Lutheran Youth Alive - Kumbaya

 Topic: Religious Folk Music Revival
The Jesus Movement was a Pentecostal response to a specific social problem in California in 1967 and 1968. [1]  It faded with the crisis.

Meantime, the term and image of committed youth who did not isolate themselves from their society seeped into mainline denominations through the Charismatic Movement and Jesus Music.

The willingness to accept electrified musical instruments often coincided with an openness to non-traditional spiritual experiences.

For instance, the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood booked Larry Norman [2] in its coffeehouse when he still was unknown.  Presbyterians were the first to convene a commission on speaking in tongues.  As mentioned in the post for 27 September 2020, the General Assembly accepted the manifestations in 1970 with some caveats on interpretations.

Likewise, charismatic activity appeared among Roman Catholics at Duquesne University in 1967.  The church established a committee that would have had a difficult time suppressing the movement while it preached the miracles of saints.  It only wished to keep interpretations in the hands of the clergy. [3]  The Vatican’s Sacrosanctum Concilium already had encouraged parishes to use contemporary instruments along with singing in local languages in 1963. [4]

Lutherans split along historic, ethnic boundaries.  The Missouri Synod, controlled by conservatives since 1969, ruled in 1973 that speaking in tongues was not consistent with “Lutheran theology and practice.” [5]  Some of the other synods, which were created by immigrants who had been exposed to revivals in Europe, were more open than those that were formed by individuals who came from areas where state churches were dominant.

Dave Anderson formed Lutheran Youth Encounter in 1965 and Lutheran Youth Alive in 1969 to reach youth with teams of college students performing music accompanied by acoustic guitars.  In 1972 he edited a collection of Jesus Style Songs that included Bob MacKenzie’s version of “Kumbaya” along with Norman’s “I Wish We’d All Been Ready” and compositions by people involved with Calvary Chapel. [6]

The Joyous Celebration made an album of the songs in 1974.  Most were accompanied by an acoustic guitar; some used a piano. [7]  A photograph of the group showed them using an electric guitar or bass as well in 1973. [8]  The songs were short and usually fast paced.  Most were sung in unison.  They drew on traditions of hymn singing and country music.

Teams like Anderson’s had been pioneered by Methodists in 1939. [9]  They sent Caravans of college students with an adult counselor to local churches during the summer.  Two young men and two young women spent three days in a community where they boarded with local parishioners, while they worked with the Vacation Bible schools and youth fellowship groups. [10]

Methodists wished to spread games and folk dances as alternatives to social dancing. [11]  Moral Re-Armament’s Up with People used the same model in 1966, but with the goal of wooing youth away from liberal political movements. [12]  Anderson had gone to Mexico in 1959 with a Gospel Crusaders team sponsored by the Lutheran Evangelistic Movement (LEM), and spent the summer of 1962 in Latin America with a Youth for Christ group. [13]  Both were interested in converting people to Christianity.

Lutheran Youth Encounter began with a vision Anderson had telling him to take a gospel team to Scandinavia. [14]  In 1967, the group sent college-age teams to congregations and camps in this country. [15]

The group was not universally accepted by Lutheran churches.  One member was reprimanded by Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, in 1967 for using material prepared by Campus Crusade for Christ. [16]

Anderson resigned in 1968 [17] to move to California to work as youth director for the Central Lutheran Church of Van Nuys, California. [18]  That placed him near the epicenter of the Jesus Movement.  He became friends with Don Williams [19] and visited the Salt Box coffeehouse. [20]

Youth Alive used the same caravan model to send teams to Lutheran churches.  Richard Laux remembered one who came to his church in rural Idaho in 1970:

“The five youths on this team spoke about an experience they had had receiving the ‘baptism of the Spirit’ which was, according to their recounting, the same thing that the followers of Jesus experienced on Pentecost.” [21]

Anderson’s father was active in the Lutheran Evangelistic Movement, [22] which was a lay group that believed following church rituals was not enough.  Individuals needed to have personal religious experiences that caused them to repent and commit to Christ.  LEM’s founders had come from synods influenced by a Norwegian pietist, Hans Nielsen Hauge, and the Swede, Carl Olof Rosenius. [23]

While Anderson was active with Lutheran Youth Alive, politics was roiling the Lutheran synods.  The pietists had been outnumbered when the Hauge Synod merged with others to form the Norwegian Lutheran Church of America in 1917.  Their influence was further diminished when that church merged into the American Lutheran Church in 1960.

In a later songbook, Anderson quoted another Lutheran who said:

“Music prepares the heart for worship and commitment.  Music is the greatest mood alternator of all, and unlocks the ministry of God in the untrespassed soil of a person’s soul.  People love singing.  They love being moved even when there is not a song in their hearts.” [24]

A Missouri Synod pastor cited that reference before condemning Anderson:

“Note what is being said here and what is not being said.  Holy Scripture declares that it is
the Word of the Lord that prepares the heart for worship and commitment.  Here the claim is that music is a substitute Means of Grace, unlocking the human heart for God.” [25]

Another theologian at the Missouri Synod’s Concordia Seminary Saint Louis saw the same Anderson quotation as an example of contemporary pietism. [26]

Anderson left Lutheran Youth Alive in 1974 to tour with his wife, [26] and found a music-worship ministry that was independent of denominational influence. [28]  He told a reporter in 2017 that the “Jesus revival of the ‘70s” was “one of the greatest moves of the Holy Spirit, and we haven’t seen anything like it since.” [29]

Performers
Same as Bob MacKenzie’s Now Sing Now discussed in post for 26 July 2020.

Credits
None given

Notes on Lyrics
Same as Bob MacKenzie’s Now Sing Now discussed in post for 26 July 2020.

Notes on Music
Same as Bob MacKenzie’s Now Sing Now discussed in post for 26 July 2020.

Notes on Performance
The songbook and album covers featured a head of Christ in a circle against a yellow background.  Behind Him were white clouds signifying He was in Heaven.

It had a spiral binding.  “Kumbaya” was paired with “Lord, I Want To Be a Christian.  The latter was described as an “American folk song.”

Audience Perceptions
Jonathan Anderson said the “lyrical melodies, close harmonies, and syncopated rhythms” of Lutheran Youth Alive “proved tame enough to be accepted by church elders yet modern enough to draw crowds on college campuses.  Some songs – and even a few Lutheran teams – accentuated rhythm more than others, but rarely did any cross the line into rock ’n’ roll.” [30]

He added: “the simple messages of singalong and campfire songs [. . .] enabled participants to join the expression of personal faith. [. . .] woven throughout the Gospel teams’ music was a gentle appeal to commit one’s life to the Lord. [. . .] above everything else, the overarching theme of the Gospel teams’ music was experiential faith through a personal relationship with God in Christ.” [31]

Observers from Westmont College said Lutheran Youth Alive was “‘quietly charismatic,’ but they do not make tongues the focal point of the organization.  Nor are they excessively apocalyptic.” [32]

Notes on Movement
Joyous Celebration was organized at the Lutheran Bible Institute in Seattle by Don Fladland.  The women (Pat Bodin, Pam Edmunds, Marion Matthews) were wearing pant suits with bell bottoms in the photograph; one had long, straight hair, and the Black woman had an Afro.  The hair of the men (Rick Goudzwaard, John Lee, Dan Nelson) fell between their earlobes and their collars.

All were standing or sitting erect with their weight evenly placed on both feet.  The exception was the African American.  Matthews had her weight on her back leg, with her front leg bent at the knee.  She bent forward slightly the waist, while she was playing a small tambourine.

Notes on Performers
David L. C. Anderson’s father Clifford was a Lutheran pastor ordained by a founder of the Lutheran Evangelistic Movement. [33]  Evald Conrad’s father had migrated from Sweden around the turn of the twentieth century. [34]  Clifford served churches in Minnesota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. [35]

Anderson attended Norwegian schools influenced by Haugeans.  His high school was Augustana Academy in Canton, South Dakota. [36]  It had been founded by the Norwegian-Danish Augustana Synod, [37] after it parted with the Haugean Scandinavian Augustana Synod over use of the Book of Concord. [38]  Until the 1960 merger, it was run by the Norwegian Lutheran Church of America. [39]

Next, Anderson attended Augsburg College in Minneapolis. [40]  It had been run by the Haugean Lutheran Free Church, [41] who left the United Norwegian Lutheran Church of America because they felt slighted by the agglomerated institution. [42]

His most recent activity has been Shepherd’s Canyon Retreat in Arizona.  He helped establish it in 2007 as a center for helping pastors who were “experiencing stress, depression, and many kind of conflicts as the result of ‘being in ministry’.” [43]  He raises money to support it with his concerts. [44]

Availability
Book: “Kumbaya.”  The New Jesus Style Songs Volume 1.  Edited by David L. C. Anderson.  Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1973.  58.

End Notes
1.  The Jesus Movement was discussed in the post for 27 September 2020.
2.  The Hollywood church and  Norman were discussed in the post for 4 October 2020.
3.  Wikipedia.  “Charismatic Movement.”

4.  Rebecca Chase.  “History of Hymns: ‘Sent Forth by God's Blessing’.”  United Methodist Church Discipleship website.   22 August 2019.

5.  Vinson Synan.  The Holiness-Pentecostal Tradition.  Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1997 edition.  259.

6.  Calvary Chapel was discussed in the posts for 27 September 2020 and 4 October 2020.  It included Marsha Stevens’ “For Those Tears I Died,” and seven songs written by Debby Kerner.  At least 19 of the 124 songs were written by Youth Alive members, including four by Jean Wahlstrom, and two each by Henry Ehlen, John Lee, and Tom Rosoff.

7.  The Joyous Celebration.  Jesus Style Songs.  Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1974.  23-1655.  Vinyl LP.

8.  Jonathan D. Anderson.  Fifty Thousand Evangelists: Lutheran Youth in the Jesus Revolution.  Self published, 2019.  60.

9.  Grady L. E. Carroll.  “Kern, Paul Bentley.”  NC Pedia website.  1988.  Credit was given to Kern and E. O. Harbin, who was discussed in the post for 9 February 2020.

10.  Item.  The Crowley [Louisiana] Post-Signal.  17 July 17 1954.  2.  It probably was paraphrasing a press release.  Similar language appeared in other papers without the founding date.

11.  “Speaking of Pictures . . . Methodists Substitute ‘Play-Party Games’ for Dancing.”  Life 21:12–14:19 August 1964.  The importance of dance alternatives and the contribution of Lynn Rohrbough’s Cooperative Recreation Service were discussed in the post for 9 February 2020.

12.  It is discussed in the post for 23 February 2020.
13.  Jonathan Anderson.  14.
14.  Jonathan Anderson.  15.
15.  Jonathan Anderson.  20.

16.  Jonathan Anderson.  26–27.  The student, Walter Kallestad, asked Arthur H. Grimstad, the one professor involved with LEM, to speak with the president.  Joseph L. Knutson, who was a Haugean “by upbringing and temperament,” encouraged them.

17.  Jonathan Anderson.  31.
18.  Jonathan Anderson.  32.

19.  Ronald M. Enroth, Edward E. Ericson, Jr., and C. Breckinridge Peters.  The Jesus People. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eermans Publishing Company, 1972.  148.

20.  Edward E. Plowman.  The Jesus Movement in America.  Elgin, Illinois: David C. Cook Publishing Company, 1971.  57.

21.  Richard Laux and Ben Lunis.  Get Out of the Box.  Maitland, Florida: Xulon Press, 2003.  530.  The section was written by Laux.

22.  Jonathan Anderson.  14.

23.  Thomas E. Jacobson.  “Hauge’s Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Synod in America and the Continuation of the Haugean Spirit in Twentieth-Century American Lutheranism.”  PhD dissertation.  Luther Seminary, 2018.  300.  The word pietist did not imply a withdrawal from the world, like the Amish.  Hauge encouraged his rural followers to start their own businesses and take control of their economic situations.  Jacobson  thought that emphasis was one reason so many early immigrants had been influenced by his teachings. [45]

24.  Dick Hamlin.  Quoted by Dave Anderson.  The Other Songbook.  Phoenix, Arizona: The Fellowship Publications, 1987 edition.  Untitled preface.  The collection did not include “Kumbaya.”

25.  Harold L. Senkbeil.  “Current Trends in Church Music: Toward a Theological Appraisal.”  Lecture at Concordia University Wisconsin.  1992.  He chose Anderson as his example because the Wall Street Journal recently had quoted Anderson in an article on the use of contemporary music in churches. [46]

26.  John T. Pless.  “Liturgy and Pietism: Then and Now.”  Pieper Lecture at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis.  18 September 1998.

27.  Jonathan Anderson.  95.

28.  “What is Fellowship Ministries?”  Its website said it was a “non-profit ministry whose mission is to provide relevant worship resources, encouragement and training for advancing the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

29.  Patti Slattery.  “Standing Stones Retreat Center Ministers to Ministers.  The Wickenburg [Arizona] Sun website.  21 March 2017.

30.  Jonathan Anderson.  65.
31.  Jonathan Anderson.  66.  Emphasis in original.
32.  Enroth.  149.
33.  Jonathan Anderson.  14.

34.  Wiggie the Elder.  “Evald Johnson Conrad.”  Find a Grave website.  29 September 2013.

Joanne.  “Rev Swan Johnson.”  Find a Grave website.  19 Dec 2013; updated by Find a Grave.  He was Evald’s father.

35.  Item announcing Anderson’s appearance.  Sunday bulletin.  Faith Evangelical Lutheran Church, Pierre, South Dakota.   21 May 2017.  13.

36.  Pierre, South Dakota.

37.  Wikipedia.  “Augustana Academy.”  The name was shortened to Norwegian Augustana Synod.

38.  Wikipedia.  “Norwegian Augustana Synod.”
39.  Wikipedia, Augustana Academy.
40.  Saint Pierre.
41.  Wikipedia.  “Augsburg University.”
42.  Wikipedia.  “Lutheran Free Church.
43.  Fellowship Ministries.
44.  Slattery.
45.  Jacobson.  48.

46.  David Anderson.  Quoted by R. Gustav Niebuhr.  “So It Isn’t Rock of Ages, It is Rock, And Many Love It.”  The Wall Street Journal.  19 December 1991.  1.