Wednesday, July 19, 2023

It is the 19th of July 2023. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org, I’m Dan van Voorhis.

Christian personalities during the Jazz Age had to walk a fine line. In this new age of popular consumption, early broadcasting, and increased awareness of others vices, they would often feel the need to be compelling, to borrow the best from the age but not be identified with its excesses. Listeners of this show might remember Aimee Semple McPherson- one of my favorites- and her work at the Angelus Temple. And you might remember her rather mysterious disappearance and subsequent controversy. Well, it was during her absence that the church needed a pastor and one who could walk the line between pastor and celebrity- and so they called Paul Rader, a man who died on this the 19th of July in 1938.

Like many Jazz Age preachers, his life is frenetic. As an evangelist, he was often on the move, and his popularity has led to no shortage of starry-eyed stories and tales. Let’s break down his life as best we can and remember the man who wrote what was reportedly Elvis Presley’s favorite hymn.

He was born Daniel Paul Rader in Colorado in 1879- his father was a missionary with the Methodist church and was soon sent to Cheyenne. IT was at a camp meeting when Rader recounts his coming to faith in Christ. His family moved back to Colorado when his father became the publisher of a Methodist magazine. Paul began preaching alongside his father until he went to the University of Denver in 1897. He showed an aptitude for the new sport of gridiron football and went to the University of Colorado, where he played for the Buffaloes. He would attend Central College in Missouri and Hamline University, where he played and coached. In 1902 he moved to Puget Sound, where he taught for two years before receiving a call to the Maverick Congregational church in Boston. He was married in 1906 and then took a call to a church in Portland, Oregon. There he had a crisis of faith and left church work to work as a boxer and boxing promoter.

In 1912 he had another conversion moment while on business in New York. He decided to go back into the ministry and serve with the Christian and Missionary Alliance church- the CMA, or sometimes just “Alliance,” was founded by A.B. Simpson in the 1880s and was at the forefront of the new Pentecostal movement (the CMA is a close cousin with Sister Aimee’s Foursquare denomination).

His singing voice garnered him the attention of A.B. Simpson, who invited Paul to assist him on his tour of evangelistic meetings. He was a full-time itinerant pastor until he was called to the famous Moody Church in Chicago in 1915. He would also be invited to preach at the Church of the Open Door. The Church of the Open Door was formerly led by R.A. Torrey, the President of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles (or BIOLA), and the church was funded by the Stewart brothers- the Oil tycoons who also funded the tracts known as “the Fundamentals.”

In 1919 Rader was named the next president of the CMA after A.B. Simpson died. In 1922 he turned his attention to founding churches and using the new medium of radio. He would agree to give his local Chicago station Sunday sermons for broadcasting. BY 1925 he was publishing the National Radio Chapel Announcer. He would be the first preacher with a regular weekly radio service. He would write popular hymns, such: Only Believe was said to be Elvis’ favorite, and the King of Rock and Roll recorded it as a single in 1971.

In 1926 with the news of Sister Aimee’s disappearance, he led services at the Angelus Temple. He resigned as president of the CMA and spent his later years traveling the world as an evangelist and founded the World Wide Christian Couriers- small groups of evangelism-focused Christians that would use a curriculum designed by Rader. During the Chicago World Fair of 1934, he held tent meetings outside in the style of Moody at the first Chicago Worlds’ Fair. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer and died in 1938. His service was held at Hollywood Presbyterian Church, with a procession of thousands coming to pay their respects. Rader’s son, also Paul, would serve as the General of the Salvation Army. Born in 1879, Paul Rader was 58 years old when he died on this day in 1938

The last word for today comes from Rader himself from the Hymn made famous by Elvis:

Fear not, little flock, from the cross to the throne,
From death into life He went for His own;

All power in earth, all power above,

Is given to Him for the flock of His love.

Fear not, little flock, He goeth ahead,

Your shepherd selecteth the path you must tread;

The waters of Marah He’ll sweeten for thee,

He drank all the bitter in Gethsemane.

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 19th of July 2023, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who, when shaven, is often mistaken for Elvis- he’s that handsome- he is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man reminding you that “gridiron
football” was distinguished from “Association Football,” which would be shortened to “soccer”  I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.