Ship of Fools: CCC Children's Christian Crusade....

Thread: CCC Children's Christian Crusade.... Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.

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Posted by Bishops Finger (# 5430) on :

....no, not the disastrous mediaeval one, but a series of week-long crusades run by evangelists Irene Wardle and Ralph Chambers in the UK in the 1970s and 80s.

Any other Shippies remember them?

Based, IRRC, in the north-west (Lancashire/Cheshire), they visited local churches with a simple, almost naïve (and certainly unsophisticated by today's standards) programme of catchy songs (accompanied by Ralph on his piano-accordion), Bible-based stories, and prayers, all leading up (hopefully) to personal conversion, and acceptance of Christ as Lord.

The Vicar of the Church Of My Comparative Yoof (I was in my late 20s at the time) came from oop north, and we had a CCC sometime around 1978-80. I still recall the church being packed each evening (and it's a great barn of a place, seating 400 at least in those days), and I could still sing you some of the songs/choruses if you were to ask me very nicely.

Ah, nostalgia - it's not what it used to be.....

I wonder how many of those youngsters actually became Christians at that time, or in later years? Again, IIRC, only a handful joined our Sunday School (which was of a fair size to begin with), but I'd love to know that all the prayer, work, and effort that went into the CCC was of some lasting value.

Ian J.

Posted by Zoey (# 11152) on :

# C - C - C
Do you see what I see?
We have come to sing about
Something that we know about ... #

That's all I can remember of the songs. I seem to remember them having their own booklet with the songs and tunes, a copy of which lived in our piano stool. In fact, remembering that said booklet lived in our piano stool, I'm not sure whether I myself ever went to a CCC event or whether my memories are from family members plunking out the above tune at home. (I was born in the '80s so would have been young if I ever went to one of the CCC events. My siblings are older, so the booklet could have been picked up after they attended a CCC event. We were raised as GLEs going to GLE Sunday School anyway, so the fact that we all still practise Christianity in one form or another can't be attributed just to the CCC I don't think.)

Posted by Zoey (# 11152) on :

For those who've never had the pleasure, here is a lovely linky.

And proving that my memory does store the most useless crap, the song I referenced above is at about 9mins 30secs in and I got the first 4 lines right.

Posted by L'organist (# 17338) on :

Not as enjoyable as beach-based CSSM.

It ran an enjoyable programme of tide-fights, sandcastle competitions, etc, etc, etc plus the sing-a-longs and services.

Fantastic if you had a widely spaced family with children who didn't necessarily get on with each other.

I gather it is still going in Northern Ireland - I've got happy memories of CSSM in Ballycastle.

Posted by Diomedes (# 13482) on :

I worked as a junior leader for CSSM as a teenager. My abiding memories are running sing-songs and rounders tournaments. We had a great time and it looked good on the Uni application form. My mother was bemused that SCHISM (sounds the same I suppose, especially the way we said it) could be so much fun!

Posted by Lothlorien (# 4927) on :

CSSM equated to Come Single Soon Married. Those holiday missions down here are still run by Scripture Union, but are known as Family Missions. SUFM is now known as Soon You Find a Mate.

Dozens up and down the coast and some in country towns in conjunction with local churches. I used to be on a team but that would be possibly thirty years ago. Ten days hard slog in the heat.

Posted by Baptist Trainfan (# 15128) on :

There are also the "United Beach Missions" which are probably more hard-line Evangelical and arose out of the National Young Life Campaign. I served on them in 1972/73. Some of the locations such as Leysdown, Benllech and especially Llandudno have been "hardy annuals" since at least the 1960s.

[ 18. June 2015, 09:02: Message edited by: Baptist Trainfan ]

Posted by leo (# 1458) on :

I used to love the beach mission at Weymouth. As a child, they were the highlight of my year.

I especially enjoyed the tug of war, the sausage sizzle and the 'Pirates'

Posted by Oscar the Grouch (# 1916) on :

When our kids were small (ie early to mid 90's), we used to holiday most years in Wales and regularly turned up on the lovely, sheltered, beach in New Quay, just south of Aberaeron. There was always a United Beach Missions team on the beach there. Not that our kids wanted to have anything to do with it. We used to wander past on our way to get an ice cream.

(I see from their website that they still run a mission in New Quay. I can't believe they still exist!)

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :

They called it a crusade? Oh dear.

Posted by Galloping Granny (# 13814) on :

CSSM round about 1940 at Tahunanui. I can just remember building a sand castle as a kind of pulpit from which we were told bible stories, and a party at which there were games like the winner could silently count seconds and end up at exactly one minute (I'm still pretty good at it). And songs like "Wide, wide as the ocean..."

GG

For a retired schoolteacher that's a grammatical shocker but you get the idea.

Posted by Gracious rebel (# 3523) on :

I was on a UBM team once, in Broadstairs in 1982. I was fairly charismatic in those days (just finished Uni), and it was a bit of a shock to the system to encounter the ultra con-evo mindset in action. I remember trying to hide my Good News Bible, not only wasn't it KGV, (or even NIV) but it wasn't even the regular GNB, but a kids version with a rainbow cover. All the female team members (we were known as Aunties, and the lads were Uncles) had to wear red SKIRTS for our uniform (no shorts or trousers allowed) which didn't seem very practical for beach work including sports and games with the kids. Great experience though!

Posted by Gracious rebel (# 3523) on :

sorry to double post, but wanted to comment on the 'Crusade' terminology also. Believe it or not but my first recollection of the word was in relation to a Christian evangelisation project. I recall Dick Saunders with his 'Way to Life Crusade' that made visits to our town in the 60's and 70's (twice in a marquee, and once in a town centre Baptist Church). Another word was 'Campaign' which mostly referred to a series of special outreach meetings put on by a local church with a visiting evangelist. Both of these words I first encountered in a Christian context.
My Brethren assembly had a children's mission in about 1970 called 'Ten Night Special' sounds just like the sort of thing described in the OP. Many of my primary school friends went along, and it was a weird feeling to suddenly find that my own family's rather strange and peculiar place of worship had suddenly become 'cool', a place my friends would want to go.

[ 19. June 2015, 13:11: Message edited by: Gracious rebel ]

Posted by Baptist Trainfan (# 15128) on :

Gosh, I remember the Way to Life Crusade! I think Dick Saunders is still around but he must be getting on.

Also, the missionary society of which I was a member for some years was the "Worldwide Evangelisation Crusade". It had been started by C.T. Studd as the "Heart of Africa Mission" but changed its name when it expanded its operations elsewhere. Studd's analogy - uncomfortable today - was that Islam was "on the march", driving out paganism along a line in Central Africa. He believed that a chain of missionary stations should be set up with the express purpose of promoting the Christian Gospel and stemming the Muslim advance.

This led to a specific strategy in the 1930s of starting missionary work in places (e.g. eastern Senegal) where there were no other Evangelical missions and where Islam seem to be increasing its hold.

One must remember that Studd saw missionary work in heroic terms and had no compunction with the use of the word "Crusade" in the mission's name, although it was quite clear that any warfare involved would be purely spiritual. Such militaristic language was, of course, not uncommon in Christian circles of the day although we are less happy with it nowadays.

The mission kept its name well into the 1970s and beyond, however with increasing disquiet as to its connotations in Muslim lands! In practice, the full name was little used and it was referred to as "Wec" Eventually a rebranding exercise was taken and it became known as "Worldwide Evangelisation for Christ", today "Wec International".

It is notable for having encouraged both local leadership and missionary activity to develop in emerging churches. As a result many of its missionaries in Guinea-Bissau, where I worked from 1979-86, are Brazilian rather than British, European or North American; the Mission's leadership is multinational.

[ 19. June 2015, 14:59: Message edited by: Baptist Trainfan ]

Posted by not entirely me (# 17637) on :

I remember vaguely going to CCC club once a week at lunch time at my local primary school (circa 1988/89). We mainly sang songs. Strangely enough most of our local primary schools are CE but this was a CP school.
I remember the see, see, see song.
I suspect the main draw of the club was staying inside in the warmth during winter months.

Posted by not entirely me (# 17637) on :

By the way I'm based NW England, didn't know CCC was just a local thing!

Posted by Albertus (# 13356) on :

quote:
Originally posted by LeRoc:
They called it a crusade? Oh dear.

Not a problematic term among most people in this country until fairly recently and still I'd guess, rightly or wrongly, among a lot of people here now. The Muslim population here was for some time fairly small or at any rate pretty low-key. Crusaders were seen as heroic people (you may know that there is an evangelical youth movement that used to have that name). For myself, any problems that I have with the language of Crusade are less to do with the idea of going to try to (re)conquer the Holy Land from people who had themsleves conquered it, than with the appalling way that (some?) Crusaders behaved to various groups of people they didn't like before they got anywhere near a Saracen.

Posted by Mudfrog (# 8116) on :

I remember once standing in a Blackpool pedestrian precinct with our Salvation Army band. We were playing hymns to the passers-by. I remember there was a beach mission going on and one of the young 'crusaders/campaigners/missioners' paused on his way down.

He stopped and looked, and as I watched him, he shook his head as if to say 'what sad, irrelevant people, with their strange uniforms. He went on his way.

He might have had a point had he not been dressed as a clown...

Posted by Baptist Trainfan (# 15128) on :

[Killing me]

Posted by Alex Cockell (# 7487) on :

Maybe that guy was also moonlighting in a run of Godspell...

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