Chapter 14 - The Word Of God Grew And Multiplied
Series: Our Fathers Saw His Mighty Works
As witnessed by the national press, Billy Graham, the
Lutheran Evangelistic Movement, and countless other Christian groups and
individuals, the mid-century year 1950 was a remarkable year of heaven-sent
revival across the United States. Even
more importantly, it proved to be a door opened wide by God into a new and
flourishing era of evangelism during which scores of large crusades were conducted
by Billy Graham and numerous others in America’s most populated cities. “A few years ago we heard it said again and
again that mass evangelism is a thing of the past . . . [that] it would not
work in our day,” said LEM director Evald J. Conrad in 1951.1 But now, “the [country] has been challenged
and stirred by the nation-wide evangelistic efforts of Billy Graham, Mervin
Rosell and others.” “Never has the door
been so open for evangelism in America as in our day.”2
This
fact was being noticed not merely by hopeful religious leaders but even by the
secular press. The Minneapolis Sunday
Tribune for February 4, 1951, carried a feature article on evangelism which
quoted Rev. Conrad extensively.3
“The talk of the Protestant world
these days is the rebirth of interest in evangelism - the soul-saving, not the
head-counting kind.”
“Evangelism has never been dead. But
the decades of the ’20s and ’30s with their attempts to sugar-coat the old
fundamentalist doctrine of ‘sin leads to hell’ had given the program a severe
sedative.
“Since the end of World War II, a
Minneapolis evangelist said Saturday, the new interest in evangelism has amazed
men who have stumped the country for years trying to stem the tide toward
modernism.
“’It is only a few years ago,’ the
Rev. Evald J. Conrad, director of the Lutheran Evangelistic Movement, said, ‘we
used to go out for a series of meetings and the local church would ask us to
keep the word evangelism out of the advertisements - we used “more respectable”
terms.’
“’Today,’ he continued,
‘congregations insist we advertise our meetings as evangelism.’”
The Lutheran church in particular was becoming especially
evangelistically minded. From January 23
through 27 of 1952, the directors of evangelism of the various synods of the
National Lutheran Council sponsored a conference in Minneapolis at which nearly
2,500 pastors and laymen gathered to consider the urgent need of a vital
evangelistic program. “In a sense,”
observed Conrad, “the Lutheran church has spoken officially in favor of
evangelistic meetings.” “No pastor or
church need fear ridicule and persecution because of sponsoring a series of
evangelistic services.” This gives the
Lutheran Evangelistic Movement “the greatest opportunity for evangelism we have
ever had.”4
Of even more cause for joy to the LEM than the simple
fact of special meetings, however, was the widespread and eager receptivity to
the preaching of the gospel. What the
leaders of the LEM frequently saw in this regard during the first half of the
1950’s was perhaps most succinctly summarized by an evangelist for the Hauge
Lutheran Innermission Federation in a note written specifically to the readers
of Evangelize.5
“One of the most encouraging signs
of our times is the good response to the preaching of the Word . . . There is a
sense of fear and perplexity among people that is resulting in a hunger for the
Word of God . . . existing world conditions are causing men to search for an
answer to their unrest.”
Writing in mid 1954, the
evangelist continued.
“It has been during these past few
months, particularly, that I have sensed a moving of the Spirit wherever the
Word has been proclaimed. At nearly
every series of meetings souls have turned from the power of Satan to the
living Christ . . . We hear the sound [of the breeze of revival] when we bend
our knees with those who are troubled and listen as they call upon the name of
the Lord.”
“ . . . The majority of those who
accept Christ are young in years . . . Quite a number of young married couples
have surrendered to God . . . .”
Surely, God was answering the
many prayers for revival which had been uttered during the spiritually darker
days before and during World War II.
Proliferation of the LEM’s Ministry
With the whole Christian community preoccupied with the
cause of evangelism, the Midwest organization whose middle name was
“Evangelistic” saw its ministry proliferate greatly during the early
1950’s. The initial cause for which the
Lutheran Evangelistic Movement had been formed and which it had been actively
promoting for nearly a decade and a half had now become the concern of the
whole Lutheran church. Doors for
evangelistic meetings as well as for deeper life preaching were now open wider
than they had been in two generations.
To ever-increasing degrees, people were hungry for and receptive to
spiritual truth. From a human
perspective, it would appear that victory had finally graced the LEM’s
mission. But in actuality, the cause
behind the true spiritual advances of the early 1950’s was, as it always had
been since the days of the early church, that “the word of God grew and
multiplied.” (Acts 12:24 NKJV) This was
God’s chosen time to speak His Word in power to this generation, and the
multiplication of the LEM’s ministry was merely a byproduct of the
multiplication of His Word.
Evidences of surging interest in evangelism abounded
throughout every aspect of the LEM’s work.
In 1951, the Midwinter Evangelistic Conference was expanded from four to
six days.6 In 1952, when the
theme was “How Shall We Escape if We Neglect So Great a Salvation?” and
messages included “Contemporary Lessons from God’s Judgments of the Past” (“On
the Individual, On God’s People, On the Nation, and On the World“) and “So
Great a Salvation” (“Present Experience, Future Hope, Universal Remedy, and
Divine Provision”),7 the attendance built steadily throughout the
week and culminated in overflow crowds on the final Saturday and Sunday.8 Though some had feared that the National
Lutheran Council’s conference on evangelism the previous week might lower the
Midwinter attendance, it instead dramatically increased it. At the closing Sunday evening service, 1,800
people filled the church’s main and lower auditoriums while overflow crowds
were turned away. As on Saturday
evening, several hundred remained after the service to sing and testify. Attendance swelled even further the following
year when the theme was “Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth” and messages
included a series on “Proper Use of Law and Gospel” (“The Law Must Awaken and
Slay, Drives to Repentance, The Gospel for the Penitent, and Christian Growth”)
and a “Lecture Series on Prophetic Themes” given by the well-known Dr. Wilbur
M. Smith of Fuller Theological Seminary.9 Highlights of that 1953 Midwinter Conference
were “a very large daytime attendance,” “the lively interest of people
attending,” and the “thrilling” after meetings “when testimonies were freely
shared and many seeking souls [at least two dozen on both Saturday and Sunday
evenings] were counseled with and helped.”10 The larger church procured for four of the
weekend sessions proved a necessity for accommodating the audiences of 2,100 to
2,400 people.
The annual number of Midwinter attendees seeking counsel
for salvation or assurance was at least able to be gauged somewhat based on the
response during after meetings. But
there was no way to measure how many Christians were being revived or how great
were the resulting changes in their lives.
The following testimony from one Christian may very well be
representative of several hundred others from each year’s conference.
“I
praise the Lord for the recent LEM Midwinter Conference . . . It was wonderful
to see and hear the results of the use of the Word as souls were saved and
Christians were brought to the end of themselves. I was one of the latter. It was not any particular message or verse
that God used, but simply His Holy Spirit convicting of sin, righteousness and
judgment. Self was made so loathsome and
sin was made exceeding sinful, but . . . the Lord was made more real to
me. Now He has given new light and a
closer walk.”11
In no ministry did the LEM experience greater
multiplication during the early 1950’s than that of Bible Conferences. In an annual report delivered early in 1951,
Director Conrad stated that so many Bible Conference invitations had been
received that not all had been able to be accepted.12 Eight Bible Conferences were conducted during
May and June of that year alone; and on one June Sunday, three different Bible
Conferences were in session simultaneously.13 The format for these conferences, eight days
Sunday through Sunday, was still generally the same although it is evident that
two-speaker, three to four hour-a-day endeavors, formerly called Evangelistic
Missions, were now being counted as Bible Conferences as well as the
traditional three-speaker, five to seven hour-a-day conferences. The numbers of Bible Conferences conducted by
the LEM during the years 1951-1954, including Midwinter and Deeper Life, were
32, 37, 41, and 38 respectively.14
In this work, the LEM staff was assisted by about 25 to 30 other
pastors, evangelists, and laymen annually.
In addition to Bible Conferences, numbers of sets of evangelistic meetings
preached by LEM personnel during those same four years were 39, 40, 26, and 33
respectively.
A
comprehensive list of Bible Conferences, many of them annual events, for the
years 1952-1954 reveals that the LEM’s main region of influence was, more than
ever, the upper Midwest.
Minnesota
- Balaton, Clearbrook, Donaldson, Faribault, Farmington, Fertile, Fosston,
French
Lake, Hendricks, Hendrum, Jasper, Kennedy, Lake Crystal, McIntosh, Minneapolis,
Northfield, Roseau, Shelly, Virginia
North
Dakota - Bottineau, Minot, Sheyenne
South
Dakota - Newell, Platte, Rapid City, Sioux Falls
Iowa
- Eagle Grove, Estherville, Forest City, Madrid, Sioux City, Thompson,
Wallingford
Wisconsin
- Eau Claire, Lodi, Osseo, Racine, Sand Creek
Illinois
- Chicago, Dekalb, Lisbon, Newark
Nebraska
- Newman Grove
Kansas
- Garfield
Washington
- Bellingham, Burlington, Cathlamet, Everett, Longview, Seattle
California
- Los Angeles
Arizona
- Tuscon
Massachusetts
- Quincy
New
Jersey - Elizabeth
Saskatchewan,
Canada - Hawarden, Young
Vastly more important to the
LEM than numbers of conference locations were the abiding spiritual
fruits. “At virtually every conference
several souls have been saved,” reported Conrad. “Others have been nurtured and strengthened
in their Christian lives. Some have caught
a vision of God’s purpose and call for them.”15 “Again and again we have seen how communities
have become strong spiritual centers because of these conferences. In some areas, the impact of the conferences
has been so great that the whole community has changed.”16
The increasing demand for Bible Conferences and
evangelistic meetings naturally brought with it the need for more full-time
speakers. To help meet that need, the
National Board voted unanimously during the summer of 1951 to call Rev. Arnold
E. Windahl as the LEM’s second full-time evangelist and conference speaker17;
and Windahl accepted that call six months later.18 Windahl was no stranger to the LEM, having
been involved in its work since the beginning and having spoken at numbers of
its conferences.19 Nor was he
unfamiliar with revival, having himself been converted in one which had broken
out years earlier during a Good Friday Bible School choral concert in
Newfolden, Minnesota.20 Three
years after Windahl‘s call, during the summer of 1954, Mr. Nels Pedersen
accepted the National Board’s call to be the LEM’s third full-time evangelist
and conference speaker.21
Pedersen’s call was deemed an especially “forward-moving step” for the
LEM since he became the first layman to serve them in that capacity.22 Having been saved during a summer Bible camp
in 1938, Pedersen had soon found himself with increasing urges and
opportunities to preach over the next several years.23 Counsel from Revs. Conrad and Force had
convinced him that this was indeed the Spirit’s leading and that he should
attend the Lutheran Bible Institute for training. Until one year after his graduation from LBI,
he had served as the lay pastor of a church.
Unsure of what to do next, he had begun accepting a few invitations to
hold evangelistic meetings. Soon these
invitations had multiplied into six years of full-time freelance evangelistic
work. Then came the LEM’s call. Pedersen was a perfect fit with the LEM. His sermons were as bold as his definition of
evangelism: “the winning of people to Christ” which “can be accomplished only
by . . . straightforward preaching of sin and repentance so that men cry out,
‘What must I do to be saved?’” “I have
met people,” he said in introducing himself to the readers of Evangelize,
“who have been led to a so-called faith in Christ without going through the
narrow door of repentance. They have
never experienced anguish of soul over sin, have never seen themselves as lost,
undone sinners . . . .” “May God give us
a program of evangelism in which people will be caused to cry out, ‘What must I
do to be saved?’ and then be led to the blessed assurance of salvation . . . .”
As the LEM’s preaching ministries flourished, their two
forms of media naturally did so as well.
By January of 1951 the half-hour “The Voice of Lutheran Evangelism” was
being broadcast each Sunday afternoon over five radio stations: KTIS of
Minneapolis, Minnesota; KJAN of Atlantic, Iowa; KJSK of Columbus, Nebraska;
KFGO of Fargo, North Dakota; and WEVE of Eveleth, Minnesota.24 Station KWOA of Worthington, Minnesota, was
added one month later.25
Eveleth was dropped in favor of WDSM, Duluth, Minnesota, in April26;
and Atlantic was dropped in favor of KFGQ, Boone, Iowa, in July.27 That fall and winter Duluth was dropped
entirely, but three new stations were added which brought the total to eight
and dramatically increased the LEM’s coverage: Moody station WMBI of Chicago28
(until the following fall29); KGCX of Sidney, Montana, and
Williston, North Dakota30 (until the summer of 195331);
and missionary-sponsored, international, short wave station HCJB of Quito,
Ecuador, which reached several continents.32 During mid 1952, coverage began in Michigan
with WSOO of Sault Ste. Marie,33 the LEM replacing this Michigan
outlet with WATT out of Cadillac in early 1953.34 Station KNWS of Waterloo, Iowa, came on board
in April 1953.35 To how many
people did the LEM minister by means of these various radio stations? When several sessions of the Deeper Life
Conference were broadcast over just KTIS, Minneapolis, and KNWS, Waterloo, in
1954, it was “estimated that 200,000 people were reached daily.”36 But perhaps the most people reached by the
LEM at any one time were those who heard Rev. Conrad preach and the radio choir
sing during four special Saturday broadcasts aired by the ABC national radio
network late in 1951, these programs having been arranged through the National
Association of Evangelicals as part of a series entitled “Faith for the
Future.”37
While
the LEM’s radio coverage was on the increase, the circulation of their monthly
magazine Evangelize was growing as well with numbers of 6,388 in 1950,
6,865 in 1951, and 7,122 in 1952.38
Christmas gift subscriptions, which evidently did not cover an entire
twelve months, raised these numbers to 7,500 and 7,850 early in 1951 and 1952
respectively. To Conrad, the large
percentage of gift subscriptions in itself indicated the high respect which
readers had for Evangelize, not to mention the many letters received monthly
from readers who had been blessed.
Regular circulation for 1952 demonstrates again that the LEM’s strongest
area of influence by far was the upper Midwest - over 2,700 copies to
Minnesota, slightly over 600 apiece to North Dakota and Iowa, around 500 to
Illinois, over 400 to Wisconsin, and nearly 200 to Canada, with the remaining
2,100 or so copies going to 38 other states and 147 foreign countries.
Revivals Both Regional and Local
It was also in the upper Midwest that the LEM witnessed
some of the mightiest movements of God’s Spirit during the first half of the
1950’s. For Conrad to say that whole
communities had been changed into strong spiritual centers in part through the
LEM’s ministry was certainly no exaggeration.
In fact in several instances, so many communities experienced awakening
and revival that they combined to form entire regions.
One such region was northwestern Minnesota, about which
Conrad commented in 1952, “For a long time we have felt that this is a time of
special visitation from the Lord in north[west]ern Minnesota. Tent meetings, Bible conferences and
evangelistic efforts are conducted in many places.”39 “I have heard several pastors and evangelists
say that there are few places in which there is such an intensified work of
evangelism as in this section of the country”40 or “where there is
such a good response to [these] evangelistic meetings.”41 Let’s take a brief clockwise tour through
some of these northwestern Minnesota communities and observe along with the LEM
how God was working.
About
140 miles southeast of the northwest corner of Minnesota, the LEM had been
hosting an annual Bible Conference in the town of Clearbrook since 1945. Souls had been saved every year, and the fall
of 1952 was reported to be no exception to that fact.42 Studies in Hebrews 12, Romans 8, and selected
Psalms drew people from at least ten surrounding communities; and on the
closing Sunday the crowd was so large that there was difficulty seating
everyone. Twelve miles south of
Clearbrook in the town of Bagley, the Bible Conference in early 1951 saw an
encouraging increase in attendees over the previous year, a large percentage of
these being youths.43 At the
November 1952 Bible Conference in Fosston, eighteen miles west-northwest of Bagley,
immense interest nearly filled the church every evening.44 Several became Christians and many others
rededicated themselves to Christ. One of
the local sponsoring pastors reported afterwards, “Wherever I go about town and
out in the rural areas, I hear nothing but the highest praise for the meetings
we had. The conference has made a
profound impact on our congregation as well as on our entire community.” The following year the Fosston attendance
increased even further, drawing from about twenty outlying communities.45 Eight miles northwest of Fosston in the town
of McIntosh, the LEM speakers were told during the June 1952 Bible Conference
that “revival has continued for some time in this area as, one by one, souls
have sought spiritual help and have found release from the many burdens of
sin.”46 Three years later,
spiritual hunger in McIntosh was so great that local leaders requested a Bible
Conference of twelve days instead of the usual eight.47 Attendance not only began strong but
increased continually with representations coming from virtually every
neighboring community. Rev. J.O.
Gisselquist could report that not only were souls saved during the conference
but also that many other recent converts testified of “a new-found joy in their
lives and of peace with God.” “God is
working in this whole area . . . [and] in mercy has visited these
communities. Laymen’s work has been
revived.”
At
the 1951 Fertile Conference roughly 25 miles west-southwest of McIntosh, people
from 14 other towns, some of them long distances away, were regularly in
attendance as were twelve pastors from nearby Lutheran parishes.48 The following year’s Fertile Conference began
with an unusual number of lay testimonies and concluded with “the church packed
to capacity,” numbers coming to Christ for salvation.49 A little over 40 miles southwest of Fertile,
the Bible Conference in Hendrum during late 1953 was marked by an
ever-increasing attendance and rejoicing new Christians who had been converted
during recent awakenings in the host congregation.50 One of those awakenings had broken out
earlier that spring during special meetings preached by LEM Executive Committee
member Rev. Maynard G. Halvorson at which “Christians were renewed,” “sinners
were converted,” and “young married couples surrender[ed] to Jesus.”51 One hundred miles north of Hendrum, the town
Kennedy was already reportedly becoming “a strong spiritual center for [the]
area” by the time of its second annual Bible Conference in June 1952.52 And 50 miles east-northeast of Kennedy, being
about 100 miles north-northwest of our tour’s starting point in Clearbrook,
evangelistic services preached by Nels Pedersen in October 1955 were extended
from eight days to twelve as “many came to find Christ as their Saviour.”53 Shortly afterward the local pastor reported,
“Events since have shown that still others were awakened, and more decisions
are expected.” Such was the moving of
the Spirit in northwestern Minnesota.
Another region of LEM ministry no less noteworthy for
revival was north central Iowa and south central Minnesota. About 65 miles south of the state border’s
midpoint was the LEM’s second oldest and third largest conference, the Eagle
Grove Bible Conference held near the beginning of each September. “There are few areas of Lutheranism in our
country where there are so many confessing Christians as in the 50-mile radius
area of Eagle Grove,” asserted Rev. Conrad.54 During the 1951 conference a “spirit of unity
and fellowship” reigned, even as 800 people filled accommodations to
overflowing both Sundays.55
Two years later, Sunday crowds overflowed the tents and listened to
services over loudspeakers.56
Another longstanding LEM Bible Conference was that in Estherville, Iowa,
about 90 miles northwest of Eagle Grove.
Here revival broke out in April 1951.57 In spite of it being the time for spring
field work, attendance increased every evening for eight days. On three of these evenings, after meetings
were held “at which time,” said a local supporting pastor, “we knelt at the
altar and prayed with some over twenty souls.”
Some of these were under conviction of sin while others were seeking
assurance of salvation or were burdened with personal problems. Both new and revived Christians displayed
“increased joy in the Lord.” Following
the conference, the same local pastor reported that his congregation’s Bible
studies and prayer meetings had been relocated from the chapel to the larger
church auditorium since “over one hundred, young and old” were now gathering
weekly. One year later, Rev. Conrad
rejoiced that not one of the Estherville converts had drifted away and that
several of the revived youth had begun studying at LBI in preparation for
Christian service.58 About 55
miles east of Estherville and roughly that same distance north of Eagle Grove,
the town of Thompson was noted as “becoming a strong spiritual center and power
in this part of Iowa” during the October 1951 Bible Conference at which eleven
other Iowan and five Minnesotan towns were represented.59 Two years later the Thompson attendance was
larger than ever, particularly on the closing Sunday when the church was filled
for three sessions and new converts testified openly.60 “Christians were greatly blessed, quickened
and consecrated,” and several backsliders were restored. Fourteen miles southeast in Forest City,
Iowa, a well-publicized Bible Conference held in the Civic Auditorium was
attempted in April 1954 with remarkable success, attendance being drawn from
towns as far away as 100 miles and increasing nightly until the 2,000-seat
auditorium was virtually filled on the closing Sunday.61 Undoubtedly some of those in attendance were
from Osage, Iowa, over 40 miles east, where just the previous year a growing
spiritual hunger during the first two evenings of evangelistic meetings with
Rev. Arnold Windahl had resulted in “times of refreshing from the presence of
the Lord” the next three evenings as many souls had found peace in Jesus and
others had consecrated their lives to God.62
On
the Minnesota side of the state border, a little over 20 miles northwest of
Estherville, many gathered for the 1954 Jackson Bible Conference in the midst
of busy corn planting season.63
“Souls were saved and strengthened, and many hearts were deeply
searched,” particularly by Nels Pedersen’s message about the five foolish
virgins who had the appearance of being Christians but who were ultimately shut
out from the Lord’s presence. Thirty
miles east of Jackson in Fairmont, Minnesota, Rev. Conrad found himself busy
counseling troubled and seeking souls nearly every afternoon during six days of
evangelistic meetings in early 1954.64 A little over 40 miles north-northeast in
Lake Crystal, December 1951 Bible Conference messages on the seven letters to
the churches caused Christians to confess “lukewarmness, indifference and
self-living” and yield themselves anew to Jesus.65 Others were saved, and the local pastor
declared that the conference had made a difference in both midweek
congregational prayer meetings and his parish work in general. Little could the LEM Executive Committee have
imagined such stirrings of the Spirit in south central Minnesota and north
central Iowa when they had planned their first Bible Conference in Eagle Grove
in 1938.
According to reports printed in Evangelize, a
third region which seemed frequently visited by God in power during the early
1950’s was southeastern South Dakota.
During the Sioux Falls Bible Conference in February 1951, frigid weather
and icy roads could not keep people away, particularly the “seeking souls [who]
sought personal help from the leaders.”66 On the last Sunday, the church was filled to
capacity three times and extra chairs were needed for the closing service. A number of Christians declared “that it was
the most blessed week in their lives,”
and the host pastor wrote two months later that he was still receiving
reports “of the many who were especially blessed during the conference and have
as a result become more interested in the Church and the work of God’s
kingdom.” About 120 miles west during
the Platte Bible Conference in June of that same year, God powerfully convicted
believers of their own need and of their neglected responsibility to their
fellowmen.67 “Christians
manifested a spirit of repentance” and “many were revived.” Once again, the host church was crowded for
three sessions on the closing Sunday.
Lake Madison Lutheran Church, roughly 50 miles northwest of Sioux Falls,
was stirred by God at least several times during the early 1950‘s. At the close of the last service of a week of
special meetings in December 1953, the guest evangelist asked any seeking
assurance to stay behind for counsel.68 Those who responded were “enough to fill the
altar rail twice,” some of them “hav[ing] been prayed for for years.” Two years later, two more sets of
evangelistic meetings at Lake Madison six weeks apart became “a time of
liberation” for many who wanted to make sure of their salvation.69 The local pastor rejoiced that both
attendance and prayer participation at midweek Bible studies had increased and
that “babes in Christ” were becoming quite eager to witness for Jesus.
In
the town of Oldham approximately 25 miles northwest of Madison, revival broke
out in the spring of 1952 during special meetings which were consequently
extended another week.70
Visiting evangelist Nels Pedersen reported,
“Souls
were saved from the first service, and each evening there were souls that
stayed after to be prayed with . . . There was old-fashioned Holy Spirit
conviction so that men and women came asking how to be saved. Several people had even left the church for
their cars, but had to return to the church to be saved . . . At the close of
the meetings, there were over forty who we believe found peace with God.”
At the closing service, an
older church member stood to publicly praise God for having answered the
prayers which saints had prayed for so many years. In May 1955, another revival broke out
fifteen miles east of Oldham in Sinai, South Dakota.71 After the fourth of eight evenings of
evangelistic meetings, Christians gathered around the altar “to pour out their
hearts in confession” and to seek cleansing and filling from the Holy
Spirit. During the remaining four days,
about 30 people sought counsel for salvation or assurance and four young men
answered God’s call to full-time Christian service. The local pastor reported that the chapel was
now filled for midweek Bible studies.
The southeastern area of South Dakota was not the only
place in the state where God’s Spirit was moving. The previously mentioned Hauge evangelist
observed in mid 1954,
“These
past few years there has been a mighty work of God in the western parts of
South Dakota. In many of these western
towns, where a living Christian was not known a few years back, there are now
many saved souls. They have thriving
prayer and testimony meetings at which they speak of the miracle of salvation
in their lives.”72
This report certainly seems
borne up by some of the LEM’s experiences in that region. The pastor of the Lutheran church in Newell,
over 50 miles north of Rapid City, declared that his parish had “never . . .
had such a visitation” from God as it did during the November 1953 LEM Bible
Conference.73 First,
Christians were moved to repentance of sin and worldliness and were given a
burden for the lost. Then a stirring
began among the unsaved. Some who had
thought themselves to be Christians discovered that they had possessed false
assurance and were actually living in sin.
Many were saved and found true peace in Christ. Even the smaller afternoon studies on prayer
and on Nehemiah drew troubled souls seeking counsel. New converts testified publicly. On the closing Sunday evening, so many were
in attendance that some had to be seated in the choir loft and additional
chairs were set up in the back of the church.
“People attending from other churches said that this was the finest
awakening that they had ever experienced.”
Seven months later, the new converts were found to still be full of “warmth
and zeal for the Lord.”74
Exactly one year after the Newell movement, another one began in Vale
eight miles south during evangelistic meetings sponsored by the LEM.75 Nearly every evening, the church was full,
the audience including visitors “from far and near” as well as youth and
children who were eager to testify. Once
again Christians dealt with their sins, often coming to pastors after the
services to make confessions which were sometimes humiliating. On each of the last five nights, souls were
counseled for salvation or assurance and both “young and old accepted Christ as
personal Saviour.”
In addition to regions of revival in which the LEM
ministered during the first half of the 1950’s, localized revivals were
frequently witnessed by its leaders as well.
These occurred primarily, of course, in the upper Midwest but also on
both East and West Coasts. The following
is a sampling of reports. When Nels
Pedersen preached evangelistic meetings at a country church outside Fairdale,
North Dakota, in October 1951, at least nine people were prayed with for
salvation and the pastor declared, “[This] will be a different church as a
result of these meetings.”76
Less than a year later, Pedersen returned to the same church for another
three weeks of meetings during which twenty more souls came to Christ.77 At the LEM Bible Conference in Sheyenne,
North Dakota, in May 1952, people attended from a 60 miles radius and the
packed high school auditorium at the closing service was believed to be “the
largest [attendance] at any religious service in the history of Sheyenne.”78 “After six annual [Sheyenne] conferences,”
said Conrad, “we see the tremendous impact these weeks have made in this whole
area.” Signs of a tremendous revival
among children were seen at the Bible Conference in French Lake, Minnesota, in
September 1952.79 Children
not only equaled adults in attendance but also displayed extreme attentiveness
to the preaching and eagerly shared during testimony times. For eight nights the church was so crowded
with children and their parents that a tent was pitched outside for the book
tables to make as much room as possible inside the church for people. During the Eau Claire, Wisconsin, Bible
Conference in March 1951, attendees came daily from a radius of 40 miles, and
“virtually every evening people stayed after the meeting to pray and receive
spiritual help.”80 Hunger for
the Word was a mark of the September 1954 Bible Conference in Newman Grove,
Nebraska, at which souls were prayed with each of the last four evenings.81 One of the speakers reported, “There were
some releases which only eternity can evaluate.”
Out
on the East Coast, the September 1953 greater Boston Bible Conference began
with conviction of sin and confession among Christians and was followed several
days later by an unforgettable after meeting to which 40 people came seeking
spiritual help.82 Over on the
West Coast, the February 1954 Bible Conference in Bellingham, Washington, was
an especial blessing to the many people both young and old who had been
converted three months earlier when revival had broken out in the church during
two weeks of evangelistic meetings with Rev. H.O. Egertson.83 More than a dozen people nightly had sought
peace with God,84 including twenty or so young married couples. As late as midnight, Rev. Egertson had been
called to homes to give spiritual help.
On the other end of the West Coast in Hawthorne, California, Rev. Conrad
noted “a spirit of revival” during six evenings of evangelistic meetings which
he preached in March 1952.85
“Every evening people stayed after to get help - as many as fifty in one
evening,” and the local pastor reported that revival was still ongoing in his
church two months later. Many other
similar reports of localized revivals could be cited from the pages of Evangelize,
but neither space nor redundancy of details would justify doing so.
Deeper Life: A Work of God
At no LEM Bible Conference were signs of revival more
regularly abundant during the early 1950’s than at the annual Deeper Life
Conference at Mission Farms on Medicine Lake just outside Minneapolis. After thirteen years of watching God grow and
multiply His Word through this ever-burgeoning conference, the LEM’s two longest-standing
leaders paused to reflect on its origins and its most blessed attributes. When the name “Deeper Life Conference” was
first suggested in 1939, said Rev. Evald Conrad, “it struck a ready response in
the hearts of our whole committee.”86 During its early years however, added Rev.
J.O. Gisselquist, the Deeper Life Conference also “met with considerable
opposition from Christian people” who saw its name as indicative of spiritual
pride and even “warned against it.”87 But in the years since then, continued
Conrad, it has overwhelmingly “found a responsive chord in thousands of hearts
[of Christians] throughout the land” who “are tired of the sham, shallowness
and superficiality of things today” and long “to go deeper in their spiritual
life” by “look[ing] to the Holy Spirit to teach [them] and reveal to [them] the
deep things of God.” Gisselquist then
enumerated some of Deeper Life’s most prominent characteristics and most
frequently heard comments.
“With
its clear-cut preaching of law and gospel, its emphasis on missions, and its
definite premillennial prophetic teaching, [the] Deeper Life Conference offers
a strong diet. Many have confessed that
they could hardly take it the first days.
But when the week was over, they were reluctant to leave those hallowed
grounds. ‘It is easy to live as a
Christian here’ is heard again and again . . . there is much joy in the
Christian fellowship and in victories gained over sins and carnal habits which
have hindered some from sweet communion with God.”
Gisselquist was always
especially impressed with the Christian fellowship at Deeper Life, referring to
it as “a standard of God raised against the enemy.”88 A WMPL missionary on furlough echoed similar
sentiments on behalf of herself and many others when she declared, “Deeper Life
is a must for every child of God.”89
What was it that attracted so many people to Deeper
Life? Quite obviously, the One who was
multiplying His Word was also multiplying the attendance. “We are very limited when it comes to
promotional agencies, so we feel it was the Lord who moved people to come,”
stated Conrad regarding the 1951 conference.90 Registration that year was 1,333 over two
weeks, and numbers of meals served by Mission Farms indicated that unregistered
attendance by people lodging offsite had increased considerably. The 2,000-seat Tabernacle was nearly full for
every evening service as well as for each of three sessions on Sundays. Under that year’s conference theme, “It is
Time to Awake,” two sub-topics particularly indicative of the LEM’s ministry to
Christians were, “The Illumination of the Gospel of the Glory of Christ” and
“Ready Unto Every Good Work” (“Local Church, Christian Fellowship, Spiritual
Gifts, Prayer, Home, Soul-Winning, Community, Witnessing, Money, Reading, and
Hospitality”). After nearly every
evening service some stayed behind for spiritual help, among these an
especially large number of boys and young men.
Other special conference blessings were the “spiritual conversations and
prayer groups . . . common at any time and anywhere,” the “hearty response to
the general testimony meeting . . . conducted at 7:00 p.m. on several evenings”
(called the Fellowship Hour in future years), and “the early Sunday morning
Communion service” for which Rev. Gisselquist had pushed so that Christians might
“experience how very blessed Communion can be when God’s people come together
to share in common the body and blood of Christ.”91
In 1952 when the conference theme was “I Have Set Thee a
Watchman,” registered attendance for the two weeks dropped slightly to about
1,200 but unregistered attendance swelled even further.92 “Many souls were prayed with. Especially in the high school department
there was a fine group that surrendered to Christ.” In light of fifteen years of tremendous
physical and spiritual growth at Deeper Life and the ongoing development of
Deeper Life as a family-oriented conference in spite of limited family
accommodations at Mission Farms, the LEM National Board decided to schedule
Deeper Life for three weeks in 1953.93 According to Mission Farms superintendent Dr.
W.E. Paul, this would make Deeper Life one of the largest Bible Conferences in
the nation.94
In reality, what happened was that about 1,200 people
once again registered for Deeper Life in 1953, but numbers of them stayed for
two or even the entire three weeks.95 That, combined with the massive unregistered
attendance, effectually made this Deeper Life the largest ever. Bearing the theme “Living by the Gospel,”96
the 1953 conference began without the overcrowded bustle so typical for opening
day, more people having registered for the second and third weeks.97 Yet the 2,000-seat Tabernacle was already
two-thirds full by the second evening.
The highlight this year was revival in the high school conference.98 An intense conviction of sin which began
among several youth at the beginning of the second week soon permeated the
entire group until by week’s end “most of the young people had come to Christ”
for salvation, restoration from backsliding, or consecration. On Saturday night of the third week a large
group of youth stayed after the evening service for spiritual help, and others
earnestly sought counsel as late as 3:00 in the morning. As the closing Sunday dawned, “There was unspeakable
joy in the camp
. . . as many could now
testify that they had found the Lord.”
The theme for 1954’s three-week Deeper Life Conference
was “We Would See Jesus” (“In His Word, In the True Church, In Our Daily
Living, and In His Harvest”),99 and overall attendance was
approximately the same as the year before.100 On the first weekend, crowds overflowed even
the spacious Tabernacle and spilled onto the surrounding lawn to hear
world-renowned industrialist and outspoken Christian R.G. LeTourneau.101 And once again there was revival among the
high school conference. Two girls who
received Jesus as Savior following an evening service returned to the youth
camp (Little Camp in the Hills which had been used by the LEM for this purpose
since 1952102) and shared their testimonies. Before the night was over, twelve more girls
had received Jesus and a host of others had rededicated their lives to the
Lord.103 “Most of the young
people who came to camp without peace in their hearts found Christ and His
peace” and testified openly.104
Accounts such as these raise an interesting
question. Can it be estimated how many
souls came to Christ for salvation or how many Christians experienced reviving
through the LEM’s ministry during the ten or so years post World War II? Yes, such figures could probably be
calculated with a certain degree of accuracy based on the information compiled
in the foregoing chapters. Those
numbers, when considered along with the facts that the LEM was only one
parachurch organization operating exclusively among Lutherans primarily in the
upper Midwest, might prove quite helpful in beginning to quantify and qualify
the now long-forgotten mid-century revival.
There is overwhelming evidence that God was also stirring within thousands
of individual churches, among numerous denominations besides Lutheran, and
across many more regions of the nation than just the upper Midwest. But as I began to estimate totals within just
the LEM’s ministry, the Holy Spirit strongly indicated to me that it would be
irreverent to do so. As the title of
this book suggests, the focus of this long-forgotten story and the reason for
which God has preserved it these many decades is that He might be glorified for
His mighty works among our forefathers.
And
so it seems that a better way to close this account is to glorify God in the
words of those who saw His mid-century works with their own eyes. “I wish I could give you a taste,” said Rev.
Conrad following the 1954 Deeper Life Conference,
“of
the testimony meeting we had the last Sunday evening, when scores rose to their
feet to tell what Deeper Life had meant to them. God was given the glory as they told how
their lives had been transformed through the Word. Many felt it had been the greatest week of
their lives. Most of those who testified
mentioned what the fellowship had meant to them. They said it was a foretaste of heaven.”105
Based on the pages of Evangelize,
that report could be multiplied a hundredfold as representative of numerous
other LEM Bible Conferences. “Deeper
Life is a work of God,” declared LEM secretary Orloue Gisselquist, “the most
clearly so of any work many of us have had contact with. We give God glory for His gracious moving in
our midst.”106 And we, who so
many decades later have the privilege of hearing these stories about God’s
gracious moving, join with our Christian brothers and sisters of the past in a
mighty chorus of praise to God for His wonderful works towards His people. To God be the glory!
Share this post
Click Here For Content Archives