by Steve | Nov 5, 1987 | Archive - 1987
Archive: Why Not Cooperate With Billy Graham?
by J.L. Penfold
The report of the Billy Graham Crusade held July 17-26 at Mile High Stadium in Denver, Colorado, fairly glows with balanced, holistic ministry. It exceeded every expectation. Following years of planning, the crusade consisted of 10 days of evangelism and social outreach. The challenge was laid down that this outreach continue. One could easily be reminded in those crusade days of John Wesley and his followers changing a nation and sweeping a new continent with just such a total Gospel message.
My wife and I attended the Billy Graham School of Evangelism held in conjunction with the crusade. On the second day of that event a clergywoman from our annual conference approached us and asked, “Where are the United Methodists? They are missing a great week.” Indeed they were. Of 1,200 persons enrolled for the school, eight were United Methodists from the Rocky Mountain Annual Conference.
Further evidence of United Methodist coolness toward the Graham crusade was seen in an analysis of group delegation attendance. Of major denominations, the United Methodists had the fewest churches active in the crusade. When approached about this, Rev. Richard Gilbert, assistant to Denver United Methodist Bishop Roy Sano, responded, “Billy Graham is a fine evangelist, but he’s not specifically United Methodist, so the conference office has not endorsed (the crusade). The churches, however, are free to become involved” (Rocky Mountain News, Monday, July 27).
There are a number of ironies in the tepidness of the Rocky Mountain Annual Conference toward the Billy Graham Crusade. We think of ourselves as avant garde in such matters as ecumenicity. For example, in 1986 we employed the leadership of Jewish Rabbi Stephen Foster, an annual conference preacher. Obviously Rabbi Foster is not a United Methodist, or even a Christian, and would probably be insulted to be mistaken for either. But in the name of ecumenicity we gave him the power of the annual conference pulpit. How strange that we should then turn around and say we will not endorse the Graham crusade since Billy is not a United Methodist.
The second irony is that leaders in our annual conference have recently been speaking much more about evangelism. It seems a proper emphasis in a conference that has lost more than 20,000 members in the past two decades. But when the Graham crusade team came to the Denver area and began to train persons in the practical skills of one-to-one evangelism, United Methodists kept them and the whole event at arm’s length in most cases.
The third irony is perhaps the saddest, for it makes personal the statistics that record United Methodist decline. The chairman of the Rocky Mountain Billy Graham Crusade, Howard Kast, worshiped in a local United Methodist Church until recently. Howard Kast was a lifelong Methodist. In 1965 Billy Graham led an earlier crusade in Denver. One of those who responded to Billy’s invitational to receive Christ at that crusade was Howard Kast. Howard, chairman of his Methodist church’s administrative board and a new Christian, went home to share his new vision for the church.
Many of his fellow laity caught Howard’s excitement, but his pastor was stand-offish and threatened. After years of seeking renewal in their local church and finding little support from the pastoral leadership, the Kasts began to worship in another denomination. In the early 80s they felt God was leading them back to their United Methodist Church. In 1985 when the Graham crusade was being planned, the Kasts were seriously considering rejoining that United Methodist Church. Meanwhile, Howard had been offered and had accepted the chairmanship of the crusade. In that capacity he sought the United Methodist pastor’s support in the crusade effort. The results were much the same as those 20 years earlier. The pastoral leadership offered no encouragement or assistance, and the Kasts now worship in another denomination. It is almost humorous that our denomination was the least involved in the crusade while the crusade chairman was, until recently, a lifelong Methodist.
What lies ahead for an annual conference that operates in this manner in a denomination in decline in almost every quarter? It seems clear that God has not yet given up on the people called United Methodists. He is coming to us so obviously in modern day prophets with names like Wilke and Willimon and Wilson. If we will put words into action, then United Methodism could play a key role in the national revival many believe God is poised to bring.
But if we do not, then the mainstream will pass us by and leave us on a side eddy. Our Lord Himself spoke of what happens to fig trees that bear no fruit and to branches that abide not in the true Vine. Wesley said, “Give me one hundred preachers who fear nothing but sin and desire nothing but God and I’ll take England.” Among Wesley’s descendants, do one hundred like that remain?
Rev. J. L. Penfold is pastor of Alger Memorial United Methodist Church in Eaton, Colorado, and he serves on the Good News Board.
by Steve | Sep 10, 1987 | Archive - 1987
Archive: Maintenance An Obsession, Hunter Charges
by Sara L. Anderson in Upland, Indiana
“Most churches would grow if they spent even half the time and energy on outreach that they spend on maintenance,” George Hunter, dean and professor of church growth at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Ky., told United Methodists gathered for the annual Good News convocation.
Speaking to a group of 600 at Taylor University in Upland, Ind., Hunter said that United Methodist membership is declining partly because ineffective church leaders do not deploy their people effectively.
“A pastor visiting unchurched people in the community will attract more people into the faith than will a pastor spending priority time and energy on meetings, judicatory matters and ecclesiastical chores.” he said. “Hire a new staff person for counseling members. Deploy volunteers in outreach and you will grow; deploy them in maintenance and ‘good church work’ and you will decline.”
But the problem is much deeper than the operation of the local church. Hunter charged that the denomination continues to use an archaic geographic pattern of placing ministers instead of sending them to potential growth areas. Early Methodism “had a goal of placing a church in every county in the U.S.A.,” he said. “And we substantially succeeded, but at that success we declared the victory ‘won,’ and the church planting era to be past—at the very same time that the population shift to the cities called for a new strategy of planting churches and deploying clergy in great numbers across our cities.” While the population of the U.S. by the year 2000 will be 80% urban and 20% rural. Hunter added, 80% of UM churches are located in rural areas and 20% in the urban areas as they were in 1900 when the country was predominantly rural.
Hunter also revealed some startling statistics from a study he’d done of North American denominations and their mission forces. Of the 30 denominations studied, United Methodism ranks 28 in per capita overseas missionaries. While the Christian and Missionary Alliance Church heads the list with a ratio of one missionary for every 139 members, the United Methodist Church supports one missionary for every 18,206 members.
This indicates, Hunter said, that the UMC is not serious about a world agenda. He also stated that the missionary ratio correlates with growth or decline. The denominations increasing their mission forces are growing in general. “Do you suppose the Lord blesses the churches that obey the Great Commission?” he asked.
Rousing applause followed UM evangelist Ed Robb’s statement later during the convocation that “We need a new generation of leaders—bold, strong, faithful to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.” And, he added, “We have not been called by God to preside over the decline of the United Methodist Church!”
Robb listed a number of things evangelicals within the church must say “no” to:
- changing God language,
- the politicalization of the church,
- proclaiming sociology as orthodoxy
- vast bureaucracies unresponsive to the vast majority of members,
- a Council of Bishops “that refuses to give leadership when an annual conference defies church law and the expressed will of General Conference, but insists on speaking prophetically to the church on subjects on which they have no expertise.”
But he also concluded with a big “yes” to renewal within the United Methodist Church. “Time and time again God has renewed His church,” Robb said. “My commitment is not tentative.” he added. “If anyone is going to leave. let the liberals leave. We will be faithful. Revival shall come!”
An unusual twist to this year’s meeting was the presence of Public Broadcasting System television cameras filming for a special on religion in America. As part of that program, which may be aired this winter. PBS correspondent Bill Moyers interviewed Ed Robb, and other reporters talked with conferees.
In another special event, Riley B. Case. Good News board member and district superintendent for the Marion, Indiana district, was awarded a doctor of divinity degree from Taylor University, his alma mater.
Bill Hinson, pastor of First United Methodist in Houston, the largest UM church in America, offered three addresses. Preaching on Daniel’s conflicts with Nebuchadnezzar, Hinson said that taking heat and experiencing tribulation was a part of life. “Where do we come off believing everybody ought to like us?” he asked. “We are followers of Christ who suffered.”
In addition to Hinson, pastor of the largest UM church in the U.S., Dr. Sundo Kim, pastor of the largest Methodist Church in the world, was in attendance at the convocation. Though not on the program, Dr. Kim, senior minister of the Kwang Lim Methodist Church in Seoul, Korea, a church of more than 23,000 members, brought brief greetings to the convocation.
Jack Williams, pastor of Stockwell United Methodist Church. Stockwell, Ind., did the morning Bible studies in the book of James, and UM evangelist Barbara Brokhoff cautioned against double-mindedness in the Christian life. “You can’t have it both ways,” she admonished. “You cannot live like the devil and have people think you’re like Christ.”
Retired Bishop Roy Nichols, who is currently assigned to a church-wide project for local church revitalization, said the church may look successful with job security, educated clergy and other benefits, but “we have produced great thunderclouds with little rain.” The bishop pointed to a lack of humility, antinomianism and poorly defined pluralism as reasons for the denomination’s difficulty. To succeed, the bishop said, the UMC must make children’s and youth ministries a priority and be a church that cares for its people.
Music for the three-day convocation was provided by Bill Mann, “the golden voice of Methodism,” and Albin Whitworth, associate professor of church music and organist for Asbury Theological Seminary. Patty Heinlein directed the children’s program and youth ministers Jorge Acevedo and Hule Goddard led the youth program.
by Steve | Sep 8, 1987 | Archive - 1987
Archive: A Look At The People’s Bishop
By Randy Petersen
In a United Methodist church in the heart of Pennsylvania, Bishop Felton May knelt in a prayer of repentance. He had invited his people to join him on this Ash Wednesday at Beaver Memorial Church in Lewisburg, and more than 400 did. Thousands of others throughout the Central Pennsylvania and Wyoming Conferences took part in prayer vigils and services in their own churches.
The bishop issued a 10-point call to repentance for the occasion (see below), confessing shortcoming such as “failure to grieve over the loss of members” and “failure to allow our daughters and sons to hear and answer the call of God to ministry.” At the top of the list was “being an unconverted church trying to convert an unconverted world.”
He doesn’t mince words. In just three years as bishop, May has gained a reputation as a man of action, a strong leader who inspires his people to do more than they had thought possible.
“He expects the best from himself and brings out the best in those around him,” says Gerald Wagner, who directs communications for the Central Pennsylvania Conference. “You walk away from a meeting with him, knowing he’s asked you to do something impossible, but you also know you’ll do it and do it well.”
In his first year as bishop, 1984-85, May gave himself the challenges of visiting every pastor in the two conferences he administers and sitting down with the people in each charge for a brief give-and-take session. The 13 districts in Central Pennsylvania and the neighboring Wyoming Valley include more than 1,200 churches with a combined membership of more than a quarter million. Throughout that first year, the bishop conducted his whirlwind tour, stopping for 15 minutes at a time in the various churches.
At each site, he would ask three questions: (1) If I were a new person in this community, how would you describe your church to me? (2) Does your church have a future, and what are you doing to ensure this future? (3) What questions do you have for me?
Anywhere from five to seventy showed up at the different locations. The tall black bishop would fire his questions and lean forward to listen to the answers, peering attentively through his wire-framed glasses. It was a leadership style he would become known for: being a listener. “He’s good at allowing people to speak, and then directing that,” says one pastor. “He is open and fair, but he won’t let himself be walked on. He will hear all sides and then set a course.”
What did the bishop learn from his first-year scouting expedition? “I learned that the local church is healthier than I first believed. In spite of what is generally thought, local churches are indeed in ministry in the name of Christ in their communities. That’s a broad statement, but this experience gave me a sense of hope which I would not have had if I hadn’t seen things for myself. There are mission and ministry efforts going on, and hundreds of thousands of instances where the name of Jesus is named and a cup of cold water is given.”
But there were needs that became apparent too. “I also learned that there were unchurched people in the community, and I began to discern why local churches are not reaching them,” the bishop explained. “People feel vulnerable in sharing their faith stories. We as an annual conference have not moved programmatically to strengthen them in this regard. People are reticent to be Christ’s models in the community; they are not willing to be different.”
The strengthening of the laity has become one of May’s major themes. The year after his own massive visitation, he challenged his pastors with a similar task—visiting every member of their congregations within the following year. His seven-point plan also included establishing new church school classes and conducting religious surveys in their communities. Three-quarters of the pastors completed the assignment. They came back with success stories. Their personal contact with church people had helped them discover and deal with some problems they hadn’t known about, such as acute loneliness or alcoholism. In some cases, people who had not attended church for a while were wooed back.
But May also got some resistance to his plan. A number of pastors said they just didn’t have time. Meeting in cluster groups with some of his pastors, the bishop reminded them that this was in essence what they had pledged to do when they were ordained and appointed in their parishes. He was merely asking them to be pastors. But the visitation still seemed to be a burden. As May looked into this further, he spotted some new problems. “Some pastors are enslaved. The expectations of some of our congregations are unrealistic. One pastor was required to be in his office every day from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. That was what church leaders saw the pastor’s role to be. They also expected the pastor to attend every meeting.”
Therefore May’s message to local churches is simply this: “Free your pastor to do ministry. I believe very firmly in the ministry of all believers. Perhaps that is one of the tools to revitalize our congregations, to remind them that they are not just spectators, but participants.” He urges lay people to discover things they can do—office work or hospital visitation, perhaps—that can augment the pastor’s work and release him or her for creative ministry.
“At every point in history where the church has taken a quantum leap forward, it has been because lay people have returned to a creative study of Scripture and have developed a sufficient will to act out what they have learned.” Bishop May has high hopes for the “Disciple” program, and considers the forming of covenant groups “the order of the day.”
As lay people get more involved in the work of the church, pastors must adapt. “The pastor is going to have to become a teacher, a trainer, a nurturer of small groups, one who is not afraid to energize lay persons,” May says. He encourages pastors to utilize the many lay speakers available—he counts 2,000 competent lay speakers in his conferences alone. These persons could become the “front-line troops” in the task of extending the church’s outreach.
Lay Retreats
To help energize the laity, the bishop participates in annual lay retreats for study. nurture and action. In addition, he hopes to conduct conferences for people in different vocation groups. This September in Carlisle the first such conference—for lawyers—will convene. That may be followed by a gathering of health-care professionals next year. May also leads annual confirmation rallies and a strong follow-up program, so that young people realize they are not just graduating from some educational course, but becoming active. integral members of their churches. The bishop hopes to point some toward full-time Christian service.
In a way, Felton May was cut out for Christian service since childhood. When he was baptized at age nine, his pastor asked him what he would do with his life for God. “What you’re doing,” young Felton replied. The Lord confirmed his call to ministry when Felton was 16, and in the following decade—which included college, a two-year Army stint, and seminary classes—the young man got to work closely with several fine ministers.
In 1963, Felton and Phyllis May launched the Maple Park UMC in a semi-suburban area of Chicago. He was pastor; she was director of religious education. Five years later they had a thriving ministry, but Felton was invited to Wilmington, Delaware, to work with the Methodist Action Program. “I had no intention of going, but the socioeconomic conditions there just broke my heart.” He was strongly advised against taking the job, but he felt God clearly leading him eastward.
May spent seven years in Wilmington, two as associate executive director of the Methodist Action Program and five as pastor of the Ezion-Mt. Carmel UMC. He had been active in the civil rights movement previously, but those years in Wilmington kindled a fire in his heart for social ministry that still burns.
Traditional People
In 1975 May became the first black district superintendent in Easton, Maryland. Later he directed the Council on Ministries of the Peninsula Conference. In 1984 he moved to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, following his election as a bishop.
The people in the Harrisburg area are a traditional sort, mostly farmers and blue-collar workers. The national economy has not been kind to them in recent years. Unemployment is high, and income is on the decline. Yet the people give generously to the church. Gerald Wagner points out that Central Pennsylvania is among the leading conferences nationwide in percentage of churches paying their apportionments in full. But for these people, that’s nothing special. It’s merely what’s expected. They follow through on their promises, even in hard times.
Bishop May carries that sense of responsibility into the church’s spiritual life as well. “We are the people of the Good News—we should behave like it. We must become models for the presence of Christ in the world. Everybody talks about it, but we have to put up or shut up. Either Christ is Lord, or He is not. If He is, then act like it.”
Evangelism rides high on Bishop May’s agenda. Harrisburg pastor Charles Shearer cites the bishop’s help in planning an evangelistic crusade in his area for next spring. “He’s very sympathetic to matters of evangelism and church growth,” Shearer says. May has set up a task force on evangelism to determine what specifically is hindering the proclamation of the Gospel by United Methodists and what can be done to promote it.
But mention the idea that evangelism and social ministry might be in conflict, and Bishop May will vehemently disagree. “The dichotomy between proclaiming the Good News and doing social action is demonic. I do what I do because I know that I am a child of God. I have no choice. I am compelled by the authority of the Holy Spirit to be in ministry in every way that I can. Make no mistake about it; our deeds of lovingkindness are done in the name of Christ.”
He recalls a story he heard as a boy of four or five in a Bible school in Chicago run by missionaries from Moody Bible Institute. It seems a missionary once gave a sweater to a shivering boy. But the boy still did not seem happy. The missionary asked, “Why are you still unhappy? Don’t you like the sweater?” The boy answered, “I don’t like the way you looked at me when you gave me the sweater.”
As a skilled teacher, Bishop May extracts a lesson from the story. “We need to be ministering not only in the giving, but also in the looking. We should be projecting the presence of Christ.”
This attitude gives May what one pastor calls a “broad perspective” on the issues of the church. He can enthusiastically affirm the social ministry agenda of the denomination while also emphasizing the need for evangelism. For him, it’s merely a matter of practicing what you preach, living out what you claim to believe. “All of the ‘isms’—ageism, racism, sexism—would be wiped out tomorrow, if we would only act like the people of God.”
Racism has touched the bishop personally. He has walked into churches to visit pastors and had custodians treat him rudely. He has had people walk out as he rose to preach. Even in the face of such mistreatment, he looks for “teachable moments,” when he can help someone grow closer to Christ. “The problem is that people do not really believe the Gospel story. If they did, they would not—they could not—be racist.”
What does Bishop May see as the major problem facing the United Methodist Church? “We’ve lost our will to be the people of God.” He’s back to his theme of doing and saying. People know how to obey God, but will they?
Still, Felton May is no nay-sayer. He rejoices in the spiritual depth of United Methodist leaders. “It has not been reported,” he says, “that when the bishops gather, we circle our chairs for prayer.” He applauds his colleagues for issuing the pastoral letter.” In Defense of Creation,” as well as the recent emphases from UM boards on making disciples and evangelizing communities. He advises critics to put away stereotypes. ” Begin to celebrate that we are in missions and ministry around the world. We must appropriate for ourselves the same mind as that of Christ Jesus.”
Randy Peterson is a free-lance writer from Westville, New Jersey.
A Call to Repentance
On Ash Wednesday of this year Bishop Felton May issued the following 10-point call to repentance. It is characteristic of his firm, yet compassionate style of leadership.
- Being “an unconverted church trying to convert an unconverted world”
- Failure to grieve over the loss of members and our failure to rejoice over those who join our church by profession of faith and transfer from other denominations
- Failure to communicate the love of God to persons in need, without condoning their lifestyles
- Pointing the finger of blame at the denomination or others, without pointing at ourselves
- Failure to allow our daughters and sons to hear and answer the call of God to ministry
- Failure to recruit new persons in mission to supplement those already at work under the General Board of Global Ministries
- Being willing to cry for peace, justice and mercy without taking appropriate steps to be peacemakers, justice bearers and dispensers of mercy
- Failure to eliminate racism and sexism from every part of society
- Being silent while others cheapen life through pornography, violence, crime and even “disinformation” in government
- My lack of faith in the power of Christ to overcome the evils of the world and my unwillingness to be an instrument for His ultimate victory
by Steve | Sep 6, 1987 | Archive - 1987
Archive: Unofficial Hymns
by Riley B. Case
Many Methodist favorites were once barred from the Hymnal
Methodism was not many years in the New World before it became apparent that the Gospel’s best chance in America was to make itself relevant for the situation (“contextualization,” for those who like the word). A great awakening was not likely to be launched with black gowns, white neck bands, or even Wesley’s “Sunday Service.”
What was relevant for American Methodism and the ensuing Great Awakening was straight Wesleyan preaching and discipline in the setting of American-style revivals and camp meetings. Music was an important part of the Awakening, but the music was more than just British hymn-singing imported. As one early writer explained:
“At the commencement of the revival these familiar hymns (Wesley’s), known in all our orthodox congregations, were used; but it was soon felt that they gave but imperfect expression to the ardent feelings of the worshippers. The deficiency was principally supplied by the preachers. Hymns, or ‘spiritual songs,’ as they were more frequently called, to the cultured ear rude and bold in expression, rugged in meter and imperfect in rhyme, often improvised in the preaching stand, were at once accepted as more suited to their wants. These were quickly committed to memory, and to a considerable extent usurped the place of the older and more worthy hymns.”[1]
Thus was born the camp meeting “spiritual songs,” the forerunner of revival tunes, Sunday school songs, gospel, black gospel, charismatic choruses, and most of what is heard in evangelical churches today.
Some have called these camp meeting spirituals, both white and black, true American folk music. At the time, however, the songs were often referred to as “Methodist music,” and they soon found their way into print. One early collection, Pilgrim’s Songster (1810), featured the songs of two Methodists, John Granada and Caleb Taylor, and sold more than 10,000 copies. One of Francis Asbury’s oft-quoted admonitions indicates that these publishing efforts were not always appreciated by “official” Methodism: “We must therefore earnestly entreat you, if you have any respect for the authority of the Conference, or of us, or any regard for the prosperity of the Connection, to purchase no Hymn-Books, but what are signed with the names of your bishops.”
What the bishops put their signature to was not American fervor but English respectability. If there was an American revival it was not noticed in the official hymnal. Not a single American author was included in any official hymnal up to the time of the Civil War.
The story was quite different, however, for unofficial books. Between 1811 and 1897 at least 42 Methodist-related songbooks were issued. The most famous of these, The Revivalist(1868), was thoroughly American. Both Wesley and Watts were put to American tunes, and joined by American camp meeting spirituals, Sunday school songs, revival tunes, and choruses. Names associated with texts and tunes—Lewis Hartsough, Joseph Hillman, William Hunter, William Fischer, Phoebe Palmer—represented a who’s who among Methodist preachers and evangelists of the day. It was endorsed by Philip Phillips, music editor of the Methodist Book Concern, and sold 150,000 copies.
But Methodist enthusiasm was also an embarrassment for many. The 1878 Methodist Episcopal hymnal basically ignored indigenous American Methodist music. Ninety-two percent of its hymns were of British or European origin, and, outside of Wesley, there were more hymns by Unitarians than by Methodists. Only four of its 1,170 hymn carried a refrain (one sign of a gospel song) and fewer than five hymns in the whole book were associated with anyone west of Philadelphia or south of Washington.
Given the tremendous theological, cultural and musical gap between official and unofficial Methodism, it is no wonder there was a populist and Holiness revolt in the period 1880-1910. Music was a factor in that revolt, since the people who cried for spiritual pastors and spiritual churches also cried for spiritual songs. The formation of a dozen or so Holiness and Pentecostal groups, both white and black, during this period meant Methodism lost many of its “enthusiasts,” most of whom were poor and unsophisticated, the very kind of people that had flocked to Methodism in its earliest days.
This is not to suggest that Methodists were not still the major contributors in the growing popularity and influence of gospel music. The Methodist Fanny Crosby wrote 8,000 hymns, many of which are still popular today. The Methodist Ira Sankey became known throughout America and England and his Gospel Songs sold 50 million copies of the various editions. The Methodist Henry Gate founded the Hope Publishing Company, known at that time for the series of songbooks known as Pentecostal Hymns.
None of this seemed to matter much to the committee which compiled the 1905 hymnal, a joint effort of the M.E. Church and the M.E. Church, South. The editor of that hymnal, while commenting on the gospel song and the spiritual song, wrote that, while all Methodists believe in enthusiasm, Methodism “should never, we all agree, encourage a poor sinner or feeble saint to base enthusiasm on a bubble, a rattle, or a jingle.”
About 30 of the bubbles, rattles and jingles, however, were added to the book as a compromise, representing the first significant inclusion of revival music in any official Methodist book. The rest of the collection, besides Wesley (whose stock was falling with each new hymnal); leaned heavily on Anglican divines and Unitarian poets. Eighty-two percent of the hymns were of British or European origin (as if that was the place to find true religion), and besides the heavy infiltration of the Unitarians, there were more Congregational and Presbyterian and Episcopalian authors than authors of the M.E. Church, South, and almost as many as from the M.E. Church, North. Fewer than 10 of the hymns were associated with anyone west of Philadelphia or south of Washington.
But for bishops and the professor-types, that was “official” Methodism. So that there could be no mistake about how the bishops felt about the kind of music that was so popular among common people, the signed statement in the preface of the 1905 hymnal suggested that with the publishing of the new hymnal, any unauthorized books, “Which often teach what organized Methodism does not hold, and which, by excluding the nobler music of the earlier and later days, prevent the growth of a true musical taste” should be supplanted.
The bishops, besides showing their cultural elitism, were also naive. Gospel music, and other music associated with common people, instead of dying out, flourished even more. The Methodist Charles Tindley wove black folk music and revival gospel in a new genre which later became known as black gospel. Authors like the Methodist preacher George Bennard wrote hymns like “The Old Rugged Cross,” which became instant favorites. The Methodist Homer Rodeheavor made popular hymns like “He Lives,” and “In the Garden.”
The 1935 hymnal was not impressed with the likes of Tindley, Bennard, or Rodeheavor. The liberalism of official Methodism was on a roll and spoke of a new age, and hymns needed to reflect that new age. It was generally agreed that the culture and theology that produced gospel music was dying, and that the future was with peace, brotherhood, activity, zeal and service. The number of Wesley hymns in the 1935 hymnal were nearly halved, sections in previous hymnals on sin and judgment were wiped out, and, in a decision fraught with symbolic significance, hallelujahs were generally changed to alleluias (as in “Christ the Lord is Risen Today”). Anything that was left over from the revival was given a choir robe to wear.
The present (1964) Methodist hymnal is the first to have to stand up to statistical analysis. The “church-usage survey” gives a different view of United Methodism than the image of the sophisticated church given in liberal seminary classrooms. Of the nearly 150 hymns new to the 1964 hymnal, 50 (mostly contemporary hymns for a new age that were quickly dated) never made the first cut and will not be carried over into the 1988 hymnal. Another 50 (everything left, except Wesley songs, spirituals, and gospel) will be carried over to the new hymnal, but presumably without a lot of enthusiasm, since as a group the hymns average only 20 percent usage in the churches according to the church-usage study.
On the other hand, 20 spiritual and gospel hymns introduced in the 1964 hymnal carry a church-usage average of 77 percent. One of those (“How Great Thou Art”) is now the favorite hymn of United Methodists. At the same time it can be argued there is not a single contemporary hymn from the mainline (or liberal) Protestant tradition written in the last 50 years that is a popular favorite among United Methodists. The five poorest-ranked spirituals and gospel hymns new to the 1964 hymnal still rank higher on the church usage list than the five best-ranked of everything else introduced in that hymnal.
Who really are the United Methodists? What do they believe? What do they sing? The present hymnal committee is to be commended for its sensitivity to Methodism’s evangelical and gospel heritage and its willingness to affirm that heritage with the inclusion of more gospel, black gospel, spirituals, and choruses in the new hymnal. We will be a stronger church because of it.
Riley B. Case is a consultant to the Hymnal Revision committee and serves on two hymnal revision subcommittees.
[1] “The Early Camp Meeting Song Writers.” The Methodist Quarterly Review. 1859. p. 401.
by Steve | Sep 5, 1987 | Archive - 1987
Archive: “God Don’t Let Me Go!”
by Margaret Therkelsen
I’m going to fight this thing. I’m going to be healed,” my father had said the night before. The next day I watched this weakened, 80-pound man’s body sag and turn to clay. I watched as his spirit left his body. In that instant I knew Dad was healed. He was walking with the Lord. Dad was completely whole. In the same instant the Holy Spirit moved on me and said, “Margaret. I want to make you whole. Will you trust me now? Will you let me show you some things? Walk with me. Come to me everyday. Let me teach you.” Overwhelmed by the presence of the Holy Spirit, I paced the floor of the hospital room.
I then went to the door to summon a nurse to confirm that Dad was dead. When this young nurse came to the door, he hesitated, then he stepped back. “What’s going on in here?” he asked. “Are you alright?”
“Oh, I’m flooded with the joy of the Lord,” I told him. “I’ve never seen anyone die before, but I think my dad has gone on, and I know he’s healed.”
I was 36 years old the day my father died. That was the day I had to start my life over. For ten years I had lived in rebelliousness.
But rebelliousness wasn’t the norm for me. I had grown up in the parsonage. My mother and father strongly believed in the power of prayer. I remember well hearing my father’s booming voice as he prayed from the pulpit. My mother’s prayers were never audible; still, as a child, I sensed the awesome power of her closet prayers.
At a young age, I surrendered my life and my career in music to God’s service. I spent summers at Camp Farthest Out learning about prayer from Agnes Sanford, Starr Daily, Louise Eggleston and others. I was completely convinced of the necessity of an active prayer life, and I was a part of many small prayer groups.
Nurtured by the teachings of great men and women, I had begun a real spiritual quest. But unsuspectingly, at age 24 I wandered into the darkest time of my life.
It was during a session with a Christian leader whom I most trusted that I realized, in spite of appearances, he was not walking with the Lord. His curiosity with eastern mysticism, the occult and white magic had a powerful impact on him. He had drifted away from keeping Jesus and the Word of God central in his life.
I was crushed. I was frightened. “If God couldn’t hold this man steady, where did that leave me? If he was deceived while being so committed to God’s ways, maybe I had better rethink going deeper with God.”
I tried my best to absorb the disillusionment. I talked and prayed with others, but something had been jolted inside me, and the pieces would not fit back together.
In my desperate need for companionship, I began dating a man 15 years older than me. He was slick, personable and very handsome—even my parents liked him.
He wanted me to marry him. He poured hundreds of dollars into marvelous gifts for me. He was clever, but there was something about him that made me uneasy. I could never put my finger on what message I was getting from him. He would say something and two hours later, deny it. Red lights signaled it was wrong to date him. Still, I chose disobedience.
When finally I broke off with him, I was left feeling emotionally shredded. There was nothing left for me. I had placed my trust in the Christian community, and now my foundation was kicked out from under me.
Antagonism Swelled
I had thought I was one of God’s favorites. I thought He would not allow anything like this to happen to me. Anger within me germinated and poisoned my attitudes and contorted my concept of God. Antagonism toward the Holy Spirit swelled. “God can’t keep His people straight,” was the message underlining it.
But preacher’s kids are wonderful actors. I continued to be active in my church. I even led a small group, teaching Thomas Kelly’s Testament of Devotion. I said all the right words. I knew all the right prayers. But I was miserable. Desperately alone in my vacuum of rebellion, I felt so far away from God.
But through it all, I never stopped praying. “God, don’t let go of me,” was the root of all my prayers. ‘I’m going to come back to you. I will surrender myself completely to you, but not now. Don’t let go. Don’t leave me.”
Practicing piano 8-10 hours a day, I poured the devotion that was rightfully God’s into my music. I performed as often as possible. Music was my escape; it became my idol.
In the midst of this agony I married John Therkelsen, and in 1972 he and I returned to central Kentucky where my parents still lived.
My father had contracted a rare disease that was killing him by inches. For the next seven years I watched, helplessly, as Dad’s body slowly deteriorated. My sister and I attended daily to Dad’s needs. At 7:00 each morning, we took turns going to the house to help Dad get out of bed and into a wheelchair. We dressed him and fed him. Dad couldn’t use his legs. He could barely use his arms. The feeling in his hands was going. But through it all, he never complained.
Day after day, driving from home to work alone in my car, I raged at God, “How can you do this? My father has served you in the ministry for 40 years, how can you let him be like this? You’re unfair. You don’t stand by your people.” And yet in my heart, I knew God wasn’t unfaithful.
During those lonely journeys, I was so aware of the presence of the Holy Spirit with me in the car. “It’s alright. I know how you feel,” He’d assure me. ‘I’m at work. Don’t you forget it. I don’t abandon my people. I will prove it to you.”
My husband and I housed Dad for several months at a time to give my mother a rest. One day as I rolled him into the kitchen, he murmured, “Well, Margaret, you have to be willing to be a vegetable for God. I am willing to do that.”
I stood at the stove. stirring his soup for lunch with tears streaming down my face. “Lord, God, have mercy! How can this man who knows his body is dying talk this way? How can Dad be so faithful when he suffers so?” Again, the Holy Spirit’s voice was so real to me. He told me, “I will show you, Margaret. I am always faithful to my people.”
Finally, after years of anguish and anger towards God, I resigned. “Lord, I’m ready,” I decided, “I want to see your side of this. I’m open to what you have to say.”
Healing Came
Quickly thereafter, as I stood in a sterile hospital room, I watched as the spirit of God’s faithful servant went to be with his Lord. I have never known a peace so sweet. Waves of God’s presence flooded the room. I knew God had rewarded His servant. He had healed Dad, and He had healed me!
I’ve heard it said when a person goes on to heaven, his prayers are multiplied by infinity. In the moment in the hospital room, I believe Dad’s prayers for me were multiplied by infinity.
I watched the team of nurses prepare the corpse. I couldn’t leave the room. During those solemn moments, I repented for all the lost years. I covenanted to meet with the Lord at 6:00 each morning seven days a week.
The days ahead weren’t easy ones. Through my times alone in the morning with God He reminded me of situations in which I had wronged others. I was required to humble myself and ask forgiveness. For over a year I made restitution. I had a strange sense the Holy Spirit was preparing me for something more.
Life-changing Morning
Nearly eight and a half years have passed since that life-changing spring morning, and still my experience with God is beyond words. One day I sat at the end of the comfortable, old couch in our music room. I met with God regularly there at 6:00 a.m. That day I was praying when suddenly I felt Him flooding me with the burning fire of the Holy Spirit. I had never known anything like this. It was unmistakable and so powerful that I had to lie down.
In that time, He explained my past to me. The Lord had been waiting for me all those years. I couldn’t receive what He had for me. That was my willful decision. I would not receive. I wanted it my way. I wanted my own answers. My heart had grown so cold it took seven years for it to thaw out. But my God is always faithful.
God continues to teach me. He is calling me into sacrificial prayer. He is directing me to teach prayer seminars. In encounters with others I can say, “Wherever you have anguish in your family, wherever you have suffered deep disappointment, wherever you’ve been disillusioned, wherever the foundation of your life has been pulled out from under you, know that it is not because God is awful. It’s that God is trying to lead you into a deeper understanding of his faithfulness. He can be entrusted with our whole lives. He is constantly trying to do an even greater work in us. Praise His holy name!”
Margaret Therkelsen has earned several degrees in music and recently completed a master’s degree in family and marital counseling at the University of Kentucky. She has an active prayer ministry leading seminars and recording a daily program for a local Christian radio station.
