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In 1954, a young pastor, Alvin Rueter, well-settled at his second parish in California, accepted the call to form a new Lutheran congregation in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Together, Alvin and his wife, Beulah, developed strategies to publicize and grow this fledgling parish. This was a time of new communications technology, but they passed up the allure of television in favor of an electronic medium that was better-established — radio.
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Alvin and Beulah Rueter
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Within a year, Alvin and Beulah began a radio program of sacred music on an FM station.
"To survive, radio had to be transformed, and many stations chose to become a music box with a friendly voice," recalls Alvin. "In going house to house inviting people to our church, I ran across the head of the department of radio and TV at the University of Tulsa. I told him I'd decided to become a disc jockey with sacred music, and he suggested I try out the idea on the university's station."
From the beginning, Alvin recognized the usefulness of selecting music with a thematic focus. "Like other DJs, I tried to keep my remarks to a minimum. But unlike others, I wanted my talking to add up to an important message. So having a theme helped those minimal announcements, in tandem with the music, achieve a unified impact."
But, not surprisingly, before long it was a stretch to find meaningful themes that could be expressed through the available music. At that pivotal moment, Alvin settled on one of Sing For Joy's defining traits: using Western Christendom's "common lectionary" — a specific, predictable schedule of scriptural readings — as the basis for Sing For Joy and the music it presents through the weekly themes of the church year.
In recent years, the lectionary has been adopted by a larger and larger circle of interdenominational church bodies, including Roman Catholic, Episcopal, Methodist, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Mennonite, Disciples of Christ and Congregational churches. By some accounts, the lectionary is now the basis for worship in the services attended by the majority of churchgoers in America. Sing For Joy, in turn, presents musical works that give voice to the scriptural texts designated for each week.
In 2002, Sing For Joy marked the end of an era: Rev. Rueter, who had recently celebrated his 81st birthday, announced his decision to retire from his role as Sing For Joy's host and producer. Early on, it was acknowledged that Alvin was irreplaceable. Working closely with St. Olaf College, he helped choose the accomplished members of the college community who, beginning with the Advent broadcasts in 2002, would carry on his legacy.
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Bruce Benson, Jeffrey O'Donnell
and John Ferguson
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Listeners from divergent backgrounds appreciate Sing For Joy and what it brings them for a multitude of reasons. Certainly, plenty of churchgoers feel that the program complements their weekly worship experience. And many church musicians express their appreciation for the insights and leads the program provides. But the program also clearly appeals to listeners from backgrounds transcending the kind of Christian orientation one might expect. That breadth of appeal speaks to Sing For Joy's unique presentation of Scripture-based music and related commentary in an engaging, personable and consequential way.
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