However, I am thinking of the great times during the family summer holidays in the Sixties and Seventies that we spent in the north coast in Portballintrae with the evangelical Christian beach organisation, Children’s Special Service Mission (CSSM), affectionately known as ‘Cissm’!
In the past, I have published columns urging the Christian Church to seek a return of the successful strategy of the tent missions and open air outreach: Link here:
However, I fear that some of the antics of a section of the so-called street preacher movement with their very loud speakers and controversial statements will impact upon all sensible and respectfully conducted open air evangelism.
Now that we are well and truly living in a post pandemic society, the Christian Churches have no excuse for not engaging in a highly pro-active campaign of open air evangelism and crusades.
As well as wanting to see a return of traditional missions in places of worship or tents, the Churches need to take advantage of the looming school summer holidays and throw their full weight behind a campaign of beach missions, especially those organised by ‘Cissm’ - now known as the Scripture Union.
When my late dad, Rev Dr Robert Coulter MBE, was in full-time ministry in Clough Presbyterian Church, near Ballymena, we always timed our traditional two-week summer break to coincide with the CSSM activities in that coastal village of Portballintrae.
In the morning, we would meet on the beach for worship, Bible study and talks. In the afternoon, it would be games, and in the evening - the traditional sausage sizzle! A number of other clergy were also staying at the village’s caravan site so I always had fellow preacher’s kid chums to go with to CSSM.
The beach mission was also known for its big red banner with the initials CSSM emblazoned on it. We each had red badges with CSSM on it. It usually provoked a guessing game among my peers back in the predominantly farming congregation in Clough as to what the initials CSSM stood for, with many chums thinking the C was for Coulter!
Ironically, in my teenage years when I became politically active with the Young Unionists, the junior wing of the Ulster Unionist Party, because of the red badge and initials, there were those who thought the C stood for Communist!
Mind you, given the rough experience I had in my late teens in the 1970s north east Ulster Bible Belt, I was tempted at one time in my life to abandon church life and join the Young Communist League (YCL), the youth movement of the then Communist Party of Great Britain.
This was because all the people lining up to persecute me because I was a minister son ironically all called themselves ‘Christians’! I came to fully understand what Karl Marx was talking about when he branded religion as the opium of the masses.
It was easy to then understand how the simplest of issues could spark a full-scale row in a church for me as a minister’s son - like my decision in 1977 to complete the President’s Badge, the second highest badge in the Christian uniformed organisation, the Boys’ Brigade.
It’s a wee blue badge about three centimetres in length yet some ‘Christians’ in that north east Ulster Bible Belt reacted as if I had tried to burn the church down!
While the YCL provided a supposedly welcome alternative to this ‘Christian’ persecution over the President’s Badge, it was the solid evangelical teaching which I had been given at CSSM events in my primary school days which helped me keep my Christian faith in my late teens.
During that President’s Badge saga crisis in my life, I did not walk away from God; I just wanted to abandon organised religion. There was also the close bond I had with my dad.
He was not just an evangelical Presbyterian minister who faithfully preached the Gospel of Salvation; he was also a senior chaplain in the Loyal Orders an an official in the Ulster Unionist Party branch.
While dad did what he could to protect me from my ‘Christian’ persecutors, it would have made life very difficult for him if it was revealed his son was a card-carrying member of the YCL!
Besides, I had a chum in that north east Ulster Bible Belt who did join the YCL. He ended up with mental health issues when the Puritans from that Bible Belt region found out about his YCL membership.
University training for journalism was a God-send for me. I was away from my ‘Christian’ persecutors, but I found my confidence in organised religion again through the university’s Christian Union. That process of remaining anchored to my Christian faith was all thanks to those CSSM beach mission experiences.
I wonder how my life would have changed if I had resigned from the Young Unionists in the late 1970s and joined the YCL instead? Dad ran for Westminster, council, the Northern Ireland Forum and Northern Ireland Assembly in his political career. He only lost one election in that political career - the 1983 Westminster General Election against Paisley senior in North Antrim.
Imagine the ballot papers if I had joined the YCL - J Coulter, Communist Party; R Coulter, Ulster Unionist Party! That would have sparked some debate on the hustings! I strongly suspect that given dad’s debating skills, he would have won.
But I will always be grateful to those Seventies CSSM beach missions for keeping me spiritually on the so-called ‘straight and narrow’.
Let’s hope the beach missions become as popular again as the current Bible weeks and summer schemes which many Christian places of worship now organise in this post pandemic society.
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| Follow Dr John Coulter on Twitter @JohnAHCoulter Listen to commentator Dr John Coulter’s programme, Call In Coulter, every Saturday morning around 10.15 am on Belfast’s Christian radio station, Sunshine 1049 FM. Listen online. |
I don't understand how Dr Coulter getting a President's badge caused such controversy in his father's church. I was forced to get both the President's and the Queens badge and the Anglican church I went to as a child was all for it.
ReplyDeleteJonathan - thank you for taking the time to read John's piece and comment.
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