Archive: Jesus Takes You Higher!

by Steve | Mar 1, 1977 | Archive - 1977

How God is working in the life of Fred Chambers, a mission-minded jet pilot. He declares…

Archive: Jesus Takes You Higher!

by Randall Nulton United Methodist College Student

“Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome aboard American Airlines flight 677 from New York to Sanjuan, Puerto Rico. Estimated arrival time will be 10:56. Weather in San Juan is clear. Temperature is a mild seventy-six degrees. We will be cruising at a speed of approximately 575 miles per hour, at an altitude of 33,000 feet. …”

Twenty flights a month, American Airlines Captain Fred G. Chambers speaks over the intercom of the massive red, white, and blue Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet he is commanding. And during off-days and vacations, Chambers puts his 40 years of aviation experience to work for the Lord.

Chambers, a member of Trinity United Methodist Church in Hackettstown, New Jersey, pledges himself “anew to Christ” each day, asking the Lord to give him something special to do. “Don’t ever say that unless you mean it,” the trim Captain testified. “You’ll really get some assignments!” Those “assignments” for him have included inspecting missionary pilots the world over, “smoke jumping” into dense jungles, skydiving at exhibitions, and numerous speaking engagements.

Having logged over 20,000 air hours in everything from the Piper Cub and helicopter, to the enormous 747, Chambers is qualified to fly almost anything short of a rocket. During the 1960s, he served as superintendent of American Airlines flight training when the airline was making a transition from propeller planes to jets.

Doors suddenly opened for mission field service after Fred and his wife, Winifred, had put their sixth child through college in 1970. Fred was asked to serve on a Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) Committee that was taking a “fresh look” at the missionary pilots’ accident records.

“We have always had an interest in missions and we knew a little bit about a couple of mission boards,” said Chambers. “When we became available, the Lord used us.”

In May of 1972, Fred and Winnie traveled to New Guinea and Indonesia. There he tested MAF and Jungle Aviation and Radio Service (JAARS—air-arm of Wycliffe Bible Translators) pilots from an “outsider’s point of view.” He made six or eight suggestions to “the best pilots in the world flying in the poorest conditions.”

In March of 1973 and 1974, Chambers traveled to Zaire and Liberia, Africa, where he conducted safety seminars and proficiency checks for pilots in the Mission Aviation Fellowship and United Methodist Missions.

“The United Methodist pilots (Robert C. Bennett, Billy Davis, Leonard Woodcock, Kenneth Kuhrt, Fay Smith, Ken Enright …) were a bit critical at first, but then they agreed it was a good idea,” said Chambers. He passed along hints on flying techniques. Often, he takes a whole staff of Christian flight instructors along on these overseas trips.

“We’ve established a whole new procedure to mission flying,” Chambers continued. “We have inspectors going to the field every year. And at least every other year, each missionary pilot participates in a safety seminar. As a result, we are seeing improvements in the accident record.”

In 1963, Fred and his oldest son Fritz took a habit-forming plunge from an airplane. “We found our first parachute jump so thrilling, we took the whole free-fall training course,” explained the bald pilot (some friends call him “Bald Eagle” or “Kojack of the Air”). Immediately hooked on skydiving, Chambers has now made over 500 jumps.

“There is no sensation of falling, height, or speed,” said Chambers, describing a typical jump. “There is more a sense of weightlessness. It’s a big thrill to fly the 747 with all of its controls, but in skydiving it’s just me flying my body within the physical laws of God’s universe.

“At first I asked God: ‘Why this added bonus?”‘ Chambers went on. “The answer soon came, ‘You’ll use it for Me!”‘

A photographer made a 25-minute skydiving film featuring the Captain’s trim 5-foot-11-inch, 160- pound frame gliding and zooming through the air 7,500 feet above the ground. For years, once or twice a week, Chambers has used the film as a vehicle to share Christ to youth and adult church and civic organizations. Chambers also crusades with his movies of the aviation missions’ work in Indonesia and Africa.

In 1970, Chambers mastered the “smoke jumper’s” art of parachuting into trees. In Peru and Colombia, South America, Chambers has taught JAARS pilots how to “bail out” into low dense jungle as an emergency readiness measure. In 1971 and 1973 Chambers ventured to Colombia where he joined parachute squads building an emergency landing strip near the headwaters of the Amazon River.

Some missionary pilots had been slashing and slogging their way through thick jungle for as much as two weeks to inspect new airstrips. Though crises requiring use of the strips have developed only a few times, the airborne missionaries have completed dozens of flights in threatening weather. Before Chambers came they wouldn’t even have been attempted.

Recently, Chambers displayed his skydiving skill in a series of exhibitions. They called it “Missions Day at the Airport.” These were designed to raise money, and interest recruits for the work of the Jungle Aviation and Radio Service.

“When the speaker drops in from the sky—people listen!” he laughed.

In his desire to keep abreast with the mission aviation scene, Chambers has recently earned his helicopter operator’s license. Mountainous mission fields often require the use of whirlybirds. In 1975, Chambers scarred his accident-free career. His helicopter’s rotor blades hit some tree limbs when he was practicing a confined area landing. He had to set it down in the brush.

“Once in a while the Lord shows us that we really are dependent on Him,” Chambers remarked. “No one’s perfect. We have to learn God’s laws, spiritual and physical, and stay within them. I had no business being in that tight area.”

The very next day the chopper was to be used in a JAARS “Missions Day at the Airport” exhibition. Footing the repair bill himself, Chambers calls the accident “A $5,000 lesson in humility.”

Fred Chambers accepted Christ as his Savior 36 years ago, after hearing Dr. E. Stanley Jones on the shores of Lake Erie at a Churchman’s League retreat.

“I wanted to use one of the fellow’s airplanes,” Chambers mused. “I couldn’t help but go to the retreat with him.” Later he joined the Fellowship of Christian Airlines Personnel, founded by United Airlines pilot Bob Burdick.

Chambers was born and raised in a Christian home, but the message had never gotten through. He had never asked Christ into his life nor made a personal commitment to Him. Looking back over his years with Christ, Chambers said, “Often the path seems narrow, but as long as I keep my hand in His, nothing touches that peace and security, and ultimate destination that I have.”

Chambers’ wife, Winifred, is a talented musician, endowed with perfect pitch. She uses her gifts when traveling with her husband. “You can whistle a tune for her and she can sit down and write out a score for the organist, the pianist, and the four-part chorus,” said Fred.

Winnie works with the indigenous music of the native people, often rewriting new Gospel songs in their musical modes. In one Point Barrow, Alaska, Eskimo church hymnbook, you’ll find 27 hymns that say: “Music by Winifred Chambers.”

“We’re in this together, continually talking about and praying for missionary friends, problems, and needs,” said Mrs. Chambers. “Also in planning how, when, and where to do things, according to God’s timing.”

Prior to his missionary travels, Chambers served for many years as junior high youth leader of their Pacific Palisades, California, Community United Methodist Church. He was also a member of the Beverly Hills Christian Businessmen’s Club. On moving to New Jersey in 1975, the Chambers joined Trinity United Methodist. When home, Fred serves on the mission board. Winnie serves on the music committee and often substitutes at the piano and organ. She also sings in the “real going choir.”

Though Fred is retiring from American Airlines in September, it will be a long time before the rocking chair gets the best of the 59-year-old pilot. Chambers jogs a few miles each morning and fasts each Monday. He believes physical discipline carries over into professional and spiritual life.

“The world’s worst thing to do is to sit around and wait to die,” Mrs. Chambers reflected. “Life gets more exciting all the time.”

Chambers hopes to return to Alaska where he landed his first job as a bush pilot 38 years ago. “Alaska is the logical place for me because I know the weather conditions and terrain,” said Chambers. “It takes two years to break in a new pilot.” This time he will be flying for the Missionary Aviation Repair Center, an organization he has helped occasionally during the past several years.

“If Christ can use something as ‘far out’ as my skydiving, He can use all of our lives if we turn our talents over to Him,” the Captain emphasized. “Jesus will take us higher, but we have to keep our eyes open, our ear to the wall, and keep getting trained in our field. I just use airplanes to launch my Christian service.”

The next time you wonder if … “IT’S A BIRD. IT’S A PLANE. …” don’t be fooled. It’s probably Fred Chambers free-falling toward the earth at 200 miles per hour on another “skydive for Jesus.”

Archive: With Christ in the Rockies

by Steve | Nov 2, 1976 | Archive - 1976

Archive: a local church adventure . . .

With Christ in the Rockies

By Eddie Robb

Eight grueling days of climbing through snow storms, fording mountain streams and eating freeze-dried food is not what you’d expect for a typical summertime church retreat. But that’s exactly what 18 high schoolers from Park Avenue United Methodist Church of Minneapolis, Minnesota did this past July.

After a 1,118-mile, non-stop bus ride, the youth immediately began two days of intensive training for their alpine odyssey. “We knew the training would be hard,” explains youth leader Art Erickson, “but the kids had to be prepared.”

Indeed they did! One time on the trail, the trekkers were caught in a hail storm. There was nothing they could do except keep climbing. Another time, at 13,000 feet, the group was deluged with ice pellets and blasted by lightning. “It’s sort of eery,” one hiker remarked, “to be in the storm, not below it.”

Days were long and hard. Carrying a 40-pound back pack is never easy. But it was especially difficult for the nine-hour days of steady climbing, and some days were even worse.

“On our next to the last day out,” reported staff photographer Larry Bracken, “we got lost and hiked from 8:00 a.m. until 1:30 the next morning! That’s 15 hours of solid climbing over rugged mountains.”

Not all the kids who go on this mountain adventure are members of Park Avenue UMC—or even Christians. The church uses the summer excursion as an evangelistic outreach, as well as training youth leadership.

Youth are recruited in the Minneapolis high schools and from Park Avenue Church. Since many kids are not from affluent homes, local businesses help pay expenses.

Is the mountain trip worth all the effort?

“Yes!” affirms youth leader Art Erickson. “We’ve seen positive results on each of our three Rocky Mountain outings.”

The hikers agree: the grueling eight days are worth every scratch and aching muscle.

“I have never felt so keenly the presence of God as being Creator-my Creator,” said one worn-out youth.

That’s what an adventure in the Rockies with Christ is all about!

Archive: A Death to Contemplate

by Steve | Nov 1, 1976 | Archive - 1976

Archive: A Death to Contemplate

By Charles W. Keysor, Editor

Death often leads us to ponder … to reflect upon the earthly life and labors of one now departed. We remember what he or she has accomplished between the terminal points of birth and death. We consider how the world may be different because of this one particular life.

On July 30 this year, Rudolf Karl Bultmann died in Marburg, West Germany. He was 71 years old.

Probably Bultmann was the greatest theological giant of our times. Alongside him in the pantheon of the central 20th century theology, would be Karl Barth, Paul Tillich, and Reinhold Neibuhr. But Bultmann’s influence was surely the greatest. There is little doubt it will be the longest-lasting, for the disciples of Rudolf Bultmann permeated theological education in the Western World. They transmitted Bultmann’s thinking to several generations of highly influential church leaders-preachers, teachers in colleges and seminaries, writers, editors, bureaucrats, and bishops.

Rudolf Bultmann was deep and complex, to say the least. That he was a great mind, none can question. But what matters is not so much his massive intellect as the presuppositions he held concerning ultimate realities.

“It is no longer possible for anyone seriously to hold the New Testament view of the world,” Bultmann declared. “In fact, there is no one who does.”

Christianity Today, in an editorial commenting on his death, offered this cogent summary:

“His presuppositions began with a conscious rejection of theological orthodoxy. [He] did not allow for the presence of a personal, transcendent God who acts decisively and historically to redeem His people and who speaks in an intelligible manner to reveal Himself and His ways to men and women. He excluded the supernatural by definition from his system, as also any real intervention of the living God into the affairs of the world. Therefore [for Bultmann] the concept of miracle was ruled out, including the greatest miracle of all, the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. …”

“Wedding his theology to the existentialist philosophy of the early Martin Heidegger, Bultmann assumed the most radical tradition of Biblical criticism. He denied the historicity of all but a few basics of the life of Jesus (the “thatness”) and essentially dismissed the Old Testament and all Jewish elements in the Bible as irrelevant for Christian theology.”

This statement is accurate. It correctly describes Bultmann’s philosophical life-blood, and so it helps us to understand better his powerful influence on three generations of seminary professors and students.

“The tragedy of his influence and the painful burden it bequeathed to us stems from a good intention and a much-needed corrective gone amiss,” explains Rev. Dr. Paul Mickey, Associate Professor of Pastoral Theology, Duke Divinity School, and Chairman of the Good News Task Force on Theology. “His was a concern for the sofa fides principle, salvation by faith alone. This was nobly lifted up by Martin Luther during the Protestant reformation.

“As a Lutheran himself, Bultmann was eager to reaffirm this principle in opposition to 19th century liberalism. He correctly perceived the need to reaffirm that salvation is sola fides, by faith alone. But he went too far. He jumped on a ‘faith bandwagon’ and rode off into existential psychologism, away from history.”

Here is where heresy enters Bultmann’s work, the Duke professor said. “For Bultmann, atonement [i.e., the death of Christ on the cross in payment for our sins] was reduced to ‘self-understanding’ and history was pushed aside. The same principles which whisked away the historicity of the Bible also made history irrelevant for the modern believer.”

What is our faith apart from its history? A cross that may have happened if you choose to believe this. A tomb that was really empty only to those who make it so by believing that “He lives!” A record of early church growth and witness which may be only propaganda that was concocted to sell Christianity as a miracle religion.

If the Bible record of events is not reliable, then those who trust it are really fools and simpletons—as Bultmannians sometimes suggest.

Time Magazine for October 19, 1976, reported a major archaeological find at ancient Ebia in Syria—large number of clay tablets dating between 2400 and 2250 B.C. Describing the first discovery, Time reflected the wide spread assumption that Bibiical events and places are really not historical: ” … it [the discovery] also provides the best evidence to date that some of the people described in the Old Testament actually existed ….

“The Biblical connections appear to be numerous. The tablets contain accounts of the creation and the flood which are strikingly similar to those found in both the Old Testament and Babylonian literature. They refer to a place called Urusalima, which scholars say is clearly Ebia ‘s name for Jerusalem. (If so, it is unquestionably the earliest known reference to the Holy City, predating others by hundreds of years.)

“We always thought of ancestors like Eber as symbolic,” says [ David Noel Freedman, a University of Michigan archaeologist who worked in the excavations], “at least until these tablets were found. Fundamentalists could have a field day with this one.”

Such is the common assumption: Biblical places, people, and events probably did not actually exist. Bultmann has done more than any other, in our time, to increase this distrust in the Bible’s historicity.

“If history is at best irrelevant theologically,” Dr. Mickey observed, “if not untrue, then the atonement, the idea of God as Creator and the notion that we have social responsibilities in obedience to God—all these are lost and gone forever! Bultmann’s heresy was not his affirmation of sofa fides, but his exclusivism which rejected history and good works.”

Everything was reduced to subjectivism, or to purely personal judgment and opinion, Dr. Mickey said. Under Bultmann’s thinking there was “no need or power for good works and a lively social witness. Without history there is no social order.

“Thus the epithet, ‘Faith without history and good works is dead heresy’ may be the final judgment of Christian history on Professor Bultmann.”

Rudolf Bultmann tore the very heart out of Biblical Christianity, and this same characteristic is widely evident in our church today. Shortly after Bultmann’s death, a tribute was given by Dr. F. Thomas Trotter, staff executive for the UM Board of Higher Education and Ministry (in charge of our colleges and seminaries). UM Communications circulated a story about this tribute. It reported that Dr. Trotter had said that the church, if it is to survive and compel the attention of modern persons, will need theologians like Bultmann. Why? To keep the church thinking about its mission and its gospel, Dr. Trotter declared. He also observed that Bultmann’s legacy to the church is his care for the authority of the Word of God, spoken in modern situations and in speech direct I enough that the personal meaning will not be missed.

“Such scholar-prophets [as Bultmann] will have their detractors and they will risk our displeasure,” Trotter confessed. “But what they have to say to us is this: if our language is archaic, our response to the Gospel is merely formal, and our preaching is vacuous, then the power of God’s possibilities for men and women will be absent from the world.”

“The world does not require so much to be informed as reminded,” Hannah Smith once said.

The church is reminded, upon the death of Rudolf Bultmann, that men die in a few swift years, but the truth of God survives. In Eternity, when a final accounting is made, belief will be judged more enduring than doubt. That is why Paul wrote to young Timothy: “The time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths ” (II Timothy 4:3, 4).

The Calling of E. Stanley Jones

by Steve | Jul 2, 1976 | Archive - 1976

Archive: The Calling of E. Stanley Jones

by H. C. Morrison, Methodist Evangelist

Condensed from his book “Remarkable Conversations, Interesting Incidents and Striking Illustrations”.

Many years ago I had been engaged by a group of devout people to conduct a holiness convention in one of the Methodist churches in Baltimore. The pastor of the church cooperated with the people and we were all looking forward to a gracious time of blessing.

The presiding elder of the Baltimore District, however, decided that such conventions would not be for the best interest of the church and community. He notified the pastor that the church must not be used for any such gathering. They wrote me the circumstances and regretfully cancelled the engagement. …

There was a little mission conducted by holiness people in the city of Baltimore. When they heard I would not be allowed to preach in the Methodist church, they wrote asking me to give them these few days. I assured them that I would be there. This was not in the spirit of lawlessness. I have a profound conviction that God would have me preach full redemption from sin, here and now, through faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And always when church officials sought to use their authority to prevent my preaching this full salvation to the people, I have felt compelled to listen to the voice of the Spirit and obey the higher law.

I remember hearing a prominent preacher say, “The voice of the church is the voice of God to me.” That sounds to me very much like Roman Catholicism. … Certainly there is much talk going on by various church officials today that thoughtful and devout men would not dare to believe God has anything to do with!

I went and held the convention in that little Baltimore mission. The people were frightened; the attendance was not large. Some seemed to think I had committed a great sin in daring to come into a city over the protest of the Methodist elder. But there was earnest prayer, hungry hearts were fed, and we were all blessed together.

I have found that when we meet together with sincere hearts, under the strong opposition of the opposers of the doctrine of full salvation, we are blessed in a most signal and gracious manner. Somehow, when we are cut off from human sympathy and help, it drives us to God in deep humility, earnest prayer, and humble trust.

In Baltimore sinners were converted, backsliders were reclaimed, and believers were sanctified. There was some abiding fruit. One evening after the meeting a very handsome boy, with an unusually classic and pure face, came to me. Looking up with an eagerness that profoundly impressed me, he said, “I feel that I am called to preach the Gospel. … ”

In due time the young brother showed up on the campus at Asbury College, was enrolled, and turned out to be an excellent student. At first, he was not favorably impressed with some of the joyful manifestations of other students, but in due time fell under deep conviction for full salvation and received a gracious baptism with the Holy Ghost in sanctifying power.

At once he took front rank in the spiritual life of the school, and felt a call to the mission field. He was a good speaker and was often heard on the college platform. Frequently he went out into the community to preach and speak on the subject of missions.

Immediately after graduation this young man went out to the vast mission field of India. Later when I was making my tour of the world, I found him laboring successfully among the Hindu people. He had acquired the language in a remarkable degree. He was a sort of John Fletcher among the missionaries. Though quite young, his spiritual influence was being felt, not only among the Methodist people but among the devout missionaries of all churches. He was a modest man, with saintly appearance, beautiful voice, and a courtesy and kindness that won the respect and confidence of all. It was frequently whispered to me that he was wielding a wider and more profound spiritual influence than any other man in India.

During the several furloughs to America, this brother has been able to wield a wide and powerful influence on the home church. In fact, he has become one of the best known and most loved men in Methodism. He has been enabled to arouse thousands of people, not only to more liberal giving, but to a better understanding of the whole spirit of missions, and a deeper consciousness of their obligations to spread the Gospel of our Lord Jesus throughout the world. He was a member of the General Conference at one time. His brethren would have thrust upon him the office of bishop, but after earnest prayer, he positively refused. He much preferred to remain an evangelist in India, where God had given him open doors and the open hearts of a countless multitude of people.

I claim no credit whatever, for the splendid character and remarkable ministry of this man. But I have asked myself what the results might have been had I not disregarded the orders of the Methodist presiding elder and instead obeyed the higher order—the voice of God in my soul. The young man called to preach during that Baltimore meeting was E. Stanley Jones.