Lyrics to song "Oh, How I Love Jesus"

*Verse* 

There is a name I love to hear

I love to sing its worth

It sounds like music in my ear

The sweetest name on earth

*Chorus* 

Oh, how I love Jesus

Oh, how I love Jesus

Oh, how I love Jesus

Because He first loved me.

This song was followed by an improvised prayer from Pastor Goliday. Key phrases in his prayer continued the theme of implied thanks articulated in the preceding song ("Because He first loved me")—"Father, we thank You Lord, for all the blessings you have bestowed upon us"—and preparation for prayerful worship—"Now Lord, as we go into this service, I pray that you cleanse our hearts and our minds, that everything we say, do, sing, pray or think, be directed toward You". Reverting to communal participation, everybody then recited the Lord's Prayer in unison, at the conclusion of which Rev. Goliday remarked, "Let us all open our minds and our mouth and let us praise the Lord. Bless us choir!" This latter comment highlights the role of music for this congregation. Now moving from full congregational participation to more formal performance (that also limited participation), Rev. Goliday instructed the choir not simply to sing, but to "bless us". (It must be noted, however, that congregational participation in the form of hand clapping, exclamations, and other indications of approval, is very much expected in this context). The Clear Creek Choir Ministry responded with an upbeat Gospel piece—"Way Maker"—and thus this opening sequence, framed by music, and alternating individual or limited performance with communal performance, led into the Announcements, Devotion, and the heart of the service. Although seemingly simple, this carefully crafted sequence allowed for prayer, song, and music; improvised individual performance; congregational performances; and also more formal choral ones. In this opening sequence, then, music both frames the experience of worship, and facilitates the transition from the profane to the sacred.

The second event that I would like to consider from this service is the sermon, or "The Spoken Word" as it was listed in the church bulletin. I have chosen this second "event" not only because it is the central event in the service and thus provides a counterbalance to the initiatory nature of the sequence just examined, but also because the sermon is central to the African American Baptist service. It is in the sermon, the fulcrum of the service, that unification with the divine is most to

### **10. The Text-and-Context Sermon**

The text-and-context sermon remains today at the heart of traditional worship in the African American Baptist Church<sup>5</sup> . This genre, particularly when it moves into chant or song, is associated with a style of worship that is most often referred to as "traditional", if the speaker is from a Southern or a Southern-oriented church (*i.e.*, a church that has drawn its membership from the South, and that maintains many of the traditions of the South—the late Rev. C. L. Franklin's church in Detroit, Michigan, would be a very good example of this), or as "down-home" if the speaker is Northern. This is not, of course, to imply that all churches in the South maintain this tradition (or indeed other "down-home" traditions), yet the chanted text-and-context sermon is most common in the Deep South. Particularly when the sermon moves to chant, it is most often associated with churches that are generally also at the lower end of the socio-economic spectrum, *i.e.*, those churches that have been least influenced by the dominant culture. As Roger Abrahams has remarked (although his terminology is by now somewhat dated):

The more middle-class a black community becomes, the more its observances tend to conform to white norms (because it is whites who dictate the middle-class forms of behaviour). However, when dealing with features of lower-class or peasant behaviour [...] the manner of performance, especially of interactional expectations, is more characteristic of African performance practices. ([19], p. 33).

All evidence points to the fact that the text-and-context sermon structure, which is so favoured by African American Baptist preachers<sup>6</sup> , was brought by the colonists to the New World, where slaves were exposed to it. Here slaves adapted and reinterpreted the style, creating a uniquely African American version of what had been a primarily English cultural form. As Jeff Titon has remarked, "It may be that the sung sermon is the result of black Americans' African-based transformation of the chanted Baptist prayers and exhortations. This would clearly seem to be the case as regards the black Baptist tradition of sung and chanted prayers and sermons" ([19], p. 309). This style of sermon has received considerable scholarly attention, from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, and from early accounts (Brown 1880, quoted in [20], p. 190) to later and more comprehensive studies [19,21,22]. My

be expected.

<sup>5</sup> It is misleading, perhaps, to imagine a homogeneous African American Baptist church (as previously explored), as Baptist churches are singularly independent and many choose not even to affiliate formally with a national organisation. Nonetheless, most African American Baptist churches share basic aspects of belief and practice.

<sup>6</sup> For a discussion of such sermons by a variety of preachers see, for example, [20–25], or for earlier recorded examples from Clear Creek M.B.C., see the CD accompanying [12]. It is also, of course, true that a large number of such sermons (some chanted, some not, but totalling some seven hundred) were released on "race records" between 1925 and 1941, there are also the famous recordings of the Rev. C.L. Franklin. In addition, some labels continue to release recordings of sermons by more contemporary preachers. These find a ready audience in many African American communities, and specifically dedicated African American Gospel programs continue to broadcast them.

monograph [12] concentrated analysis on field recordings I made primarily in Mississippi and Kentucky in the 1980s and 1990s, and the reader is referred to this for more general context, as well as a more detailed consideration of the structure and development of this type of sermon. In the confines of this article, however, I would like to return to the central church community explored in that monograph—Clear Creek M. B. C.—and examine my most recent recording of a sermon there in the service under discussion, on Sunday, 4 November 2012.

While the entirety of the worship service can be interpreted as a liminal period (as defined by Van Gennep [26]), *i.e.*, a time of suspension from the profane time of everyday life into the sacred time of worship, the sermon is undeniably at the heart of this sacred time. Everything that precedes the sermon (routine announcements aside) is designed to prepare the congregation for the sermon.

Rev Goliday's sermon on Sunday, 4 November 2014, was, as is customary, preceded by a song of praise (although choral as opposed to congregational, as it had always been in my previous experience) and followed by the "Invitation to Christian Discipleship". Pastor Goliday took his place at the podium and requested that the congregation read with him "from the screen"—this admonition was repeated twice as many members (and indeed deacons) instinctively turned to their Bibles—his text, which was from Psalms 22, verses 12 through 16<sup>7</sup> . It is worth emphasising, perhaps, that almost all church members have a personal copy of the Bible which they bring to church every week. Given this (and other) congregation's emphasis upon the inerrancy of the Bible, the unchallengeable veracity of "the Word", as well as the fact that Bibles may be handed down through the generations, inscribed with details of family births, marriages, and deaths, the sheer physicality of the Bible, holding God's Word in one's hand rather than seeing it projected onto a screen, is a religious experience of an entirely different nature. In this particular instance, technology, while reducing physical distance (by bringing the large text on the screen into visibility at the back of the sanctuary), also creates distance (by removing the text from the close proximity of hand-held Bibles, to a distant projection on a large screen).

Many bulls have surrounded me,

Strong bulls like Bashan have encircled me,

They gape at me with their mouth, like a raging and roaring lion.

I am poured out like water

And my bones are out of joint.

My heart is like wax, it has melted within me.

My strength is dried up, like a pot shard

<sup>7</sup> Two large video screens were added on either side of the Baptismal Pool when the new church sanctuary was constructed in 2002. Because of the vastly increased size of the new sanctuary, the distance between the actors and the congregation had increased to such an extent that the screens were deemed necessary in order to integrate the congregation with the actors.

And my tongue cleaves to my jaws.

You have brought me to the dust of death.

For dogs have surrounded me.

The congregation of the wicked has encircled me

They pierced my hands and my feet. [18]. <sup>8</sup>

From this reading, Rev. Goliday then announced his theme: "for a very short time today I would like to talk about 'Surrounded by bulls and dogs'," and the congregation responded appropriately with verbal statements of encouragement and agreement. Then, before proceeding with his sermon, he announced that he had been asked by a member who was hospitalised to sing "I'm So Tired Lord, My Soul Need Resting". This performance revealed him to be a fine singer: his rendition was largely unmetered and melismatic for the verse, and more metered and less embellished for the chorus, and provoked considerable positive response from the congregation. After applause and several congregational "Amens" and good wishes to his hospitalised parishioner, Rev. Goliday returned to his sermon.

As is typical of the text-and-context sermon, Rev. Goliday, reiterated his theme—"Surrounded by bulls and dogs"—contextualised it within the Bible and Psalms—"this is David prophesying about the crucifixion in a psalm that begins 'My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?'"—and proceeded to contextualise it in the lives of the church members. This correlates to the "weighted-secular" factor which Davis describes ([19], pp. 61–64) and which I have also described ([12], pp. 187–90), *i.e.*, an emphasis on the worldly as opposed to the otherworldly. Moving into the body of his sermon, he stated in unmetered prose [18]:

All of us have folk in our families and in our circles, that doesn't [sic] mean us any good. An' I don't care what church you belong to, an' I don't care what denomination you belong to, there are goin' to be some folk in the congregation and in the denomination that doesn't mean you any good. So if you jump up and run trying to leave trouble, when you get where you goin', you goin' to find trouble there. That's why Paul said "every time I desire to do good, evil is always present with me". Sometime evil just follow you around. And if you're not careful, sometime evil may even be in your own heart.

<sup>8</sup> While the psalm verses appeared as I have printed them on the video screens, below is how they appear in the King James Bible, which is the version that the Clear Creek membership has used since I have known them. Psalms 22, verses 12–16: 12 Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bāshan have beset me round; 13 They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion; 14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels; 15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death; 16 For dogs have compassed me; the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me; they pierced my hands and my feet.

In the tradition of Rev. Grady McKinney, Rev. Goliday continues to "tell it like it is". Gradually, his prose became more metered and measured and he began to spin anaphoric sequences such as the following [18]:

You have to be careful how you judge other folk

You have to be careful how you look at other folk

You have to be careful what you say about other folk

You do know that as you sow, so shall you reap, don't you?

You gotta give some of this back

Oh Lord, have mercy, I'm gettin' excited [response, "Come on pastor!"], but I'm just goin' to talk a little bit.

These anaphoric sequences serve both a rhetorical poetic and an aesthetic function, particularly as articulated in relatively metered prose, but they also, of course, serve a practical purpose. In a tradition where the preacher has no printed text, where the sermon is spontaneous, the repetition (identical or varied) of the beginning of the phrase allows the preacher time to formulate the phrase's ending. A few moments later Rev. Goliday began another such sequence, but this time adding at its end the common admonition "You don't hear me!" designed to elicit greater response from the congregation, for this is an antiphonal tradition where the verbal interaction between preacher and congregants is critical.

David was surrounded by folk,

David was surrounded by folk,

And I talkin' about church folk,

That didn't mean him any good.

You don't hear me! [18].

And for much of the sermon he continued this alternation between metered and unmetered, poetry and prose, returning regularly to a reiteration of his theme. The following is typical from about mid-way through his sermon [18]:

What makes you think that because you in church nothing bad's gonna happen there?

But it has always happened in God's congregation.

You all don't hear what I'm sayin'!

And so what make you think in this wicked society that we live in, we are not goin' to have some bulls and some dogs gathered around us?

You don't hear what I'm sayin'!

See, see you got to understand the mentality of a bull.

A bull is a strong animal.

An' a bull can just about bully his way

You know what a bully is, don't you?

A bull can just bully you around.

An' I grew up on a farm, and there was a big, black Bremer bull, that if you got out there too far, he was gonna come after you because it was his territory. And sometime church folk feel like this is their territory, and they don't just necessarily want you in their territory. They will get after you.

Lord, let me hush.

Oooh!

I'm just gonna stand here awhile.

Intermittently, as is also typical, Rev. Goliday added in personal comments to individual members of the congregation, thereby both giving individuals a sense of personal investment in the sermon, and also keeping his congregants "on their toes", as it were.

Hush now, Brunel, I'm talkin'.

You and Eulastine now here carrying on a conversation.

We just havin' fun: I love 'em both and I think they love me [18].

Rev. Goliday was by now (he had been preaching for about fifteen minutes) heading towards the climax of his sermon [18].

We are caught up in a society where folk will go to church and they will lift up holy hand, and they will sing and they'll shout, an' they'll pray, an' they'll preach and they'll holler "Halleluia!", and before they out the door they lyin' on somebody.

Oh, y'all don't hear what I'm sayin'.

An' talkin' about somebody, and you think, you wonder when they supposed to be church folk , well if you go talkin' about what they did to you, you doin' the same thing they did.

So some way, if God start disciplining folk, He gonna have to discipline you too! Just because you are tellin' the truth, don't mean it's right for you to spread it. Because you could cause somebody else to stumble.

Because somebody gonna look at you and say "well if you not goin' back, I'm not goin' back either."

And the Lord said, "Woe be unto you that cause the least of these, my little ones, to stumble."

Surrounded by bulls and dogs.

See, see, see you have to be ready, Barbara.

Just because you want to treat folk nice, don't mean folk gonna treat you nice.

Just because you showing respect don't mean that everybody goin' respect you!

But how you act isn't predicated on how somebody treated you

Your salvation is your salvation alone.

Your personality is your personality.

You've one soul to take care of.

And that's yours.

The congregation was by now responding to every line the preacher delivered, and while Rev. Goliday was speaking in heightened speech, he was not establishing an intoning note, nor was he showing indications of moving towards chant. Significantly also, none of the musicians or congregants was adding musical interjections, which I would have expected at this juncture of a sermon that would move into chant. Instead, Rev. Goliday moved to the latter portion of his theme—"Surrounded by bulls and dogs" [18].

And then you got dogs.

Ooh!

The wrong dogs is [sic] just nasty.

Dogs is just flat out nasty.

They'll vomit,

You know what the Scripture says.

An' they'll return to their vomit.

Now what that means is, they'll throw up, and they'll turn right back around and eat it up.

That's just flat out nasty.

You don't hear what I'm saying.

But not only are dogs nasty, dogs are greedy.

A dog will sit there, lay there with a belly-full

And can't eat any more

An' if you start up there, they'll growl at that stuff.

They don't want you to have any.

Well you got church folk who are greedy.

You don't hear what I'm sayin'.

You got church folk who are just downright nasty!

An' they're not nice to anybody.

Folk barkin' at you, "what you want?"

Lookin' all cross-eyed at you [makes a growling sound]

And then, I wondered, now David, how can you say that you are surrounded by bulls and dogs?

He said "I am surrounded, not just by bulls, but by *strong* bulls".

And then, Deacon Thompson, I looked at that Word, and I broke it open, and I found out that when David was talkin' about bein' surrounded by bulls, he's prophesying Jesus's [sic] crucifixion.

And think about who it were that Jesus was surrounded by.

He was surrounded by the Jewish leaders of Jerusalem.

It was not the Romans who were out there hollerin' "Crucify him!"

It was the church folk!

It's not the folk in the street that makes us act like we act up.

It's us folk up in here that makes us act like that.

See here we are trustees over God's property, and somehow it gets to be our church so much so until we run other folk away.

Come on here somebody, I'm almost through.

This latter intimation ("I'm almost through") that many preachers use, is a common rhetorical device that functions to draw closer attention from the congregation because, to put it too simply perhaps, "the end is in sight".

This is not your church.

Jesus said "Upon this rock I build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."

An' even though you gonna catch some hell, he, the devil can't win.

Ain't no point in you runnin', hell gonna follow you.

But the devil can't win, all he can do is scare you.

Jesus was surrounded by bulls.

You're gonna be surrounded by bulls.

Pere you gonna be surrounded by,

An' if you ain't careful, there may even be some bulls in your family.

An' if you're not even more careful, you might even be the bull.

Y'all don't hear what I'm sayin'.

Whoo! [18].

By now (about twenty minutes into the sermon), the congregation was interjecting chanted responses, and Rev. Goliday's high-pitched "Whoo!", was at least implying a tonal centre and intoning note. Yet he did not yet move towards either tonal recitation, or full-fledged chant. The central piece of the sermon, as so often, was Jesus' crucifixion [18].

You know they were taunting Jesus.

They were sayin' "if you are really are who you say you are, come down from the cross!"

Now see that's why the Lord didn't let either one of us die for other folk's salvation

Or we would have came [sic.] down, slapped them up pretty good, went back up there and just died.

But no, He had to show humility more than I can stand.

Because I'm one, I'm a brother who would want to show you.

"What you mean?

Do you really think I can't come down, I'll show you.

I can come down!"

Y'all don't hear what I'm sayin'.

You know we all like to show folk what we can do.

We might not be supposed to do it like that, but we will do it.

It's human nature!

You just want folk to know, "no, I'm not scared.

What do you mean? I'll come down here and slap fire from you!"

But Jesus stayed right there on that cross like He was supposed to.

An' then they started sayin' stuff like "Aw, he saved others,

But himself, Whoo! He can't save."

Wow, I'm just as happy as I can be!

Rather than choosing to dwell on Jesus' suffering, endurance and humility in this passage, Rev. Goliday by reiterating that he himself could not show such restraint ("I'll come down here and slap fire from you!"), both creates a series of vivid vignettes for his congregation, and identifies himself with the vagaries of human nature ("You know we all like to show folk what we can do"), thereby also reinforcing that he is a strong individual, and someone not to be "messed with", essential qualities for a successful leader.

Following on this passage, Rev. Goliday returned to the theme of dogs, more unmetered prose, and articulated some of the key vices that Christianity and this church community, in particular, abhor: having already touched on gluttony, he now warned the members against idleness, jealousy, and such obvious evils as gambling, before admonishing them that they should be grateful and thank God for what they already have. He then continued [18]:

By now they were taunting Jesus.

Gambling.

You know you got folk lookin' at what you got.

Gamblin' at the casino

Folk who won't properly apply what they have.

[…]

If you know God have been good to you

Your family and your friends that are not saved

Instead of telling them the bad things about Clear Creek, you should be telling them about the good things

An' when you get there [Clear Creek], instead of waiting for somebody to fire you up, you ought to be fired up for Jesus

Not worrying about who's looking at you

But you oughta be ready to lift up holy hand

Maybe you didn't have everything you thought you should have had

But God blessed you with something

And you ought to tell Him "Thank you"

Whoo!

At this juncture in his sermon, the Rev. Goliday began running around the platform on which the podium is elevated, thus signalling his excitement or almost ecstasy. The keyboard player joined in on the electric organ, and members of the congregation began to chant responses. By this point, the sermon had moved to that mysterious realm where believers hold that the Holy Spirit has taken command of the preacher's voice and is speaking through him<sup>9</sup> . Significantly, however, in contrast to his predecessor, Rev. Grady McKinney (see, in particular [12], pp. 197–204; [17], track 9), Rev, Goliday did not develop an elaborate sung structure. Certainly, his text became more personal and more metered, and he moved into heightened speech, but he did not develop any very elaborate melodic contours (and this I found somewhat surprising for such a confident singer). His interjected exclamation "Whoo!" was, from this point on, however always sung. He then continued [18]:

See I don't know about you, but sometime on Sunday morning I can't hardly stay in the bed

I'm sittin' there at my counter in the kitchen, an' I'm readin' and I'm prayin'

Just waitin' until daylight comes, so I can start getting' ready to get here

Cause I can praise God by myself,

But when I get where all of God's folk are,

An' I see lifted up hands,

An' I see tear-filled eyes,

An' I see hallelujas

<sup>9</sup> There exists a wide variety of valuable writing on this area of belief, *i.e.*, that the Holy Spirit can be physically manifest in the Service, but detailed discussion of this literature is beyond the scope of this article. The reader is referred, however, to [23] for readings from a wide variety of perspectives and [24,25] and [27–29], referenced at the end of this article. For a variety of readings on African American church music and worship, the reader is additionally directed to [30], especially sections IV and VII.

Even though I'm goin' through what I'm goin' through

I know that everything is gonna be alright, because the God we serve is just good like that

He just good like that

And then when I look at my little ugly self, Caroline

An' I see how God still love me

I still make some mistakes, but He never cast me aside.

I'm gonna hush…

But He's been good to me

See I don't know what God have done for you Deborah, but He's been good to me.

Out of all of my mishaps

Whoo!

See if there's anyone here that thinks you're not good enough to be saved

Every now and then come talk to me

An' let me tell you my story,

Let me tell you where God brought me from

How God blessed me.

The door is open

This statement—"The door is open"—signalled that Rev. Goliday was effectively moving to the next "event" in the service, *i.e.*, the Invitation to Christian Discipleship" when all in attendance (but most especially sinners, or backsliders) are invited to come forward and embrace Jesus as their personal saviour, dedicating themselves to Him. It was, nonetheless, evident that Rev. Goliday was folding the sermon into the invitation to discipleship, eliding the separation between them and thus, as is not uncommon, building the climax of his sermon into the salvation of souls. Thus, he continued both preaching and exhorting [18]:

And if you can't think of anything else, you can say He died for me

He went in the grave for me An' three days later, He rose for me He rose for you, By yourself, Just like you are The door is open The door is open If there is one here I don't care what condition you are See there is folk here Who are tryin' to wait 'til they get their lives right You don't need to try to wait You come to Jesus just like you are God will accept you when it seem like there is no way You come to Jesus just like you are The door is open God will love you when it seem like there is no love. Come to Jesus

You remember that hymn, "Just Like I Am"?

The standard title for this hymn is "Just As I Am" and it features regularly in African American Baptist worship, emphasizing as it does the virtues of humility, obedience, a sense of one's own wretchedness, and the salvation that is possible in the Lord. As I have remarked elsewhere ([12], pp. 131–32), preachers who do not move into full-fledged chant (but very well may move into heightened speech at the climax of their sermons) will generally introduce a religious song, particularly an old favourite, into the sermon. The song title may simply be mentioned, as here, or as we will see later, it may actually be performed by the preacher (with the congregation joining in or not, depending on the occasion and spirit in the church) as part of the sermon. In either case, this introduction of music into the sermon almost inevitably draws further intensity from the congregation and may often result in some members of the congregation being inspired (possessed) by the Holy Spirit.

God wlll take you just like you are Folk will make you think you not good enough Folk will make you think you not ready yet But God says, that's when God says "Come as you are" He's not talkin' about your clothes I know you a drunkard, but come on anyhow I know you a smoke dope, but come on anyhow I know you a big liar, but come on anyhow "I know you a back biter", He said, "but come on in anyhow."

An' with the love of Jesus

Jesus get in your heart, all of those habits will start to dissipate [18].

As is clear from the preceding transcription, Rev. Goliday was still employing many of the structural characteristics of the chanted sermon: anaphoric sequences, repetition, personal mention, *etc.*, but he was also using "signal mode" for the "Invitation to Discipleship" by regular insertion of the phrase "the door is open". At this juncture also, he began to move, significantly, out of the sacred space that is the preaching locus of the podium, coming down from the elevated platform on which it is set, and gradually moving out into the sanctuary, exhorting and also physically embracing members of the congregation. While thus expanding, and yet democratizing the physical space that he inhabits, from elevated leadership role at the pulpit, lending his speech organs to the Holy Spirit who speaks through him; to the lowered, democratic space of the sanctuary, Rev. Goliday signalled his return, if not to the secular, certainly to the human realm, thereby transforming the space that he inhabits and aligning it with that of his church membership. His speech also began to wind down, becoming slower, with longer gaps between lines, and his language became more colloquial and personal.

The door is open

The door is open

Come to Jesus, just like you are Sometime folk will make fun of you They made fun of Jesus Talkin' about Jesus, they made fun of Jesus So it's no, it's no different They gonna make fun of you Some of your friends or your buddies, they gonna say "Man, girl, I wouldn't have gone there" Well, maybe not But you remember, God, our God says "If you will, then I will" Sometime And God is not gonna change His standard for us, but He will accept you just as you are. Come to Jesus, just like you are. No matter who you are, what your condition is, Come to Jesus! [18].

At this point, one woman came forward to dedicate herself to Jesus (shepherded by one of the Mothers of the church), occasioning applause from the congregation and a break in the sermon. Rev. Goliday welcomed the woman in standard prose, before interjecting his sung "whoo!", and then launching into full-fledged song. This he performed in very elaborate, melismatic and unmetered song, further reinforcing the relationship between music and the presence or the invocation of the divine [18].

God bless you, we glad to have you

[Song]: "There is so much that the Lord have done for me,

[Spoken interjection] That's my personal testimony!

"When I was a sinner He set me free, Yes He did

All of my burdens, He helped me to bear

And all of my sorrow, He helped me to share

And I can't pay the Lord, but oh-oh I can tell Him, "Thank yo' Sir"

Through all of your sorrow you ought to tell the Lord

Whoo!

Thank yo'"

Following on the song, Rev. Goliday reverted to chant, and then to heightened speech as he referred back to his theme—surrounded (by bulls and dogs) [18].

I'm gonna hush, but God have been good to me

He been good to me

I'm only talkin' about Goliday, but He been good to me

Surrounded [heightened speech], but God made me a promise

He said "I'll never leave you, nor will I forsake you".

So remember no matter what you goin' through

The Holy Spirit, He's right there with you through it all

Interestingly, at this juncture, where one might expect him to have called up the Andrae Crouch Gospel composition, "Through it All", Rev. Goliday instead returned to normal speech, presumably having decided that it was time to end his sermon rather than launch into another climax.

Through it all, through it all God bless you May God keep you God have been good to me

So you oughta know, no matter what you goin' through

God is right there with you

There might be some things that you can't tell folk because they couldn't deal with it

But don't be ashamed to admit that God have brought about a change in your life

Don't ever be ashamed to admit that

Because we all need the Lord

Don't ever be ashamed to admit that

Amen

Amen [18].

Thus, having concluded his sermon, even while eliding it into the Invitation to Christian Discipleship, Rev. Goliday proceeded to an "unannounced" (but not unusual) section, *i.e.*, extending the "Right Hand of Fellowship" to a man and a woman who had requested to transfer their membership to Clear Creek M.B.C., and to the woman who had come forward during the sermon who requested that she be re-Baptised. Thereafter, the service concluded as might be expected, with the slight alteration that Rev. Goliday moved the Benediction from the end of the service to before the Ministry of Giving, and Offetory Prayer. This he did in order that those who might have to leave after Holy Communion would not thereby miss the Benediction.
