HONORING DR. JAMES EARL MASSEY BY THE WESLEYAN THEOLOGICAL SOCIETY NOVEMBER 3, 1995, NAMPA, IDAHO

by

Barry L. Callen

Members of the Wesleyan Theological Society, I have a special priv­ilege this evening. I present to you a man who has been a personal friend and mentor of mine for decades. More importantly, he has played the roles of teacher, pioneer, model, and prophetic spokesperson for the whole holiness tradition in North America.

James Earl Massey has embodied within the Christian community at large what his church of origin, the Church of God movement (Ander­son), has envisioned since 1880 to be God's will for the church. The quest has been for true holiness and an authentic unity of the Spirit among all Christians. The vision has been one of changed lives that then become effective communicators and models of the gospel of Christ to the world. Dr. Massey has shown us how to be bridge-builders among all of God's people, for the sake of the credibility of the church as it is on mission for Jesus Christ.

Native of Detroit, Michigan, son and grandson of ministers, accom­plished concert pianist, acclaimed pulpit master, James Earl Massey holds degrees from Detroit Bible College, Oberlin Graduate School of Theol­ogy, and Asbury Theological Seminary-where he has a long tenure as a distinguished trustee. He was senior minister of the Metropolitan Church of God in Detroit for more than two decades. Serving on the Anderson University campus for most of the years from 1969 until his retirement this year, he has been Campus Pastor, Professor of New Testament and Preaching, and Dean of the School of Theology.

Beyond the Anderson campus, he has been Principal of a School of Theology in Jamaica, radio speaker for the Church of God on its national program, the Christian Brotherhood Hour, and Dean of the Chapel and University Professor of Religion at Tuskegee University. He has been vis­iting professor, academic lecturer, or guest preacher at over one hundred colleges, universities, and seminaries. He is or has been a contributing editor for various journals, including Christianity Today, and books, including being the present homiletics editor for the New Interpreters Bible. Author of several bestselling books of his own in the fields of preaching and New Testament, he has filled distinguished pulpits from England and Egypt to Australia and Japan. A man of many campuses and of the whole church, he nonetheless always has considered the Church of God movement in particular and the American holiness movement in gen­eral his home tradition.

Dr. Massey has crossed racial and denominational lines freely, bring­ing with him the richness of the African-American church tradition. He has intruded on the secure smugness of human prejudice with the sharp edge of the biblical word of salvation, equality, and liberation for all. The Spring, 1996, issue of the Wesleyan Theological Journal will carry a major article by Dr. Massey on "Race Relations and the American Holi­ness Movement." As few others have been able to do, he has bridged the gulf between faith and learning, between religious ideals and social reali­ties, between the ancient biblical text and the task of contemporary preaching.

With gentle courage, our Brother James has broached the reluctant racial barriers in North American society and in the church. His has not been an angry call for reparations; his has been a focus on the God who calls for believers to be present agents of the new creation in Christ, courageous members of a reconciling church that, once united itself by God's grace, can bring healing to a broken world. He has taught, preached, and practiced the good news about a holy God and a holy life in the midst of real human needs and urgent social dilemmas. Prophetically confrontational without ever being angrily abrasive, he is one man of God who is making a lasting difference.

The name James Earl Massey is known and respected widely as one of the most gifted preachers of the last half of the twentieth century. Often he is referred to as the "Prince" or "Dean" of preachers. Two months ago Abingdon Press released a major hardback book on Christian preaching for the twenty-first century, written and published wholly in Dr. Massey's honor. Titled Sharing Heaven's Music:

The gospel itself has a cadence, rhythm and joy that should be music to the world. It's non-Enlightenment dimensions of vision, imagination and poetic approaches to grasping and sharing truth are especially relevant to postmodern sensibilities. Designing a Christian sermon is an inspired art form as much as a learned skill. Today's multicultural settings, usually discordant, can be transformed by the harmonizing gospel so that diversity becomes a rich melody that witnesses to the God who comes to make things new and all disciples one (pp. 11-12).

            To literally thousands of ministers and ministerial students in dozens of denominations over a span of decades, James Earl Massey, a humble yet powerful man of God, has been model and mentor, an honored and well-heard mouthpiece of the divine. Thus, it is wholly appropriate that this Society honor Earl Massey for a lifetime of truly distinguished service to a holiness tradition that aspires to much that this man actually has been and done.

Edited by Michael Mattei for the
Wesley Center for Applied Theology
at Northwest Nazarene University
© Copyright 2003 by the Wesley Center for Applied Theology

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