From Where I Sit

By Pat Spilseth, Columnist

Between funerals, celebrations of life and Sunday church services, lately I’ve been spending lots of time in churches. So many changes have happened in the churches I have attended.

This past weekend Dave and I attended services for a dear friend at Mount Olivet Lutheran Church in Minneapolis. It was a familiar setting: beautiful stained glass windows, a wooden altar dominating the front of the church with organ pipes, grand piano and choir loft. I felt comfortable, at home in this welcoming church so much like the Lutheran church in Glenwood where I grew up.

Today, many churches have replaced the wooden altars with marble or sculptured wooden chancels of elegant, clean-lined simplicity. These churches are often beautiful, just different from what I was accustomed to.

Pastors could be identified by long flowing vestments and a cross. I find it unsettling to see my minister in faded, worn blue jeans that I used to put in the rag bag. No longer do we have hymn books and I don’t know the words or music of these new hymns. Large movie screens dominate the altar area to print the gospel message and words to songs. Choirs no longer wear robes. The changes go on and on.

I enjoy pastors who are jovial and their sermons may cover questions the congregation has about religion. Big smiles and charismatic ministers attract crowds, especially the kids who are the future of the church.

Sometimes worshipping in a new church seems a bit unsettling for this senior church goer. I know church is not about what we wear and it’s great for casual folks to feel welcome and not feel they have to dress up. But aren’t Sunday church services different than week day life? I seem to remember that there used to be an idea that we dressed up out of respect when we attended church.

It’s common for some of us to favor past memories of how things used to be. Church, school days, holidays, even shopping had specific guidelines; we knew what to expect and how to act.

Life is different today. It’s not always comfortable to change what we’re used to.

What happened to that simple Mayberry life when we grew up? Where is Sheriff Andy, Goober and that quaint rural hamlet of “The Andy Griffith Show,” the No. 1 show on CBS from 1960-68? I bet I’m not the only TV watcher who misses those nostalgic shows. I’ve had too much of shoot-’em-up, blow up buildings and cars speeding, crashing and killing! The news today is filled with violence and mayhem. Just this morning at church I heard about more murders happening to policemen and an EMT…they are the GOOD GUYS! They bring peace!

Enshrined in my memories is Mayberry with its Snappy Lunch, Floyd’s and the auto salvage yard. I loved watching Sheriff Andy’s cruiser, the Ford Galaxy, prowling the city giving rides to friends. Many folks of my age and background want to view a simpler life, like when we were kids, a time of innocence, two-parent families and happy times riding bikes and exploring the woods.

Church was instrumental in our social lives. After a Saturday night bath, we religiously never failed to attend Sunday morning Sunday school and worship in our clean, Sunday clothes and polished shoes. Any absence was sure to be noted and questioned. Our reputations were sacred; we listened to our parents in those days.

Church services were conducted at the jail, where my family lived when Dad was sheriff. On Saturday nights Pastor L.D. Kramer of the Assemblies of God church brought his lectern, Bible and his accordion-playing wife to sing hymns with the silent, subdued prisoners sitting in folding chairs in Dad’s office. It was their highlight of the week, a chance to get out of their cells for an hour.

Church was a big part of our lives in the fifties and early sixties. We kids had a simple identifier of each religion. We knew who the Catholics were: they ate fish on Fridays and gave up candy for Lent. The Baptists were stricter than the Lutherans and sang lots of hymns with the piano. The Methodists and Congregationalists had churches across the street from each other and sang lots of hymns. The Seventh Day Adventists had church on Saturday and the Assembly of  God members were filled with the Spirit and had evening services across from the school.

Life was simple, unsophisticated and oh, so innocent for many of us. We viewed life as black and white, right or wrong. We didn’t realize how simple our lives were until we moved away for college, jobs, marriage and families. Back then, our lives rarely had to adapt to big changes. Good or bad? Who decides? Who knows?

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To contact Pat, email: pat.spilseth@gmail.com.