A special new collector’s CD from Third Way Media includes recordings of three archival Mennonite Hour radio programs by B. Charles Hostetter and David Augsburger.

The CD, Invitation: Classic Hymns of Revival and Mission, features 25 musical recordings from the original Mennonite Hour a cappella singers.

The album compiler, John Horst, a quartet bass for The Mennonite Hour from 1956-1963 notes, “Witness, invitation and proclamation of the gospel message were themes that permeated the Mennonite Hour radio broadcast which aired from the early 50s to the late 70s. These themes were never high pressure or confrontational, but personal and invitational.” 

Horst hosts a weekly “Mostly Mennonite, Mostly A Cappella” radio program on the local Eastern Mennonite University station, WEMC, in which he uses music from the old Mennonite Hour programs. Horst is often asked “What did the original Mennonite Hour programs sound like?”

For this album, Horst and Third Way Media staff researched archives of Mennonite Hour programs (collection at the Mennonite Archives, Goshen College, Ind.) and chose three illustrative programs to include on a separate bonus CD which comes free with the purchase of the music CD.

Sermons on the bonus CD feature the voices of speaker B. Charles Hostetter and announcer Norman Derstine from 1961 (both deceased); and speaker David Augsburger and announcer Richard Weaver from 1966 and 1971.

Musical selections on the CD include “Open the Wells of Salvation,” “God is Waiting,” “I Will Arise and Go to Jesus,” “The Love of God,” “In Times Like These,” and many more.  More information is available at store.ThirdWayMedia.org or 800-999-3534. Third Way Media is a ministry of Mennonite Mission Network.