Collection 176 [April 17, 2001]
National Prayer Congress, Dallas, Texas; 1976
Tapes of Addresses; 1976
16 Reels of Audio Tape
Restrictions
There are no restrictions on the use of this collection.
Historical Background
The National Prayer Congress was a call to Christians in America to "turn to God in repentance and prayer for our nation." The Congress convened in Dallas, Texas, October 26-29, 1976, to hear addresses from thirty-two prominent Evangelical leaders. (See Scope and Content Note.)
Bill Bright of Campus Crusade for Christ was the active force in bringing the Congress to fruition. As he put it, "As far as I have any knowledge, there has been no great prayer Congress of this kind since Pentecost." It was perhaps not an accident that this Congress convened in the nation's bicentennial year, when patriotic fervor was high. It was also not unique in equating patriotism with Christian commitment. Six weeks earlier, on September 17, 1976, 700-Club host Pat Robertson emceed the Christian Broadcasting Network television special "It's Time to Pray, America." This program called for Christians in America to unite for forty days in intercessory prayer that God would bring a spiritual and moral rebirth "to our beloved land." The fortieth day of this vigil fell on the opening day of the National Prayer Congress at Dallas.
The closing day of the Dallas Congress was also the first day of a twenty-four-hour "Call to Prayer and Fasting," spanning the night of October 29-30. This was sponsored by "Food for the Hungry" and urged America to pray and fast for the impoverished of the world. Like the Dallas Congress, it took as its theme II Chronicles 7:14, "If my people, which are called by me name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land."
The thirty-two speakers were each assigned a topic--a facet of prayer. Their addresses ranged in length from twenty to forty-five minutes; each message was followed by a time for prayer. The overriding theme of the Congress was to seek God's favor on America. To this end, the addresses were to speak to a concern for the well-being of the church, and to the concept of church unity (not to say ecumenism), and were also to fan the fires of "revival sweeping the country."
The Congress was viewed not as an end, but rather as a beginning. It was hoped that films, videotapes, and audiotapes of the addresses would be used across America to foster local prayer efforts. Attendance at the Congress itself fell far short of the anticipated number.
Scope and Content
This collection consists of a radio documentary on the National Prayer Congress, and tapes of thirty addresses presented at the Congress. There were thirty-two scheduled speakers; this collection does not include speeches by participants Charles L. Allen, pastor of First Methodist Church in Houston, Texas, or Thomas F. Zimmerman, General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God denomination, as neither of these men were able to attend the Congress.
Tape 1 is the half-hour radio documentary, prepared some time after the Congress. It reports that videotapes and films of addresses were being edited for release to local areas; however, the tapes of addresses in this collection appear to be the complete texts. Tapes 2 through 16 contain the thirty speeches, two per tape, both on the same side. Introductions to the speakers are lacking, and there is no verbal indication per se as to who is speaking. Most of the addresses, in fact, seem to have been a minute or two underway when the recorder was turned on.
Provenance
These tapes were transferred to the Center in August, 1980, from the Wheaton College Archives.
Accession 80-100
May 20, 1981
Galen R. Wilson
J. Nasgowitz
LOCATION RECORD
Accession 80-100
Type of material: Audio Tapes
The following items are located in the AUDIO TAPE FILE. Request by the T# at the
beginning of each entry below.
T1 - Reel-to-reel, 7-1/2 ips speed, approximately 30 minutes. One side.
This tape includes a 60-second radio promotional spot advertisement for the half-hour radio
program documenting the Congress. The rest of the tape is the documentary, produced for radio
by World Religious News, and narrated by Cathy Osbeck. The program gave the reasons why the
Congress was held, including the overriding theme: "To call all Christians to pray for America."
It featured a recording of Congress participant Jimmy Owens' musical setting of II Chronicles
7:14, and spots in which many of the speakers at the Congress told about it. Some of these spots
were excerpts from their addresses, others were from interviews recording their reflections on the
Congress. The spots follow in this order: Harold Fickett, Ed Hill, Jimmy Owens, Billy Graham,
Willie Richardson, Bill Bright, Robert Bowman, Frank Barker, Corrie ten Boom, Lloyd Ogilvie,
Harold Fickett, Louis Evans Sr., Willie Richardson, Howard Hendricks, Pat Robertson, Frank
Barker, Paul Eshelman, Charles Colson, J. Edwin Orr, Rex Humbard, Vonette Bright, Pat Boone,
W. A. Criswell, Paul Toms, Howard Hendricks, Bill Bright, Corrie ten Boom.
T2 - Reel-to-reel, 3-3/4 ips speed, approximately 47 minutes. One side.
Side A: Message by Harold L. Fickett (President, Barrington College, Rhode Island) entitled
"You Have Not Because..." (22:19 minutes). The thrust of this address was that unconfessed sin
in our lives blocks out God's hearing our prayers. We must examine our own lives and rid
ourselves of sin and guilt--then God will listen. Introspection produces confession which
produces forgiveness and spiritual renewal: this was the formula he advocated. America, Fickett
said, was not going to experience spiritual renewal until it got on its knees and confessed with a
contrite heart.
Side B: Message by Paul Toms (pastor of Park Street Church, Boston) entitled "Church Prayer
Meeting" (24:25 minutes). Toms claimed, "Spiritual exaltation does not take place in a vacuum
of any sort," especially where prayer is concerned. He emphasized the importance of united
prayer as well as personal prayer. He cited prayerlessness as a great Christian failure, which
produced a lack of impressiveness in our witness--powerful but impotent, reasonable yet
unconvincing. He quoted poet/musician Sidney Lanier on this subject of our "split personality"
which could be corrected by plugging in to God's power via prayer.
T3 - Reel-to-reel, 3-3/4 ips speed, approximately 51 minutes. One side.
Side A: Message by Rex Humbard (pastor of the Cathedral of Tomorrow, Akron, Ohio) entitled
"Prayer Without Ceasing" (22:34 minutes). "Prayer puts God to work for you," stated Humbard.
He urged listeners to pray "in this crucial day." The majority of his message was spent in
describing the urgency of the present day where "the fields are white for harvest"; pray for the
harvest and for the workers who will do the harvesting. At heart, this was a plea for world
missions and evangelism. In this address, Humbard revealed his belief in a literal reckoning of
year in the Genesis timetable, arriving at creation ca. 4000 B.C. Humbard closed by urging
listeners to make their entire lives into prayers, after which they could truly "pray without
ceasing."
Side B: Message by Jack McAlister (World Literature Crusade) entitled "Prayer and World
Evangelism" (28:26 minutes). McAlister described the usual church response to the urgent
message of Matthew 9:37, "The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few": take up an
offering! He suggested, rather, mobilization for world evangelism by prayer. He quoted Winston
Churchill's definition of a fanatic as someone who "cannot change his mind and will not change
the subject," and challenged listeners to become prayer fanatics. McAlister shared his burden for
China, and its generation of unevangelized people. He quoted Isaiah's "Their walls are ever
before me" as being a reference to China, and used this as his theme to request prayer for China,
claiming that prayer is of more impact than dollars in world evangelization.
T4 - Reel-to-reel, 3-3/4 ips speed, approximately 49 minutes. One side.
Side A: Message by W. A. Criswell (pastor, First Baptist, Dallas; author) entitled "Spiritual
Warfare" (19:31 minutes). This might possibly have been the keynote address to the Congress. It
was an emotionally-charged, passionate message, citing the Congress as the first national
convocation of prayer in the U. S. history, and asking God to aid America in this time of
"desperate trials." Criswell paralleled U. S. history with that of Great Britain, pointing out the
decay of the latter and ascribing it to a "secular, materialistic and pagan" populace. He described
New York's Times Square as it was a generation ago and as it was in 1976, and called for a great
revival in America. He said "America cannot live in drunkenness and debauchery and desecration.
It is still in that holy and heavenly book, 'The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations
that forget God.'"
Side B: Message by Cliff Barrows and Billy Graham (28:52 minutes). Graham had permitted his
name to be used in the Congress publicity, promising to be there if able. As it happened, he could
not be there, but sent a taped message. Barrows was present, introduced Graham's tape, and
spoke for a few minutes at the conclusion of Graham's address. Graham's message centered on
the primary importance of prayer conferences to revivals, briefly sketching out the history of
American revivalism to illustrate this point. He discussed the rise of Evangelicalism and the
resurgence of Christianity in U. S. life, quoting from a Gallup poll in Time magazine October 4,
1976. (This resurgence was touched off by the Presidential candidacy in 1976 of Jimmy Carter,
who had early in the campaign witnessed for his faith in Christ.) Graham pointed out that a rise in
Christian interest had also ignited a Satan-powered backlash of sin, scandal and corruption, and
quoted deceased Evangelical pastors V. Raymond Edman and Clarence McCartney on this issue.
Satan, Graham asserted, wants above all to sow discord among Christians. He alluded to recent
problems between the BGEA and Campus Crusade for Christ, admitting that there had been
misunderstandings, but claimed there was no "split" in the secular sense. Misunderstandings rise
from the diversity of the Spirit's gifts. He pledged his support to Campus Crusade with, "I love
Bill Bright." Graham stressed the need for unity, so that corporate prayer could have power.
Looking ahead to the presidential election, he warned against the potential divisiveness of a
situation where Evangelicals were being called into the public arena to be quoted, misquoted, etc.
He urged Christians to stay united in the common mission of saving souls, and to let unimportant
differences go.
T5 - Reel-to-reel, 3-3/4 ips speed, approximately 48 minutes. One side.
Side A: Message by Willie Richardson (pastor, Christian Stronghold Baptist Church,
Philadelphia) entitled "Intercessory Prayer" (23:16 minutes). Richardson claimed that two things
are necessary for intercessory prayer: the love of God and love for our fellow men--even
enemies. He used examples of Christ's praying for others, Stephen's prayers for his murderers,
and William Tyndale's prayers for King Henry VIII who was sending him to his death. Aside
from the topic of intercessory prayer, Richardson spent some time preaching on the value of
children.
Side B: Message by Bruce Cook ("Here's Life America") entitled "Community Prayer Groups"
(24:07 minutes). Cook pointed out the difference between the "prayer of hope" and the "prayer
of faith": the former is paralyzed by doubt, while the latter expects to be answered. In this
message, he talked about Campus Crusade's program, Here's Life America, and how it had
managed through prayers of faith to foster indigenously-led prayer crusades in 145 U. S. cities.
He told a personal episode of some years earlier trying to sell Here's Life America to a man also a
speaker at the Congress, Charles Stanley. The three characteristics of a prayer of faith are an
excitement about the things not yet seen, visualization of the task completed, and action on the
basis that God is doing His part.
T6 - Reel-to-reel, 3-3/4 ips speed, approximately 46 minutes. One side.
Side A: Message by James Kennedy (pastor, Coral Ridge Presbyterian, Fort Lauderdale, Florida)
entitled "Prayer and the World Crisis" (23:26 minutes). Kennedy based his thoughts on the words
of a modern day "secular prophet," Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who had recently escaped from the
Soviet Union in 1976. Solzhenitsyn inferred that the West was on the verge of collapse at its own
hands. Kennedy's question to this was, will this catapult America into prayer? He quoted Ruth
Bell Graham, "If God does not chasten America, He will have to apologize to Sodom and
Gomorrah...unless there is a repentance...." Kennedy gave a short recap of sixty years of Soviet
history, spelling dire warnings for the U. S., especially criticizing the current policy of detente. He
ended with a four-fold way of averting crisis: (1) recognize the extent and seriousness of the
national problem; (2) recognize that it is the result of forgetting God's commandments; (3) pray
for selves and enemies, (4) repent of failure to witness, and change actions accordingly.
Side B: Message by B. Clayton Bell (pastor, Highland Park Presbyterian, Dallas, brother of Ruth
Bell Graham) entitled "The Man Who Prays" (22:28 minutes). The central figure of this address
was King David and the text, Psalm 25. In what was essentially a Bible study, Bell made the
points that the man of prayer knows (1) in which direction to seek help in crisis, (2) that
obedience is the purpose of prayer, (3) that God's grace, not works, is the basis of prayer, and (4)
that there are both hope and a future inherent in prayer. Looking to current politics, he stressed
that it is more important that America as a nation be right with God than that she have the "right"
men in public office.
T7 - Reel-to-reel, 3-3/4 ips speed, approximately 70 minutes. One side.
Side A: Message by Corrie ten Boom (evangelist and survivor of concentration camps) entitled
"Lonely Place" (44:32 minutes). This speech concerned personal prayer, during which time
Christians can talk to God about others. Prayer, pursued in a right relationship to God, is artillery
against the enemy. Miss ten Boom spent a good portion of this address on her experiences in the
concentration camps of World War II Germany, experiences in which prayer offered for others
played significant roles.
Side B: Message by Paul Eshelman (Field Director, Campus Crusade for Christ) entitled
"Praying Scripture" (25:20 minutes). This address did not concern Christians' incorporating
Scripture passages into their prayers, as might be supposed, but rather Christians' claiming of
Scripture promises about prayer. Eshelman quoted missionaries Adoniram Judson and Hudson
Taylor and World Vision Magazine editor Frank Farrell, all on the topic of prayer. He stressed
the importance of praying specifically, because specific prayers are specifically answered.
T8 - Reel-to-reel, 3-3/4 ips speed, approximately 61 minutes. One side.
Side A: Message by J. Edwin Orr (professor, School of
World Missions, Pasadena) entitled "Rule of Prayer" (25:28 minutes). Orr's message
was in large part a history lecture illustrating the importance of "concerted,
united sustained prayer." Citing times in America's history from the Great Awakening
and the Revolution Era, to the era of Moody's evangelism to Kenneth Scott Latourette
and others' work for revival in the twentieth century, Orr traced the input
of prayer into revival. Unlike most other participants at the Congress, Orr
believed that in 1976 the U. S. had not yet approached a level of earnest seeking
in prayer to bring about a large-scale revival. But he pointed out that the
process of prayer culminating in a real revival was as viable in 1976 as it
ever had been.
Side B: Message by Bill Bright (founder and president, Campus Crusade for Christ) entitled
"Prayer Can Save America" (35:21 minutes). Bright opened with a recap of all the agony in
America's history that might have been averted had those involved known to pray, and how to
pray. Prayer is the most important thing a person can do...and yet it is nearly the last resource to
which they turn. He gave the history of twenty-five years of Campus Crusade, and the role of
prayer in it. His address was primarily case studies, proving the efficacy of prayer. He stressed
that, as in the past, prayer would do more to save "this nation" than anything else.
T9 - Reel-to-reel, 3-3/4 ips speed, approximately 47 minutes. One side.
Side A: Message by Ben Armstrong (Executive Secretary, National Religious Broadcasters)
entitled "Praying for the Media" (23:15 minutes). Armstrong argued the importance of praying
for the media, both sacred and secular, even though the latter may seem to be the Christian's
enemy at times. He quoted Billy Graham's comment made at the 1970 International Congress on
World Evangelization, that after watching a newscast, he and his family prayed for the individuals
on the news and for those reporting it. Armstrong stressed the necessity of prayer in the high-pressured life of a religious broadcaster, commenting that some claimed a Christian could not
survive in secular broadcasting at all. He gave a capsule history of the "Electric Church" from
1921 when KDKA radio in Pittsburgh broadcast a church service, and pointed to this "Electric
Church" as God's agent for twentieth century evangelism.
Side B: Message by Billy Melvin (Executive Director, National Association of Evangelicals)
entitled "Praying in One Accord" (23:11 minutes). In this address on the unity of a church body
being prerequisite to successful public prayer, Melvin drew his text from Ephesians 4. He gave a
synopsis of the church at Ephesus, and discussed the relationship of believers as seen in this
congregation. He arrived at three major truths: the oneness of the body, the diversity of gifts
within the body for purposes of strengthening it, and the priority of love within the body.
T10 - Reel-to-reel, 3-3/4 ips speed, approximately 48 minutes. One side.
Side A: Message by Pat Boone (entertainer) entitled "Singing and Speaking" (26:58 minutes). In
this rambling series of anecdotes and personal remembrances of answered prayer, Boone sought
to illustrate the fact that when Christians pray, God listens. He examined the Lord's Prayer;
played a tape of Frank Borman of the Apollo 8 astronaut crew reading Genesis 1 from space on
Christmas, 1968, and ended in leading congregational singing of "God Bless America."
Side B: Message by Pat Robertson (host of the 700 Club) entitled "Benefits of Mass Prayer"
(20:47 minutes). Robertson claimed that the men theoretically in power by worldly standards are
not really so powerful as the intercessory pray-er. He looked ahead to necessary judgment that
must fall on America for its sins, but pointed out that God could and would be moved by
corporate prayer--in the family unit, in the classic "two or three gathered together," in any
Christian prayer group. Christian prayer added to Christian prayer multiplies the results.
T11 - Reel-to-reel, 3-3/4 ips speed, approximately 49 minutes. One side.
Side A: Message by Vonette Bright (Director of Great Commission Prayer Crusade and wife of
Bill Bright) entitled "Praying Strategically" (20:35 minutes). Mrs. Bright's address was mainly
personal reminiscences of times when prayer had significant consequences, especially during a
flash flood in Colorado. She stressed the importance of praying about everything, for trusting in
small matters makes it possible to trust God in large matters. Praying strategically implied praying
specifically--that Christians name in prayer particular persons, decisions, etc. She advised keeping
notes on prayer requests and the answers, citing a Rolodex file as an ideal medium.
Side B: Message by Charles Colson (former Special Council to President Nixon, worker with
Prison Fellowship) entitled "Prayers for Those in Authority" (27:57 minutes). Colson did not
discuss "praying for those in authority" until his closing remarks, in which he added a quick plea
to his listeners for those prayers. The text of his address was concerned with reflections on his
role in the Richard Nixon administration, on the secular media's assumption that the National
Prayer Conference had political overtones, on the alleged Billy Graham-Bill Bright rift, and on the
history of revivalism in America. Included in his anecdotes were Iowa Senator Harold Hughes,
ex-radical Eldridge Cleaver, and a Mississippi Ku Klux Klan leader.
T12 - Reel-to-reel, 3-3/4 ips speed, approximately 50 minutes. One side.
Side A: Message by Lloyd Ogilvie (pastor, First Presbyterian Church, Hollywood) entitled
"Prayer Builds Fellowship" (24:57 minutes). Ogilvie described the purpose of fellowship as
preparation for spiritual battle with the world. He cited the lessons of the Exodus, when God
tried to teach Israel his adequacy for their needs against the world, and to teach not only their
dependence upon him, but their interdependence upon each other. The relationship of this to
prayer is that intercession is God's gift whereby Christians unlock blessings in prayers to God
about each other. God seeks to draw them together into Him. Ogilvie stressed the importance of
the "implosion" of intercessory prayer within a church or any praying body.
Side B: Message by Howard Hendricks (professor of Christian Education, Dallas Theological
Seminary) entitled "The Family that Prays Together" (24:37 minutes). Hendricks began his talk
by discussing the concept of the "seeking God" in quest of souls. Christianity does not fit into the
definition of religion, "man's search for God," because Christianity is God's search for man.
Christians grieve the Holy Spirit when they do not answer that seeking by their prayers.
Hendricks ended encouraging parents to show their convictions through family prayer.
T13 - Reel-to-reel, 3-3/4 ips speed, approximately 50 minutes. One side.
Side A: Message by E. V. Hill (pastor, Mt. Zion Church, Los Angeles) entitled "Priority of
Prayer" (24:39 minutes). This address centered on keeping in touch with the fulcrum of a
Christian's existence: Christ. Through an analogy, Hill exhibited how to keep one's attention
tuned to Christ, who will guide constantly through prayer.
Side B: Message by Robert Bowman (president, Far East Christian Broadcasting) entitled
"Prayer of Praise" (25:00 minutes). Bowman's emphasis was on the Psalter, where believers see a
triple key of trust, praise, and thanksgiving. He examined figures of history who have managed to
praise in plenty and in want, mainly want. It is especially difficult to be sincere in praising God in
plenty, not to be trite and ritualistic. Bowman reflected on FECB's struggle to establish two
powerful radio stations in Asia in the early 1970s and the role prayer played in that struggle.
T14 - Reel-to-reel, 3-3/4 ips speed, approximately 49 minutes. One side.
Side A: Message by Samuel Coker (pastor, Grace United Methodist Church, Atlanta) entitled
"Hindrances to Prayer" (22:55 minutes). Coker discussed prayer as one of the most powerful
pieces of equipment Christians have, which also is one of the least used because people pray
amiss. He pointed out that Christians must be ready to be used in implementing the answers to
their prayers. Do they have the gall to say "God Bless America" and then do nothing about it?
Side B: Message by Harold J. Ockenga (president, Gordon-Conwell Seminary) entitled
"Promises of Prayer" (25:20 minutes). This message focused its attention on the unique character
of God's promises about prayer, which rest on the base of God's unfailing character, and of the
unique claim that Christians have on these promises. Unlike human promises, God's depend on
his perfect immutability and integrity, and therefore are wholly viable to and claimable by those
who call upon Him rightly.
T15 - Reel-to-reel, 3-3/4 ips speed, approximately 50 minutes. One side.
Side A: Message by Louis H. Evans (writer, lecturer, and retired Presbyterian clergyman)
entitled "Listening to God" (24:27 minutes). Evans capitalized on the concept of prayer as
dialogue between God and man, rather than a monologue by man to God. It is "impolite" to do
all the talking. The pauses in our prayers might be the most important both in private and public;
we should not be nervous about silence, but see it as God's opportunity to talk to us.
Side B: Message by Jimmy Owens (composer of "If My People Will Pray") entitled "Unity with
Christ" (24:55 minutes). Owens addressed the topic of unity with specific regard to the church,
and within congregations. He pointed out that Christ's prayer "that they all may be one" had a
reason appended to it" "that the world may believe." Perhaps the church's worst sin is its
inclination to fragment. He quoted "the late great Presbyterian Bible teacher," Donald Gray
Barnhouse and others, on the topic of unity of Christians. He warned against Christians allowing
themselves to be used as tools of Satan by spreading rumors and doing other things contrary to
church unity.
T16 - Reel-to-reel, 3-3/4 ips speed, approximately 44 minutes. One side.
Side A: Message by Charles Stanley ("Here's Life America") entitled "Prayer that Moves
Mountains" (23:45 minutes). Stanley defined a mountain as any circumstance, event, or tangible
item that hinders Christians doing, being, accomplishing, or possessing the will of God.
Mountains can be removed by God, but often remain because Christians despair, do not seek His
aid, and continue to trust their earthly resources. It is a problem of unbelief in supernatural
ability. Stanley's description of the mountain-moving prayer included four essentials: it is a
prayer (1) of faith, (2) that is focused on God, not the mountain, (3) that does not lose heart, but
is tenacious, and (4) that is fearless in approaching God with boldness, and in expecting an
answer. He gave practical examples of the Here's Life America ministry and how it used prayer to
dissolve obstacles.
Side B: Message by Frank M. Barker, Jr. (pastor, Briarwood Presbyterian Church, Birmingham,
Alabama) entitled "Prayers of Paul" (20:09 minutes). This address did not center so much on
principles the apostle Paul laid down for prayer, as on what Paul prayed for and the elements of
his praying. One major focus was Paul's prayer for his fellow Christians.