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I watched a couple of camp meeting services from this week. I listened to the music and it was all newer contemporary. When the camera panned the audience no one was singing, no one seemed to know the music. The audience was basically older folks. When the speaker sung a well known South Gospel song before his message the people came alive.

You said it Brother. I have seen this happen so many many times that I could not begin to count. If it weren't for the senior saints, camp meeting would be history. They are the ones who have prayed and fasted and sacrificed and spent hours at the altars of the previous camp meetings and these altars have produced the good preachers and leaders for many years.

Camp Meeting is and always has been OLD STUFF. It is a time to just turn loose, sing, shout and praise God. That said if we want to encourage a continuation of CAMP MEETING as a yearly few days of worship we must figure a way to work the younger Christians in. How? That is above my paygrade, but someone had better figure it out if Camp Meetings are to continue.In the back of my mind I am laughing because these 'services' of today are nothing like a Camp Meeting. We actually camped at camp Meetings, that ain't gonna happen! Some facts but mostly just my [email protected]/

Cojak is 100% right. Camp Meeting is over if we fail to tell the story to the next generation. It is only very recent that some of our largest camp meetings provided a nursery. We can sing the songs. They are beautiful and powerful. But, our sons and daughters sing other songs. So, we’ve got two choices:1. Value the handoff, the passing of a baton the each subsequent generation. 2. Sing the songs we love and lose the next generation to places and people who make a place for them.

Agree 100% with Travis. I may actually take this a bit further, and dig myself into a hole. Shouldn’t the older generation have a desire to make the spiritual blessings of campmeeting something young and old both can connect with? My kids don’t get the Gaithers. They aren’t listening to the Happy Goodmans, they’re rocking Hillsong United, Young and Free, and Elevation. Those are their “hymns”. Ought we not do our best to include what touches our children just as much as we want what touches us? They sing different songs, but they lift up the same Savior. And it ought not be saved for youth night only.Same in our churches. We’ve got older saints that pay the bills, and they want it a certain way. But they seem to forget that the younger generations don’t connect in worship exactly as they did. We’ve got to make sacrifices to ensure our kids have a place The World As I See Itworldjeffreysees.blogspot.com/Revuriah's Facebookwww.facebook.com/people/Jeff-Richard/1226257444Jeffrey David Richard's Myspace Musicwww.myspace.com/547856946

In a recent convo with AB O'Neal I asked him if we could have Monday-Tuesday for the throwback model of campmeeting & then Wednesday-Friday for the contemporary.Here in Calif. the older folks have either died off or pretty much stopped showing up. I wanted to ask for a two day period where we do it the older way we used to do it (but not as old as Cojak did it with camping )It just so happens that this was the first year they had planned to do our campmeeting in 3 different locations since the state is so big geographically. But for you guys who still have somewhat of a traditional agenda in a shorter week, ask your AB if you could have a day or 2 to offer the older style campmeeting.Seems like a lot of the states have gone to a Wednesday-Friday format.We wanted to sing the older hymnals, break out some old campmeeting song books, bring in a blow torch preacher & if time allowed have a morning session & an afternoon session following lunch ...at least thats how we used to do it.It's all open for discussion & planning but sure makes sense to go back to our roots & pray with some younger guys in the altars - one of these youngsters is going to be our PB someday & I want him to be Holy Ghost filled in one of those ole gully washer style meetings. Empty nest syndrome is for the birds!Email me at: [email protected] planters are focused on just one thing ...introducing people to Jesus!

Not a single song from the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, or even 90s. All newer contemporary stuff. Nothing that appealed to the older generation. These singers and music would not have been allowed on the platform back 40 or 50 years ago. A lot of older folks I know have no desire to attend camp meeting any longer. It's not like they remember and no effert is made to accomodate them. And our leaders wonder why camp meeting is dying. It's a sad situation.

Re: I watched another state camp meeting services from yesterday...

So, campmeeting is best left an exercise in nostalgia, hoping God shows up like He did way back when? Forgive me, but I can’t get Bound for Beulah out of my mind.Unless they sing our songs and wear our clothes, we reject it? I was at the Friday night service in Wimauma, FL. I had friends on the platform leading us into deep worship. Yeah, the songs were newer. Yeah, they wore jeans and campmeeting T-shirts. But not one of those young people dressed in the least bit immodest. They didn’t dress like the saints of old, but they weren’t slobs. They were themselves. And in the old days, we’d not allow them to minister. Sad.We are losing campmeeting because too many refuse to allow it to adapt in method to advance the timeless message The World As I See Itworldjeffreysees.blogspot.com/Revuriah's Facebookwww.facebook.com/people/Jeff-Richard/1226257444Jeffrey David Richard's Myspace Musicwww.myspace.com/547856946

Go old school. A piano, organ, maybe a drummer , and pull out the old red hymnal songs. For cutting out loud, turn down the cotton packing sound system. Use a song leader instead of a whole bunch.I dare you