Memories of church attendance

Forum category

I was thinking of posting this in the thread about volunteering, since others had posted about the number of services a church has, but i decided a new thread would be better. When I was growing up, I attended four services each Sunday. We had Sunday School, then the morning service, and at 6 pm, we had Training Union, followed by the evening service at 7. We used Minnesota Baptist Association materials for Sunday School, and there was some sort of “eager beaver” character in the Training Union material. On the last Sunday of each month, we would have a Singspiration after the evening service. I absolutely LOVED being able to pick my favorite songs from the songbook for everyone to sing.

When we first started the Awana program, we had it on Tuesday nights so it wouldn’t conflict with the Wednesday evening prayer meeting, though later on we had both the same night. My dad was always gone on Thursday nights, since that was the night for calling, or door-to-door visitation. He was also a deacon and the Sunday School Superintendent, so he regularly attended monthly deacon meetings and Christian Ed board meetings.

When I was in the youth group, we had youth activities every other Saturday night, and we used Pro-Teen material during the Training Union hour. My youth group even voted in certain youth as President, Vice-president, and secretary of the youth group, though I don’t really recall any of the specific duties of those positions (even though I do remember being vice-president).

Every summer, we would have a week of Vacation Bible School and I also attended a week of Bible camp. The camp was called Camp So-B-AC and was run by Minnesota Baptist Association churches in southern Minnesota.

So, does anyone else have memories of church life when they were growing up?

Discussion

I just remembered another aspect of church from when I was growing up. My church had a bus ministry, with one bus that picked people up each Sunday. My best friend and his sister came to church each week on the bus. Bus calling took place on Saturday mornings.

I looked through my journals to remember some of the youth activities we had. We did miniature golf, sledding, progressive suppers, bowling (though we only went to a bowling alley that didn’t serve alcohol), game nights at the church, horseback riding, hay rides, a scavenger hunt at a mall, and bike rides at a state park. We often drove from the cities to Owatonna for events at Pillsbury, such as basketball games, Harvest Home, and College Days. We would get together with other churches to rent a rink for roller skating. We also attended overnight youth rallies at Ironwood Springs Christian Camp and Camp Kiwanis.

I wish I had those memories. I didn’t grow up as a Christian! :(

Tyler is a pastor in Olympia, WA and works in State government.

[TylerR]

I wish I had those memories. I didn’t grow up as a Christian! Sad

So what was your church life like when you first got saved? Did you attend a church with just one service on Sundays, or did your church have other meetings during the week and ovarious program options?