on the ground this year was interrupted by a violent thunder storm and downpour. All of the happy Baptists ran for their cars after throwing hasty table cloths over the feast. Some of them waited it out inside the building. Others, who lived close by, went home to wait out the storm. My family ducked into the church building. The storm was not perceived as a major setback. We were farmers. It rained. We spent the time enjoying our friends. At length, frogs and hail stopped falling out of the sky. We approached the drenched feast. None of us had even thought of Johnny and Ball for the last 30 minutes! There they were under the trees that hovered over the tables. They had thrown the table cloths back, revealing the bountiful feast. They had huge, happy smiles on their faces. Water dripped down their foreheads. They were gorging themselves like there was no tomorrow! Yep, showers of blessing!