We began with just three of us that first Sunday night—Gus and Ed, who were fraternal twins, and me. Gus and Ed were there under duress, I think—their parents made them show up. I was there because I was already the kind of kid who was in church whenever the doors were open. From that inauspicious beginning, we grew; by the time I was a senior in high school, we had forty to fifty kids coming on Sunday nights before the evening service.
Youth group was like a church service, except with skits instead of sermons. We sang; we took an offering. We had a program. We elected officers—I was president twice, I assume now because no one else wanted it, rather than because of my leadership skills. We traveled to other Baptist churches to watch black-and-white Moody Science films or Christian musicals on film. We had Bible Bowls; I remember being on a quiz team that studied the book of Daniel for our competition against other youth group teams. Every December we presented Christmas pageants and plays; we went caroling. We also had fun at other times, and lots of it, thanks to indefatigable leaders who were in their thirties. We played miniature golf and went swimming. We went roller skating at Springfield Lake’s rink, where I was hopeless on wheels, often with one of the younger guys toting me around. We went bowling—another pastime in which I was hopeless—but we bowled only at lanes that didn’t have a bar. Even though none of us were old enough to drink, we were “abstaining from every appearance of evil,” as Scripture exhorted.
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
Baptist GirlI was a conservative Baptist girl who grew up to become a career Christian, working first in a Baptist school and then in a Baptist college. For about three decades, it was very good until it wasn’t, and I had to leave. But the Baptists formed me. This is my homage to the good times and good people of the world I left, finally, at forty-three, when I became an Episcopalian. These are my memories; others might disagree with my recollections. So be it. Archives
January 2024
Categories |