The plastic binders were a classier way to store them, but some of us simply threw our teaching tapes in boxes.
I had boxes of them. Perhaps you did as well.
We would go to those huge Christian music festivals on Pennsylvania dairy farms — back when the headlining speakers had equal billing with headlining musicians — and come back with bags and bags of the things. Heck, people would set up booths vending tapes for speakers who weren’t even appearing at the event; such was the hunger to collect and listen.
In the land before live streaming of church services, sermons on demand, and podcasts, this was how you immersed yourselves in the tapes of your favorite Bible teacher and introduced his (or her) core message to your friends.
I got to thinking of this today because the Saturday Brunch column at Internet Monk mentioned a series that Michael Newnham is running on the history of Calvary Chapel. (I’ve stolen that and reproduced it at the end of this article.) I had a friend who owned the complete — don’t know how many hundred — set of Chuck Smith preaching his way through the entire Bible. The things came in large wooden cases and covered an area larger than a pool table.
He was moving and I had hoped that I would be the beneficiary of that move, but instead another mutual acquaintance was gifted them.
For years, that really bothered me.
Today, I would have nothing to play them on. There’s one cassette player left in the house and it’s not going to last much longer. Besides, I have moved on to other teachers and doctrinal perspectives.
However, it makes me wish that Chuck Smith had committed himself to books, instead of to the fad of the day, audio cassettes. While I’m sure that these messages have been transferred to mp3 files, there’s something permanent about a book. (In the same way I wish my dad had developed his film into prints, instead of slides; just like you’ll wish something similar when all your children’s pictures are only fit for devices which disappear off the consumer electronics shelves.)
It’s hard to believe right now, but it’s possible that before long the term “internet” will come to mean something quaint or ancient. A lot of teaching content has been uploaded in forms that the future may render obsolete.
Sometimes people would trade teaching tapes the way one might trade expensive, collector’s baseball cards. I like that because it placed a value on the teaching. Or we would simply share them with friends back home unable to make it to the event.
And don’t miss the aside comment in the second paragraph, above. The teachers really did receive equal billing to the musicians. We drove those miles in the camper or station wagon because we were looking forward to the sermons we would hear along with the concerts we would here. Equally.
I can honestly say I was truly changed by some of those teachings.
Calvary Chapel story referenced above, as listed at today’s Internet Monk:
Thinking Out Loud 
Thirty-two years later I still remember an Australian preacher, John Smith, who was the keynote speaker at England’s Greenbelt Festival that year. He was speaking on the fatherhood of God, and asked us to consider how the image of God as father affected someone whose came from an abusive or dysfunctional family setting. Powerful stuff.
Comment by Lorne Anderson — September 1, 2018 @ 10:53 am
When we mived west, i found an unopenned box that contained cassettes of Pastor Mulligan. I wish i had a tape deck
Comment by Ralph juthman — September 1, 2018 @ 4:02 pm
They’re always available in thrift shops, but take a cassette with you so you know it’s working.
Comment by paulthinkingoutloud — September 1, 2018 @ 5:37 pm
Chuck’s teachings were turned into books, and the manuscripts of his teachings are also available for free in PDF.
Comment by nickcady — December 22, 2018 @ 9:28 pm