Grand Old Opry

While looking for something in an older journal I found an entry about the Grand Old Opry . I was in Nashville as part of a Minnesota church youth trip and the bus driver took us over to see the Opryland Hotel and Convention Center with a mall for shopping and so on.

But then he said the Grand Old Opry performers still stand on the floor from the old Ryman Auditorium where it all began.

They cut out a section of the Ryman stage floor and moved it to the new modern location. Singers stand on the old stage...but in a setting that has changed to meet the production and audience needs of today.

Does the church need to do something like that? Isn't that what we do in some ways anyway? We stand on the old stage of our beginnings, in God's vision of community and justice and peace. We stand on the foundations of Good News and the Presence of God. We stand on the same foundation stage of God's love.

We sing from that same spiritual platform, but we do it in contemporary settings, trying to keep it accessible to all, willing to adapt what is adaptable, make room for more, take the opportunity to use new methods and locations and technologies. We stand on the stage that others have stood on before us. And we are eager to stand and perform as they did. The people are still coming to hear the music.


Rambling on