Elementary Faith


There is a very definite foundation of my faith during my early childhood.
I do not think we should ever underestimate the importance of Sunday School, Vacation Bible School, bed time prayers or saying grace before meals. These were all a big part of my growing up. I may not have always understood anything about denominations or theology but I knew about God and that Jesus loves me.

Back in the '60s we may not have done church on Christmas Eve or Christmas day but my grandfather always read the story from Luke. I still prefer hearing the KJV version of the nativity story because of this. The first liturgical season I remember is Advent because Lutherans make a big deal of it. There are 2 times a year that we had mid-week services, Advent and Lent, the two purple seasons.

I think I attended VBS every summer through the 5th grade. This was back in the day of slide shows and 8mm movies. VBS was always a great combination of sugar overdose, singing, playing and a lot of feltboard lessons. I don't really think that most preachers knew how to talk to elementary kids, we usually tuned them out when it was their turn for something. This was before very many churches had children's sermons.

Although we had a nursery at all of the churches we attended, children above the age of 3 or 4 were generally expected to be in worship. Most churches didn't have children's bags but my mother did. She usually had some paper and colors and such. I would sit with my parents and just look around at the art or stained glass or count the ceiling tiles or boards during the sermon. I did like the music the whole time, even the "grown up" hymns.

When I began reading, my mother would put her finger to the words of the hymns so I could follow the verses. The way that the verses are placed with the music is hard for elementary kids to follow. I didn't figure that out well until 3rd grade. I am sure that for children that are not accustomed to hymnals it takes even longer. I have had to show adults how to read a hymnal before. I always liked the hymns and the liturgy. I might have thought the pastors sermons boring but the Apostles Creed and the hymns were something I could be involved in.*

*I think one of the reasons that I still don't like performance church is because when we visited a non-liturgical church as a child I just stayed bored. I could participate in responsoral readings and creeds and hymns but solos and long sermons just left me out.

Going to a parochial school was like having a short Sunday School every day. There were some good foundational things that came with it. Children are not quite ready to jump to the deeper theological questions in early elementary. We did get much more philosophical by 5th and 6th grades. We had chapel every Wednesday morning and I never did find any of the preachers sermons relevant to anything at that age. I enjoyed the singing and liturgy. I am starting to wonder of children get anything out of sermons now.

In the 6th grade I also had weekly confirmation classes every Wednesday afternoon. This same pastor that never made any sense from the pulpit did make sense in confirmation class. I probably would have been confirmed a Lutheran if we had not visited the Unity church. Lutheran confirmation class was 2 years back then. (I don't know about now). In the Missouri Synod they have closed communion so if you have not been confirmed NO COMMUNION. If you are not Lutheran or a different breed of Lutheran NO COMMUNION. Had we not been Missouri Synod Lutheran I would quite likely still be Lutheran. In the South ELCA is pretty rare.

The Misery Synod is to Lutheran what the SBC is to Baptists. I have been know to jokingly call them Beer Drinking Baptists. They did give me an excellent foundation in Christianity but they gave it with some excess baggage that I still find myself carrying sometime. Even back then when separation of gender and race was common they didn't make sense to me. (I had heard my parents gripe some about some of the silliness* of the LCMS But they were grown-ups and they were the church so I didn't question them until age 13.

*fundamentalism

The LCMS still does not have female clergy or open communion. I think they have actually become more fundamentalist and conservative.


Next will be UNITY church.