Tami and I are collectors of old phonographs. We have three very old ones in our home plus a couple of old radios in my office and a 1970's console stereo in our guest bedroom. The old ones are a 1911 Edison Diamond Disc model, a 1915 Graphanola and a 1920's Columbia. All three are in working order and still play remarkably well. Through the years we have also collected a large number of old records. In the early days of phonographs each manufacturer made their own records which were not necessarily interchangable with other machines. Thus, the Edison machine only plays Edison records from the early 20th century. One unique thing about the Edison is the volume control that consists of a felt ball at the end of a cable. By sliding a control located next to the turntable the ball actually slides up into the hole of the horn thus muting the sound. Pretty innovative, huh?
Guests in my office will notice the large cabinet model radio / record player between my bookcase and window. It is a late 1940's Western Auto brand that belonged to my 2nd grade Sunday School teacher, Sue Richmond. When she moved out of her home into an assisted living many years ago I purchased it from her for $50. It, too, is functional. The console stereo at home is a Sears Silvertone purchased by my parents in the early 1970's.
A few years ago my daughter Brooke asked me one evening, "Dad, how do you play that record thingy upstairs?" "What!" I replied. I couldn't believe that a seventeed or eighteen year old didn't know how to play a record on a record player. That's when it dawned on me, "she's never operated a record player before." Her whole life has consisted of CD players, cassette tape players and ipods. I went upstairs and showed her how you could stack several albums on top of each other, hit the "auto" button and they would automatically drop into place. I hasten to add, however, there was no "shuffle" available.
I am conservative in my theology and probably more set in my ways than I care to admit. I wonder, however, if we're not guilty in church of trying to reach a Digital generation with old record player ways. My late and beloved friend, Jule Miller, wisely recognized before his death several years ago the need to transfer his Visualized Bible Study Series from filmstips to video and then to DVD's. Though the content of the series did not change, the method of presenting it had to change out of necessity.
The old saying is true - "the message never changes but methods must change." Perhaps in doing so we will learn new and better ways to communicate the record of God's Amazing Grace to the people of today's generation.
THAT'S THE WAY I SEE IT
