I Love to Sing the Story: Exploring Stone-Campbell Hymnody

Posted on September 25, 2014 by Mac Ice

Summit 2014 is in the books. I taught three classes on the earliest hymnody of the Stone-Campbell movement. The first session focused on the Abner Jones-Elias Smith movement in New England; then a day on James O’Kelly and the ‘Christian Church in the South’; and then a class on Barton W. Stone.

I pointed out that we could easily spend three days just on Alexander Campbell. And that would only get us to the Civil War! So for three days and three classes I chose to stay in the earliest traditions.

I have PowerPoint presentations and handouts for each class; the audio should be available on iTunes shortly. Before I upload the PP and handouts, I have some editing/polishing to complete. And I want to compile a short list of resources for further study. I will upload the PP, the handouts and the resources (with links to electronic sources) to this blog shortly. Plus, we have an exhibit of hymnals in ACU LIbrary (if you are in Abilene, come on down to the first level of the library and take a look in person). We are putting the finishing touches on an online version of that exhibit so if you are not in Abilene, you can still enjoy the exhibit. Stay tuned for the announcement and URL for the exhibit.

#tbt from ACU Special Collections: A minister writes his family, 1891

Posted on August 28, 2014 by Mac Ice

Dallas minister Morrison Meade Davis wrote to his wife and daughter in Sedalia, Missouri on 28 August 1891. In it he writes of the weather, of making pastoral visits, of his loneliness and of the family’s plans for further travel. He mentions attending a prayer meeting at the Pearl and Bryan Church of Christ, which he describes as “for the head, not for the heart.”

The letter is one of several (along with many cabinet-card photographs belonging to Davis of Christian Church ministers) acquired by Joe Johnson in the 1990s. The Davis photo and letter collection is one sub-set of Joe’s remarkable assemblage of Stone-Campbell books, periodicals, ephemera now housed in ACU’s Center for Restoration Studies. Right-click the images to open in a new tab or window; click here for an annotated transcription of this letter.

Big Spring, Texas, Church of Christ, ca. 1935

Posted on August 18, 2014 by Mac Ice

Here is the meetinghouse of the Church of Christ in Big Spring, Texas, 1935, as it appeared during the ministry of Forrest R. Waldrop.

In my experience, interior photographs are rarer than exterior shots. At least in the archival contexts in which I have worked contained far more snapshots of the church building than the inside. Usually we do not think to photograph our most sacred places (unless a classroom wing is added or it was time for a new directory).

Interior views capture a sense of the space in which congregations met for worship, for instruction, for inspiration. In these spaces they performed their most sacred rituals, read from their most sacred texts, oriented and reoriented their lives. Worship, marriage ceremonies, funeral services, passing on their faith to their children and engaging and serving their neighbors: all of this and more occurred weekly at meetinghouses across the US and the globe.

How does the space in which you worship shape your worship? How does your worship shape the space you create in which to assemble, or teach, or serve?