Hymns: 1992 Memories

Posted on by HiberniaGospel

So, we get to 1992. A key memory of that year was the 1992 Baptist Youth Evangelism (BYE) Team, my last time leading a team in Cork. As usual, we spent the week spreading the gospel in the streets. On our day off, we went to the Old Head of Kinsale.

1992 was also the year that Cork Baptist Church’s, second church plant officially opened, Midleton Evangelical Church (now named Midleton Baptist Church). Carrigaline Baptist opened five years earlier, in 1987.

Hymns published in 1992 include the following:

Lord I Come to You
Ancient of Days
Awesome in this Place
The Price is Paid
Restore O Lord
Heal Our Nation

1992 was also a momentous year for Limerick Baptist Church. We finally sold our old church building in O’Connell Avenue and purchased the land for our new church in Old Cratloe Road, Caherdavin.

Site of Limerick Baptist Church Nov 92

I recently discovered this video, where the current Pastor, Paul Ritchie, tells the history of the church in Limerick.

Limerick Historical Society

We held our last service in the old building on 24th May. We spent about a year meeting in Caherdavin Community Centre. And we held some mid-week Bible study meetings in the little house on the site of the new church, before it was demolished. I generally avoid personal names on this blog, but that year we had two well-known people attending the church. One was Frank Hogan (John 3:7), the other was Chris Moore. Both are in heaven now. Chris Moore, a young mother, very sadly died of cancer in early 1993. But she committed her life to Christ sometime earlier. Not only was she an inspiration to our church in the final months of her life, but she touched the entire nation, through radio interviews etc. She released a single, which went to number 1 in the Irish charts just as her life on earth was ending. I remember Denis Allen, who wrote Limerick You’re a Lady and several other Irish hits in the 1970’s, singing at her funeral.

Our first son was stillborn in January 1992, and it was touch and go whether my wife would pull through. People all over the country were praying for us. Thankfully, my wife did survive, and we had four other children throughout the 1990s. Heaven is where we’re all meant to be. It’s just that some get there earlier than others. I often think of the words of the apostle Paul:

Phil 1:22-24
21 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. 22 If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! 23 I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; 24 but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body.

1 Thess 4:13-14
13 Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. 14 For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.

1992 was the year of the Bishop Casey scandal, and the year that Sinead O’Connor got boo’d at the Bob Dylan tribute concert for tearing up a picture of the pope on Saturday Night Live. From that time, or perhaps a little before, we heard of one scandal after another in relation to the Roman Catholic Church. Of course, few large organizations are free of scandal. But nowadays, we should all be thankful for measures put in place to ensure that children are protected. In relation to loss of confidence in churches, our concern is that people would not throw the baby out with the bathwater and drift away from Christianity altogether. We are called to put all our trust in Jesus, not in human institutions.

In 1992, Eric Clapton released Tears in Heaven, after the tragic death of his four-year old son. How ever much people put God out of the picture, when we face death, we do generally cherish the truth of heaven.

Tears in Heaven
Beyond the door there's peace I'm sure,
And I know there'll be no more tears in heaven.

Another hit that year was The Sound of Crying by Prefab Sprout, a secular group. But the song was very much like some of the Psalms, where the writer takes God to task for suffering and injustice.
Well who am I to tell you how to run your business, Man, you could strike me blind
What kind of noise we gotta make down here, Before we destroy your peace of mind

The Sound of Crying

Some might take issue with a song like this, but it’s a lot more heartening to hear someone engaging with God rather than ignoring him.

Jesus He Knows Me

And there was Jesus He Knows Me by Genesis. I remember Phil Collins accepting that they are legitimate evangelists (His drummer, Chester Thompson was a Christian.), but the song was about the dodgy guys. No-one likes them.

And Genesis had a song on their We Can’t Dance Album, similar to the Prefab Sprout song mentioned above:

If there's a God, is he watching?
Can He give a ray of hope?
So much pain and so much sorrow
Tell me what does he see
When he looks at you
When he looks at me
What would he say?
It seems there's no one listening

Again, however much we might criticize wealthy people for virtue signaling, isn’t it better to hear them thinking and talking about God than not doing so.

I think that I had more speaking engagements in 1992 than any other year. I was guest speaker at the Knockconny Baptist Church weekend in Portrush on the Antrim coast. It was my first time visiting the Giant’s Causeway.

I also spoke at the Irish Bible School graduation at what is now Thurles Baptist Church, and I spoke at the Kilkenny conference, an annual conference for Irish Christian workers. I wasn’t any kind of a big name, but like most full-time Christian workers in Ireland, I did my bit. Kilkenny Presbyterian Church hosted the conference.

Kilkenny Presbyterian church is a great example of how a traditional church can be hugely successful as an evangelical church. Many Irish evangelical Christians are resistant to anything that sounds traditional.

I also recall a group from our church visiting Ballycrochan Baptist Church, Bangor, a church that were also highly supportive of our work in Limerick.

My Baptist Missions itinerary included the following churches in March:

I also remember visiting Finaghy Baptist Church, (founded 1958) just as a member of the congregation.

And here’s where I went in November

1992 was my last year attending my Evangelical Movement of Wales theology training course. In the Easter session, we had lectures on Welsh revivals, a subject that’s always close to my heart. Some of us took a trip to Sandfields, which was the first church where Martyn Lloyd Jones ministered. I recently re-read his biography. In the subsequent years, I really missed my visits to Wales. But at least I didn’t need to write any more essays😀.

In May, evangelist, Luis Palau held a crusade in Dublin. I do remember him on the Late Late Show. He said that Ireland needs more fire in its religion. I was a little sceptical of evangelistic crusades. Someone said 17,400 people heard Palau in Dublin and 1,367 made public Christian commitments. I don’t know if that’s true, but hopefully, he did make people consider the Christian message, and I would think it likely that some did genuinely respond. The main benefit of such events is that they often motivate people to spread the good news at a one-to-one level. In my experience, most conversions are a matter of people meeting and chatting to Christians over a period of time and gradually investigating. But maybe evangelistic crusades encourage people to make a start or give people the final nudge to commit their lives to Christ.

Finally, here’s some music, events, and films/TV shows that would have formed the background to 1992. I don’t necessarily endorse all the songs or films😀, but thinking of them takes me back to 1992.

10 Songs

  • Goodnight Girl​ – Wet Wet Wer
  • For Your Babies​ – Simply Red
  • I Love Your Smile​ – Shanice
  • Beauty And The Beast​ – Celine Dion and Peabo Bryson
  • Motorcycle Emptiness​ – Manic street Preachers
  • Even Better Than The Real Thing​ – U2
  • This Used To Be My Playground​ – Madonna
  • Sleeping Satellite​ – Tasmin Archer
  • Out Of Space – Prodigy
  • Deeper And Deeper​ – Madonna

10 Events

  • Maastricht Treaty is signed, officially creating the European Union
  • Bush and Yeltsin declare the Cold War officially over
  • South Africa votes in a referendum to end apartheid and move toward democracy
  • Los Angeles riots erupt after the acquittal of police officers in the Rodney King beating
  • Bill Clinton is elected President of the United States
  • U.S. Marines land in Somalia to lead a humanitarian mission amid famine and civil war
  • The Russian Federation is officially established, replacing the Soviet Union
  • A controversial biography of Princess Diana is released, revealing royal tensions
  • A massive fire damages Windsor Castle, one of the Queen’s official residences
  • After mounting pressure and scandal, Taoiseach Charles Haughey resigned as leader of Fianna Fáil.

10 Films or TV Shows

  • Aladdin
  • The Bodyguard
  • Batman Returns
  • Sister Act
  • A Few Good Men
  • The Last of the Mohicans
  • The Player
  • Death Becomes Her
  • Heartbeat
  • GamesMaster

10 Famous People Who Passed Away

  • Marlene Dietrich – German-American actress and singer, icon of classic Hollywood cinema
  • Anthony Perkins – American actor best known for playing Norman Bates in Psycho
  • Benny Hill – British comedian and creator of The Benny Hill Show
  • Chuck Connors – American actor and athlete, starred in The Rifleman
  • Denholm Elliott – English actor known for A Room with a View and Raiders of the Lost Ark
  • Isaac Asimov – Prolific American science fiction author and biochemist
  • Alex Haley – American author of Roots and The Autobiography of Malcolm X
  • Roger Miller – American country singer-songwriter, known for King of the Road
  • Robert Reed – American actor, famous for The Brady Bunch
  • Robert Morley – Actor and food writer, known for his quintessentially English personality

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