Vintage James Lee Beall

Jon Rising · Bethesda Missionary Temple history

Simply click on the white-and-orange play button to hear a talk that the late Pastor James Lee Beall gave to a Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship International convention in Washington, D. C. back in January 1973.

In the very enjoyable - and often humorous - 58-minute talk, Pastor Beall relates the amazing history of his mother's (M. D. "Mom" Beall) spiritual journey, as well as, the history of the church she founded in Detroit, Bethesda Missionary Temple (now known as, Bethesda Christian Church in Sterling Heights, Michigan).

If you know others who would like to hear Pastor Beall once more there is a Share button in the upper right corner.

Other items about Pastor Beall on this blog include:

• James Lee Beall (1924 - 2013)
• Charles Green's tribute to James Lee Beall
• An interview with James Lee Beall
• REVIEWED:  James Lee Beall's, "Straight Talk about the Holy Spirit"
• and an article about his wife:  Anne Beall: a pastor's wife extraordinaire

Here's a clipping of a Medill News Service article about the FGBMFI convention Pastor Beall spoke at. Notice the mention of his prayer at the large prayer breakfast.

James Beall, Sen. Hatfield FGBMFI 1973 Fri, Jan 19, 1973 – Page 5 · Southern Illinoisan (Carbondale, Illinois) · Newspapers.com James Beall at FGBMFI in Washington D. C. (Feb 1974) Wed, Feb 20, 1974 – 3 · The Millville Daily (Millville, New Jersey) · Newspapers.com

Charles Green's tribute to James Beall

Early in the Latter Rain Movement of 1948 a young minister from Baton Rouge, Louisiana was sent by his pastor to Beaumont, Texas to see for himself what was happening. That April 1950 trip resulted in the young minister - Charles E. Green - joining forces with the Bealls of Detroit, the Pembertons of Houston, Harry Hodge of Beaumont, and many other ministers involved in the Latter Rain Movement (including, of course, Green's pastor William Marshall).

James Beall (1951)

It also resulted in a lifelong friendship between Green and Mom Beall's son James. In the ensuing decades Green would have Beall speak many times at his June conventions in New Orleans (Word of Faith Temple, the church he founded in 1953). Likewise, Beall would often have Green as a guest speaker in Detroit for Bethesda Missionary Temple's Easter conventions which later became known as Spring Festivals. All told, Green preached in Bethesda's pulpit over 100 times in a five-decade span that began in 1954.

Besides being fellow ministers of the gospel that appreciated each other's ministry of the Word, the pair enjoyed a close personal friendship that included good-natured ribbing and teasing (in fact, I have it on good authority that Green and long-time Washington D. C. pastor John Meares once played a practical joke on Beall, laying a cat on his chest as he slept upright in a chair; Beall, who is said to have hated cats, woke up not a little flummoxed and flustered, which put Green and Meares in stitches with laughter). When vacationing together, Beall and Green, as well as their wives, could let their hair down, as the saying goes (once while in Vermont on a road trip together some time after Mom Beall's passing in 1979, the four of them - then middle-aged - enjoyed the wintry thrill of a good, old-fashioned snowball battle). [UPDATE 9/10/2018 - Charles Green's precious wife, Barbara, went to be with the Lord five years after James Beall on the exact same date.]

The Greens (1951)

Shortly after James Beall went to his eternal rest September 10, Charles Green included the following tribute to Beall in his Harvest Ministries to the World newsletter:

"Word has just come that our long-time and wonderful friend Dr. James Beall has gone home to be with the Lord.

"Barbara and I met James and Anne Beall in 1951. We have laughed together, cried together and vacationed together, but the times we have spent together in the house of God, both in Detroit and New Orleans have been times of joy beyond description. We have not only been friends, but we have counted the Beall family as part of our family.

"The ministry of James Beall blessed and strengthened our New Orleans Church in a marvelous and godly way. He has been highly intelligent with a great knowledge of the Word of God, presented in a clear, concise and witty fashion. We shall not see another like him. We will miss you Jim, and we will keep on loving your family!"

While Green no longer pastors the New Orleans church, he is very active in ministry. Based in Frisco, Texas, he speaks at churches in the United States as well as other places around the globe. His ministry website is Harvest Ministries to the World.

Faith Church flooded by Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina in 2005 did extensive damage to the Faith Church facility (Word of Faith Temple had been renamed, Faith Church). Charisma magazine carried a story about the damage on its website (the part of the link that pertains to Green's church is at the bottom of that link and is entitled, "Flooded Church Logs On"). The church, which has been under the leadership of Green's son Michael Green since 2001, is now known as The Lifegate and has two locations - LifeGate North is in Mandeville, Louisiana and LifeGate South meets in Metairie, Louisiana.

Ministry Today magazine covered the Greens' pastoral transition this way:

"Michael Green preached his first message in early March [2001] as the senior pastor of Faith Church in New Orleans, taking over for his father, Charles Green. Already co-pastor of the congregation, Green, 47, also had served as worship leader, soloist and speaker in the church started by his father in 1953.

 "Married since 1984, Michael and wife, Linda, have two boys. Church officials said Charles Green, 76, stepped down as senior pastor to mentor other church leaders and lead the missions ministry. 'Dad will be doing a lot of foreign and home missions work,' Green said. 'He will be ministering to ministers, traveling and writing.'"

Charles Green is also an author. One of his books, The Revelation of God and His Word, was reviewed in Ministry Today (November/December 2005). Here is that review:

"Who would enjoy making a car trip from New York to California if all they had were hundreds of pieces of paper containing directions? Even if all the pieces contained correct information, it would be exasperating.

"Yet, that is analogous to the type of spiritual journey many have had to make - countless sermons, books, teachings and songs but no sense of how it all fits together.

"Veteran pastor Charles Green has attempted to provide a comprehensive 'map' of the Christian faith with his new book, The Revelation of God and His Word. Green first presents his teaching chronologically (the Old Testament scriptures), and then doctrinally (Jesus, His church, and its beliefs and practices).

"Most appreciated is Green's irenic tone: for example, when he says about himself: 'The author does not claim - nor does he believe - that his doctrine is the only way to heaven.'"

Charles Green and his wife, Barbara, with Charisma publisher Stephen Strang.

Michael Green leading worship at the North American Congress on the Holy Spirit and World Evangelization in New Orleans in July 1987 (Jane Hansen Hoyt of Women's Aglow is in the background). Vinson Synan, writing in An Eyewitness Remembers a Century of the Holy Spirit, said, "Jamie Buckingham announced that this was 'probably the greatest gathering of Christian leaders ever assembled in the history of the United States of America.' The singing was joyous and enthusiastic. Hundreds of participants danced in the aisles as Michael Green and the music ministry led the worship. He said, 'We've taken a football arena and turned it into a tabernacle of prayer.' At one point, hundreds of children sang and danced as they circled the outer aisles holding banners from many nations of the world. One observer, Thomas Nickel, said of the scene: 'Thirty thousand, half Catholic; the other half denominational charismatics, Messianic Jews and old line Pentecostals, so blended together that it was impossible to determine to which category each belonged.'"

James Beall, Charles Green, and others (Sept 1971) Sat, Sep 25, 1971 – Page 2 · The Greenville News (Greenville, South Carolina) · Newspapers.com

JLB, MDB, Carl Neal, Charles Green, Stockstill with Garlon (Oct 1966) 11 Oct 1966, Tue Sun Herald (Biloxi, Mississippi) Newspapers.com

James Lee Beall (1924 - 2013)

James Lee Beall, pastor emeritus of Bethesda Christian Church in Sterling Heights, MI, died on September 10. He was the second senior pastor of Bethesda, being preceded by his mother M. D. Beall, the founder of the church.

Beall's daughter Analee Dunn is the third and current senior pastor of the large church that was in the 40s, 50s and 60s the most prominent Latter Rain Movement church. [Note:  Analee Dunn has retired from the senior pastorate and Patrick Visger was installed in that post on June 12, 2016.]

Charisma magazine notes in its obituary for Beall that his ministry bridged both the Latter Rain Movement and the Charismatic Movement, saying that he "was one of the most sought-after speakers in the charismatic movement of the 1970s and became known for his nationwide radio broadcast, America to Your Knees."

While he was popular when speaking worldwide he was always a local pastor first. He once wrote:

"As preachers, we who pastor learn quickly enough that we receive more honor when we are away from home. We can tell old stories and get away with them, use illustrations without having anyone throw rocks at us, and combine the best of any number of sermons. Consequently, we receive adulation of our new audience. But when we return home there is no parade or marching band.

"This tends to give some pastor-shepherds an itch to travel. After all, they are such a precious gift that they simply must share themselves with the multitudes. But we need to shrink our heads to the size of our hats and remain where the Lord has put us.

"I love compliments as much as the next person. In fact, I eat them up. Through the years a number of well-intentioned people have told me my ministry was just too great to be confined to one local church. I have been momentarily excited by such dazzling suggestions. But they were nonsense. Just because people like to hear me speak as I travel the country does not automatically bestow upon me an apostolic gift of travel. The Lord called me to be a pastor-shepherd. And if I have a lick of sense, that is where I will remain." (Your Pastor, Your Shepherd)

James Beall leading worship at Bethesda

And remain he did. He was on the pastoral staff of Bethesda for 57 years and was a model of integrity and faithfulness.

His mother, Myrtle Beall, shared in her memoir, A Hand on My Shoulder, how James came to sense the call of the Lord to ministry:

"I recall also the night James Lee failed to return home on time from the Young People's Meeting at church. I was much worried and concerned at the thought of what may have befallen him and prayed earnestly to God for his protection. At midnight he came home and dashed up the stairs to me, taking two or three stairs at a time; he was crying, 'Mother, I've got Him. Mother, I've got Him!' I met Jim at the top of the staircase. Suddenly his arms were around me as he sobbed, 'Mother, God has given me the precious Holy Spirit and has called me to help you in the work!'

"God had indeed given him a vision that night of the burden that the Lord had put upon me. Jim had cried out to God that he might help me carry this burden. Right then and there the Lord baptized him in the Holy Spirit." (A Hand on My Shoulder, chapter 30)


Jim Beall in the Navy

As his funeral home obituary reads, Beall was also a "Proud WWII Navy Veteran". Author Barbara J. Yoder gives some background on this:

"My friend Patricia Beall Gruits still remembers the day her brother [James Beall] went off to war. He was just eighteen years old, still 'wet behind the ears,' in many ways more of a boy than a man. The whole family went with him to the neighborhood drugstore, the collection point for departure. There the local young men had gathered to wait for the bus that would take them to their military assignments.

"Their families had come with them. Some were clinging to each other, weeping uncontrollably. Others stood in total silence. No words could explain how they felt. The war's death statistics predicted the probable end of each young man's story. The families knew they were sending their sons and brothers off on a death assignment.

"Every member of Patricia's family was weeping. She remembers seeing her little brother, Harry, standing there crying buckets of tears. He had heard everyone talking about the war, and he was inconsolable about losing his beloved older brother. Would he ever see his big brother again?

"In this dreadful and terrifying time, Myrtle D. Beall, who in the 1930s had led Bible classes and

M. D Beall

prayer groups and who had founded a neighborhood Sunday School that had become a small church, decided to accept an offer to minister on the radio, broadcasting live from the church building. She called the program America to Your Knees. Beall's single-minded goal was to summon an army of wartime pray-ers every weekday morning from 10:00 to 10:30. She was not about to do it alone; she was going to find everyone she could in the listening area to pray with her.

"After her radio broadcast, Myrtle went straight to the church sanctuary to lead a live prayer meeting from 10:30 to noon. She was joined not only by church members, but also by many people who prayed with her on the radio program. They were desperate. They did not want their sons to die. Some of those listening on the radio had already lost their sons and were stricken with grief, but still they came to pray. They would cry out to God, praying until they saw results.

"As these pray-ers got together daily, they learned to pray through their grief to faith. Faith began to arise as they learned to cry out to God and to connect with Him from their hearts. They learned how to pray until God spoke to them, and then they learned to proclaim His words back to Him. Their prayer-cries got God's attention because they had learned to speak out the prayers He had planted in their hearts.

"A sound was released in those prayer meetings that caused heaven to overtake hell on earth. Hell's assignments were interrupted on a daily basis as those people prayed earnestly and faithfully. Jesus put it this way: "Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven" (Matthew 6:10).

"The war ended, and all 84 servicemen from the church, Bethesda Missionary Temple, returned home safely. Not one soldier from that church lost his life" (The Cry God Hears ... and is Waiting to Answer).

After the war, Jim Beall put his spared life to good use bringing life - through Jesus Christ - to others, many others.

An article about his wife, Anne, can be read at this link, while a full-length interview with Pastor Beall can be read at this link.

From left to right: James Lee Beall, Harry Lee Beall, Harry Monville Beall, Myrtle Dorthea Beall, and Patricia Doris Beall Gruits

From left to right: Harry Beall, Modest Pemberton and his wife Evelyn, Marie Pemberton and her husband Garlon, and James Lee Beall. Photo is the property of Cyndy Green Crider.

WMZK in 1969 Sat, May 31, 1969 – Page 9 · Detroit Free Press (Detroit, Michigan) · Newspapers.com

From the July/August 2018 edition of Ministry Today magazine

Anne Beall - a pastor's wife extraordinaire

Anne Beall, James Lee Beall, and their daughter Analee (circa 1952)

There is no shortage of ministers who refer to the late James Lee Beall as a "pastor's pastor". He even wrote a popular book on pastoring - Your Pastor, Your Shepherd. But serving right alongside him for 57 years at the Bethesda Missionary Temple in Detroit, Michigan was his wife Anne. Her graciousness, wit, and wisdom in the role of a pastor's wife were also remarkable. Anne was a pastor's wife extraordinaire. Today, she still attends the church, now located in the Detroit suburb of Sterling Heights and known as Bethesda Christian Church. Her daughter, Analee Dunn, is the current senior pastor of Bethesda (Note: she is now pastor emeritus). Anne wrote the following for the church's newspaper, Bethesda Parade, back in December 1980:

"Recently, someone asked me if I believed God had planned or ordained my marriage to my husband, Jim. Was our marriage 'Made and ordained in heaven?' My reply! 'I'm not sure we really asked God about it. I doubt if God could have changed our mind and plans.'

"Love - it is still the name of the game. There is no question in my mind that Jim and I have a greater and deeper love today than we had 34 years ago when we said, 'I do.' [the Bealls were married in 1946] As love matures, one person's thoughts become the thoughts of the other. In future columns I will discuss this matter more fully, but from this point in history, I'm sure God in His all-wise providence, knew Jim needed me. Jim was the fulfillment of all my dreams: tall, dark, handsome, a football player; and so romantic!


Anne, Myrtle, and Patti Beall (1962)

"I have always believed when a person's life is totally committed to the Lord, God does guide our life. The Lord leads us day by day, and step by step. Usually it is not in some dramatic way, but the 'still small voice' of assurance saying, 'This is the way, walk ye in it.'

"In the 1920s my parents, Sam and Daisy Broyles, resided in the State of California. On a beautiful May morning, their third child entered the world - me. This date is not important for you to know.

"During the seven years of my parents' residence in California, both of them received the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. Their visitation with God took place in a Brethren Church. This experience produced a life of total commitment to their Lord. My spiritual life developed in this intimate and blessed atmosphere.

"Every person's life is molded by a series of decisions. My parents decided to move to the State of Tennessee, their home state, in the late 1920s. They were greeted by the GREAT DEPRESSION. My sister, Lois, was born at this time. We have accused her of being the cause of it!

"With the move to Tennessee, Mother and Dad saw the tremendous need for spiritual life in the community. Our relatives were Methodist. Consequently, one Sunday morning church service was started in a local school. On Sunday afternoon another school was secured for services in a Baptist community. I learned early that God is not confined to any one group. Mother did the preaching; Dad the organizing. Attendance at each of these meetings grew, and in time beautiful church buildings were erected in each community. My Mother was the first woman licensed to preach by the Methodist Church in Tennessee. It helped to have a brother on the Selecting Committee!

"All of us are products of History. Our childhood becomes our history. This part of history is something over which we have no control. God teaches and guides us in ways and at times unknown to us.

"In May of 1944 I graduated from the White County High School. The Broyles family moved to Michigan. On the first Sunday of June of the same year we attended our first service at Bethesda.

"Jim was serving with the U. S. Navy in Brazil!"

Anne Beall wrote a chapter entitled, "When Death Takes a Child"

James Dunn, the Beall's son-in-law, continues the story, "While home on leave in 1945, another monumental change took place [in Jim Beall's life]. Meeting Anna Mae Broyles, whose family had recently joined the church, was akin to being struck by a thunderbolt. With only a few days to get to know each other, both knew they had met the love of their lives. Writing daily during the rest of the war cemented their feelings, and marriage came four months after his discharge on July 3, 1946. They became the very picture of marital fidelity. Their love never wavered in 67 years together" (from "In Memory and Tribute to a Great Man," Heartbeat of Bethesda, October 2013).

Jim, with a twinkle in his eye no doubt, wrote the following in his ministry newsletter (Facts, Foibles, and Fables) in September 2007, "Now and again I remind her that my proposal of marriage hinged around her ability to gain the cooking skills of her mother - Daisy Broyles. In fact, I didn't know the pleasure of real fried chicken until I fell in love with this trim, gorgeous, captivating creature whom I met during my Navy days and would soon become my future bride. Grandma Broyles lured me into her family with chicken, biscuits, fried apples and fried corn."

Anne and Jim's daughter Analee is married to James Dunn, and she is pastor emeritus of Bethesda Christian Church. [She retired June 12, 2016, handing over the senior pastorate to Patrick Visger.]

The Bealls also had two sons, Jimmy and John (who lives with his wife Heather in California).

In 1983, James Broyles Beall - Jimmy - died at 36 after a long, debilitating illness. Anne wrote movingly of his illness and passing in a book entitled, Help! I'm a Pastor's Wife. Jamie Buckingham's daughter-in-law, Michele Buckingham, edited the book, which has chapters by thirty well-known pastor's wives, included Anna Hayford (Jack), Freda Lindsay (Gordon), Barbara Green (Charles), and a preacher in her own right, Anne Gimenez (John). Anne Beall's chapter is entitled, "When Death Takes a Child".

Jim and Anne Beall

Anne Beall (left) and Kathryn Kuhlman (right) at a reception for special speakers at the World Conference on the Holy Spirit in Jerusalem in 1974. Anne's husband, Jim, was one of the speakers along with Miss Kuhlman, David du Plessis, Corrie ten Boom, Pat Robertson, Jamie Buckingham, Charles Simpson, Arthur Katz, Willard Cantelon, Gen. Ralph Haines, Costa Deir, and Charles Farah.

Broyles-Beall engagement (Apr 1946) Sun, Apr 14, 1946 – 34 · Chattanooga Daily Times (Chattanooga, Tennessee) · Newspapers.com

MINISTRIES magazine (Summer 1986)

Latter Rain songs

[The audio recording above, captured live at Elim Bible Institute in 1967, is representative of Latter Rain praise & worship in the 1960s. Among the songs, prophecies, and spontaneous worship, listeners will hear three of the songs mentioned in the article below - two by James Lee Beall, and the one by Modest Pemberton.]

In addition to distinctive teachings and practices, the Latter Rain Movement also developed its own collection of songs.

First there was the publication of James and Phyllis Spiers' songbook, Spiritual Songs by the Spiers in November 1949. The Library of Congress catalogue of copyright entries (January - June 1950 edition for published music) says that this songbook contains, "many new latter rain choruses by Phyllis C. Spiers."

Phyllis wrote the very popular Latter Rain song, He's the Lord of Glory, which can be heard at this link. She and James were from Winnipeg and ministered with the Hawtin brothers and others from the site of the Latter Rain's initial outbreak in North Battleford, Saskatchewan. They would later go on to be affiliated with both Elim Bible Institute in Lima, New York and radio evangelist Thomas Wyatt.

Also in the fall of 1949, a convention at Elim saw a development in Latter Rain music that ran parallel with the Spiers' efforts. Marian Meloon writes,

This convention also marked the beginning of Psalm-singing as we know it today, through the ministry of a blind sister on Elim's staff - Rita Kelligan. This gift developed over succeeding months and years, giving us the rich heritage that forms part of the charismatic renewal worship today [in Ivan Spencer, Willow in the Wind: A Spiritual Pilgrimmage, Logos International, 1974. Kelligan's 1952 book, Scripture Set to Music (Elim Bible Institute) is still available for purchase]. 

Other songs by people involved in the Latter Rain revival include: Edie Iverson's The Lord Reigneth and Thanks Be To God; James Lee Beall's It Shall Flow Like a River and Let the Oppressed Go Free; Eleanor Stern's Fresh Oil from the Throne; Charlotte Baker's Set My Spirit Free; and Garlon Pemberton's Abraham's Blessings are Mine. These are but a few of the songs birthed in the Latter Rain revival.

Below is the sheet music for two more Latter Rain songs. The May 1953 edition of Bethesda Missionary Temple's Latter Rain Evangel said, "These songs were given to us by the Lord during the Convention that is still in progress."

River of God is attributed to James Lee Beall and Frieda Campbell, whereas Sing, O, Barren, Sing! is attributed to Modest Pemberton with Frieda Campbell credited for the arrangement.



BETHESDA MISSIONARY TEMPLE trio - Frieda Campbell, James Lee Beall, Betty Treas

SPIERS Rochester paper July 23, 1955 Sat, Jul 23, 1955 – Page 4 · Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, New York) · Newspapers.com

Bethesda celebrates its 75th anniversary

Bethesda's original building

Seventy-five years ago, in an old tire store on Nevada Avenue in Detroit, a mother of three started a Sunday School for her children and others in the neighborhood. The date was June 17, 1934.

Tomorrow - more than 3,900 Sundays later - what has become the Bethesda Christian Church will celebrate all that God has developed from such humble beginnings.

M. D. "Mom" Beall was the mother that started the Sunday School. She wasn't looking to pastor a megachurch, but that's what grew from her efforts. Over the decades, what was then known as Bethesda Missionary Temple, grew and grew without the help of church growth methods many advocate today. (A picture of Bethesda's congregation that was published in LIFE magazine in June 1958 can be seen here - after clicking on the link you will need to scroll down the page to see the photo).

September 21, 1979

According to her obituary in the Detroit News in September 1979:

"Membership in the tiny church, with Mrs. Beall as pastor, 'just exploded,' said her son, James. When the church grew out of its tiny quarters, Mrs. Beall's husband, a builder, joined the project.

"'Dad was the builder; mother the pastor,' her son recalled."

Today, Bethesda is a suburban church in Sterling Heights, Michigan, seating 3,000. It is non-denominational and can be characterized as Pentecostal or Charismatic (if by Pentecostal one means, practicing speaking in tongues, and if by Charismatic one means, operating in the gifts of the Holy Spirit; in this case, nothing more is implied by the usage of those labels).

After revival broke out in North Battleford, Saskatchewan in 1948, Mom Beall traveled to Western Canada to see what it was all about. Specifically, she went to meetings in Vancouver where the revival had spread as well.

She returned ablaze with revival fire and her church in Detroit became one of the centers of what became known as the Latter Rain Movement. Other cities with prominent Latter Rain churches were Portland, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Memphis, Chicago, Oklahoma City, Cleveland, New Orleans, Houston, and, of course, Vancouver.

Noted Pentecostal historian Vinson Synan says, "The Pentecostal movement was at a low ebb in 1948, with a growing dryness and lack of charismatic gifts.  Many who heard about the events in Canada believed that it was a new Azusa Street, with many healings, tongues and prophecies.  A large center of the revival outside of Canada was the Bethesda Missionary Temple in Detroit, Michigan pastored by Myrtle Beale [sic].  From Detroit, the movement spread across the United States like a prairie wildfire."  An Eyewitness Remembers the Century of the Holy Spirit (Chosen), p. 35.

Another important Pentecostal historian, Allan Anderson, adds, "This movement emphasized the restoration of the 'ministry gifts' of apostles and prophets to the church, spoken prophecies, and the independence of the local church, tending to shun 'denominationalism'. Many of the independent Charismatic churches that constitute a large portion of Pentecostalism in North America today have roots in the Latter Rain movement." An Introduction to Pentecostalism (Cambridge University Press), p. 51.

As has been seen in far too many Pentecostal revivals, pernicious error crept into some of the Latter Rain churches. The most pronounced of these errors was a doctrine called, The Manifest Sons of God. One of the things that proponents of that doctrine taught was that it did not matter what they did in their mortal bodies because they had been spiritually glorified. Mom Beall and her children, who all followed her into the ministry, were grieved by such erroneous teaching and withstood it completely.

Veteran pastor Ernest Gentile, who first experienced the revival in 1950, also notes that, "Within a year of the start of this move of God's Spirit in North Battleford, there were a number of strange happenings throughout North America also labeled 'Latter Rain.' Many visitors to North Battleford, and [other] influential churches across the United States, caught the excitement of what was happening, but missed the basic truths and experience. Thus, as in every movement, characteristics were attributed to the Latter Rain movement that were not part of the original." Your Sons & Daughters Shall Prophesy: Prophetic Gifts in Ministry (Chosen Books).

James Lee Beall, the son quoted in the obituary above, gave some specifics:

James Lee Beall

“Some years back, a group of ministers whom I knew well fell into the trap of believing that the grace of God was license. One of them supposedly received a revelation from God based on Romans 8:10: 'And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.' This meant to him that if a person was in Christ, the body was dead in the sight of the Lord and whatever the body did was of no consequence. This opened the way for drunkenness, adultery, homosexuality, and what have you.

"When I heard what they were teaching, I confronted some of the men. But they were evasive. Some weeks later I received a visit from one of the men whom I had known for years. He asked me if he could conduct a series of meetings at Bethesda.

"I answered, 'Not until we have a few things straight.' Shortly, and to my horror, I learned that all I heard was true. I denied him the meeting, refused to bid him God speed, and made it clear that neither he nor any of his friends would be welcome in the church or in the homes of any of the flock." Your Pastor, Your Shepherd (Logos International), pp. 60-61.

Two well-researched books chronicle the history of the Latter Rain Movement. Richard Riss's The Latter Rain Movement of 1948 (Honeycomb Visual Productions) is currently the only book solely devoted to the topic. Winds from the North: Canadian Contributions to the Pentecostal Movement (Brill Academic Publishers), edited by Michael Wilkinson and Peter Althouse, devotes two chapters (D. William Faupel's, "The New Order of the Latter Rain: Restoration or Renewal?" and Mark Hutchinson's, "The Latter Rain Movement and the Phenomenon of Global Return").

Balanced Biblical teaching and spontaneous, anointed praise and worship have been hallmarks of church life at Bethesda. In fact, the late Judson Cornwall, known for his teaching on praise and worship, stood in Bethesda's pulpit once and told the congregation he was not sure why he had been asked to teach there because the first time he had ever heard the kind of praise and worship that he talked about he was listening to a tape recording of Bethesda. The beauty and harmony of Bethesda's spontaneous worship has been compared to a "heavenly choir" by many that have visited the church.

Bill Hamon further explains, "During [the Latter Rain] movement a new expression of worship and praise flowing up and down like rhythmic waves of gentle ocean breezes and then rising to a crescendo of melodious praises that is best described by the Book of Revelation as 'the sound of many waters' (Rev. 19:6) .... In the 1950s, the praise service would flow continuously for 30 minutes to three hours. Most Charismatics of the 1960s and 1970s came into the Latter Rain type of worship more than the Pentecostal ways of worship [which Hamon describes as shouting 'praises for two or three minutes']." The Eternal Church: A Prophetic Look at the Church - Her History, Restoration, and Destiny (Destiny Image Publishers), chapter 24: The Latter Rain Movement.

Vinson Synan confirms that this expression of worship came to be part of the Charismatic Renewal, as well. John Miller, an instructor at Elim Bible Institute reports, "Vinson Synan stated that the Catholic Charismatic Movement experienced the same heavenly choir phenomena, resulting from its earliest interaction with the Bealls of Detroit, Michigan. Students from Duquesne University (a private Catholic University in Pittsburg [sic], Pennsylvania) and the University of Michigan (a public university in Ann Arbor, Michigan) encountered the Holy Spirit at the Bethesda Tabernacle [sic], and later experienced similar expressions of the heavenly choir in the Catholic Charismatic Movement." "New Order of the Latter Rain: A New Perspective," in The Pneuma Review, Fall 2013, Volume 16, Number 4, p. 71.

As noted earlier, Mom Beall passed away in 1979. Her eldest, Patricia Gruits, is in her 80s

Patricia Beall Gruits

now, but remains active in teaching and missions ministries. Her book, Understanding God, is a best-seller that has been translated into several languages.

James Beall went on to become one of the most sought after speakers in the charismatic movement in the 1970s. From articles in the Logos Journal to speaking at major events like the World Conference on the Holy Spirit in Jerusalem to teachings delivered to Roman Catholic charismatic audiences, James was in the thick of things. He wrote several books, including Laying the Foundation, a methodical teaching on the Christian life using Hebrews 6 as its springboard. He assumed both the pastorate of Bethesda and the microphone of the national radio broadcast, America to Your Knees, from his mother. After decades in Bethesda's pulpit he retired from daily ministry in 2004. Today, the church is pastored by his daughter Analee Dunn. [UPDATE June  2016 - Analee Dunn has retired, turning over the senior pastorate to Patrick Visger.]

Harry M. Beall

The youngest of the three, Harry M. Beall, was for years Bethesda's minister of music in addition to ministering the Word there and in congregations throughout the United States. Now retired from Bethesda's ministry, he lives in Arizona.

I salute and thank Bethesda, its congregation and ministers for 75 years of faithful service. Enjoy your celebration tomorrow!
A video commemorating the 75th anniversary can be seen here.

M. D. "Mom" Beall and Harry L. "Pop" Beall

REVIEWED: James Lee Beall's "Straight Talk about the Holy Spirit"

I used to work with a man who, shortly after his conversion and baptism, had a very jarring church experience. In short, the pastor of his church went 'off the rails' morally.

My friend stopped attending church. But, he didn't give up on Christianity entirely - he watched it on cable TV. He used to come in to work and ask me, "What in the world is going on with these TV preachers?" From eccentric dress to eccentric practices, my friend was no more impressed with church on television than he had been in his short stint in church.

Veteran pastor James Lee Beall has written a book for people like my friend. He's called it, Straight Talk about the Holy Spirit.

Now, to be entirely accurate, this treatise on the work and person of the third person of the Trinity will be appreciated by a much wider audience than just the disillusioned. There will be many mature believers who will enjoy Pastor Beall's survey of the scriptures that arrives at orthodox and well-thought-out doctrinal positions. New believers seeking power to live out their new life in Christ will appreciate his explanations (both scriptural and anecdotal) of the baptism in the Holy Spirit.

But again, the disillusioned observers of Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity are going to find a friend in Pastor Beall. He writes,

"... people who have the idea embedded in them that opening their life to the Holy Spirit could very well make them off-center, weird, and spiritually strange. For they have witnessed odd and questionable goings on by people who professed to be moved by the Holy Spirit. This has made them wary and disconcerted. This is precisely why the Incarnate Jesus must remain in our biblical picture and framework."

James Lee Beall

Beall's presentation of Jesus being the prototype of a man filled with the Holy Spirit was my favorite part of the book. Looking at any other man (or, woman) filled with the Spirit - no matter how mature - I will see someone still in-process, someone with a few rough edges yet. Reading scriptures that tell about praying and singing in the Spirit, being gifted by the Spirit, and walking in the Spirit are, of course, of supreme importance. But I still have the need to see it walked out. I want to know where we are headed, and not simply out of curiosity. I need it to arouse faith for the journey. In Jesus, we see the full glory of Spirit-empowered living. Beall says,

“The Scriptures clearly reveal that Jesus, the Christ, was filled with the Holy Spirit, and this infilling did not make Him a religious eccentric or divorce him from reality. Jesus was the most balanced, poised man who ever walked the earth and was always in touch with the real world."

Always of importance when discussing the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, is the matter of identity; the questions posed on the back cover of the book, "Who is the Holy Spirit? What is the Holy Spirit? Is it God or a Force?" are answered on the inside.

In keeping with the teaching of the scriptures and the historic creeds of the Church, Pastor Beall teaches that the Holy Spirit is as certainly God, as the Father and Son are:

"The Spirit is so prominently presented in the Bible that it is impossible to ignore the fact that He possesses divine attributes and exercises divine prerogatives and those who admit His personality have never denied His divinity."

The book's 189 pages present a comprehensive view of the Holy Spirit's person and work, while never lapsing into an arid rehearsal of facts. In fact, Beall shows awareness and sensitivity of the potential for such:

"The doctrines and teachings of Christianity are many and some of them more complex than others, but there are few doctrines more perplexing to the average man than the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. This is deeply regrettable because the Holy Spirit in early Christianity was not a puzzle but a convincing power --- the heartbeat of the Christian faith."

Myrtle Beall

The bulk of the book's limited anecdotal material is kept to the end, where the author tells, interestingly, of his mother's Pentecostal experience, specifically, speaking in tongues (Beall also devotes an earlier chapter to glossolalia). His mother, Myrtle Beall, came to experience this same phenomenon that first-century Christians knew - without prompting; she had never heard that such things happened to people. She went on, through a series of remarkable experiences, to pioneer a church that continues to this day - the large Bethesda Christian Church in Sterling Heights, Michigan (a 9-minute video about Bethesda can be seen here).

Straight Talk about the Holy Spirit is a serious - and edifying - study of the Holy Spirit; one that sets out proper understandings for the committed, while providing clear perspective for the disillusioned.

Beall's writing style is inviting. The book can be leisurely read in a couple of evenings. While the prose of the following passage is not representative of the entire book (for effect, Beall drives his points home here like a hammer steadily hitting a nail), it summarizes well the message of Straight Talk about the Holy Spirit:

"The Christian faith can rightly be called a religion of the Holy Spirit. The scriptural account informs us: the Spirit conceived Jesus in Mary; the Spirit descended on Jesus at His baptism. Jesus was led by the Spirit into the Judean wilderness to be tempted by Satan for forty days and nights and He came out of the experience in the power of the Spirit. Jesus began His ministry in the synagogue of His hometown, Nazareth, and declared His manifesto by saying, 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me ...' (Luke 4:18). He cast out evil spirits by the Spirit of God and was offered up as a sacrifice through the Eternal Spirit. The Spirit of Holiness raised him from the dead. He issued commandments to His disciples after His resurrection by the Spirit. John the Baptist foretold that Jesus would baptize believers in the Holy Spirit. The Church of Jesus Christ was born of the Spirit at Pentecost. Only those led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. We are changed from glory to glory by the work of the Spirit. The Church forms a habitation for God in the Spirit. His Spirit guides us into all truth. His Spirit strengthens us in the inner man. The fruits of the Christian life are the fruits of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit quickens (makes alive, energizes) our mortal body. The Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made us free from the Law of sin and death. We receive new power and authority when we are baptized in the Holy Spirit. From first to last, the Christian faith is a religion of the Holy Spirit."

[UPDATE: James Lee Beall went to be with the Lord on September 10, 2013. Charles Green's tribute to him can be read here. He authored several books including, Laying the Foundation: Achieving Christian Maturity (Bridge-Logos Publishing). In the NIV New Spirit Filled Life Bible (Thomas Nelson), edited by Jack Hayford, Pastor Beall wrote the notes on the Pastoral Epistles. An interview with Pastor Beall that was published in the March-April 1983 issue of Pathfinders can be read here. A talk by Pastor Beall that was given to a large Full Gospel Business Men's International convention can be heard here. In it, he tells a great deal of his mother's story and the history of the church she founded.]

From the July/August 2018 edition of Ministry Today magazine

Jim Beall at Christian Retreat (Jan 1978) 31 Dec 1977, Sat The Bradenton Herald (Bradenton, Florida) Newspapers.com