Oral Roberts 1918-2009
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special section sunday, december 20, 2009 ORal RObeRTs 1918-2009 InsIde A pioneer of televangelism, Roberts ORU makes a Alumni relive Roberts’ last A timeline leaves a lasting legacy. Pages 2-3 comeback. 4 glory days. 5 interview. 5 of his life. 6 tulsawrld.com/ORALROBERTS Oral Roberts: The Man. The Mission. The Ministry. View a Web site dedicated to his life and career as an evangelist. View a complete archive of stories written about Roberts, watch videos and slide shows and view an interactive timeline. tulsaworld.com/oralroberts OR NN Sunday, December 20, 2009 oral roberts 1918-2009 Oral Roberts lays hands on a man at a healing crusade. He once said he had laid hands on 1 million people over his years of ministry. Beryl Ford Collection A lAsting inFluenCe By Bill Sherman World religion Writer Worldwide, the Pentecostal/Char- ment, and Pope John Paul II helped bring t is difficult to overstate Oral Rob- ismatic family is second in size only to down communism.” Catholicism and is the dominant form of Synan was a high school student in 1949 Christianity in much of Africa, Asia and when he met Roberts. erts’ influence on 20th-century South America. His father, J.A. Synan, was the presid- Among the many people involved in the ing bishop of the Pentecostal Holiness worldwide explosion of Pentecostalism, Church and was Roberts’ spiritual over- Christianity, church leaders say. Roberts is singled out as the most influ- seer at that time. ential. “I went to see him at a tent crusade in I Often belittled in the press and taken Norfolk, Va. It was the biggest crowd I had When Roberts pioneered his healing for granted in his own hometown, Rob- ever seen. I got saved at that meeting.” erts was a hero to Third World Christians. Synan said his father told him after that Visitors to churches in Africa who men- meeting that Roberts was like a different tent crusades as a young Pentecostal Ho- tion they are from Tulsa inevitably will be man. asked, “Oh, do you know Oral Roberts?” “He had stuttered so badly, he could “I don’t think there’s any question he hardly get a sentence out. But in the pul- and Billy Graham are the two towering pit, he was a ball of fire — no stuttering at liness preacher in the 1940s, Pentecostal- figures from the 20th century,” the Rev. all,” Synan said. Jack Hayford told the Tulsa World on Synan said Roberts changed the face Thursday. Hayford recently completed a of Pentecostalism, at that time an often ism was a small, poor, persecuted faith on five-year term as president of the Interna- ridiculed brand of Christianity that em- tional Church of the Foursquare Gospel. phasizes healing, miracles and speaking In his book, “The Charismatic Cen- in tongues. the wrong side of the tracks. tury,” he wrote that without the ministry “He planted the seeds of the charismat- of Oral Roberts, “the entire charismatic ic renewal.” movement might not have occurred.” Through him, the movement spread When he died Tuesday, 640 million Vinson Synan, a church historian, worldwide, and now his teachings on ranked Roberts with Graham and Pope healing and prosperity are spread all over John Paul II as the leading religious fig- the world, Synan said. people embraced some form of his teach- ures of the 20th century. Among his disciples have been some “I think he stands on that level,” said of the top Christian leaders of the world, Synan, dean emeritus and professor of including Tulsa’s Kenneth E. Hagin, Ger- church history at Regent University in man evangelist Reinhard Bonnke, Texas ing that God is a good God who wants to Virginia Beach, Va., and author of “The evangelist Kenneth Copeland and Korean Century of the Holy Spirit: 100 Years of pastor Yonggi Cho, founder of the largest Pentecostal and Charismatic Renewal, church in the world. bless people spiritually, physically and 1901-2001.” Synan said Roberts was the key to what “Billy Graham led the rebirth of evan- is called the word of faith movement, a gelicalism, Oral led the growth of Pen- economically. tecostalism and the Charismatic Move- See faitH OR ‘He had stuttered so badly, he could hardly get a sentence out. But in the pulpit, he was a ball of fire — no stuttering at all.’ VinSon Synan Church historian Sunday, December 20, 2009 NN OR oral roberts 1918-2009 Oral Roberts preaches to a near-capacity crowd attending a healing crusade at the Mabee Center in 1983. SHERRY BROWN/Tulsa World file photo Roberts is shown at the dedication of City of Faith Hospital in Tulsa in 1981. Tulsa World file photo Oral is pictured with his wife, Evelyn, in 1976. They met in 1938 and were married for 66 years. Roberts speaks during commencement services at Oral Rob- Tulsa World file photo erts University in 1987. SHERRY BROWN/Tulsa World file photo and healing conferences, and nobody is Roberts was racially colorblind, a fact Definitions laughing. He was about 25 years ahead evident by the strong presence at ORU of faiTh: of his time.” people of every race around the world. Classical Pentecostalism FROM OR Willie George, pastor of Church on the Presiding Bishop Charles E. Blake, A Christian movement that came out Move, one of Tulsa’s largest churches, head of the Church of God in Christ, the of a 1906 revival on Azusa Street in Los said Roberts “taught us to think big. He nation’s largest black denomination, said sometimes controversial theology that was the first one to do that.” Roberts’ conviction about racial equality Angeles, characterized by speaking in teaches that God wants to bless people Until he came along, George said, Pen- and the free involvement of all races in tongues, healing, miracles and other gifts spiritually, physically and financially and tecostals “had low self-esteem ... and the life of the church characterized his of the Holy Spirit. Oral Roberts’ Pente- will do so in response to faith. hand-me-down buildings. Oral was the entire life. costal Holiness denomination; Church of Some people have taken that teaching guy who really let us see we could have “As an African-American leader, I was God in Christ, which is America’s largest to extremes, Synan said, and Roberts told God’s best.” so honored to play significant leadership black denomination; and the Assemblies him he was unhappy about that. “The whole idea that God is a good roles in various organizations which he of God are part of that movement. Thomson Mathew, dean of the Oral God can be traced back to Oral Roberts. headed. Roberts University School of Theology So many Christians had the view that “I was aware of the deep respect and Charismatic Movement and Missions, said: “I consider him one God is waiting to get you. Oral was the affection that he had for me and other of the top two religious men of the 20th one who changed that.” African Americans. A loose-knit movement closely related century — Billy Graham in crusade evan- George said when he moved to Tulsa “His far-reaching, bold vision inspired to classical Pentecostalism that arose gelism and Oral Roberts in the healing to work in a church and the situation fell me to think bigger than I’d ever thought both in and out of the major denomina- evangelism world.” through, he was devastated. before,” he said. tions in the 1960s and 1970s, charac- Mathew said Roberts introduced the “I was broken-hearted. I sat in the “He was a giant of a man.” terized by the gifts (charisma) of the concept of healing evangelism as a new parking lot of ORU late one night, crying Blake pastors the 25,000-member Holy Spirit, such as speaking in tongues, paradigm, from huge tent meetings to my eyes out. West Angeles Church of God in Christ in miracles and healing. Most of Tulsa’s television and foreign crusades. “God spoke to my heart and said I’d Los Angeles, and he was on the board of “There are a lot of imitators, but he be OK, that he would give me a ministry International Charismatic Bible Minis- large independent churches grew out of was the pioneer,” he said. across the United States. tries, a fellowship of charismatic leaders that movement, all of them influenced by In the field of education, Roberts “I can’t tell you how many ministers founded by Roberts. the Oral Roberts ministry. launched the concept of educating the I know who have had a similar experi- International evangelist T.L. Osborn, a whole person, body, mind and spirit, ences” connected to the Roberts’ minis- lifelong friend of Roberts, said Roberts’ Speaking in tongues a concept that has since spread to oth- try, he said. life has “impacted the world, reminding Adherents say it is the practice of er schools and has affected the world, “He taught us to think big, to dare to every man, woman and child that ‘God is Mathew said. dream. It had a huge impact on people a good God.’” speaking or praying in an unknown lan- In the field of medicine, Roberts pio- like me.” “His legacy of faith, carried on through guage by the power of the Holy Spirit, a neered the concept of treating the whole George said Roberts was a leader in the lives of the thousands of Oral Rob- spiritual discipline that Oral Roberts has person, he said. using the mass media for ministry. erts University graduates, will continue said was an important means of inspira- He held whole-person healing confer- “He understood the power of commu- touching every person’s world until Je- tion for him.