13 April 1881 A.D. (Presbyterian) Rev. J. Wilbur Chapman Ordained
13 April 1881 A.D. (Presbyterian) Rev. J.
Wilbur Chapman Ordained
April 13: J. Wilbur Chapman
An Effective Pastor of the Flock
Try
to think of the most effective evangelists in the nineteenth
century—men like Dwight L. Moody, Billy Sunday, John Wilbur Chapman. Wait! J.
Wilbur Chapman? Who was he, you might ask? And yet this nineteenth century
evangelist had the experience of leading thousands to a saving knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Even
if we don’t know him in particular, all Christians have sung, and many loved
what has been called the greatest gospel content song of all time, namely, “One
Day.” He also wrote “Jesus! What a Friend for Sinners!” So you
know him as a hymn writer. Let’s get better acquainted.
John
Wilbur Chapman was a Presbyterian pastor and evangelist. Born in
1859 in a Christian home, he was educated at Lake Forest University and Lane
Theological Seminary. He was ordained on April 13,
1881 by the Presbytery
of Whitewater, Ohio. A few days later, he married Irene Sleddon.
Entering
the pastorate, his first charge was a yoked pastorate over two
Presbyterian churches in Indiana and Ohio in 1882. John was
able to serve both churches by alternating his preaching first one week at one
church and then the next Sunday at the other.
In
1883, he was given a call to the Old Saratoga Dutch Reformed Church in Albany,
New York. This was not a Presbyterian congregation but one which was
still very much within the Reformed tradition. In 1885, in the same town, he
was called and accepted as pastor to the First Reformed Church.
Under
his evangelistic ministry, the church grew from 150 members to 1500
members. At least 500 conversions took place in those years.
Sorrow
struck his family one year later when his wife Irene passed away. He was
left as a single parent with a young daughter. That year, still grieving,
he heard a message by the celebrated preacher F.B. Meyer. In speaking of whole-hearted
surrender to the Lord’s will, Meyer said “If you are not willing to give up
everything for Christ, are you willing to be made willing?” That one
question, Chapman said, “changed my whole ministry; it seemed like a new star
in the sky of my life.”
Five
years later, J. Wilbur Chapman began the greatest of his four pastorates, at
the Bethany Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This was the
home church of merchant John
Wanamaker.
Soon
after he arrived, however, an individual went up to Rev. Chapman and said, “You
are not a very strong preacher, but a few of us have decided to gather and pray
every Sunday for you.” That Sunday prayer meeting for the pastor
and his ministry at Bethany, grew to over a thousand individuals praying for
the effectiveness of the Word of God through J. Wilbur Chapman. Soon a
revival started in the church in which 400 were added to the church
rolls. Two years later, J. Wilbur Chapman left the pastorate to become a
full-time evangelist, where he had his greatest ministry to the Lord.
Words to Live By: Do you, as a member of
a Bible-believing, Gospel-preaching church, pray for your pastor? Do you
pray for his preparation of the Word, his evangelism opportunities, his
counseling sessions, his home and hospital visitations, his administrative
duties, and his family? Pray, pray, pray for the pastors of our
churches!
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