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Jack Hyles

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File:Jack Frasure Hyles FBC Hammond.jpg

Jack Frasure Hyles (September 25, 1926-February 6, 2001) was a leading figure in the independent Baptist movement. He pastored the First Baptist Church of Hammond from 1959 until his death. He was also well-known for being an innovator of the church bus ministry that brought thousands of people each week from surrounding towns to Hammond for services. Jack Hyles built First Baptist up from fewer than a thousand members to a membership of 100,000. In 1993 and again in 1994, it was reported that 20,000 people attended First Baptist every Sunday, making it the most attended protestant church in the United States In 2001, at the time of Hyles death, 20,000 people were attending church services and Sunday school each week.

Over the course of his nearly 50 years as a church leader, Hyles was occasionally criticized for his doctrinal views and for alleged scandals. His literal interpretation of the Bible often put him at odds with other Christians -- even with other fundamentalist Baptists.

History

His early life and beginnings of his ministry

Hyles was born and raised in Italy, Texas, a low income area just south of Dallas, Texas. Hyles often described his less-than-ideal upbringing which, he said, included distant parents. At 18 years of age, Hyles was drafted into the United States Army and served as a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division during World War II. He and his wife, Beverly, were married during the war.

After the war was over, Hyles completed his college education at East Texas Baptist College. He also attended Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. After his graduation from East Texas, Hyles started preaching at several small Texas churches, after which their membership grew. These churches included: Marris Chapel Baptist Church, Bogata, Texas; Grange Hall Baptist Church, Marshall, Texas; and Southside Baptist Church, Henderson, Texas. After receiving his education Hyles pastored at the Miller Road Baptist Church in Garland, Texas for about six years. During this time the congregation grew from 44 members up to 4,000 members. Hyles said he was "kicked out" of the Southern Baptist denomination because he was too conservative for them. Hyles then ran Miller Road Baptist Church as an independent preacher for a while.

The move to Hammond, Indiana

In 1959, Hyles moved to Hammond, Indiana and became the pastor of First Baptist Church of Hammond. When he arrived, the church had a membership of around 700 people, said to be mostly "high-society types." About a third of the members left the church after hearing Hyles preaching style, which was much different than what they were used to. Hyles then led the Church to its status as an independent Baptist church -- freeing it from its ties with the American Baptists. Hyles started his bus ministry and soon shepherded the church from a congregation of several hundred to more than 20,000. In the early 1990s a national survey ranked First Baptist as the largest church in the nation, by average weekly attendance figures.

Beginning in 1969, and continuing for several years, First Baptist received recognition for the size of its Sunday School. In 1969, Dr. Elmer Towns wrote a book called The Ten Largest Sunday Schools and What Makes Them Grow which analyzed First Baptist's Sunday School. Towns presented a plaque to Jack Hyles in 1971, naming First Baptist Church of Hammond the nation’s largest Sunday school. In 1972, and for several years following, Christian Life Magazine proclaimed First Baptist Church of Hammond to have "the world's largest Sunday School".

In 1972, Jack Hyles and Russell Anderson founded Hyles-Anderson College, an unaccredited bible college, to specialize in training Baptist ministers and Christian school teachers. Hyles-Anderson College never sought accreditation because Hyles insisted school accreditation would undermine his ability to control how the college ought to run, and for various other reasons outlined in a sermon entitled, Accreditation.

The ministry of Hyles

One of the most notable aspects of Hyles is his church bus ministry that he helped innovate. As early as 1975, Time magazine described the phenomenon in an article titled, "Superchurch." The Time article notes that First Baptist Church of Hammond Sunday School, which regularly ran almost 14,000 people, pushed the church to a record attendance of 30,560 on March 16, 1975, thanks to a boisterous contest between two bus route teams. In that year, the First Baptist bus route ministry consisted of 1,000 workers using 230 buses to ferry as many as 10,000 people every Sunday. In 2001, a fleet of over 200 buses was regularly ferrying 7,000 to 15,000 people from throughout northwest Indiana and the Chicago, Illinois area.

Hyles was also a leader in the Independent Baptist movement through his speaking at 'The Sword of the Lord' conferences with John R. Rice and his own annual "Pastors School". The school continues to attract as many as 7000 visitors to the Hammond area.

Hyles wrote approximately fifty works in his lifetime with over 14 million total copies in circulation, including the popular Is There A Hell?, based on a sermon he preached at a National Sword of the Lord Conference. Another work, Enemies of Soul Winning tackled many issues considered controversial in fundamentalist and evangelical circles, which include the doctrine of repentance, Lordship salvation, and the role of the church in soul winning. The Calvary Contender wrote, "Hyles will be remembered as a one-of-a-kind, ever controversial leader whose ministry touched the lives of multitudes."

Jack Hyles was better known as "Brother Hyles" to his tens of thousands of congregants.

Honors, awards, accolades, and praise

Hyles has been the recipient of much praise, honors, and other accolades throughout the course of his life, and even continuing on past his death.

Hyles received an honorary doctorate from Midwestern Baptist College, an unaccredited bible college for budding pastors, missionaries, evangelists, and Christian school teachers.

In 2001, the Hyles' boyhood home, a 384 square foot shack in Italy, Texas (30 miles south of Dallas, Texas) was purchased for a planned museum to honor Hyles. The home was shipped from Texas to Hyles-Anderson College. The home was planned to house Hyle's writings, photographs, and other relics on the 2,700-student campus. Ray Young, a close friend of Hyles, said, "We have 5,000 to 7,000 independent Baptists who come here each year for conventions. Reverend Hyles was very much adored by independent Baptists across the country. It should be a major attraction for them."

Hyles' commitment to poor children grew out of his own childhood. He was raised in poverty by a single mother during the Great Depression. Hyles is given recognition for his commitment to the poor, mostly black and Hispanic children from Chicago's inner-city neighborhoods, whom he has bussed to private Christian schools in Hammond every day.

Hyles was known as a "great preacher" among the fundamentalist preachers. The Washington Post compared the meek preaching style of Jerry Falwell to the "spit and fire" of Jack Hyles. The Post suggested that after you heard a preacher like Hyles, "you knew that you'd been preached to".

The Chicago Sun Times wrote about Hyles on the occasion of his death, "When he chose the interests of poor, inner-city kids over millionaire church members, they said he'd never keep the doors of his church open. In more than 50 years of ministry, the Rev. Jack Hyles, pastor of mammoth First Baptist Church in Hammond, Ind. proved them all wrong. In the process he built one of the largest congregations in the country, a college, six schools, and a vibrant ministry that will now have to survive without him."

In the same article, the President of Hyles-Anderson College was quoted as saying Hyles is "a tremendous man of integrity, business acumen, leadership ability, organization. You didn't have to do everything his way. But after you experimented, you usually found out his way was the best way".

Matthew Barnett, while discussing his work at an inner-city Los Angeles ministry, explained how he learned from Jack Hyles. He explained how he and his dad learned the whole bus ministry and bus captains idea from Hyles during a conference. Barnett also expounded on how Hyles was a tremendous soul winner, and how Hyles had great influence throughout the entire Chicago area.

The Rev. Jerry Falwell, chancellor of Liberty University, said that "Hyles will be remembered as a leader in evangalism through the local church." Falwell also said, "He inspired me as a young pastor to win others to Christ through Sunday school, the pulpit, and personal witnessing. He made a great contribution to the calls of Christ".

The mayor of Hammond, Illinois, speaking of Hyles, said, "He had a tremendous following at his church, but when other people where moving out of downtown Hammond, the reverend decided to stay. Many of his congregation lived in Hammond, so I would say he had a very important impact here."

Hyles was honored in Hammond, Indiana with a huge portrait of Hyles and his widow, Beverly, dominating the skyline of the town. He is also honored in Founder's Park at his college, where they laid 30,000 bricks as flooring for life-sized statues of Hyles and his widow.


Works by Hyles

Books

  • Seeing Him Who Is Invisible -- Sword of the Lord Pub (1960) ISBN 0873987543
  • How to Boost Your Church Attendance -- Zondervan (January 1, 1961)
  • Let's Build an Evangelistic Church -- Sword of the Lord Pub (1962) ISBN 0873985028
  • Kisses of Calvary and Other Sermons -- Sword of the Lord Pub (1965) ISBN 087398479X
  • Let's Hear Jack Hyles (Burning Messages for the Saved and Unsaved) -- Sword of the Lord (1972) ISBN 0873985044
  • Hyles Church Manual -- Sword of the Lord Pub (November 1982) ISBN 0873983726
  • Church Bus Handbook -- Hyles-Anderson (1970)
  • How to Rear Children -- Hyles-Anderson Pub (January 1, 1972) 193 pgs.
  • How to Rear Infants -- Hyles-Anderson Pub (January 1, 1979) 143 pgs.
  • How to Rear Teenagers -- Revival Fires! Publishers (January 1, 1998) 155 pgs.
  • Blue Denim and Lace -- Hyles-Anderson Pub (1972)
  • Let's Go Soul Winning -- Sword of the Lord Pub (January 1980) ISBN 0873985036
  • Hyles Sunday School Manual -- Sword of the Lord Pub (November 1982) ISBN 0873983912
  • The Blood, the Book and the Body -- Hyles-Anderson Pub (1992)
  • Enemies of Soul Winning -- Hyles-Anderson Pub (1993) 148 pgs.
  • Please Pardon My Poetry -- Hyles-Anderson Pub (January 1, 1976) 123 pgs.
  • Logic Must Prove the King James Bible. -- Hyles-Anderson Pub
  • Is There A Hell? -- Hyles-Anderson Pub
  • Jack Hyles Speaks on Biblical Separation -- Hyles-Anderson Pub (1984) 112 pgs.
  • Salvation is more than Being Saved -- Hyles-Anderson Pub (1985) 150 pgs.
  • Teaching on Preaching -- Hyles-Anderson Pub (1986) 153 pgs.
  • Grace and Truth -- Hyles-Anderson (January 1, 1975) 222 pgs.
  • The Miracle of the Bus Ministry -- Ray Young Publications (1996)
  • Fundamentalism in My Lifetime -- Hyles Pub (2002) ISBN 0970948840
  • What Great Men Taught Me -- Berean Publications (2000)
  • Truman Dollar, Jerry Falwell, A.V. Henderson, & Jack Hyles Building Blocks of the Faith (Foundational Bible Doctrines, Special Faith Partner Edition) -- Fundamentalist Church Publications (1977) ISBN 0896630064

Other

  • Introduction to the Dino J. Pedrone book What is It All About? Sword of the Lord (2000) ISBN 0873989325
  • Introduction to the Beverly Hyles book Woman, the Assembler (Making Your Hasband a Leader) Hyles Publications (1995)

References

  1. ^ Janega, James Rev. Jack Hyles; Led bus ministry Chicago Tribune, Feb 9, 2001
  2. Lehmann, Daniel J. "Fundamentalists Shun a Society They Try to Save" Chicago Sun-Times, June 6, 1993. pg. 5
  3. ^ Lehmann, Daniel J. "Pastor Linked to Sex Abuse Lashes Out," Chicago Sun-Times, June 2, 1993. pg. 5
  4. ^ Chalfant, H. Paul, Religion in Contemporary Society (3rd Edition), Itasca, Illinois: F.E. Peacock Publishers (1994); pgs. 363-364
  5. ^ Falsani, Cathleen Brother Jack Hyles of Hammond dies at 74 Chicago Sun Times, February 8, 2001.
  6. ^ "First Baptist Church. . . Helping People for 116 Years, and Counting!" (PDF). The Voice of First Baptist Church. Retrieved May 1. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  7. Towns, Elmer. "The Ten Largest Sunday Schools and What Makes Them Grow" (PDF). Baker Book House. Retrieved May 1. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  8. "Megachurch Pastor Jack Hyles Dead at 74". Christianity Today. Retrieved April 2. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  9. ^ Superchurch Time Dec 1, 1975 (retrieved Jun 4, 2006)
  10. Zabroski, Steve (2006). "Faithful flock to Hammond". Northwest Indiana Times. Retrieved March 24. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  11. "Jack Hyles Succumbs To Heart Attack". Calvary Contender. 2001. Retrieved May 1. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  12. Associated Press Texas childhood home of prominent minister planned as Indiana museum Schererville, Ind. November 6, 2001
  13. Harrington, Walt What Hath Falwell Wrought? Washington Post July 24, 1988, pg W19
  14. High hopes: Matthew Barnett's secret is to inspire others to dream what God can do--and dream big The Leadership Interview from Leadership Journal Jan 1, 2005
  15. News briefs Illinois edition: Dedication to unveil college founder Oct 20, 2001 Northwest Indiana Times

External links

Hyles Ministry

Criticism

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