In 21st century America, church is almost always a private club where the biblically illiterate worship something – not Jesus – that might be best described as “Americhrist”. Songs about church, as opposed to songs about the gospel, make me wary. A lot of “Church, the way it used to be” songs have been co-opted by the Americhrist crowd. They talk about an old-fashioned preacher, and how close everybody was – a club.

This, too, is a song about church the way it used to be, but anybody listening to the lyrics would never mistake the church described here for today’s American church.

This is The Bluegrass Album Band – J.D. Crowe, Tony Rice, Doyle Lawson, Bobby Slone, and Todd Phillips – with “The Model Church”.