Across the years I have had the privilege of serving with Christian laymen in two magnificent Easter sunrise services, one held for many years in Chicago’s Soldier Field and the other still conducted in Pasadena’s Rose Bowl. (This year’s Pasadena speaker, incidentally, will be Dr. Elmer W. Engstrom, chairman of the Executive Committee of RCA, who is one of CHRISTIANITY TODAY’S twenty trustees.)
At the height of its appeal, the Soldier Field service attracted 60,000 persons in weather so cold that an aide had to hold an electric light bulb over the organist’s hands to keep them limber.
One year Dr. Peter Rees Joshua was invited as speaker. As time passed, the spiritual burden of preaching to such a vast audience and to hundreds of thousands of radio listeners as well so weighed upon Joshua’s spirit that the day before the service he wired his regrets. From Harry Saulnier, chairman of the sponsoring committee and director of the Pacific Garden Mission in Chicago, came the incisive reply: “You’re just God’s instrument; he’ll do the rest.” Dr. Joshua appeared as scheduled for what was to be one of the most memorable of all the Soldier Field sunrise services. Not until several weeks later did the exchange of telegrams become known.
What a new dawn would break upon our churches if the clergy staggered under the burden of spiritual responsibility and if the laity refreshed them with holy expectation!
