My Seminary is a Time Machine

So apparently, my seminary's current chapel (which was built about two years ago) is either a time-traveling TARDIS, or has a much older sibling. Found this photo on the cover of one of my great-grandfather's church bulletins (photo of my seminary's chapel below):

(July 15, 1962)

(May 6, 2013)

Seven Reasons Why a Scientist Believes in God

Found this pamphlet in folder #131. "The Presence of God":

Seven Reasons Why a Scientist Believes in God

Martin Luther and the Reformation

Discovered this little tracing/cartoon that my great-grandpa included in one of his church bulletins for Reformation Sunday. What a curious-looking rendition of Martin Luther!

Church is the Most Important Institution?

As I was finishing up scanning folder #139. "The Sabbath: An Isle of Safety," I found this little blurb in the church bulletin for services at Pacific Methodist Church in Pacific, MO, for July 22, 1951:

"Some Sabbath Barbs," indeed. It is peculiar for me—a 21st century, 20-something Christian—to see such blatant pro-church propaganda. Did my great-grandfather's generation really believe that the "Churches are the most important institutions in any community"? The postmodern (and indeed, post-Christian) movement have defied such a notion quite heartily. So much so, in fact, that I think it would be difficult to find a Christian under the age of 30 that would agree with the "Sabbath Barbs" above. If you are a Christian (regardless of age), do you believe that the Church is the "most important institution" in a community, or are there others that serve equal or higher purpose?

Prayer for Humility—A Poem

Currently Scanning: #140. "Retailers of Religion"

I found this interesting poem among the many (and I mean MANY) clippings in folder #131. "The Presence of God":

Full text:

Prayer for Humility, by Burnham Eaton

God of the simple trees:

Deliver us from vainglory.

God of the flowering of the Earth:

Deliver us from pride.

—That we may reach toward Thee

As a bare tree in winter

Reaches toward the sun

Itself lined on every branch with light.

—That we may flower richly

As a tree in summer

Not from self-light

But from higher light.

—That our life my bear fruit

Not with pompous glitter

But as the forthright

And simple tree.

God of true light:

May we come as near to Thee

With as clear view unbroken

As the tree to the sky. . .

Help us to cast so lovely a shadow

Upon Earth.

Prayer for the Day of Atomic Bombs

Currently Scanning: 131. "The Presence of God."

One thing that is becoming increasingly evident about my great-grandfather as I learn more about him through his sermons is his strange combination of traditional, conservative theology and social progressivism. Yesterday's post featured a newspaper clipping of an article by Bob Jones. Today we have another clipping featuring a prayer against the violence and destruction caused by the American nuclear bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. In a time in which wars often had a definite cause behind which U.S. citizens could rally (far from the uncertain nature of our government's secret and numerous international "conflicts" we see most prominent today), to stand against the nuclear option as a viable form of warfare seems pretty bold to me.

Bob Jones, Why You Gotta Be Hatin' on Judas?

Currently Scanning: 121. "Rational Reasons for Our Faith in God."

Apparently, Pa found this article on Judas by Bob Jones helpful in sermon #105, "Lord, Is It I?".

I am not a fan. Obviously.

I don't appreciate Judas being referred to as the "picture of human depravity," nor the suggestion that those who fall under the vague label of "modernistic preachers and educators" should hang themselves. I much prefer Clarence Jordan's (a Southern Baptist!) description of Judas:

"[The Book of Acts] says Judas fell and busted open and his guts spilled out. Here I think we have a clue as to why Judas really betrayed his Lord. He's a man who has been subjected to great tension—the pull of Jesus Christ (the prophetic message of the Gospel) and the pull of Caiaphas the High Priest. The pull of this professional religious establishment and the pull of this prophetic Gospel pulled the man in two and broke him. His body symbolized what had already happened to his spirit. Judas was what we might call a busted gut Christian. And let me tell you his number is legion."—Clarence Jordan, "The Sons of God"

African Tithing and a Peculiar Blight

Currently Scanning: 120. "How to Know God."

Among the various folders of sermons, I have encountered a wide array of supplemental materials that Pa included with his sermons over the years. Some are funny, some are overly sentimental, some are theologically disappointing, and some are just plain bizarre. Take, for example, these two newspaper clippings from sermon #103, "Christian Stewardship," which describe (respectively) the method of tithing in an African village and a town's crops stricken with an unusual blight:

Sermons on the Radio

Currently scanning: 116. "True Worship"

Since scanning sermon #100, images like this have appeared frequently among the "List of Churches Delivered" pages:

Apparently Pa made fairly regular appearances as a radio preacher in the late 40s – early 50s. It kind of makes me curious whether or not there would be audio recordings floating around out there somewhere, and if so, how I might go about tracking these recordings down and converting them to .mp3 format to store in digital folders with the corresponding sermons. If you know someone who might have experience with tracking down old radio recordings, feel free to email me at joshuapaulsmith88 at gmail dot com.

[UPDATE] 

I just contacted KLIK in Jefferson City, and they said that they don't keep any of their old recordings. They suggested trying the local historical society. I have also left a message for KXEO in Mexico, Missouri, but have not heard back from them yet.

Sermon #100

Today I scanned Pa's 100th sermon, "The New Birth." With this milestone, I am officially a little under one-fifth of the way through scanning the entire collection.

"The New Birth" was first preached in Ilasco, Missouri, on August 11, 1946, and was delivered a total of 27 times over the course of my great-grandfather's career. It was last preached at Walton Chapel, a little congregation not far from my hometown, on March 29, 1987, just a little under one year before I was born. The scripture text is John 3:1-15.

Though I'm not exactly sure where, it was apparently the last sermon he preached at one of the churches he pastored. An admiring parishioner gave him this note:

Also, on a bit of a morbid note, I found a newspaper clipping among the supplementary materials in this sermon's folder. On the front is a Sunday school lesson, but the back includes a brief article about a local tragedy in which a family of three was killed in a house fire. The town of Patterson is about 15-20 minutes away from my home town of Williamsville, MO.

Benediction

Found this benediction written on the back of a 3x5 index card with sermon notes on it.

From sermon #85, "The Resurrection."

My First Snag

This is about as good a place to start posting on this blog as any other. Today, after scanning Pa's 81st sermon ("Healing for the Spiritually Blind"), I realized that I had up to now been scanning the collection at 200x200 dpi rather than the 600x600 that I originally thought. That's a HUGE difference in quality. Rather than go back to the beginning and rescan everything, however, I have chosen to just keep moving forward. If I get the chance to someday go back and scan the first 80 sermons at 600x600, that's great, but right now I'm mainly concerned with getting all of the documents digitized first, before anything might happen to them (flood, fire, etc).

Unfortunately, the sudden change to 600x600 greatly increased the size of the documents, which in turn has slowed my computer down to a crawl. Right now I have a copy of the collection saved on my Macbook hard drive, a 16GB flash drive, and a 1TB external hard drive, so I may end up having to delete the copy on my Macbook in order to keep up the pace.

In other news, I found these neat sermon notes in folder #84, "The Heart in Which Christ Rules Supreme(ly)". They were written on the front and back sides of 3 pieces of 3"x5" notebook paper. My first thought was, Hey, this is neat, closely followed by Who in their right mind writes their sermon notes on such small pieces of paper?

"The Heart in Which Christ Rules Supremely" Handwritten Outline by Joshua Smith