Tuesday, July 15, 2008

July is all about THE KIDS!!!!!

Hold the phones! Stop everything and go to Trinity Baptist Church's webpage. If you were at Trinity during the seventies you will either be shocked (if still ultra conservative) or envious (if you are liberal!) regarding the cultural changes that have occurred on campus.

There are two videos now playing on Trinity's web page. They center around Freedom Fest, a celebration held on the grounds of Trinity during the 4th of July holiday.

The one on the left has somebody skydiving to the Trinity complex. The video to the right has images from Freedom Fest, which includes what appears to be a CCM rock band, complete with electric guitars and drums. Now, any time someone with electric guitars showed up at Trinity, I remember people getting nervous.

One notable 'teen church' had a woman playing a stringed instrument. I believe it might have been a harp. However, at the intro of one of her songs, she mentioned the Mother Ship from Close Encounters of The Third Kind.She felt elated seeing it because it reminded her of how the New Jerusalem might look when it descends from the sky.

She played a Christian folk tune. Possibly something from the 'Jesus People' era.

Hippies for Christ, that sort of thing.

After the service, Ron Reilly, the youth director, remarked he was surprised she said such a thing and had no idea she played that type of music.

The anti-rock sermons of the day centered on the beat, regardless of the lyrics. Any music with a beat, even those with a Christian message, were looked upon as suspect. For some reason, this did not apply to QUEEN'S 'We Will Rock You', which was stomped by the fans during football games.

Decades pass. Things change. And now people sky dive to rock concerts at Trinity!

Actually, this is a good thing.

Let's just hope the parachute opened!



I'm not finding the rock band footage on YouTube, but you can see it at Trinity's web page. I'm guessing the video was projected five minutes before the Sunday morning service, hence the name '5 Till'. Hear the narrator tell us that it's 'all about the kids'. See a guy dressed like 'Captain Jack Sparrow' (i.e. 'Jack Cracker') paddling in the Trinity pond:

TBC Page with videos.

NOTE: This topic of how much things have change has prompted this interesting discussion on the FFF. A poster is afraid that while these changes are good, there is a fear it might lead to other horrible things like gays in the pew!

I kid you not:

From the FFF: Family Freedom Fest- Awesome!

1 comment:

Megan said...

Good Lord, heaven forbid there be 'gays in the pew'! What ridiculousness!!! There's a gay couple at my church, and they are welcomed just like the rest of us... hard to believe seeing as how I attend and SBC church... but true. One of these days, we 'Christians' are going to have to answer as to why we think there are different 'degrees' of sin. Last time I checked, we ALL fall short... sheesh! Anywhoo... glad to see someone encouraging the church to grow up already! Still loving your blog! =)