Monday, November 18, 2024

*** This is a rough transcript of today’s show ***

It is the 18th of November 2024. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

A very happy Monday to you- we are barreling into the holiday season, and as promised, this is a week of mailbag shows- I’ve collected a number of your questions- you can send them to me at danv@1517.org.

And, as promised, this time the call is coming from inside the house. I received a note from our own Christopher Gillespie. Gillespie is from West Lafayette, Indiana (not regular Lafayette with those dirty Guns N Roses guys) but was born in Wabash, Indiana- the first electrically lighted city.

He wrote, “You did a couple on the Jesus People, but I didn’t know Maranatha came out of Calvary Chapel. Even in the LCMS we grew up on Maranatha children’s music. Do a Psalty show!” 

And then I made a few off-handed remarks about doing a Psalty show, and that lit up something amongst a number of you. Listener Jamie wrote that she would wake to Psalty tapes and wrote the name of the song “Rise and Shine and Give God the Glory,” and if you are of a certain age and demographic, you, like me, started singing it in your head. I was more of a “Behold what manner of Love” (sung in a round, thank you) kind of guy. A friend of mine recently told me that his definition of an evangelical was someone who knew who Psalty was.  

And if you don’t… it’s ok. He’s a big blue, well... songbook. Yes, you’d think he was a “Psalter,” but I’ve learned he does not subscribe to the regulative principle and thus has more than just Psalms in his… torso.

Ok- so this goes back to Maranatha Music- the genesis of the Jesus People Movement, and Psalty is directly related to all of this.

It starts in 1968 with Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, Chuck Smith’s small church that invited Lonnie Frisbee and a couple of other hippie converts to join and help attract a younger crowd.

There were a number of people who helped to lead music, among them the Carter sisters, Marsha and Wendy, who would become half of “Children of the Day,” as well as Debby Kerner, a singer from Los Angeles. Children of the Day, Kerner, and others would release the first album on Calvary’s Maranatha label- the “The Everlastin' Living Jesus Concert.” Children of the Day and Kerner would release albums alongside Love Song and Daniel Amos.

Kerner met Ernie Rettino at Calvary and the two released albums together and were married in 1976. They had always recorded songs for kids on their albums and, in 1979, came up with the idea of the singing songbook- Psalty.

The first Psalty album- “Kid Praise” was released in 1980- it comes after “Praise Strings #4” and before “Broken Chains” by Malcolm Wild in the Maranatha discography. It was originally going to be just an album of songs, but Debbie and Ernie wanted to have a story and plot with characters to attract young listeners. We met Psalty, his wife Psaltina, the triplets Melody, Harmony, and Rhythm, and their dog Blooper.

There are scores of Psalty albums- from seasonal praise to introducing old hymns, and the name recognition amongst a certain crowd is a testament to the way in which the Jesus people “grew up”- from outreach for hippies they would grow up and have families, and they knew the power of both popular music and youth culture.  

And Psalty has gone worldwide- according to the site run by Debbie and Ernie today, the works have been translated into “Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Portuguese, Cantonese, Mandarin, Zulu, Swahili, Korean and more”.  

Maranatha would become almost solely a praise and worship label and today exist “create recordings that will assist the worship leader to minister to their congregations effectively.” psalty.com is still run by Debbie and Ernie and she would go on to lead worship at another megachurch- nearby Saddleback. And friends, I learned that Debby Kerner and her husband Ernie live… in the same town as me and the CHA studios: Lake Forest, California, or what we used to call “El Toro.”

We’ve got some CCM shows peppered into the hopper with Love Song and more early Maranatha history, so stay tuned…

 

The last word for today is from the daily lectionary and Psalm 13:

How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever?

    How long will you hide your face from me?

How long must I wrestle with my thoughts

    and day after day have sorrow in my heart?

    How long will my enemy triumph over me?

Look on me and answer, Lord my God.

    Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death,

and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,”

    and my foes will rejoice when I fall.

But I trust in your unfailing love;

    my heart rejoices in your salvation.

I will sing the Lord’s praise,

    for he has been good to me.

 

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 18th of November 2024, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who still believes Psalty’s got nothing on Davey and Goliath... He is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who remembers, “They came in by twosies, twosies, Elephants, and kangaroosies, roosies.” I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.