A student in my “Restoration History” class at Florida College raised this question about what qualifications churches should seek in their evangelists: “should education and eloquence be as important as they often are?” The question was sparked by growing awareness of how much expectations of the preacher’s profession have changed over the past hundred years, especially during the urbanization and economic growth of the United States after WWII. The upward mobility of American churches in this era led to what historian Michael Casey has identified as a transition from the “farmer preacher” to the “professional preacher” as a standard type of evangelist in American Christianity, including among Churches of Christ.
The evolving identify of the American evangelist in the 20th century and the enduring legend of the agrarian preacher is central to a chapter in my recent biography of Ed Harrell, Explorer in Search of Zion. Harrell’s own rhetorical style was carefully crafted to evoke the rustic gospeler, who had popular appeal because of clear teaching and a common touch. The sophisticated simplicity of Harrell’s preaching reflects the paradoxical backwardness of his restorationist theology, which often exhibited a type of critical naivete in its return to basic Biblical ideas due to a principled and learned rejection of more complex developments in church history and Christian theology.
Exploring another facet of the primitivist preacher, the video above provides Sewell Hall’s reflections on the rugged individualism of Ed Harrell – his independence both from “brotherhood opinion” and from worldly standards of respect, whether it be theological education or respect within a church network. As Sewell brilliantly observes, Ed Harrell had the gift of independence – a gift skillfully used, and wisely emulated.
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