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Remembering Ed Robb
United Methodism's revivalist and reformer

By James V. Heidinger II

One of the great United Methodist evangelical leaders of our day, Dr. Edmund W. Robb, Jr., died on December 14 at the age of 78 in his hometown of Marshall, Texas.

Those of us who work with Good News had a special relationship with Ed, a former chairman of the board of directors. He was a close friend, a colleague in renewal, and one of the great United Methodist leaders of the last 50 years. Today, the United Methodist Church is stronger, the Kingdom of God broader, and laborers in the harvest far more numerous because of Edmund W. Robb, Jr., who made himself fully available to the Lord.

Ed probably preached in more United Methodist churches than any other evangelist. All of us who knew him have been enriched by his life and ministry. We will miss him, but his legacy is enormous and will live on. That legacy will be about a life of ministry in which Robb was many things: a pastor, evangelist, missionary, prophet, renewalist, theologian, and author of books such as Betrayal of the Church and The Spirit Who Will Not Be Tamed.

Ed's activism and accomplishments gave him a high profile in the United Methodist Church. His name was recognized-with respect or rancor-more readily than most bishops. But how did he want to be remembered? "As an evangelist," he would respond. "There's no higher calling than to preach the Gospel and introduce people to Jesus Christ."

In his autobiography, Contending For the Faith: The Ed Robb Story (Bristol Books, 2002), Robb wrote about his sudden and life-changing conversion. While serving in the U.S. Navy and stationed in San Francisco, Robb attended Glide Memorial Methodist Church. On February 1, 1946, after hearing a powerful sermon, Robb responded to the invitation and stood to surrender his life to the Lord. He walked out of that church, took a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket and threw it across the street, and told a sailor friend, "I am going to preach the gospel."

A few days later, Robb wrote his parents and told them what had happened. He told them he had quit smoking and was carrying a New Testament in his pocket instead of cigarettes. He wrote, "I suppose you are wondering what has come over me all of a sudden! The answer is I have been born again. You may think I will get over this in a few days and be back to normal, but I will never be the same again." And he never was.

Three months later, Ed preached his first sermon in his home church, Summit Street Methodist Church. The place was packed with locals waiting to see this miracle that had come to pass. "I'd been a rather rebellious young man," he would recollect. After delivering a 12-minute sermon on "half-hearted Christians," he stepped back as the pastor gave an invitation. "Most of the people in the church came forward to recommit their lives," he recalled. That became a common occurrence.

Robb attended Lon Morris Junior College to prepare for the ministry. While there, he met the woman who would become his wife and life-long partner, Martha Ann Hegler. The two were married in 1947 in DeKalb, Texas. (Ed and Martha were married for 57 years and had five children, 12 grandchildren, and four great grandchildren.)

God blessed Ed and Martha's local church ministry in those early years, as many persons came to Christ and surrendered fully to Him, with a number answering God's call to full-time Christian ministry.

In 1964, Ed and a small group of Methodist laity in West Texas became impressed with the vast need for spiritual renewal in the church and across the nation. This led to the formation of the Ed Robb Evangelistic Association. In 1965, Claude Brown of McCamey, Texas, gave the Association a gift of $12,500, which enabled Robb to go into evangelism full-time. As a clergy member of the Northwest Texas Annual Conference, he spent nearly 20 years in local church ministry. He would spend the next 35 years in evangelism as an approved UM evangelist, under the auspices of his Evangelistic Association.

In 1989, Robb was named to the Foundation for Evangelism's "Hall of Fame" as one of world Methodism's 40 distinguished evangelistic leaders of the past 40 years. His evangelistic ministry took him to churches of all sizes in all parts of the nation and also overseas. For years, his Association published the quarterly Challenge to Evangelism Today, a magazine that went to more than 48,000 homes.

In 1974, Robb was elected to the Good News Board of Directors and soon became chairman of that board. He was made a Lifetime Honorary board member and stayed active until the last two years of his life. In 2000, Good News established the Edmund W. Robb, Jr. United Methodist Renewal Award, given initially to Robb in recognition of his significant contribution on behalf of renewal within the United Methodist Church. Since then, it has been given annually to a person (or persons) whose life and ministry have also contributed significantly to UM renewal.

In 1975, Robb preached a powerful message to some 2,000 people gathered at a national Good News Convocation at Lake Junaluska, North Carolina, in which he lamented "The Crisis in United Methodist Theological Education." That address angered many United Methodist seminary officials, including Dr. Albert C. Outler, eminent professor at Perkins School of Theology. But after exchanges of letters and follow-up conversations, a highly significant friendship developed between Outler and Robb. 

The result of that friendship was the formation of A Foundation for Theological Education (AFTE), a visionary program designed to bring renewal to United Methodist theological education. Each year, AFTE awards up to five John Wesley Fellowships, which assist gifted United Methodists in their doctoral studies at the finest universities in the world. There are now more than 100 John Wesley Fellows, and they are beginning to make their presence felt within the denomination. AFTE scholars include President Ted A. Campbell and the Rev. Stephen D. Long of Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary; the Revs. Amy Laura Hall, Richard B. Hayes and Dean Greg Jones of the Duke Divinity School; the Revs. Craig C. Hill and Douglas M. Strong of Wesley Theological Seminary, and the Revs. Rebekah Miles and Scott Jones (until he was elected bishop last summer) at Perkins School of Theology.

Robb was a leader who was involved in almost every major United Methodist renewal movement. In addition to Good News, he was involved in the Mission Society for United Methodists, the Confessing Movement, and the Institute on Religion and Democracy. A co-founder of the latter in 1981, Robb saw the need for an advocacy organization to clarify the link between Christianity and liberal democracy, to speak out on behalf of persecuted religious believers around the world, and to bring reform to the social witness of America's mainline Protestant denominations that had become sympathetic to Marxist movements, which were hostile to democracy and the Christian Church.

"His memory will bless and encourage countless people-from those seeking the reformation of their churches to those in the former Soviet empire and elsewhere who remember Ed's stand for freedom," said IRD President Diane Knippers. She also recalled her 30-year friendship with Robb and his role in her coming to the IRD more than 20 years ago.

In 1980, Robb was elected as a trustee of Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky, taking the place of Dr. J.C. McPheeters, who, at the time of Robb's conversion at Glide Memorial, was that church's pastor and was also commuting to serve as president of the seminary. During more than 20 years on the seminary's board, Robb served with presidents Frank B. Stanger, David McKenna, and Maxie Dunnam. He was also the recipient of honorary doctorates from both Asbury Theological Seminary and Asbury College.

In his message at Robb's memorial service, Dr. Steve Harper, who was AFTE's very first John Wesley Fellow and who considers Robb his "Father in the ministry," felt drawn to close his message with words that Ed wrote to conclude his autobiography. How appropriate those words are: "Lastly, I want to affirm my confidence in the risen Lord and the Christian faith. As I grow older heaven becomes a greater reality, and I look forward to the resurrection when we shall be with Jesus. As the hymn has stated, 'When we all get to heaven, what a day of rejoicing that will be.' I affirm with Paul, 'O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?'.But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (I Cor. 15:55, 57).

 

James V. Heidinger II is the president and publisher of Good News.



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