{"id":1989,"date":"2013-04-21T14:00:19","date_gmt":"2013-04-21T20:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/?p=1989"},"modified":"2013-04-22T16:46:02","modified_gmt":"2013-04-22T22:46:02","slug":"well-sung-thou-good-and-faithful-servant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/2013\/04\/21\/well-sung-thou-good-and-faithful-servant\/","title":{"rendered":"Well Sung, Thou Good and Faithful Servant"},"content":{"rendered":"

4-22-13<\/p>\n

George Beverly Shea, who provided the theme music, in a real way, to the faith of several generations of Christians, died on Tuesday, April 16, 2013.<\/p>\n

He lived to the age 104. One hundred and four was the a number that had many people talking when they heard of Bev Shea\u2019s passing. Yet other numbers are more significant. Two hundred million is the approximate number of people before whom he performed his hymns, live, through the years. Sixty-five is how many years ago he joined Billy Graham\u2019s ministry. Seventy is the number of albums he recorded. Ten is the number of Grammy nominations he received.<\/p>\n

And \u201ccountless\u201d is the number of people who profoundly were touched by Bev Shea\u2019s sincere renditions; and countless the number of souls he ushered into Heaven through his music ministry.<\/p>\n

So 104, by itself, is not a significant number. A form of an old joke addresses the chronological milepost: \u201cJust reach 103, and be very careful!\u201d But the 16th-century French essayist Michel de Montaigne wrote: \u201cThe value of life is not in the length of days, but in the use we make of them; a man may live long yet very little.\u201d \t<\/p>\n

Bev Shea\u2019s career is a testament to a life of value, lived yielded to the Holy Spirit. His part in the story of the three men who were the core of hundreds of crusades \u2013 more than 60 years of friendship with each other, and friendship with Jesus \u2013 is remarkable. Those men were Bev Shea, singer; Cliff Barrows, musical director and host; and Billy Graham.<\/p>\n

Many great preachers and evangelists have surrounded themselves with music and musicians, knowing that between heartfelt hymns and catchy gospel songs, there was \u201cbait\u201d enough to attract people not yet secure in their faith. Martin Luther had Johannes Walther\u2026 and J. S. Bach, 200 years later. Dwight L Moody had Ira Sankey, and Fanny Crosby\u2019s hymns. Billy Sunday had Homer Rodeheaver. Billy Graham himself admitted he never would have had a successful ministry without Bev Shea\u2019s singing. Graham\u2019s own singing talents were charitably described by Bev as sustaining the \u201cmalady of no melody.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many advertisements and handbills for early crusades read, \u201cBEV SHEA SINGS\u2026 Billy Graham will preach.\u201d Indeed, it seemed the cart approached the horse when the unknown fledgling preacher Billy Graham knocked on the door of Bev Shea\u2019s office at WMBI, Moody Bible Radio in Chicago, and asked the famous singer to join him. Bev accepted, reminding more than a few people of Jesus calling a diverse group of Disciples.<\/p>\n

For all of Billy Graham\u2019s powerful sermons and tremendous influence, one cannot envision one of his crusades without music, without Bev Shea. The associations are many: the altar-call hymn, \u201cJust As I Am\u201d; the inspiring \u201cThis Is My Father\u2019s World\u201d; the sermon-in-song \u201cThe Ninety and Nine.\u201d Bev himself was responsible for the tune to \u201cI\u2019d Rather Have Jesus\u2019; and he wrote words and music to \u201cThe Wonder of It All.\u201d The music at an early crusade in Los Angeles was responsible for the conversion of cowboy star Stuart Hamblin\u2026 whose own gospel songs \u201cUntil Then\u201d and \u201cIt Is No Secret (What God Can Do)\u201d subsequently became crusade favorites.<\/p>\n

One of Bev Shea\u2019s signature songs is regarded as the world\u2019s favorite hymn, after \u201cAmazing Grace\u201d — \u201cHow Great Thou Art.\u201d Today, many people think it is a centuries-old standard, but it was only in the 1950s, at a Billy Graham Crusade in New York\u2019s Madison Square Garden, that Bev Shea first sang it in the form we know today. Audience reaction demanded multiple encores on successive days, and an extended booking for the nightly crusades. The hymn had originated as a poem and an unrelated folk tune in Sweden and had traveled to Christian communities in Germany, Russia, the Ukraine, England, Canada, and the United States\u2026 until, with Bev Shea\u2019s variations and powerful performance, it caught fire.<\/p>\n

The astonishing appeal of Bev Shea is due only in part to his velvet-toned bass-baritone. It is more than his straightforward presentation of classic hymns, which, sung by any other voice in the 21st century, might have seemed anachronistic. It is not even fully explained by his courtly presence, so manifest on platform and in private, whether with a few personal friends or multitudes of fans.<\/p>\n

I believe Bev Shea\u2019s appeal, ultimately, was his lack of guile, using a word the Bible warns against. \u201cNo shadow of turning.\u201d He simply introduced Christ. Technically speaking, Cliff Barrows introduced Bev Shea, Bev Shea introduced Billy Graham, and Billy Graham introduced Jesus Christ, all yielded to the Holy Spirit\u2019s direction, according to their respective God-given talents.<\/p>\n

That explains his life. To explain his death, I cite my friend Jim Watkins, who recalled the gospel song written by Bev Shea, and referred to that lifetime of friendly partnership with the crusade team: \u201cGeorge Beverly Shea, Billy Graham’s featured soloist for 60 years, is now realizing the full extent of his famous song, \u2018I’d Rather Have Jesus.\u2019\u201d It was time, and Heaven is sounding sweeter right about now.<\/p>\n

Well sung, thou good and faithful servant.<\/p>\n

\n\"Rick\n<\/div>\n

Cliff Barrows, Rick Marschall, Joni Eareckson Tada, George Beverly Shea, Joni’s mom Lindy<\/p>\n

+ + +<\/p>\n

I got to know Bev Shea when working on a proposed PBS documentary on gospel music, for producer Don Stillman. Days spent at the Cove with him and Cliff Barrows, Billy Graham staff, even Joni Eareckson Tada, were precious. At the crusades, Bev Shea sang and seldom spoke. When he did introduce a song, however, he spoke from his heart, as this vid from a performance, probably early 1960s, attests. A portion of his testimony. And his classic song\u2026 <\/p>\n

Click: I\u2019d Rather Have Jesus<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

4-22-13 George Beverly Shea, who provided the theme music, in a real way, to the faith of several generations of Christians, died on Tuesday, April 16, 2013. He lived to the age 104. One hundred and four was the a number that had many people talking when they heard of Bev Shea\u2019s passing. Yet other […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1,10,31],"tags":[1094,839,1101,1095,1096,1099,144,97,1102,1100,207,1103,898,1098,614,1097],"class_list":["post-1989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-generalministry","category-life","category-service","tag-bev-shea","tag-billy-graham","tag-billy-sunday","tag-cliff-barrows","tag-don-stillman","tag-dwight-moody","tag-fanny-crosby","tag-george-beverly-shea","tag-homer-rodeheaver","tag-ira-sankey","tag-johann-sebastian-bach","tag-johannes-walther","tag-martin-luther","tag-moody-bible-institute","tag-the-cove","tag-wmbi"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1bRYz-w5","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1989"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1989\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1992,"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1989\/revisions\/1992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}