Keith Green and Leonard Ravenhill: Revival Odd Couple
I spent a week recently in east Texas training a new batch of YWAM missionaries. One evening, an Asian friend gave me a short tour of the area which I hadn’t visited in almost thirty years. We traveled from YWAM’s largest training center at Twin Oaks Ranch (built by David Wilkerson in the 70s) to the sprawling acreage housing Mercy Ships (once the Agape Force) and then over to the campus of Teen Mania (which was originally Last Days Ministries).
Some great ministries once were or are now located here. Their outreach touches millions of lives all over the world.
Our final stop was Garden Valley Baptist Church located between these para-church giants. Behind the church was a small cemetery I had asked to visit to seek out the graves of two of my heroes.
Keith Green and Leonard Ravenhill. They’re both buried in the far corner of the graveyard–only about twenty feet from each other. They were great revivalists who impacted their world For Jesus.
Both in life and death, they were the Revival Odd Couple from whom we can learn much about how God’s uses diverse human beings for his purposes and glory.
Leonard Ravenhill
I had the privilege of meeting Brother Ravenhill in the 1980s when I first worked with the YWAM community in the area. He lived in a small home near Twin Oaks Ranch, and on a number of occasions I walked over to his place to pray with him.
He welcomed me into his study, we’d talk about God and spiritual awakenings, and then we would bow our heads and cry out to God to bring revival to this generation. Leonard Ravenhill prayed with passion and clarity–just like he preached and wrote.
As a young man, I was greatly impacted by his intellect, understanding of history and his burden for the Church to wake up and get on fire for God. One of his famous books, Why Revival Tarries, had made a great impact on my life during my early years in Youth With A Mission.
Leonard was an Englishman with a beautiful accent!–born in 1907 in Leeds in Yorkshire, England, As a young man, he sat under the ministry of the legendary Samuel Chadwick and became a student of church history, with a particular interest in Christian revival. His evangelistic meetings during World War II drew large crowds in the British Isles.
In 1939, he married an Irish nurse, named Martha and in 1950, he and his family moved from Great Britain to the United States. In the 1960s they traveled around America holding tent revivals and evangelistic meetings.
In the 1980s, the Ravenhills moved to east Texas where he spent the last years of his life. He regularly taught classes at Last Days Ministries where he met and mentored Keith Green. He also spent time teaching at Bethany College of Missions in Minnesota.
Among others influenced by Leonard Ravenhill’s life and message were Ravi Zacharias, Tommy Tenny, Steve Hill, Charles Stanley, Bill Gothard and David Wilkerson.
And, of course, me–and many other young people looking for spiritual role models.
One of Leonard Ravenhill’s closest pastoral associate was Dr. A.W. Tozer who said this about his fervent friend:
“To such men as this, the church owes a debt too heavy to pay. The curious thing is that she seldom tries to pay him while he lives. Rather, the next generation builds his sepulchre and writes his biography – as if instinctively and awkwardly to discharge an obligation the previous generation to a large extent ignored.”
Leonard lived a long and full life committed to spiritual revival. He died in November 1994, at the age of 87.
Keith Green
I also met Keith Green around 1980 when Winkie Pratney drove me over to the newly developing Last Days community. Keith gave me a tour of the property and especially of the warehouse where he was beginning to print and distribute the soon-to-be-famous LDM tracts.
During our visit, Keith lifted Winkie up high in the air on one of the fork lifts and then nearly scared him to death while buzzing him around the warehouse while Winkie held on for dear life! Keith was spontaneous and a prankster–and also committed to revival.
But it was not always that way.
Keith took to music at a young age, playing guitar at five, and the piano at seven. His talents were noted by the LA Times in 1962 when he took to the stage in Arthur Laurent’s “The Time of the Cuckoo” in Chatsworth, California. A rising star was being born.
At 10 years old, young Keith went on to play the role of “Kurt von Trapp” in a local community theater production of “The Sound of Music.” By the time he was ten, he had already written forty original songs and signed a music contract with Decca Records with his father, Harvey, as his manager.
The first song he released on disc was A Go-Go Getter in May 1965. Upon publication of this song, Keith became the youngest person ever to sign with the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers and Decca Records planned to make Green a teen idol.
By the time Keith was twelve, he had written ten more songs, and TIME again ran a short piece about him in an article about aspiring young rock-‘n’-roll singers, referring to him as Decca Records’ “pre-pubescent dreamboat”. But instead of rising to secular stardom, Donny Osmond stole the hearts of the new teenage class and Keith’s life took a hard turn–one part bad and the other, eternally good.
Keith was born into a combination Jewish/Christian Science home which was an odd mixture that left him open minded but deeply unsatisfied. He began doing drugs and became interested in eastern mysticism and “free love.” But a “bad trip,” sent him fleeing the drug scene and in his pursuit of the truth, he found Jesus as his Savior along with another young musician named Melody who became his wife and companion.
Keith later admitted that he’d been “lost in a fantasy until God’s love broke through.” In 1975, Keith and Melody began taking people who needed help into their small home in LA which would later be dubbed “The Greenhouse”—a place where people grew in their faith. Much to the consternation of neighbors, some 75 people lived in the Green’s homes and traipsed down the suburban streets—including recovering drug addicts and prostitutes, bikers, the homeless.
In 1976 they incorporated their work as Last Days Ministries, and in 1979 purchased forty acres near Garden Valley, Texas to grow their expanding ministry which included Keith’s albums and concerts, his prophetic preaching on revival, holiness, and commitment to Christ and an exploding tract ministry.
In the late 70s, Keith Green was America’s number one prophetic voice to the Jesus Revolution. By May 1982, Last days had shipped out more than 200,000 of his prophetic albums – 61,000 for free–out of that warehouse I visited in east Texas.
But on July 28, 1982, Keith and eleven other people, including two of his young children were killed when Last Day’s small Cessna aircraft crashed soon after take-off due to over-loading. Like many others, I heard the news with grief and shock–and mourned the life of a young prophet whose ministry seemed to be just beginning.
Keith Green was dead at the age of 28.
Only a few months before his passing, Keith had come to know a number of YWAM leaders who had encouraged him to use his influence to call others into missions. Keith seemed to be moving in that direction when his life was suddenly cut short.
Interestingly and redemptively, that vision came to pass after his death through a series of Keith Green Memorial Concerts where his wife Melody and other workers, teaming with YWAMers from all over America, used Keith’s message and notoriety to call thousands of young people to go into all the world.
Shirley and I got to know Melody and her two remaining children in 1986 when we attended a Leadership Training School together for three months in Kona, Hawaii. Our children were of similar age, and much time was spent playing together while Shirley and I and Melody talked about life, Jesus, and Keith.
It was a privilege to know Leonard Ravenhill and Keith Green. As i stood by their graves, my friend and I thanked God for their lives and I meditated how God can use such diverse people for his glory:
- Leonard was a proper Englishman; Keith was a hippie from Southern Cal.
- Leonard lived a long life of service; Keith was like a shooting star that emerged suddenly then faded into the sky.
- Leonard was traditional, cautious, conservative and Old School; Keith was brash, reckless, fearless and a dreamer.
- Leonard was a preacher; Keith was a musician.
But both of them had a heart for God and for revival in the American nation. Despite their differences, they became close friends, a mentor and a mentee–as different as oil and water–but united by the Holy Spirit in the power of Christ’s call.
Now their bodies lie about twenty feet from one another. But their spirits soar in heaven where both now behold their Lord and Master.
They certainly are the Revival Odd Couple.
Only an awesome and mighty God can bring together and use men such as these.
How Liberalism Became Our State Religion
Every so often I run across a piece that resonates deeply and causes me to exclaim: “Wow–that’s exactly what I’ve been thinking and I wish I’d written it first!.”
This is a big week in the cultural history of the United States as the U.S. Supreme Court hears oral arguments that could alter the role of marriage in our nation. I have written much on this subject and am joining many in prayer during this fateful week.
Nobody has said it better as to WHY this is happening than Dr. Benjamin Wiker in the article below. I agree with him that “radical monogamy” is one of God’s primary ways for limiting sin and the destruction of family.
May the Supremes’ eyes be opened to the truth.
Dr. Benjamin Wiker, Senior Fellow of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology, holds a Ph.D. in Theological Ethics from Vanderbilt University, and has taught at Marquette University, St. Mary’s University, Thomas Aquinas College (CA), and Franciscan University. He lives with his wife and seven children in rural Ohio.
Dr. Wiker is the author of several books including, Answering the New Atheism: Dismantling Dawkins’ Case Against God (co-authored with Scott Hahn, Emmaus, 2008), Ten Books that Screwed Up the World (Regnery, 2008), A Meaningful World: How the Arts and Sciences Reveal the Genius of Nature (co-authored with Jonathan Witt, InterVarsity, 2006), Moral Darwinism: How We Became Hedonists (InterVarsity, 2002), The Mystery of the Periodic Table (Bethlehem Books, 2003), and Architects of the Culture of Death (co-authored with Donald DeMarco, Ignatius, 2004).
How Liberalism Became Our State Religion
By Benjamin Wiker, Ph.D
As the Supreme Court hears arguments for and against gay marriage we might stand back from the whole judicial fracas and ask ourselves a larger and hopefully more startling question: “What is the government doing deciding what marriage is?”
This is really two questions in one. First, how did it come to be that we, as a culture, are in a position where something seemingly so natural, something that existed long before any governments were around, is now up for debate? Second, why is it that we would look to a branch of the government to settle that debate?
The answer to the first question is rather complex. For centuries (not just decades) liberalism has been picking away at the Christian foundations of Western culture. Liberalism is, in essence, a secular and secularizing movement; it is historically defined by its opposition to Christianity. Wherever secular liberalism spreads, Christianity recedes. Look at Europe.
Christianity defined marriage by what we might call radical monogamy: a life-long, entirely exclusive union of one man and one woman. No sex before marriage. No concubines. No polygamy. No divorce (except for infidelity). No homosexuality. No fiddling with little boys.
The pagan Roman culture into which Christianity was born smiled on sex wherever, whenever, and with whomever it occurred. Marriage was an important social institution in Rome, but it was not defined by radical monogamy. Concubines? No problem. Sex with your male and female slaves? No big deal. Divorce? Happens all the time. Got a favorite boy? Don’t we all. Like pornography? We’ll paint the walls of your villa next week.
Homosexuality was as widespread in Rome as it was in Greece, and, yes, in Rome there was gay marriage. Right at the top of society. The emperor Nero married one Pythagoras, and we have reports of other such unions.
That was the marital, sexual status quo of the society into which Christianity was born. As Rome fell, and Christianity rose, the Christian understanding of sexuality and marriage transformed the Roman Empire—proto-Europe, we might call it. With that transformation the radical monogamy of Christianity became the social, moral, legal standard, so normal that it was regarded as natural.
It is only because Christianity won out over pagan Rome that we are having arguments about marriage today. If Christians had been summarily extinguished by imperial Rome, radical monogamy would have disappeared with it, along with opposition to homosexuality.
Christianity’s radical monogamy is indeed based in nature, in the obvious complementarity of the sexes, male and female. But admittedly it asks a lot of nature, pushing beyond mere convenience, and upwards to perfection. In a very real way, Christianity asks more of marriage than mere mortals—in all our weakness—have the power to give. But that is, in fact, a central doctrine of Christianity: we are fallen and need God’s grace to do what is truly good, truly right.
Modern liberalism, arriving on the scene, said “no” to Christianity. “No” in the secular sense of denying the existence of God, and hence of the whole social, moral, legal apparatus of Christianity. But also “no” in the allegedly humanitarian sense—Christianity asks too much; it sets the bar for sexuality and marriage too high.
And so liberalism said, “Radical monogamy is too much to ask. Loosen up the strings on sexuality and marriage.”
The sexual revolution is the loosening up of strings—so loose, in fact, that we have returned pretty much to the situation of ancient pagan Rome.
So, that’s the answer to the first question. We are debating what marriage is, and considering instituting gay marriage, because history has run a great arc. De-Christianization has led us right back to pagan Rome, to the good old pre-Christian days when sexuality was free to run wherever the passions led it. The re-affirmation of homosexual marriage just completes the historical arc.
Now for the second question. Why are we looking to one branch of government to settle the issue of what marriage is?
Historically, liberalism is a top-down revolution. It uses the power of the government to reform society—through control of public education, through the courts, through executive orders, through bureaucratic agencies. All organs of the state.
Liberals look to the state, in the way that Christianity looks to the church—as the institution responsible for evangelizing society. When persuasion doesn’t work (through public education or media propaganda), they resort to the blunt use of judicial fiat.
That’s why liberals want the Supreme Court to redefine marriage in Hollingsworth v. Perry.
But that makes it, at the same time, an issue of church and state—the secular state saying to the Christian church, a very imperial “We say that marriage is this. You will affirm gay marriage. You will bend the knee before the state.”
And that just means, “Christians, you will bend the knee before liberalism.”
Author and speaker Benjamin Wiker, Ph.D. has published eleven books, his newest being Worshipping the State: How Liberalism Became Our State Religion. His website is www.benjaminwiker.com
The New Radicals Are Coming
At the recent Urbana Conference, 16,000 young people responded to David Platts’ revolutionary message and committed to help change the world. In less than 24 hours, his four thousand Radical books sold out.
Last week, Jason Hershey, director YWAM Washington, D.C. and Washington House of Prayer, and another band of young radicals stood on the steps of the US Supreme Court and declared a breakthrough of God’s love and truth in the American nation.
I was there to support them. A loving, uncompromising generation of young radicals are being raised up. Call it the Jesus Revolution times one hundred.
Let’s support them.
Jason Hershey on behalf of the young generation, March 8, 2013:
“First of all, I want everyone to know that those of us that have gathered here have all had real encounters with Jesus. We are believers through and through, because we have tasted and seen His goodness and powerful hand working in and through our lives. Some of us have had our physical bodies supernaturally healed as we prayed and Jesus answered. Others of us, have been rescued out of lives of depression, anger and hurt.”
“As it turns out, God’s good and actually loves us! We are convinced that he has only good things in mind for America! I promise you, that you will not find a more hopeful people in all of America than this rag-tag band of Jesus lovers here beside me!”
“We have gathered here today, not to condemn, criticize, or judge. Neither do we have an offended heart. We are here with gratitude bursting inside of us as to the plans that Jesus has for our generation! We have gathered here simply to lay out a clear road map for our generation to the path of life and hope for America.”
“Specifically, the fork in the road that in front of this Court and this generation right now is the issue of marriage. March 26 and 27, the Supreme Court will hear two cases dealing with the definition of marriage. We pray that the Supreme Court would have wisdom on these cases beyond even our time and place. Proverbs 9:10 says, ‘The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding'”
“Knowing God as our closest friend brings us to understanding! And honoring and respecting Him is the beginning of wisdom. So does God have an opinion on marriage. If He was writing his opinion. What would it say? As it turns out, his opinion is already clearly stated and written down for all to read. In America, the Bible, is available to anyone at any bookstore or on the Web.”
“The best way to learn how to spot a counterfeit isn’t by studying the counterfeit, but by studying the real. I once was told that Federal agents in training, to spot counterfeits for the first little, don’t look at counterfeit bills. All they do is study the real. If you study the real long enough, you will be able to spot a counterfeit every single time.”
“So this morning I will paint a picture of the real. Marriage was God’s idea in the first place. In the beginning, God made the heaven’s and the earth. He made Adam and Eve, male and female. That’s the first key. Men and women are fundamentally different from each other. Male and Female, They are different. It’s one thing to have an affection towards someone that’s the same as you. It’s completely differently to love some one that’s different than you.”
“So Adam and Eve became the original first marriage and the expression of the real. God took the first man and woman on the planet, and placed them together in a Garden called Eden with the instructions to be fruitful and multiply.”
“Here’s the second key. God loves people. He has so much love that he wants as many people as possible! If a relationship can’t bring forth life and fulfill God’s dream for more people on the planet, it’s not the real!”
“God made us to be in a friendship with Him. Adam and Eve walked in the cool of the day with God as their friend. The would walk and talk with God openly in complete oneness with him in friendship. God gave them the ability to have children, but they could only have children through the act of oneness in relationship. Adam, nor Eve, could have children without the intimacy of the other! Children were meant to be conceived in love.”
“But what is love? Love by definition is an unselfish choice for the others highest good. Children were meant to be born into a home where both Dad and Mom were unselfishly loving each other and unselfishly loving their children.”
“So this is the picture of the real: One man and one woman, walking together in friendship with God, unselfishly, in love with God and in love with each other. In the midst of that, children were to be born. This is life. This is the meaning of life, that we know God intimately, like a husband would know a wife, and that we would love Him and each other unselfishly.”
“I can’t tell you want a joy it is to the father of a family where one man, one woman and four children, walk together each day in friendship with God, hearing his voice, and seeing his miracles. My life is like Eden or Heaven. Really, Heaven is the dream of Eden restored. God and people dwelling together once again.”
“This is what a real marriage and family looks like: One man, one woman, with children living with and loving God and each other loyally, unselfishly. every day for the rest of their lives. Anything else is counterfeit. To call counterfeit money the same as the real would cheapens the currency of the real and would break our economy, leaving our nation in poverty.”
“Our message to the Supreme Court is simply this: Don’t muddy the waters between what’s real and counterfeit. Both DOMA and Prop 8 were passed legally, in line with the constitutional processes. Neither of them violate moral law, but simple define marriage as what it is. Sexual morality leads to life. Sexual immorality leads to death. I plead with you, Supreme Court of the United States. Choose Life!”
“Our society is only as strong as the number of real families that we have holding it together. The truth is, for each one of us, our individual brokenness is almost always rooted in the lack of true family when we were children. As a nation we can see families without fathers, children without care and abuse of all sorts horrific types. It’s time we aim for the real and do all we can to restore the family to it’s God designed amazingness!”
“I appreciated President Obama’s sincerest remarks concerning children and families after the tragedy in Newtown last fall. You could see his honest grief, knowing there was no way that he could bring back those lost. You could see the weight of the value of human life was upon his soul.”
“In that speech he said, ‘This is our first task — caring for our children. It’s our first job. If we don’t get that right, we don’t get anything right. That’s how, as a society, we will be judged. And by that measure, can we truly say, as a nation, that we are meeting our obligations? Can we honestly say that we’re doing enough to keep our children — all of them– safe from harm? Can we claim, as a nation, that we’re all together there, letting them know that they are loved, and teaching them to love in return?’”
“His questions were rhetorical with the assumed answers of “no we are not” to each question. I agree with him whole-heartedly.”
“President Obama, I want to speak words of destiny into you. Mr President: “You were called to be a Lincoln-type president. As a white man from Illinois rose up to end slavery, so may a black man from Illinois rise up to be a voice for the children of this generation. Mr. President you have a calling to write an emancipation proclamation for the littlest in America.”
“If you are really serious about protecting children and restoring good families, switch your position on abortion and stand for the true definition of marriage. Write an emancipation proclamation for the children in the womb. Fulfill your destiny! You are to be a history maker. You’re destiny isn’t to merely be the pinnacle of the movement Lincoln started, but you are to be play the defining role in the the battle for justice that has waged now for 40 years.”
“It’s time to end abortion.”
“Just like in the days of slavery, our consciences are waking up to the reality of abortion. Yet I know that to allow that conscience awakening to happen fully would mean that suddenly millions of American’s both men and women, would have to admit that they murdered their very own children. So then what do we do with our guilt? How do we live with ourselves, even as a nation, knowing what we have done? What do we do with our shame?”
“This is why Jesus came to the earth. He took the penalty for our selfish, sinful deeds. He came to take away that guilt and shame, so that we could live again, restored to innocence.”
“President Obama, all of us at times have had to wake up and realize, we were wrong. It’s humbling to admit, but freedom and blessing are always on the other side. I am for you and not against you. You must know that I want you to fulfill your Lincoln-type call. Mr President, you can’t bring back the dead, but you can give life to the children in the future. Mr. President, End abortion. this is your watch, and this is your commission. Close the door to innocent bloodshed in our nation!”
“May we, with God’s help, do our part to redeem the true picture of family: One man, one woman, with many children living with and loving God and each other loyally, unselfishly, every day, for their whole lives.”
“The truth is this. All of us have separated ourselves from God in our selfishness. Since l life is a found in being in friendship with God, the consequences of being separated from him is death. Jesus came and died on the cross on our behalf and rose again three days later to break the power of sin and death so that we might live with God again and redeem the dream of Eden. This is His great gift to us.”
“America, I can tell you, we are in desperate need of a new fundamental operating system. America turn to Jesus, be a child of your Father in heaven and be filled by the Holy Spirit. “It’s not about me. It’s all about Jesus now. All you need to do is receive the free gift of his salvation and know that you are forgiven of all your sins!”
“The Holy Spirit will come into you and you will realize that you’ve never truly lived before! Your operating system will be filled with the Holy Spirit! All your anger, lust, impatience, frustration, inner turmoil, anxiety, worry fear, will disappear! You will begin to hear God talking to you inside your being and your friendship with God will never end. Jesus’ free gift to us is eternal life. All we need to do is receive it, like Christmas, with much gratitude!”
“Those around me, like myself, have decided that we are not sitting around waiting for our governmental leaders to set a directional course for our nation.”
“And we’re believing God for a breakthrough!”
MAY IT BE SO.