Michigan Camp Meeting 2023: The Boldness of the Cross

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Young Pioneers

Brian Strayer

Will the Real Ellen White Please Stand Up

Luther Warren

JN Loughborough - The Man We Never Knew

Sarah Lindsey - God’s Preacher on the Southern Tier

Louis R. Conradi - He Opened Doors for the Angels, But Shut the Door on Himself

John Harvey Kellogg - The Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde of Adventism

Today we want to talk about a man who lies behind all the youth movements that the Adventist church now celebrates.

A man named Luther Warren, the Pied Piper of Seventh-day Adventism.

You know, very few Pathfinder leaders today know who Luther Warren and Harry Finner were, and it is safe to say that most of you adventurers and pathfinders may never have even heard those names before.

Well, if you check the Seventh-day Adventist encyclopedia for information, you'll find only 3 sentences about Harry Fenner, and only 5 sentences about Luther Warren.

Furthermore, the children's book, Luther Warren, written by Mary Boucher and published by the Review and Herald Press in 1959, is no longer in print.

And yet those 2 boys, who in their teenage years went all in for Christ started a ministry for young people that over the next century blossomed into the You Sabbath schools, the missionary volunteer and junior missionary volunteer societies, Adventist youth, the Sunshine Bands, the Pathfinders, and the Adventurers.

Now that being the case, don't you think that we should devote a few minutes today to understanding their contributions to the work that you men and women as adventure leaders and Pathfinder leaders do every day.

Luther Warren was born into an Adventist home in Macomb County, Michigan, on September 15, 1864.

His mother Ellen had been baptized by J.N.

Loughborough, and I'm going to be giving you the life sketch of J.N.

Loughborough later this week in an afternoon seminar.

As neighbors left to fight and die in the bloody Civil War, Luther did not have to seek for death on some distant battlefield, because death came knocking at his door.

His older brother and his twin sister died in infancy, while his brother Walter was accidentally shot and killed by a cousin in their home.

Luther grew up to be an extremely sensitive boy.

His mother, who often prayed over him, dedicated him, like Samuel's mother did, to God.

Early in his life, he demonstrated an unusual tenderness for other children.

He helped his mother care for his younger siblings, and he even tried to adopt a baby of his own when he was 17.

Luther was widely known as an honest, hard-working, truthful boy.

Despite being a moracious reader and 1 of the district's top spellers, in fact he knew his ABCs when he was only 2, he was also a nature lover and an outdoors boy who actually enjoyed hoeing corn, planting potatoes, raking hay, because he sang while he worked.

A vegetarian from his childhood, Luther's favorite foods were watermelon and pumpkin pie.

Let me know where that's going to show up, okay?

As an adolescent, he was 6 feet, 2 inches tall, kind of a Craig Harris build.

He towered over most of his playmates, who loved his playful spirit.

He sensed the humor and his knack for practical jokes.

In short, Luther Warren was sort of an Adventist Pied Piper and an Adventist Peter Pan rolled up into 1.

He loved to tell them stories, but he never wanted to grow up like Peter Pan.

Luther's career as a worker for God began rather humbly as he and his friend Harry Fenner knelt in a grove of trees in 1879.

And I'm too far back from the screen, but I hope the tech guys have Harry Fenner up there as well.

Several months before, the Hazleton Michigan Adventist Church Board had met to discuss their concerns about their young people.

Many of them were growing careless and not attending church regularly.

Luther's father, Duran Warren, had expressed the wish that older members would show more concern and more care for the younger ones.

So somebody made a motion that they set aside Sabbath, January 12, as a special day to encourage their young people to be faithful to God and church standards.

6 months later, the seeds that have been planted in youthful minds bore fruit.

As 14-year-old Luther and 17-year-old Harry walked along a dusty country road discussing how they could be of greater service to God, they decided to pray right then about it.

And so they jumped over a split rail fence and they knelt down in a grove of trees and they asked God to guide them.

Suddenly the idea struck them as they were praying that they should invite their friends to form a Christian Boys Club, something like the Christian Endeavor societies that were popular all across America in that time.

Soon 9 boys began meeting once a week in an unfinished attic of the Messeral home in Hazleton.

You won't find it on the map today, it's now called Juddville Center.

And they met to pray, to sing rousing hymns, to run errands for the sick and needy, to distribute tracts, to subscribe to the signs of the times, and to write missionary letters to the downhearted and discouraged.

Before long they formed a temperance club and all of them signed the T-Total Temperance Pledge, promising to refrain from alcohol, tea, coffee, tobacco, and pork.

He suggested that they give up swearing as well.

And so they added that to their teetotal pledge.

Feeling left out, 6 girls insisted on becoming members, and thereafter the group was co-ed and met in family parlors.

While their primary purposes were religious, they also planned social activities, picnics, parties, taffy pulls, games, sleigh rides, swimming parties, and maple-sugaring bees.

Avery Stuttle encouraged Luther's talents, and his first halting sermon was preached in her parlor when he was still in his teens.

Recognizing his God-given talents, the Hazleton Church appointed Luther Sabbath school superintendent when he was only 18.

Impressed with the boy, Elder Eugene Farnsworth urged his parents to send him on to Battle Creek College.

And so the family sold a cow and an aunt sold her gold watch to provide the funds for Luther Warren to go to Battle Creek College in 1882 and 83.

There at Battle Creek, Luther studied Spanish, Hebrew, and theology as he hauled wood and shoveled coal for the sanitarium and at the Haskell home for orphans to pay his way through.

Although he only had 1 year of college, Luther continued to read voraciously and later returned to Emanuel Missionary College, now known as Andrews University, where he could study for special classes.

Let's take a look at some of his sermons.

Luther Warren's sermons portray the loving nature of Jesus, and they converted many, including his own grandfather.

And yet when this painfully shy young man tried selling Adventist books with Albert Hazemar, he failed miserably.

Although he was austere and solemn and eloquent when speaking to adults, in the presence of children, this gentle young man could entertain them for hours with his stories, with his songs, and with his games.

Ballinger's tentmaster down in Benton Harbor, Michigan, Luther met Jesse Bell Proctor, a Bible worker and an organist, and in 1889 he secured a marriage license at the 1839 courthouse in Berrien Springs, which is still standing.

I am a member of the board of trustees there, hope you'll come and visit us sometime, and then they could marry.

This early experience in tent evangelism ignited the young preacher, and he soon became known as a crusader of great power, with a sonorous voice and an overpowering personality, but 1 whose sermons presented the saving grace of the beautiful Christ in a most appealing way.

On a rainy June day in 1892, at the camp meeting in Cortland, New York, the 28-year-old Luther Warren was ordained to the gospel ministry by the New York Conference president, Sands Lane.

And during his lifetime, Luther held evangelistic meetings in Michigan, in Illinois, in New York, Nebraska, California, Oregon, Washington, as well as British Columbia, Mexico, and Jamaica.

Hundreds of young people, seeing him as a loving and lovable Christian, dedicated their lives in service to the church that he loved.

And yet, you know, unlike most Adventist evangelists in the 19th century, Elder Warren refused to allow his picture to be used in public advertising for his meetings.

"'I want the people to see Christ, ' he said, "'not me.

I am just a little man with a great message.'" And yet it was his powerful delivery of that message that gave Luther Warren the nickname of the Cyclone Preacher.

Certainly 1 of the most outstanding moments in his career came in 1898 when he was preaching south of Battle Creek and winning so many souls that the local Congregationalist church hired Adventist apostate Dudley M.

Kenwright came and Kenwright stayed at his brother's home.

Now his brother was not a Christian, he was not an Adventist, But as Dudley Kenwright's brother listened to both sides during this debate that went on for several days, he told 1 Adventist member, my brother is not being honest.

Brother is not being honest." At the close of those meetings, Dudley M.

Kenwright's own brother became a Seventh-day Adventist.

That was the power of Luther Warren's presentation of truths.

Also, unlike those preachers who enjoyed writing long reports about their activities for the Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, Elder Warren wrote only 5 extremely short articles for the review during his entire 50-year ministry.

And yet in those few words, I believe we can truly find the measure of this man.

Unique among Adventist preacher-evangelists, Elder Warren always gave public mention to the children who attended his meetings and were baptized.

He always described them separately from the adults that he baptized.

His articles demonstrate an equal emphasis on faith and obedience, as in his November 3, 1891 article on Sabbath-keeping entitled, Obedience Shows Faith.

To obey God without knowing his reasons is the only proof of the truth and of our true faith and the only way to get righteousness, " he declared.

He began another article by, take it by force, April 22, 1902, with a startling assertion, whatever is worth having, you can have if you take it by force.

Arguing that it was better to open the way than to wait around and wish, he urged the young people to be faithful at what you're doing now and to do it with all your might." And then God would help them to find their place in the church as teachers, nurses, physicians, ministers, canvassers, and other professions.

Most of our preachers avoided it, but Luther Warren was just high-powered enough to like the exclamation mark.

He closed this article with the sobering thought that time and knowledge lost now can never be made up, even in the eternal ages.

Another theme in all of his 5 reports is his deep love for the truth.

Back to Menu

Series

Young Pioneers

Luther Warren

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Other Teachings in Series

Will the Real Ellen White Please Stand Up

50m

Luther Warren

49m

JN Loughborough - The Man We Never Knew

54m

Sarah Lindsey - God’s Preacher on the Southern Tier

52m

Louis R. Conradi - He Opened Doors for the Angels, But Shut the Door on Himself

1h

John Harvey Kellogg - The Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde of Adventism

51m

Sound Doctrine