 Posted Monday, July 17, 2006 7:38 PM
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I am now a member of a mainline Christian denomination, but I have found myself drawn to go back to a CS service a couple of times. I don't know if it's just missing my family of origin who are now all dead, or nostalgia, or what. But here is what I found. On Easter Sunday there were not more than 20 people in that church.
The service was boring and when they read that bit about the sermons consisting of the Bible and Science and Health so that it is "uncontaminated and unfettered by human hypotheses", I almost laughed out loud. Do they even listen to what they are saying?
As I sat in the church of my childhood and early adulthood, I looked all around at the empty pews and remembered how it used to be full. And I could see person after person who died early from treatable disease.
But...I liked singing the hymns.!! 
Sharon
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Posted Tuesday, July 18, 2006 2:29 AM
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Hi SharonMarie,
I've found CS as an adult so it doesn't include any childhood memories - and though it took me 2 or 3 years from the first doubts until I quit for good and attended CS services in several places as I was travelling I've never felt like attending another service afterwards.
I come from a family with roughly half catholic, half presbyterian, myself baptized in a catholic church but with one of my grandfathers regularly attending the presbyterian church. I've become a member of a presbyterian church last February and there are a few reminders of my youth here and there, and I quite enjoy them. Wonder why I had to stray at all (ok, my catholic relatives would think their's the only church and with the presbyterian church I've strayed as much as with CS ...), but I had somehow been blinded so I couldn't understand the truth about Jesus, and with my overall family situation I was in desperate need of a strong and well-functioning denial system.
Marion
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Posted Tuesday, July 18, 2006 4:45 AM
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Sharon,
I liked singing the hymns.!!
I miss some of the hymns too and am delighted when we sing an old CS favorite melody with the non "Spiritualized" lyrics. From time to time I think about writing Christian lyrics to some of the CS melodies like hymn 304.
Music is a powerful tool for reaching the heart. We need to be careful what lyrics we allow to reach in.
Do Go Be Man
<><
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Posted Tuesday, July 18, 2006 12:24 PM
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| I live near the city in which I was raised, and I have thought about going back, just to see what it is like now. The people in the CS church we attended throughout my childhood were good people, intelligent and friendly. Many were older and they loved my mother. Some had known her since she was a child in the Sunday School. After she died, I was tempted to go back and visit just for the feeling of being near to her. But now, I would know no one. I would rather go spend my Sunday morning singing some good praise music, taking communion in a meaningful way, and hearing a message of God's nearness to each of us, as human as we are!
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Posted Tuesday, July 18, 2006 6:35 PM
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I moved around a lot as a kid since my father was in the Navy. I always found it helpful to, at some point, go back and visit where I had lived before -- to see friends and, sometimes, just to see the place. Somehow it helped me feel more at home in my new life to reach back and touch the old life for a moment.
I also felt the need to reach back and touch my CS life again as I was letting it go. In later years I have maintained an interest in seeing how the CS Movement is doing, so occasionally I have visited a church, attended a lecture, or attended a meeting.
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Posted Friday, July 21, 2006 1:31 AM
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<< Sharon,
I liked singing the hymns.!!
I miss some of the hymns too and am delighted when we sing an old CS favorite melody with the non "Spiritualized" lyrics. From time to time I think about writing
Christian lyrics to some of the CS melodies like hymn 304.
Music is a powerful tool for reaching the heart. We need to be careful what lyrics we allow to reach in.
Do Go Be Man
<>< >>
I actually find that particular hymn to already have "Christian lyrics" (never mind the author didn't truly know the Good Shepherd)
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Posted Tuesday, August 01, 2006 9:45 PM
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I've certainly not experienced any desire to return to C.S. in any full, complete way.
However, I do enjoy the occasional visit to C.S. churches, especially when I'm traveling to
other cities on business or vacation. I seldom encounter very substantial attendance,
although the Albuquerque church had a good, fairly full representation when I visited there
not long ago. In most churches, though, there are plenty of empty pews or seats.
The services admittedly aren't "jazzed up" by today's standards. However, I must admit
that I like the traditional music. I'm becoming downright tired of contemporary services
with praise bands and singers in my current evangelical church----people that are too
"happy clappy" and too performance-oriented. I'm not that ancient yet, but I'm beginning
to miss the organ music and hymnals. The endless repetition of simple lyrics and the
thuds of the drum beats in my Baptist contemporary service are wearing thin. Maybe
that's why I occasionally return to C.S. churches, along with some nostalgia for times past.
My nostalgia won't prevent me from taking my annual physical exam at the doctor's
office next week, though.
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Posted Wednesday, August 02, 2006 12:46 AM
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Most of the German lutheran, reform, presbyterian, and catholic churches have traditional music, so it's easy to attend a service with traditional music outside CS here.
Loving classical music overall, I've always "put up" with the modern band "happy-clappy praise" stuff I got in the charismatic church rather than like it.
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