I grew up with televangelists as babysitters. Well, ok, they didn’t come to our house and take care of me. My mother’s desire was that I go play somewhere or watch television. I spent a lot of time doing the latter. It kept me occupied.
On Saturday nights we would watch the country music shows and on Sunday morning, while getting ready for church, we would watch gospel music and televangelists. We didn’t call them that then, they were just preachers.
As I got older, my own theological understandings began to develop in a different direction. I watched some of these folks as they were important to the people in my care. Plus, I was supposed to watch them, wasn’t I?
Later, only one seemed to catch my attention, Robert Schuller. He wore an academic robe to preach and had built the Crystal Cathedral. The music was nice and he wore a robe so he must be acceptable.
The thing that I remember most was what he called his “Call to Worship”. Each week he would open his services from Psalm 118, “This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.”
We took this photo outside our lanai in South Florida. Sunrise and sunsets make me think of this verse. Kinda makes me want to rejoice.