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Jerz, did ya’ll ever ride in cars around the neighborhood at the beginning of VBS honking your horns and yelling out the windows, “Come to vacation Bible school!” Maybe that was just a Methodist thing. I think the cars may have been decorated too.

Did your church have a “cry room?” A place you could take your crying baby, feed a baby, or receive discipline from you parents. Both our UMC and SB church had cry rooms.

I can remember the church bells ringing on Sunday mornings as a call to worship. You could hear them, IDK, for maybe a couple of miles away.

The only times I got to do GAs (Girls in Action) was when I’d go to church with a Baptist friends. RAs (Royal Ambassadors)were for the boys. Sometimes I’d attend a Lutheran church when I went with another friend to church.

Here is a link to the stained glass window in the church I attended as a child.
https://m.Facebook.com/morganunitedmet ... &source=54

So many memories are surfacing as I read this thread. One is the sound the coins made when you dropped them into the wooden offering plate that was lined with green felt.

some great contributions from everybody. I especially liked the story of the Presbyterians who replaced the stained windows with Jesus images but then gave those back to the Baptists. I'm going to ask my friend who was a builder what he would have done in that situation, assuming he had a choice. Would he given the glass with images back, or smash them to pieces, destroying the graven images as did Moses of old? (at least in the movie)

msnobody wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 08, 2021 10:58 pm

Jerz, did ya’ll ever ride in cars around the neighborhood at the beginning of VBS honking your horns and yelling out the windows, “Come to vacation Bible school!” Maybe that was just a Methodist thing. I think the cars may have been decorated too.

I don't think so? Maybe the youth did it with the teens? I do remember that VBS was the ONLY place I ever had pink lemonade with cookies. I loved that pink lemonade! I still have one of the crafts we did in VBS. Not joking! It was a little wooden box with ceramic tiles on it. Kind of mosaic. I also have my attendance and choir pins, as well as a beautiful Santa pin that my SS teacher gave us one year. I still wear it!

Did your church have a “cry room?” A place you could take your crying baby, feed a baby, or receive discipline from you parents. Both our UMC and SB church had cry rooms.

I've seen a ton of cry rooms but not in my growing up church. There was a nursery room so I imagine that parents could go there to tend to babies. I do know that when I was in nursery (I have a good memory) the little kids (preschoolers) did their own little class during worship service. Then when we were a bit older, kindergarten, we went to worship service with everyone else. The church didn't have air conditioning during those years, man it was hot in the sanctuary and everyone fanned themselves with the bulletins. I did sing in the junior choir and remember the many Christmas programs we did. I even remember my part one year when I was "the" angel. Fear not! For behold I bring you good tidings of great joy...my mother sewed the costumes and also sewed choir robes for the junior choir.

I can remember the church bells ringing on Sunday mornings as a call to worship. You could hear them, IDK, for maybe a couple of miles away.

My little church also had bells on Sunday. In summer my mother and I would walk to church and it was so cool getting closer to the church and hearing the bells! They rang before and after church.

The only times I got to do GAs (Girls in Action) was when I’d go to church with a Baptist friends. RAs (Royal Ambassadors)were for the boys. Sometimes I’d attend a Lutheran church when I went with another friend to church.

We didn't have that. My mother was a Girl Scout leader for years and met in the church basement. I started in Girl Scouts before I was old enough to join. Later, in the youth years, she lead Pioneer Girls. A bit like Girl Scouts but no camping. It kind of sucked compared to Girl Scouts.

Here is a link to the stained glass window in the church I attended as a child.
https://m.Facebook.com/morganunitedmet ... &source=54

That's almost identical to the stained glass window in my old church. I posted a pic of the sanctuary earlier in the thread but you can't really see the stained glass up close. The windows in our church were SO pretty. Not ornate like you see in the Catholic Churches, but just airy and light...so pretty.

So many memories are surfacing as I read this thread. One is the sound the coins made when you dropped them into the wooden offering plate that was lined with green felt.

For me too! When I was a kid if I wasn't in school, at home or in a Girl Scout meeting, I was in church at least 2 days a week and also for choir practices. It was my home away from home. I miss those old days so much! So many wonderful memories happened there!

p.s. Did you get small boxes of like swirly candy kisses from your SS teachers at Christmas? We got those every single year and it was something we really looked forward to!

Gadianton wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 09, 2021 1:19 am

some great contributions from everybody. I especially liked the story of the Presbyterians who replaced the stained windows with Jesus images but then gave those back to the Baptists. I'm going to ask my friend who was a builder what he would have done in that situation, assuming he had a choice. Would he given the glass with images back, or smash them to pieces, destroying the graven images as did Moses of old? (at least in the movie)

Speaking of Presbyterians and Baptists...when our church building was first secured (according to our history), it was used by both Presbyterian and Baptist congregations. Not a few years before we started attending (my mother and I, my father stayed home and only came on special days ) the church building was heated with kerosene heaters. I don't remember that but I do recall the folding chairs before the pews. Now I am feeling really old here but it is so nice to actually have a history that you can remember in quite a bit of detail. I was so blessed to have that foundation for so many reasons.

Jersey Girl wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 09, 2021 3:42 am

I also have my attendance and choir pins, as well as a beautiful Santa pin that my SS teacher gave us one year. . . p.s. Did you get small boxes of like swirly candy kisses from your SS teachers at Christmas?

I don't know, Jersey Girl. If I had one or more teachers who'd been in the SS, I'd probably quit attending the class.

Gadianton wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 09, 2021 1:19 am

some great contributions from everybody. I especially liked the story of the Presbyterians who replaced the stained windows with Jesus images but then gave those back to the Baptists. I'm going to ask my friend who was a builder what he would have done in that situation, assuming he had a choice. Would he given the glass with images back, or smash them to pieces, destroying the graven images as did Moses of old? (at least in the movie)

You may encounter from your friend that the Presbyterian church is a liberal church, but this was a PCA church (conservative) rather than Presbyterian USA.

I asked. I posed the scenario that he was the contractor to renovate, and it was his choice, does he proactively preserve the stained glass for the previous owners, or does he smash it, given it's a graven image? He said he would smash it. I asked if he would smash it "with prejudice" and he said 'no'. Another guy was there who is Christian, and that guy said he would have kept the stained glass for its artisan value. The original guy went on a tangent story from John, and I guess the point was nobody knows what Jesus looks like. I corrected him, and told him the story of Ezra Taft Benson commissioning that Mormon painting of Jesus, and using his first-hand knowledge of what Jesus looks like, and that sent him over the edge. He said he wished he'd have "been there" -- presumably with ETB to give ETB a piece of his mind. Then he started to go off on Mormon temples, but I had to go.

Gadianton wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 09, 2021 2:39 pm

I asked. I posed the scenario that he was the contractor to renovate, and it was his choice, does he proactively preserve the stained glass for the previous owners, or does he smash it, given it's a graven image? He said he would smash it. I asked if he would smash it "with prejudice" and he said 'no'. Another guy was there who is Christian, and that guy said he would have kept the stained glass for its artisan value. The original guy went on a tangent story from John, and I guess the point was nobody knows what Jesus looks like. I corrected him, and told him the story of Ezra Taft Benson commissioning that Mormon painting of Jesus, and using his first-hand knowledge of what Jesus looks like, and that sent him over the edge. He said he wished he'd have "been there" -- presumably with ETB to give ETB a piece of his mind. Then he started to go off on Mormon temples, but I had to go.

Ha! You got him fired up and booked.

No swirly candy kisses a Christmas, Jerz. I remember enjoying making an egg carton caterpillar one year in VBS.

Gadianton wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 09, 2021 2:39 pm

the point was nobody knows what Jesus looks like.

The people who met Jesus in person 2,000 years ago knew what he looked like. There were people alive at the time who had the artistic ability to recreate his likeness in incredible detail. We might be better off overall not knowing what he looked like but he had an image that could have been replicated.