Southern Baptist Convention - Kum Ba Yah (Come By Here)

Topic: Kumbaya 1955-1961
Membership in the American Camping Association (ACA) grew after World War II, with much of it coming from church groups. [1]  In Michigan, a third of the camps, which existed in 1974, that were accredited between 1947 and 1958 were religious. [2]  No doubt there were more that did not seek ACA approval. [3]

The Michigan camps represented a variety of sponsors from Detroit’s Roman Catholic Youth Organization [4] and Ann Arbors’s Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship [5] to Baptists, [6] Calvinists, [7] Methodists, [8] and Mennonites. [9] [10]  Presumable staff members of some of the camps purchased copies of the ACA’s 1958 songbook, Let’s All Sing that contained “Kum Ba Yah.” [11]  This allowed the song to spread beyond the confines of the Methodist church that originally sponsored the song and its publisher.

The Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention included a version of “Kum Ba Yah” the next year, 1959, in its Songs for Fun and Fellowship.  They used the CRS text, but provided a four-part chord arrangement by William Reynolds. [12]  This made it one of the first versions to include a piano accompaniment.

David Music notes that the church was broadening its interest in music in the 1950s, but it had few available composers who could write hymns in contemporary styles.  Reynold filled the vacuum and became “the most influential Southern Baptist church musician in the second half of the twentieth century.” [13]

The church apparently also did not have many resources for children’s music.  Twenty-five of the thirty-one secular songs were published by CRS by this time; twelve of the twenty-five were in Let’s All Sing.  The others included a nineteenth century popular song with Irish themes, [14] and ones like “Michael Finnigan” and “Mistress Shady” that CRS did not encourage.

Nine of the twenty-four religious songs were spirituals, while “One More River” was a humorous description of Noah’s ark.  The book also may have introduced “I Have Decided To Follow Jesus,” which Music credited to Reynolds. [15]

Performers
Vocal Group: four part chords
Instrumental Accompaniment: piano arrangement

Credits
Arranged by Peter Gregory.  Arrangement © Copyright 1959, Broadman Press.

From Hymns of Universal Praise copyright Cooperative Recreation Service, Inc., 1956, Delaware, Ohio.  Used by permission.

[At this time, CRS was using the Hymns of Universal Praise copyright for the song.]

Notes on Lyrics
Language: English
Pronunciation: no comment

Verses: those published by Cooperative Recreation Service (CRS) – kumbaya, crying, singing, praying

Pronoun: someone
Term for Deity: Lord
Basic Form: four-verse song
Verse Repetition Pattern: none
Unique Features: none

Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5; same melody as that published by CRS
Time Signature: 3/4
Key Signature: three flats
Basic Structure: strophic repetition

Singing Style: one syllable to one note, except for final “Lord;” alto occasionally sings two notes

Vocal-Accompaniment Dynamics: four-part chords change on every syllable

Notes on Performance
Cover: none oval balloons with bows underneath to suggest heads with bow ties; ovals at different heights; title at top

Color Scheme: green and black ink on dark yellow paper

Notes on Audience
Two more volumes were published in 1961 [16] and 1969. [17]  They must have popular, because versions of all three are available on Abe Books, Amazon, and eBay.

Notes on Performers
William Jensen Reynolds edited Songs for Fun and Fellowship and arranged “Kum Ba Yah.”  He was the son and nephew of singers, and both his parents graduated from Moody Bible Institute. [18]  He earned degrees in church music from Southwestern Baptist Theological School and North Texas State College. [19]

After graduation in 1946, he spent nine years workings as a minister specializing in music and youth in Oklahoma and Texas.  During this period, he established a summer music camp for the First Baptist Church of Oklahoma City.  He also served on the committee that produced the 1956 Baptist Hymnal. [20] [21]

Reynolds went to work as music editor for the Sunday School Board in 1955, and remained there until the purges that followed the conservative takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention in 1979. [22]  Music says: “the reasons for his mandatory retirement are not entirely clear, but were a result of internal issues at the Board.”  Reynolds returned to teach at Southwestern Seminary until he retired in 1998.  He died in 2009. [23]

Cecil McGee co-edited Songs for Fun and Fellowship.  He was raised in Oklahoma, and received a master’s degree from Southwestern Theological Seminary.  He was the man on the Sunday School Board who encouraged the group that produced the first Baptist musical, Good News. [24]  He later built a retreat in Titusville, Florida, and died in 2007. [25]

Availability
Songbook: “Kum Ba Yah (Come Ba Here).”  47 in Songs for Fun and Fellowship #1, edited by William J. Reynolds and Cecil McGee.  Nashville, Tennessee: Broadman Press, 1959.

End Notes
1.  Item on Elmer Ott in “A History of ACA Presidents and Board Chairs.”  American Camp Association website; based on Eleanor Fell’s History of Organized Camping: The First 100 Years.  Martinsville, Indiana: American Camping Association, 1986.

2.  See the post for 28 Mary 2023 for more details on the sample of camps.

3.  A camp does not need accreditation from the ACA to operate.  Many 4-H and church camps I knew about in the 1950s and 1970s were not accredited, because the name of the sponsoring organization was sufficient for parents.

4.  CYO Camp for Boys.
5.  Cedar Campus.
6.  Michigan Baptist General Conference’s Center Lake Bible Camp.

7.  Church of Christ’s Michigan Christian Youth Camp; Maumee Valley, Ohio, Presbyterians’ Premauca Education Center.

8.  The Methodist Church’s Wesley Woods; Free Methodist’s Covenant Cove Camp.
9.  Friedenswald.
10.  I could not find the affiliation for Blair Lake Bible Camp, although it still exists.
11.  Let’s All Sing is discussed in the post for 4 June 2023.

12.  Reynolds used the name Peter Gregory. [26]

13.  David W. Music.  “William J. Reynolds: Extraordinary Church Musician.”  Artistic Theologian website, 15 November 2013.

14.  “Sweet Rosie O’Grady” was written for vaudeville by Maude Nugent in 1896.  In 1946, she unsuccessfully sued 20th Century Fox for misappropriating the title. [27]

15.  “I Have Decided to Follow Jesus.”  53 in Songs for Fun and Fellowship.  Stanzas 1 and 2 as sung by the Garo Christians; stanza 3 by John Clark; folk song from India arranged by William J. Reynolds; copyrighted in 1959 by Broadman Press.

16.  Songs for Fun and Fellowship #2, edited by William Jensen Reynolds and Cecil McGee.  Nashville, Tennessee: Broadman Press, 1961.

17.  Songs for Fun and Fellowship #3, edited by Cecil McGee and Bob Oldenburg.  Nashville, Tennessee: Broadman Press, 1969.

18.  Moody Bible Institute was founded in Chicago in 1886 at the behest of Dwight Lyman Moody to train Christian teachers, ministers, missionaries, and musicians to work in cities. [28]  It has been mentioned as an alma mater or employer in posts for 27 September 2017, 19 December 2018, 2 August 2020, and 11 December 2022.

19.  Music.

20.  Southern Baptist Convention.  Baptist Hymnal, edited by W. Hines Sims.  Nashville, Tennessee: Convention Press, 1956.

21.  Music.
22.  “Southern Baptist Convention.”  Wikipedia website; accessed 7 June 2023.
23.  Music.
24.  Good News is discussed in the post for 13 December 2020.

25.  Obituary for Cecil L. McGee.  Star-Telegram, Fort Worth, Texas, 11 April 2007; reprinted on Legacy website.  I assume he also was forced out in 1979, although that is not stated in the obituary.

26.  “Carols Sing.”  Copyright Encyclopedia website.

27.  James J.  Fuld.  The Book of World-Famous Music.  New York: Dover Publications, 2000 edition.  343-345.

28.  “Moody Bible Institute.”  Wikipedia website; accessed 8 June 2023.