When Scofield edited the footnotes of the Scofield Reference Bible, it became one of the biggest sellers in America and across the English-speaking world, selling more than 2 million copies in 30 years. The Scofield Reference Bible became one of the most influential books of evangelical Christianity in the last 100 years. It gave international fame to Scofield as a Bible teacher who visited the great Bible conferences of the late 1800s and early 1900s to teach the Word of God. He then brought an educational methodology to his pulpit in Dallas. His Bible expositional teaching became a standard at Dallas Theological Seminary, and it influenced a large section of the evangelical world to use the Sunday morning sermon not as a motivational pulpit, but to teach the Word of God.
A seventh church to influence evangelicalism was not designed for Christians but for the unchurched. Bill Hybels designed a church service where those who did not have a church background would be comfortable and have the gospel presented to them with contemporary music, drama and messages all found within a contemporary environment. This church coined the phrase “seeker services,” where an unsaved person could seek God in the integrity of his or her pursuit. Many thousands of pastors visited the Willow Creek pastors’ conferences and went home to duplicate the influence of the church.
An eighth trend traces the growth and worldwide influence of what some call praise-worship music. Church historian Kenneth Scott Latourette said that whenever there was a true revival among God’s people, inevitably there was also a new hymnody—the revived church praised the Lord with music expressing its own genre. In each revival, believers sang to God with the music they sang in their normal lives. No one can doubt the explosive influence of praise-worship music across the churches of the world, and no church better reflects that movement than a church in Sydney that changed its name to Hillsong—since its music label was so widely known. Darlene Zschech, worship leader for the church, brought tears to the eyes of many as they sang, “My Jesus … my Savior … shout to the Lord.”
A ninth trend is the church embracing advertisement, marketing and media to carry out its strategy of evangelism and communicate its message to the masses. Beginning in approximately 1900, many churches embraced a radio ministry. Continuing into the 1950s, many other churches embraced television ministry. Perhaps none was more effective than Jerry Falwell and the Old Time Gospel Hour. During the late 1970s, his church service was televised into every MIA (media impact area) across America. But Falwell did more than preaching; he also used his mailing ministry to rally his viewing audience to the church’s causes, and he created teaching programs (the Liberty Home Bible Institute, with more than 100,000 graduates). Eventually, the church’s ministry was expanded through what would later become Liberty University Online, where more than 90,000 students enroll in accredited courses, learning through their computer from a uniquely Christian university.
A tenth trend is noted for its transforming influence on church culture as much as its influence on new methods and new programs. After World War II, the parents who were responsible for winning World War II gave birth to the generation known as the baby boomers. These children were influenced by television, wealth and changing expectations of cultures. The churches struggled to incorporate the growing numbers of baby boomers into their traditional church culture. The young didn’t think like their parents, did not dress like their parents, did not sing like them, did not eat like them, nor did they dream like them. Some baby boomers were initially focused on “California Dreaming,” and they were representative of the multiple thousands of young people who rebelled against what they called the repressive middle class and became hippies in California.
It was there that the 10th church in this study, Calvary Chapel, and its pastor, Chuck Smith, presented the historic message of Jesus Christ in a new package. Many youth were converted and were called “Jesus People.” Smith let them sing their new music and dress their comfortable way, and a new counterculture church began to spread across America. No more suits and ties; rather, young people dressed leisurely. A new culture took over from the old traditional church culture. It impacted many.
Types of Influence
Looking through these 10 historical windows that Elmer Towns has opened for us, we note the various ways that the influence of each church was effective. We broke the categories into four realms: (1) inward for spiritual growth, (2) upward to God, (3) relational to other believers and (4) outward to the non-Christian.
