Hymns: 1986 Memories

I don’t have many musical memories from 1986, at least not from hymns.

One song that I remember very vividly around the time of my final exams was Spirit in the Sky by Doctor and the Medics. I didn’t think of it as any kind of a Christian song, and I found it irritating, but the lyrics were interesting. Spirit in the sky isn’t a biblical term, but God is Spirit. He isn’t just in the sky, he is everywhere, but he manifests his presence to a greater degree in heaven. Maybe the writer uses sky as a synonym for heaven. After all, we do pray “Our Father, who art in heaven”.

Greenbaum, who grew up in an Orthodox Jewish household, was inspired to write a song with Christian themes after watching a gospel performance on TV.

I spent the year between Limerick, Cork, and Tipperary, where the Irish Bible School was located. I wasn’t a student there, but my girlfriend was the founder/principal’s daughter.

I was very keen on street evangelism at the time. I admired how Pentecostals brought the gospel to a broader audience and didn’t just focus on the Protestant community. Irish Baptist churches (in the republic of Ireland) at that time tended to consist of people who were children of Baptists, immigrants from the US and UK, and Protestants who were disenchanted by the liberalism of their denominations. You wouldn’t often see people from a Catholic background (like myself).

I was very happy to be in a Baptist church, but I thought that if we stuck with our own circles, things might never change. All the growth seemed to be happening in the Pentecostal/charismatic scene. Pentecostal churches were more representative of the community at large. I saw street work as a key part of sowing the seed and introducing ourselves to the population at large. And it felt a little bit more like New Testament evangelism.

Of course, things are very different nowadays. In the 1990s, we saw a lot more ex-Catholic Irish people in the Cork and Limerick Baptist churches. Some were reached through street work, some came from the Pentecostal scene and some just turned up. And of course, most Irish churches now largely consist of immigrants, but that reflects what’s happening in society. So, nowadays, the profile of Irish Baptist churches differs little from Pentecostal churches. And with the Web, Catholic or unchurched people are exposed to much more Bible teaching, if they have the appetite for it. My key concern at the time would be that Baptist churches would be seen as belonging to the Protestant community. Though Catholics respected Protestants, we tended to see them as a different species. By contrast, charismatic churches weren’t seen as Protestant, though in reality, you could argue that they were more radical Protestants than Baptists🙂.

The main church memory from 1986 was the arrival of two Canadian missionaries to Cork Baptist Church, Gary and Russ. Gary and Russ were keen on street work, so they were able to take the lead in that for us. I didn’t see myself as much of a street preacher, but I did my bit. Most of the value of street work was in one-to-one conversations that you’d have with curious people. In late 86, we started a Sunday Night outreach at our usual spot, near Cudmore’s and McDonalds in Winthrop Street. It made a great difference having Gary and Russ. Both were very gifted evangelists. And we had a good number of local people involved too. I generally avoid mentioning names in this blog unless the person is already famous and Gary is 🙂.

Gary was a particularly interesting guy, because he’d been an airline pilot and a pop star. This was long before YouTube, but lately, I have found some of his old hits. He was in a duo – Gary and Dave. This was a secular group. It all happened before he became a missionary.

And I found the more recent video (My Story) where he tells his story. The first time I heard his full story as a public speech was at Limerick Baptist Church, a couple of days after I returned from my honeymoon in 1988. He actually spent some years in Mallow Street Hall in Limerick after his time in Cork. Some of this is covered in his book, Could You Ever Love Me Again.

Early in the video, Gary sings a song by Gene MacLellan. I didn’t know that name until I watched the video, but funnily enough, his song, Snowbird by Anne Murray was my introduction to Canadian music as an 8-year old child, and I was also familiar with Put Your Hand in the Hand of the Man, which he also composed.

Some worship songs published in 1986 include the following:

One hymn from 1986 that I’ve only discovered recently has become one of my firm favorites. I love the tune too, but I’ve never heard it sung to the tune shown here, apart from my one attempt to introduce it to Tipperary Christian Fellowship (now Tipperary Bible Church) in recent years🙂.

It’s usually sung to the tune of Danny Boy (Londonderry Air).

Above the voices of the world around me,
my hopes and dreams, my cares and loves and fears,
the long-awaited call of Christ has found me,
the voice of Jesus echoes in my ears:
`I gave my life to break the cords that bind you,
I rose from death to set your spirit free;
turn from your sins and put the past behind you,
take up your cross and come and follow me.'

What can I offer him who calls me to him?
Only the wastes of sin and self and shame;
a mind confused, a heart that never knew him,
a tongue unskilled at naming Jesus' Name.
Yet at your call, and hungry for your blessing,
drawn by that cross which moves a heart of stone,
now Lord I come, my tale of sin confessing,
and in repentance turn to you alone.

Lord, I believe; help now my unbelieving;
I come in faith because your promise stands.
Your word of pardon and of peace receiving,
all that I am I place within your hands.
Let me become what you shall choose to make me,
freed from the guilt and burden of my sins.
Jesus is mine, who never shall forsake me,
and in his love my new-born life begins.

The year ended with Caravan of Love being the Christmas number 1.

Finally, here’s some music, events, and films/TV shows that would have formed the background to 1996. I don’t necessarily endorse all the songs or films😀, but thinking of them takes me back to 1996.

10 Songs

• Pull Up To The Bumper / La Vie En Rose​ – Grace Jones
• Hounds Of Love – Kate Bush
• Absolute Beginners – David Bowie
• Overjoyed​ – Stevie Wonder
• Lessons In Love​ – Level 42
• Holding Back The Years​ – Simply Red
• Hunting High And Low​ – Aha
• Panic – The Smiths
• Human – The Human League
• Rain Or Shine​ – Five Star

10 Events

• Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster
• Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster
• Iran–Contra Affair Exposed
• Divorce Referendum Rejected divorce (accepted in 1995)
• Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy Dies
• Ryanair Takes Flight
• Self Aid Concert in Dublin
• 30,000 People Emigrate from Ireland because of economic hardship
• Michael Heseltine Resigns Over the Westland Affair
• Prince Andrew Marries Sarah Ferguson

10 Films or TV Shows

• Top Gun
• Platoon
• The Mission
• Crocodile Dundee
• Labyrinth
• Absolute Beginners
• Blackadder II
• Casualty
• Bread
• Dempsey’s Den (Ireland)

10 Famous People Who Passed Away

• Cary Grant – Suave British-American actor, star of North by Northwest and Charade
• Donna Reed – Oscar-winning actress from From Here to Eternity and It’s a Wonderful Life
• Desi Arnaz – Cuban-American actor and producer, co-creator of I Love Lucy
• Phil Lynott – Irish rock musician, frontman of Thin Lizzy
• Ted Knight – American actor known for The Mary Tyler Moore Show
• Benny Goodman – “King of Swing,” American jazz clarinetist and bandleader
• Dick James – British music publisher, worked with The Beatles
• Richard Manuel – Canadian musician from The Band, died by suicide
• Gordon MacRae – Singer and actor in Oklahoma! and Carousel
• James Cagney – American actor with English ancestry, often listed in UK retrospectives