History

America’s Evangelical Explosion

The central section of the timeline shows the growth of evangelical parachurch organizations, institutions, and associations during this era. Founders names are in parentheses.

1914 World War I (ends in 1918)

1920’s

1920 Rev. Curtis Lee Laws first uses term “fundamentalist” 1920 Prohibition 1920 19th Amendment gives women right to vote 1921 Latin American Mission (Harry and Susan Strachan) 1923 J. Gresham Machen publishes Christianity and Liberalism 1924 Evangelical Theological College, later called Dallas Theological Seminary 1925 Scopes “Monkey” Trial 1927 First “talking” motion picture 1928 Henrietta Mears becomes Director of Christian Education at First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood 1929 Stock market crash begins Great Depression 1929 Fundamentalists leave Princeton to form Westminster Theological Seminary

1930’s

1930 Christian Business Men’s Committee / Connecting Business Men to Christ 1931 Christian Medical Association / Christian Medical and Dental Association 1931 Zondervan Publishers 1933 Navigators (Dawson Trotman) 1933 Gospel Light Publications (Henrietta Mears) 1933 Scripture Press (Victor and Bernice Cory) 1934 Summer Institute of Linguistics / Wycliffe Bible Translators (W. Cameron Townsend) 1936 Student Foreign Missions Fellowship (Robert McQuilken) 1936 Harold John Ockenga becomes pastor of Park Street Church 1937 Old Fashioned Revival Hour (Charles Fuller) 1937 Child Evangelism Fellowship (Jesse Overholtzer) 1939 Pioneer Girls / Pioneer Clubs (Betty Whitaker) 1939 Hitler’s invasion of Poland sparks World War II

1940’s

1940 Word of Life (Jack Wyrtzen) 1941 Japanese attack Pearl Harbor 1941 Young Life (Jim Rayburn) 1941 Carl McIntire founds American Council of Christian Churches 1941 First “Word for Life” youth rally held 1942 National Association of Evangelicals 1943 National Religious Broadcasters 1944 Ockenga holds “scholar’s conferences” (until 1947) 1945 Youth for Christ (Torrey Johnson) 1945 Guideposts (Norman Vincent Peale) 1945 U.S. drops atomic bombs on Japan 1945 United Nations founded 1945 Evangelical Foreign Missions Association / Evangelical Fellowship of Mission Agencies 1945 Christian Airmen’s Missionary Fellowship / Mission Aviation Fellowship (Betty Greene) 1945 Chicagoland Youth for Christ’s Memorial Day pageant at Soldier Field 1945 Billy Graham becomes first full-time evangelist of Youth for Christ International 1947 Carl Henry publishes The Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism 1947 Fuller Theological Seminary (Charles Fuller) 1947 Accrediting Association of Bible Institutes and Bible Colleges / Association for Biblical Higher Education 1948 YFC Congress on World Evangelization in Beatenberg, Switzerland 1948 Evangelical Press Association 1948 L’Abri (Francis and Edith Schaeffer) 1949 Cold War nuclear arms race begins 1949 Graham’s Greater Los Angeles Crusade

1950’s

1950 Graham’s Boston Crusade 1950 World Vision (Bob Pierce) 1950 Billy Graham Evangelistic Association 1950 Christian Booksellers Association 1950 Joseph McCarthy launches anti-Communist campaign 1950 Korean War (ends in 1953) 1950 Truman authorizes U.S. military aid in Vietnam War 1950 “The Hour of Decision” radio show begins 1951 Campus Crusade for Christ (Bill Bright) 1952 Trans World Radio (Paul Freed) 1952 Compassion International (Everett Swanson) 1952 Time magazine notes “serious interest in religion in America” 1954 Graham’s London Harringay Crusade 1954 Medical Assistance Programs/MAP International 1954 Fellowship of Christian Athletes (Don McClanen) 1954 Brown v. Board of Education 1956 Christianity Today 1957 Russians launch Sputnik 1957 Timothy Smith publishes Revivalism and Social Reform 1957 Graham’s New York Crusade 1959 Bible Study Fellowship (Audrey Wetherell Johnson)

1960’s

1960 Youth With A Mission / YWAM (Loren Cunningham) 1960 Operation Mobilisation (George Verwer) 1960 Teen Challenge (David Wilkerson) 1960 Christian Broadcasting Network (Pat Robertson) 1960 Coral Ridge Ministries (D. James Kennedy) 1960 Graham visits eight African nations in three months 1962 Tyndale House Publishers 1962 Graham visits seven nations in South America 1962 Crisis at Fuller Seminary over biblical inerrancy 1963 Christian Camp and Conference Association 1963 National Black Evangelical Association (William Bentley, Tom Skinner) 1963 John F. Kennedy is assassinated 1963 Trinity Evangelical Divinity School makes plans to become a major evangelical seminary dedicated to preserving inerrancy 1963 Henrietta Mears dies 1964 Institute in Basic Youth Conflicts (Bill Gothard) 1965 Francis Schaeffer holds first major U.S. speaking event in Boston 1966 Berlin Congress on Evangelism 1967 Thru the Bible Radio (J. Vernon McGee) 1967 Women’s Aglow Fellowship/Aglow International 1968 Martin Luther King Jr. is shot 1969 Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary 1969 First man on the moon 1969 Woodstock

1970’s

1971 Food for the Hungry (Larry Ward) 1971 Maranatha! Music 1971 Christian College Consortium 1971 Jim Wallis and others found The Post-American, later called Sojourners 1973 Roe v. Wade 1973 Watergate scandal; Nixon impeached 1973 Evangelical representatives sign Chicago Declaration of Evangelical Social Concern 1973 Trinity Broadcasting Network (Paul and Jan Crouch) 1976 Christian College Coalition/Council for Christian Colleges and Universities 1976 Jimmy Carter elected president 1976 Prison Fellowship Ministries (Chuck Colson) 1976 Newsweek declares “The Year of the Evangelical” 1977 Focus on the Family (James Dobson) 1977 American Family Association (Donald Wildmon) 1978 Evangelicals for Social Action (Ron Sider) 1979 Feed the Children (Larry and Frances Jones) 1979 Concerned Women for America (Beverly LaHaye) 1979 Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability

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