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Herbert J. Taylor Papers

 Collection
Identifier: CN 020

Brief Description

Correspondence, photographs, reports, publications, posters, minutes of meetings, and other documentation of Herbert J. Taylor's long involvement in the leadership of such organizations as Child Evangelism, Youth for Christ, Christian Service Brigade, Pioneer Girls, Young Life, National Association of Evangelicals, Fuller Seminary, Christian Workers Foundation, and Inter-Varsity as well as his role in the planning and development of Billy Graham's Chicago crusades and of Key '73. Other records deal with his business career, his deep involvement in Rotary (of which he was International President), his wartime service on the Price Adjustment Board, and his interest in Chicago civic affairs. Several files deal with the development of evangelical Protestant use of radio and television.

Materials Stored by Format

The following material has been given to the BGC MUSEUM:

Accession 76-15

Christian Workers Foundation: Joe Devalasco--Samples, Art work; May 1970-October 1971, undated.

Dates

  • Created: Ca. 1916-1979

Conditions Governing Access

There are no restrictions on the use of this collection.

Biographical Information

Herbert John Taylor (1893-1978), business executive, civic leader, and sponsor of numerous Christian organizations, was born in Pickford, Michigan, on April 18, 1893. Educated at Northwestern University (Chicago), Taylor began his business career as a salesman in Oklahoma. In 1917, when the United States entered World War I, Taylor was already in France, working with the YMCA. He enlisted in the navy and spent most of his tour at the naval base in Brest, in charge of distributing food and clothing to American naval forces in French waters. Immediately after the war, he returned to the YMCA briefly as regional director at Brest in charge of the morale of the homeward bound troops. In 1924 he returned to Chicago and in nine years advanced from home office manager to executive vice president of the Jewel Tea Company. But in 1933 Taylor resigned from Jewel to become president of Club Aluminum Products, a company he salvaged from near bankruptcy and converted to a multi-million dollar operation. He designed the Four-Way Test at this time to serve as a guide for the conduct of the Club Aluminum personnel.

Taylor and his wife, the former Gloria Forbrich, founded the Christian Workers Foundation (CWF) in 1939 and he served as board chairman. Through CWF Taylor helped found and train leaders for a number of evangelical Christian organizations. He was particularly interested in youth work. He served on the boards of several such institutions as: Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship (U.S.A.), Youth for Christ, Young Life, Fuller Seminary, Child Evangelism Fellowship, Christian Service Brigade, Pioneer Girls, and the Greater Chicago Billy Graham Crusades. This, of course, is only a representative sampling of Taylor's affiliations with Christian groups.

His civic activities included vice-chairmanship of the Price Adjustment Board of the War Department during World War II; the presidency of Rotary International, 1954-55; directorship positions for the First National Bank of Barrington (Illinois) and the Chicago Federal Savings and Loan Association; and membership on the Board of Governors of the Illinois Crippled Children Society, 1941-42. Taylor also authored "The Four Way Test;" "The Ten Marks of a Good Citizen;" "The Twelve Marks of a True Christian;" and God Has A Plan For You. A Methodist, he and his wife had two daughters, Gloria Beverly and Romona Estellene. He lived in Park Ridge, Illinois. Herbert Taylor died in 1978.

Extent

88.00 Boxes, Audio Tapes, Films, Negatives, Oversize Materials, Phonograph Records, Photographs

Language of Materials

English

Scope and Contents

The Herbert J. Taylor papers are divided into several subsections in order to conform to the condition of the records when they were donated to the Graham Center Archives. At that time the files were divided into the subsections described below. According to Mrs. Betty Wells, secretary of the Christian Workers Foundation, the files had been arranged and rearranged many times over the years so that the original order had been lost. At some point, the staff of the Foundation had separated out from the records of the Foundation and placed in separate boxes the papers dealing with the following organizations: Chicago Evangelistic Institute, Child Evangelism Fellowship, Fuller Theological Seminary, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship, Key '73, the National Association of Evangelicals, the World Teenage Scholarship Foundation, Young Life Campaign, and Youth for Christ. In addition, other boxes contained records of Rotary International, Club Aluminum Corporation, and some personal correspondence. Yet in the files of the Christian Workers Foundation, there remained folders concerning all of these organizations. In organizing this collection, all the material related to each organization has been gathered together into each subsection in as far as it was possible. In each of the descriptions of the subsections which follow, there is contained a brief history of the organization, a description of Taylor's participation and an indication of the types of information contained in the files.

A. Personal Correspondence (Boxes 1-2)

These two boxes of personal correspondence of Herbert J. Taylor bring together most of his lifetime activities, including involvement in the Methodist Church, Foundation for Evangelism, Christian Workers Foundation, Rotary International, and Northwestern University, to name a few. One large section of correspondence deals with the Methodist Church's national lay evangelism concept in the early 1960's called "The Twelve." Another major portion of the files includes correspondence about Taylor's book, God Has A Plan For You (Revell), published in the late 1960's. Two items of particular significance are a booklet detailing the history of the National Religious Broadcasters (in folder 1-2) and a test issue of the magazine Alive! The files are arranged alphabetically and in instances of folders with the same title, they are arranged chronologically.

B. Rotary International (Boxes 3-5)

The first Rotary Club of Rotary International was organized in Chicago, Illinois, on February 23, 1905, by Paul P. Harris, a lawyer. The organization was planned as a world fellowship of professional and business executives dedicated to an "Ideal of Service." The name Rotary came from the practice of meeting in rotation at the places of business of members. Rotarian membership was open to only one representative of a recognized business or profession in the community. This guideline was severely criticized as exclusionary. Rotary avoided religious and political matters, but encouraged members to maintain personal worship practices and good citizenship. The organization has fostered member participation in civic and community work. Herbert J. Taylor's Rotary involvement began with his days as a salesman in Oklahoma. He continued his association with the organization when he moved to Chicago. He served Rotary in various leadership capacities including the international presidency in 1954-55--Rotary's Golden Anniversary. During the anniversary year, Taylor traveled over 50,000 miles speaking to Rotarians in the United States and around the world. He was author of the "Four-Way Test" used in Rotary literature.

Folders in the three boxes of Rotary papers are arranged alphabetically, with Rotary publications arranged chronologically at the end. Correspondence makes up most of the Rotary records. Most of it deals with Rotary matters, letters of request for Taylor's "Four Way Test" and "Ten Marks of a Good Citizen," and letters indicating Taylor's willingness to speak at meetings. A note of special interest is a letter congratulating Taylor for receiving the Chevalier de l'Ordre de Leopold from the Consul of the Belgian government.

There also are meeting minutes and financial and committee reports. Several folders deal with the Rotary Foundation, which made grants to projects designed to promote international friendship. The Foundation gave relief to "distressed Rotarians," such as those behind the Iron Curtain. Additional Rotary files are located among those of the Christian Workers Foundation and of Taylor's personal correspondence.

C. Club Aluminum Products Corporation (Boxes 6-10)

This relatively small group of papers documents the career of this successful Christian businessman. In the late 1920's, Jewel Tea Company, Inc., and Club Aluminum Utensil Company made a three year contract whereby Jewel, assuming no financial responsibility, was to oversee the executive management of Club and one of Jewel's own vice presidents, Herbert Taylor, was appointed Club's president.

In 1933, Taylor resigned from Jewel to try and save Club, now over $400,000 in debt. In just a few years, the debt was paid with interest, and Club was on its way to becoming a multimillion-dollar operation. These records provide an excellent study of corporate growth and management. There is material on board actions, profit/loss statements, new product research, acquisitions, mergers, and advertising and sales promotion. There is an interesting segment of correspondence from a stockholder-director who was dissatisfied with Taylor's management. There is a sizeable folder of requests for Taylor's "Four Way Test," a standard of conduct he applied to Club's operations. And there is information on Club's ABC radio hymn program, Club Time, complete with Hooper and Nielson ratings and listener letters. George Beverly Shea was usually the featured solist on the fifteen minute program. He and the choir would sing hymns, including the favorite hymn of a famous person, and Beverly or Romona Taylor would read a Bible passage. The collection also has a few dozen recordings of the program on radio transcription disks. The files are arranged first by these categories: Correspondence, Financial, Board of Directors, and Sales Promotion. Within the correspondence category, the files are arranged alphabetically. Files within that category which have the same title are arranged chronologically. Files in the remaining categories are arranged chronologically. There also is Club Aluminum material in the personal correspondence file of Taylor and the Christian Workers Foundation files.

D. Christian Workers Foundation (Boxes 11-28, 82-87)

The Christian Workers Foundation (CWF) was founded by Herbert Taylor, his wife, Gloria, and their attorney, Lyle Smith, in 1939. The capital to run the foundation came from Club Aluminum stock which the Taylors had donated. Its primary purpose was to help organizations dedicated to evangelism among, and the Christian instruction of, children and young adults, but it also has been of aid to dozens of other evangelical organizations, such as the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), home missions, foreign missions, individual Christian workers, publications, and general evangelistic work. Also working out of the same offices was the Four Way Test Association which promoted the use of the four point guide Taylor had developed as a guide for personal conduct. The four points were: 1. "Is it the truth?"; 2. "Is it fair to all concerned?"; 3. "Will it build goodwill and better friendships?"; and 4. "Will it be beneficial to all concerned?" Some of the correspondence is written by Taylor's co-workers at the Foundation, such as Kenneth Hansen and Larry Kendrick. Robert Walker was an especially close associate for many years. In 1977, the CWF was recognized as a private family foundation.

Because of Taylor's participation in and correspondence with dozens of evangelical leaders and organizations over a period of more than thirty-five years (1939-1976), the files of the Christian Workers Foundation (CWF) are a very rich collection of source material on the evangelical church, especially on the development of wealthy and powerful nondenominational organizations. A list of the organizations and people with whom the CWF had an extensive or significant correspondence is contained in the cross reference section of this finding aid. The files are arranged roughly chronologically according to year (1940-41, 1942-43, etc.) and then alphabetically according to folder title. In most folders which contain correspondence from more than one person or organization, the material in the folder is arranged chronologically.

Most of this correspondence deals with Taylor's involvement in Christian evangelism and missions but there is a great deal of incidental information on political and social life in the United States from before World War II to after the Vietnam conflict. For example, many correspondents express fear over what they see as the growing power of the federal government in all walks of life. There is also information in Robert Walker's 1940's correspondence on the foundation of the American Counsel on Public Relations and letters relating to Taylor's service during World War II on the Price Adjustment Board and Robert Walker's work on the Chicago Writer's Group, a branch of the Office of Civilian Defense concerned with morale. Similarly, a great deal of incidental information on societies in other parts of the world is contained in the numerous letters from missionaries and mission boards.

Most of the material, however, is directly concerned with evangelism, such as his correspondence with evangelists like Ford Philpot or evangelistic organizations such as Open Air Campaigners or the representatives of evangelistic campaigns such as Expo '72. From 1942, when he helped plan and fund a Charles Finney Centennial program (folder 11-14), to 1976, when he received numerous newsletters from young Campus Crusade for Christ workers he was helping to support, evangelistic strategy, tactics, priorities, obstacles, and possibilities are a major theme of these letters, reports, sermons, meeting minutes, and photographs.

Taylor's involvement with missions activity is similarly documented, especially his correspondence with individual missionaries, such as Bertha Veneberg, who wrote many long letters describing her work in Mexico. Through the newsletters, letters, reports of meetings, press clippings, etc., it is possible to trace the beginning and expansion of many important mission boards, especially nondenominational ones, such as Greater European Missions (GEM) which grew out of the European Bible Institute. Once again, Taylor's files are often concerned with strategy and tactics and how the international situation would affect missions. Folder 11-6 contains some information about the sinking of the Egyptian freighter Zamzam in May 1941 by a German war vessel. The ship was carrying many missionaries, including George and Marguerite Belknap, who received support from the CWF.

A third major interest was education, especially higher education. Taylor supported dozens of institutions from the American Institute of Holy Land Studies to the Winnipeg Bible College, and served on the board of trustees of most of them. Much of the files concerning these organizations consists of requests for financial support. Also documented is Taylor's efforts to make sure that education is informed by a Christian viewpoint. There is also a great deal of material relating to Child Evangelism Fellowship, the National Association of Evangelicals, Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship, Young Life, Rotary, and Club Aluminum in addition to the material on these organizations in other sections of this collection.

Boxes 82 through 85 contain correspondence, brochures, annual reports, budget reports, etc. concerning the Christian Service Brigade (CSB). These materials date from 1941 to 1974. Correspondents include the general secretaries of the CSB, Joseph Coughlin (folders 82-1, 3), Werner Graendorf (folders 82-7 to 83-7), Joseph Bubar (folders 83-1 to 84-5), and Donald Swan (folders 84-6 to 84-8). Letters are also addressed to people serving on the board of directors, such as Kenneth Hansen (in most folders from 82-1 to 85-3), Robert C. Van Kampen (folder 84-10, for example), and various regional directors, etc. Most of the folders in this series also contain the Board of Directors Annual Reports and many have budget statements and lists of board members and staff members.

Various articles written by people associated with the CSB include "A Statement Concerning the Christian Service Brigade" (folder 82-3), "Everybody Loves a Baby" by V. Raymond Edman (folder 83-1) and "Brigade Direction" by Dan Jesson (folder 84-7). Throughout boxes 83 to 85 are copies of various newsletters published by the CSB, such as Brigade in Action, Christian Service Brigade Challenger, The Brigade Leader, Vanguard Frontier, Explorer, The Western Breeze, Yankee Yodel, Hi Captain, etc. Mimeographed leadership materials include "Organizational Structure" (folder 83-11), "A Boys' Work Ministry--World Wide" (folder 83-12); "Statement of Missions Policy and Practice of Christian Service Brigade," "New Church Contact Procedures Christian Service Brigade," and "Financial Principles and Policies of Christian Service Brigade" (folder 84-4);

"A Key Effective to Christian Boys' Work Worldwide" (folder 84-5); "Guidelines for Selection of New General Director" (folder 84-7); "Basic Strategy for Christian Service Brigade in 1971" (folder 84-8); "Proposed Amendments to the Christian Service Brigade Constitution" (folder 85-2), "The Straight Facts on Starting a Battalion of Christian Service Brigade" and "Five Steps to Area Building" (folder 85-4).

Newspaper and magazine clippings in the files include "The Kids Aren't to Blame," This Week, undated (folder 83-1); "Backwoods," Moody Monthly, June 1964 (folder 84-4); and "Billy Graham pro-Rome--Irish Rebel," Chicago Daily News, September 4, 1970 (folder 84-7). Reports on the building of the Northwoods Leadership Training Center in northern Michigan may be found in folders 84-6 and 84-7. In 1971, a study was made of the city of Newark and the needs of urban churches and the "Newark Project" was undertaken (folders 84-8 and 85-1).

Boxes 86 and 87 contain correspondence, form letters, newsletters, brochures, and other materials having to do with Pioneer Girls. Included is correspondence with Pioneer Girls leaders Judith Carlson, Elizabeth C. Montague (see especially folder 86-8), Virginia Patterson, Rebecca Price, Lois Thiessen, and Louise Troup. Printed materials include newsletters such as Waggin' Tongue and Trails (see folders 87-1 to 87-9). Form letters were mimeographed and sent to group leaders, board members, and supporters. The Evangelical Beacon published "The Story of Pioneer Girls" in its August 1944 issue (folder 86-1). A program of "Trails from the Unknown," a get-together held in Moody Church, may be found in folder 84-1. A leadership training center built in northern Michigan, North Star Center Camp, and information about it may be found in folder 86-12. Some of the folder titles in the Pioneer Girls' materials were provided by the Archivist.

Box 88 has correspondence with General Secretary Larry Kendrick (folder 88-1) and an Office Procedures Survey taken in 1972 (folder 88-2).

E. Chicago Evangelistic Institute (Box 28)

The Chicago Evangelistic Institute (CEI) was founded in 1910 by Iva Durham Vennard, D.D. An interdenominational, co-educational school, CEI offered training in Bible, music, speech, evangelism, and missions. A special emphasis was placed on practical field training. Students could complete high school degrees, receive the equivalent of a junior college education, earn a bachelors degree or a masters degree in either theology or sacred literature. (The former was discontinued in 1940.) Dr. Vennard died in 1945 and Harry E. Jessop succeeded her as president. Herbert J. Taylor was elected to the school's Board of Trustees in 1938. He resigned from the board in 1949 because he could no longer subscribe to the institution's statement of faith. The records conclude in 1949 with a call for a special directors meeting to change the by-laws so that the school would meet accreditation standards.

These files cover a sixteen year span from 1933 to 1949. The records stop abruptly, and a complete story of CEI is not available. Correspondence from the school's president to donors and specifically to Taylor make up most of the record. Interspersed with the correspondence are financial reports. Much of the communication is a plea for funds. There are also a number of pamphlets and brochures about the school, many of them designed to raise money. Of special note are reports of student practical Christian work complete with photos. Taylor's letters regarding his disagreement with the amended statement also are of interest.

F. Child Evangelism Fellowship, Inc. (Boxes 29-31)

Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF) International, a world-wide organization dedicated to evangelizing children for Christ, was founded by J. Irvin Overholtzer. He formed the National Child Evangelism Committee at the Bible Institute of Los Angeles on November 1, 1935. The organization was incorporated in Illinois in May, 1937. CEF organization had local, state, national, and international levels. The work was carried out by full-time personnel and an international network of volunteers. A board of trustees oversaw the program. Local Good News Clubs (home Bible classes) conducted by volunteers were the primary ministry. On foreign fields (workers were sent to foreign countries in 1943), national headquarters were established, literature was written in the national language, and nationals were recruited and trained to make the program indigenous. Child Evangelism magazine, started in 1942, offered feature articles, sections for parents and children, flannel graph materials, and CEF news. The CEF Institute was established to supplement the academic training of prospective CEF workers. Three sessions were conducted each year at the organization's school on Wolf Lake near Muskegan, Michigan. Since 1935, the directors of national and international CEF were: National, Franklin F. Ellis, and J. Frank R. Mann, and International, J. Irwin Overholtzer, Franklin F. Ellis, and Jacob DeBruin, Jr.

Herbert J. Taylor was involved with the organization of CEF from the beginning. In fact, his autobiography indicates that he gave the organizational impetus for CEF. He was president of both the national and international boards for many years. These records are dated from November 1939 to February 1973. They are arranged alphabetically by subject matter. The bulk of the material is correspondence between CEF directors at the international, national, and state levels. It should be noted that some of the letters in the national and international files are interfiled, so some of the files are labeled imprecisely. There also is a large segment of correspondence by and to Taylor.

There are copies of Child Evangelism magazine as well as a sampling of CEF newsletters such as Helper, Informer, State' Director, and Local Director. Specific notes of correspondence include considerable communication about "Joy Cottage" in Chicago, a home and sanitorium where CEF work took place. Some correspondence refers to CEF organizational problems in 1962; the question of selling CEF materials to Seventh Day Adventists; concern over Herbert Taylor's participation in the Chicago Crusade of Billy Graham because of Graham's "liberal leanings;" and Dr. Bob Jones' warning of controversial teachings of a national CEF leader. There is a large segment of annual reports detailing the activities and finances of the national and international branches. And there are the records for the CEF Training Institute and blueprints and plans for the Christian Camps Foundation of CEF.

Of special note are a sample proclamation for Child Evangelism week in 1957 and a copy of a resolution read into the Congressional Record for C. E. Week from 1961, and a file called "Sources of Contributions" which contains a clipping which quotes a letter from J. Edgar Hoover to a friend in which Hoover answers the questions, "Should I force my child to go to Sunday School?"

G. Fuller Theological Seminary (Boxes 32-34)

Fuller Theological Seminary of Pasadena, California, was founded by the well-known radio evangelist, Dr. Charles E. Fuller. He was concerned by the rarity of evangelical orthodox seminaries for the training of Christian leaders, who should be strong in both faith and scholarship. In May of 1947, he met with his friend, Dr. Harold J. Ockenga, and four evangelical scholars in Chicago and out of this meeting came the plans for Fuller Seminary. The school was named after Henry Fuller, Charles' father, and funds for the institution came from the Henry Fuller estate. The first classes were held in October 1947.

Herbert J. Taylor had been a supporter of Fuller's "Old Fashioned Revival Hour" radio program for years and had worked with him on many projects. Taylor was on the first board of trustees and continued to serve on it. He was vice president of the board from 1948 to 1958. This was another indication of his interest in education, as was his serving on the boards of Sterling College in Kansas, Cottey College in Missouri, and the American Institute of Holy Land Studies. Taylor was an active participant in fund raising programs for the seminary, especially in the mid and late '60's.

These records, which go from the mid-1940's to the mid-1970's, document the growth of the Seminary and the ways it adapted to the needs and demands of its various constituencies--trustees, faculty, students, alumni, the wider scholarly community, and the general evangelical public. The minutes of board of trustees meetings and the materials from those meetings as well as correspondence with Charles Fuller, first president Harold Ockenga and succeeding presidents Edward Carnell and David Hubbard, deal with some of these changes, such as the addition of the School of World Mission and Institute of Church Growth, the School of Psychology (both of which were added in the 1960's), the aborted plan for a summer school to be held jointly with the Winona Lake (Indiana) School of Theology (there is also a separate file on this), the gradual creation of a campus, the expansion of the faculty and fund raising programs. Also dealt with in these records are the problems of selecting a chief administrative office (information on this is also in the C. Davis Weyerhauser file), the growing conflict over the position of the Fuller faculty on biblical inerrancy, and the process of acquiring accreditation, which the Seminary did in 1957.

Correspondence with Larry Bun (Associate Director of Public Affairs), Richard Curley (Business Manager), Charles Ferguson (Director of Public Affairs and Development), Harold Lindsell (Dean of Faculty and later Vice President), and R. Donald Weber (Assistant to the President and later Director of Public Relations and Development) are concerned mostly with fund raising and the distribution of information about the Seminary. Taylor helped some students financially, as is reflected in his correspondence with Nick Andonov, W. D. Blackwelder, and others.

The correspondence files of Charles Fuller also detailed his evangelistic work around the world, as did the evangelist's newsletter, Heart To Heart Talk. Fund raising plans, materials, and yearly financial statements detail the fiscal side of the Seminary's life. The two publication folders contain catalogs, bulletins, pamphlets, programs, etc., issued by Fuller over the years. These files are arranged alphabetically according to folder title.

H. Billy Graham Crusades (Boxes 35-59)

William Franklin Graham, better known as Billy, had been a preacher well known to evangelicals for about five years when he entered the national prominence he never left with his 1949 Los Angeles revival campaign. The next year he incorporated his organization in order that finances could be handled in a scandal free fashion and formed the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA). By 1962, the BGEA was broadcasting a weekly radio program known as "The Hour of Decision," publishing a monthly tabloid--Decision, filming motion pictures, arranging crusades for Graham and his associates internationally, and rendering miscellaneous aid to such varied evangelical enterprises as the journal Christianity Today and the Navigators. Besides Graham, prominent members of the BGEA were his wife, Ruth; song leader and President of World Wide Pictures (the BGEA's film subsidiary), Cliff Barrows; solo vocalist, George Beverly Shea; pianist and composer, Tedd Smith; business manager, George Wilson; director of crusade organization, Walter Smyth; special assistant to Graham Robert Ferm; Decision editor, Sherwood Wirt; director of counseling, Charles Riggs; and associate evangelists Leighton Ford, T. W. Wilson, Grady Wilson, Joe Blinco, Howard Jones, and John Wesley White.

Taylor had known Graham before 1949. They apparently had met when Graham's ministry was based in Chicago in the mid-1940's. At that time the minister had been pastor in the Chicago suburb of Western Springs, spoke on a local radio program, Songs In The Night, and a little later became an executive of Youth for Christ which was headquartered in Chicago. Later, when Graham went to Minneapolis to become president of Northwestern Schools, they stayed in contact, as correspondence in the Christian Workers Foundation segment of the collection attests. Taylor also knew other members of the BGEA, such as George Beverly Shea, who, before he sang at Graham crusades, was a featured vocalist on Club Time, a program sponsored by the company Taylor headed, Club Aluminum. Correspondence in the Club Aluminum and in the Christian Workers' Foundation segments of this collection illustrate the friendship between these two men.

Taylor led a committee which, after years of persuasion, overcame Graham's reluctance and convinced the evangelist that he should hold a crusade in Chicago. The Greater Chicago Crusade, of which Taylor was the chairman, was held May 30-June 17, 1962. Members of the executive committee continued to be active in follow-up work after the crusade. The Chicago-Northwest Area Crusade was held May 31-June 7, 1964, in which Joe H. Blinco led most of the meetings but Graham closed the final one. The committee also arranged for the Chicago area showing of BGEA films in 1965 and 1966 and arranged a premiere for pastors of His Land, another BGEA film, in 1970. Also in 1970, the committee participated in black evangelist Tom Skinner's Chicago crusade (27-69, 36-64). In 1971, another major Graham crusade was held in Chicago from June 3-13. Taylor served as honorary chairman of these meetings. The executive committee again continued its activities after the crusade and in December 1973 informed supporters that it was incorporating as the Greater Chicago Evangelistic Association (GCEA). Besides Taylor, his associate Robert Walker and staff of the Christian Workers Foundation were deeply involved in the work of the Graham Crusade and the other activities of the BGEA. The Graham crusade files in this collection show in detail how a Graham crusade is organized from the first invitation to the last audit report. Light is also thrown on other activities of the BGEA and on evangelistic work in Chicago.

The filing in the folders, as in other sections of the collection, has in some cases been rather haphazard. Thus executive committee minutes, for example, may be found in many other folders besides those marked "Minutes--Executive Committee". However, as much as possible, the archival processors have tried to maintain the original contents of each file. The files contain detailed records on the handling of committee selection, finances, personnel, meetings, arrangement, publicity, and correspondence. Procedure manuals contain copies of all the dozens of different forms used in a crusade. Also in these files are lists of churches, pastors, and laymen who participated. Peripheral to the crusade information is a good deal of information on the city of Chicago, such as plans of the McCormick Place.

Of particular interest are the following items: correspondence explaining the position taken toward the crusade by the liberal Chicago Federation of Churches and the conservative Moody Bible Institute; a digest of interviews of one hundred 1962 crusade respondents analyzed by seminary student Aubrey Leon Morris; responses to questionnaires sent out by Taylor to churches participating in the 1962 crusade asking for their reactions; statement of opposition to the 1971 crusade from college and seminary students (in general file); a breakdown of decisions as they relate to sermon topics; copies of Our Decision, an in-house publication for employees of the BGEA; and a copy of the National Association of Evangelical publication, Better Press Relations For Evangelical Churches.

Other records in this section include letters from Graham and BGEA staffers describing crusades in Philadelphia, Australia, London, and other cities and records which note the drive participated in by Billy Graham to purchase a site in Colorado as headquarters for the Navigators' evangelistic organization. There is a little more than a box of files concerning BGEA's film ministry, including bookings, suggested ideas for films, procedure manuals for organizing film showings, statistics of results, financial records, and surveys of responses to the films in black communities.

This subdivision of Taylor's papers is in turn subdivided into five sections. Boxes 35-37 contain correspondence files arranged alphabetically by folder title. Then boxes 37-42 contain all other non-financial records of the crusade, such as minutes of the executive committee, procedure manuals, lists of committee members, etc. Box 42-46 contains the financial records by which is meant everything from audits to canceled checks, to invoices, to receipts. Boxes 46-47 contain all the files relating to the showing of BGEA films-correspondence, procedure books, promotional materials, schedules, lists, and forms. Boxes 48-59 are card files kept which list Chicago area pastors (49-50), Chicago area churches (51-54), and contributors (55-59). These files date from 1962 through 1973.

I. Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship (Boxes 60-63)

Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship (IVCF) developed slowly over many years into its present day organization. In 1877, the Cambridge Inter-Collegiate Christian Union was formed to help Christian students support each other and to spread the Gospel. Chapters were founded all over Great Britain and after World War I the movement spread overseas. By 1939, there was a chapter at the University of Michigan and in 1940 the United States IVCF was incorporated under the leadership of C. Stacey Woods, also general secretary of the Canadian branch. In 1946, IVCF merged with the Student Foreign Mission Fellowship (SFMF), an organization created to help Christian students' interest in missionary activities. The triennial IVCF missions conference at Urbana, Illinois, was sponsored by the missionary department of IVCF. IVCF also merged with the Christian Nurses Fellowship (since known as the Nurses Christian Fellowship, NCF) in 1948. In 1947, representatives of Christian student fellowship unions from several countries met at Harvard to form the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES). The goals of the IFES were to help create IVCF-type organizations in nations where none existed and to strengthen those which did exist. C. Stacey Woods also served as the first general secretary of this organization.

Besides the mission department, the NCF, local chapters on college campuses, and liaison with the IFES, Inter-Varsity USA also had a literature department which published books on missions and Christian life and brought out the monthly IVCF magazine, His. Herbert Taylor was instrumental in the founding of IVCF, USA. He helped persuade the Canadian branch to allow Woods to come to the United States and he also provided much of the organization's early funding. He served continuously on the board of directors of IVCF USA and IVCF Canada for several years as chairman. He also served on the board of IFES. He was instrumental in acquiring Cedar Campus for the organization.

The records in this section cover the period 1940 to 1976 and include correspondence, board of directors' minutes, annual activities reports, financial statements, orientation handbooks, copies of IVCF publications, copies of IFES publications, Urbana mission conference reports, and constitutions of IVCF and IFES. The bulk of the IVCF records is taken up by minutes, reports, and correspondence of the United States branch. There is an almost unbroken sequence of board of directors' minutes and annual reports which contain the summing up by the head of IVCF of the past year and summaries from department heads such as the missions secretary, the editor of HIS, the director of NCF, etc. Correspondence is mostly between Taylor and the executive officers and board members of IVCF: C. Stacey Woods, Charles Hummel, Charles Troutman, Roy Horsey, Kenneth Gieser, Russell Hitt, John Alexander and Gordon J. Van Wylen. Taylor also had correspondence with other senior staff of IVCF, such as Eric Fife, missions secretary; Joseph Bayly, editor of HIS among other positions; and William Petersen, stewardship secretary. The correspondence and minutes illustrate the growth and institutionalization of the organization as it developed from little more than a one-man operation into a highly defined structure.

Many of the papers deal with administrative reorganization, leadership, and the selection of personnel for new posts. Also documented are the work of fund-raising and the growing involvement of IVCF in the preparation of Christians for foreign mission work. One interesting letter from Joseph Bayly to Carl McIntire dated December, 1957, refutes charges of pro-Communism which McIntire had leveled against the author of an article in HIS magazine. There are a few folders of correspondence between Taylor and C. Stacey Woods relating to the activities of IFES and Taylor's participation in the work. A few folders contain minutes and correspondence from other IVCF branches in Canada, Barbados, Japan, and China. The Canadian folders are the most numerous. They deal with Taylor's plan in 1939-1940 to set up an IVCF branch in the United States and with the various programs of the Canadian organization.

This section also contains several handbooks from different time periods outlining the personnel and administrative policies of IVCF-USA as they developed. Finally the collection contains dozens of tracts and pamphlets published by the IVCF press which were aimed at the special interest of Christian and non-Christian interest groups. These materials cover many different topics but often deal with the background of IVCF, the Christian life, or with missionary needs. The folders are arranged alphabetically according to title.

J. Key '73 (Boxes 64-65)

Key '73 evolved out of a meeting convened by Billy Graham and Carl Henry in 1967 at a hotel on the Virginia side of the Key Bridge (hence Key '73). As an interdenominational evangelistic strategy for 1973, Key '73 encouraged joint evangelistic programs on the denominational level, individual denominational plans for witness, and local outreach tailored to specific situations. Key '73's executive director, Ted Raedeke, summed up the program goals this way in Christianity Today: "...To confront people more fully and forcefully with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, by proclamation and demonstration by witness and ministry, and by word and deed."

The year-long program was broken into six phases to prepare the church for multiple witness opportunities and for renewal and commitment. The six phases were: a call to repentance and prayer; a call to the Word of God; a call to resurrection; a call to new life; a call to proclamation; and a call to commitment. This small collection of a box and a half of folders gives a fair representative picture of Key '73, Chicago. Just a few files refer to the national program. There are: correspondence between Key '73 executive committee members, notes on two T.V. programs--"Come Together" and "Faith in Action," meeting minutes, financial records, a checkbook, promotion and publicity materials, mailing lists, and other files common to organizational records. The files are arranged alphabetically.

K. National Association of Evangelicals (Boxes 65-67)

In the early 1940's, the discontent nationwide among conservative Protestants with the liberal Federal Council of Churches (FCC) began to take organizational form. Many conservatives or evangelicals felt the FCC was abandoning the Gospel for rational humanism and consequently evangelism and mission work was being neglected. In the upper northeast, evangelicals under the leadership of J. Elwin Wright had formed the New England Fellowship (NEF) to combat this trend. The NEF became a framework for cooperation among the conservatives in evangelistic campaigns, radio broadcasting, and other activities. The success of the organization prompted Wright and other evangelical leaders such as Dr. Ralph T. Davis, Dr. Harold J. Ockenga, Dr. V. Raymond Edman, and Dr. Charles Fuller to hold a meeting in Chicago in October of 1941 which in turn ultimately resulted in an invitation to "150 executives and leaders of many denominations, mission boards, religious journals, gospel broadcasters, Christian colleges, seminaries, Bible institutes, and interdenominational organizations for the purpose of exploring the possibility of closer cooperation and coordination in the work of the Gospel."

This conference, which met in St. Louis on April 7-8, 1942, adopted a temporary constitution for the proposed National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) and appointed interim officers. A constitutional convention the next year put the organization on a permanent basis. Denominations, individual churches, groups of churches, and independent religious organizations were among those who formed the membership. Members were required to agree to a statement of faith that declared, among other doctrines, belief in the authority of the Bible; the Trinity; the atoning death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ; the necessity of salvation, the last judgment, and the spiritual unity of believers. The NAE was intended to work in areas of: evangelism; Christian education; assistance to missions, especially in their contacts with the government; maintenance of a nationwide testimony on national issues; insistence on the separation of church and state, and defense of the interests of evangelical radio ministries. Eventually commissions were established for evangelism, higher education, home missions, evangelical youth, evangelical social action, radio, women's fellowship, army and navy chaplains, theology, and world relief. The NAE also publishes its own magazine--United Evangelical Action--and is affiliated with several autonomous organizations (some of which it helped found), such as the National Sunday School Association, the National Association of Christian Schools, the Evangelical Foreign Missions Association, the Laymen's Advisory Council, the National Religious Broadcasters, Inc., and the World Evangelical Fellowship.

Taylor was involved in the early planning of NAE and became its first treasurer, a post he held until 1948. He also served on the organization's first finance committee in 1943, and on special committees to find an executive secretary and another to pick a site for the NAE's permanent headquarters. At various times he served on the executive committee, the board of administrations, the committee on budget and finance, and the Commission on International Relations. He was also a generous financial contributor to the Association.

These files reflect Taylor's deep involvement in the NAE until the mid-1950's, after which there is little documentation. Early correspondence deals with the problem of founding an organization forceful enough to represent evangelical's credibility but not powerful enough to arouse the member's fears. The minutes of the meetings of the executive committee and the board of administration, as well as the correspondence with leaders like Harold Ockenga, John Bolten, R. L. Decker, J. Elwin Wright, and Clyde Taylor give a day by day, year by year picture of the NAE as it developed a staff and a stature, as it fought what it considered the liberal influence of the FCC in many different guises, and helped organize an evangelical interest group. The relief work and wartime evangelism to soldiers, sailors, and airmen are also documented. Many files deal in particular with Taylor's work on the Commission of International Relations which he served on for five years. Correspondence in these files give information on the situation of evangelical churches around the world in the aftermath of World War II and on the efforts of coordination which resulted in the World Evangelical Fellowship. Much of the correspondence is from one of the Commission's moving spirits, J. Elwin Wright.

The collection also contains correspondence with NAE's affiliated organizations, financial statements, and samples of some of the association's publications. These documents are arranged for the periods from June to June for each year (for example, June 1950-June 1951, then June 1951-June 1952, etc.) and then the files for that time period are arranged alphabetically.

L. World Teenage Scholarship Foundation (Box 68)

In 1966 and 1967, a World Teenage Show was held in Chicago at McCormick Place. The show was meant to attract teenagers to a place where they could be reached by business, college, and philanthropic organizations interested in teenage business or support. Taylor and the Christian Workers Foundation participated both years by sponsoring an essay contest on the meaning of the Four Way Test. (The Four Way Test was a code of personnel conduct developed by Taylor.) The male and female winners received partial college scholarships. In April 1967, the World Teenage Scholarship Foundation was incorporated with Taylor as president. The purpose of the foundation was to accept donations for the scholarships. However, the secretary of the foundation, Harold Caldwell, received a good deal of adverse newspaper publicity in connection with fund raising activity and this precipitated the dissolution of the foundation in 1970. The files in this section are arranged alphabetically by folder title.

The material in this section includes some interesting essays by boys and girls on the Four Way Test, programs and brochures about the World Teenage Show, correspondence relating to the essay contest and the formation and dissolution of the World Teenage Scholarship Foundation (WTSF), financial records, newspaper clippings, and minutes of meetings of the board of the WTSF.

M. Young Life Campaign (Boxes 69-71)

The Young Life Campaign was founded in 1940 in Dallas, Texas, by Jim Rayburn, the son of a Presbyterian evangelist, to attract unchurched, interested young people to Christ. While a student at Dallas Seminary, Rayburn discovered that he had a gift for communicating the gospel to high schoolers. As he and others at the seminary worked with these youths, the Young Life Campaign evolved. The work of the organization's staff was usually conducted through weekly Young Life Club meetings, occasional rallies, weekend conferences, radio broadcasts, social activities, and summer camps. In fact, Young Life ran four ranch camps in the Colorado Rockies.

Taylor was involved in Young Life from the beginning, and was Chairman of its Board of Trustees for a number of years. Through his Christian Workers Foundation, Taylor purchased Star Ranch, one of the organization's four camps, for Young Life. The Young Life records are arranged alphabetically according to subject matter. There are annual reports, correspondence, brochures, board meeting minutes, financial records, and staff manuals. Correspondence spans the early years of Young Life (the 1940's) to the early 1970's. Much of the early correspondence between Jim Rayburn and Herbert Taylor gives a good perspective on the development of the organization. Correspondence from Bill Starr, Executive Director of Young life, details some of the financial problems faced by the organization in the early 1970's, including the sale of Star Ranch. There are three Young Life staff manuals on file. They offer information about the organization, policies, procedures, camps, promotion, and leadership. A publications folder includes tear sheets of a PAGEANT magazine story on Star Ranch; copies of Young Life magazine; and articles from newspapers, magazines, and Sunday School papers.

N. Youth for Christ International (Box 72)

Youth for Christ International developed out of the evangelistic work many people were doing across America with teenagers and young adults in mass meetings during the last years of World War II. Torrey Johnson, a Chicago pastor, brought together these youth leaders into one organization, which was officially organized at Winona Lake, Indiana, in the summer of 1945. The organization became known for its brash and colorful methods as well as for its ability to train leaders (such as Billy Graham) who went on to form their own organizations. YFC was a nondenominational, evangelical, fundamental organization which cooperated with local churches. Its programs included clubs, evangelistic rallies, literature--such as its magazine Youth For Christ, work with juvenile delinquents, congresses of youth workers, and the sponsoring of traveling teams of evangelists.

Taylor served on the original advisory committee organized to aid Torrey Johnson in setting up YFC and continued for many years to serve on the board of directors of the organization as well as advising Johnson and subsequent presidents Robert A. Cook (1948-1957), Ted Engstrom (1957-1963), Kelly Bihl (1963-1965), and Sam Wolgemuth (1965-1973). The YFC records in the Taylor papers consist mostly of reports to Taylor on the organization's progress. These reports occur both in informal form in letters and more formal in yearly summaries issued to board members. Many of these statements include reports by YFC officials who later became prominent evangelical leaders such as Billy Graham, Robert Evans, Cliff Barrows, George Wilson, and Walter Smyth. The files are arranged alphabetically according to folder title.

O. General (Boxes 73-80)

In November of 1978, the Center received from Mrs. Gloria Taylor (through the agency of Rev. H. Leroy Patterson) more Herbert J. Taylor records, to be included in this collection. In this addition are six scrapbooks and some folders containing records and photographs from 1916 to 1972. The original labels on each scrapbook have been retained as they were received by the Archives and they are as follows: "Business and General/Rotary"; "Christian Projects"; "Hawaii, Japan, Philippines"; and "Billy Graham Greater Chicago Crusade." Many of the records and photographs are either pasted or stapled to the leaves of the scrapbook. There are several loose items and these have been removed and placed in folders, but labeled accordingly, to correspond to the scrapbooks from which they were originally found. A number of photographs have also been removed and transferred to the Photo File of this collection.

Found in the scrapbook titled "Business and General/Rotary" were Taylor's eighth grade graduation program, an early photo of himself, and his enrollment certificate with the U.S. Naval Reserve Force in 1919. There is also contained in this book, and in another folder, several appreciation certificates (two of which are oversize). In this book are also found business records like contracts, publications, reports, correspondence and photographs relating to Jewel Tea Co., Club Aluminum Utensil Co., and other business groups. They illustrate Taylor's business philosophy and the development of Club Aluminum. There is also found in this book personal correspondence to and from his family, and an interesting pamphlet, from 1924, called Let's Pull Garvin County Out Of The Mud, which he helped write during his early days in Oklahoma. There are some early and late photographs of his wife Gloria. This book contains material on his service to the War Department Price Adjustment Board during World War II, and material on his involvement with the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA); newspaper and magazine clippings relating to his active involvement with the Rotary, local business groups, and Christian organizations.

The scrapbook "Hawaii, Japan, Philippines" contains records and photographs of Taylor's visit to the Far East including Honolulu, as a guest and speaker to the Rotary annual meetings in these countries. This trip was made during Taylor's year as President of Rotary International. The records include correspondence, photographs, newspaper clippings (some in Japanese), itinerary, programs, speech script, resolutions and reports, and some miscellaneous items. The scrapbook "4-Way Test and 10 Marks of Good Citizen" contains Rotary records relating to annual conferences, publications, banquets, addresses, and speech scripts, newspaper clippings, and the Fiftieth Anniversary year of the Rotary, when Taylor served as President. The scrapbook "Christian Projects" contains an extensive collection of his involvement with Christian organizations and these are photographs, correspondence, personal notes, newspaper and magazine clippings. Some of the organizations represented for which there are significant records are Inter-Varsity, Young Life, Fuller Theological Seminary, Houghton College (from which he received his honorary doctor of law degree on October 24, 1947), National Association of Evangelicals, Christian Service Brigade, Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Youth for Christ, Child Evangelism Fellowship, Christian Businessmen, Pioneer Girls, and the International Fellowship of Christian Students.

Also in the collection are membership certificates with the Kiwanis Club of Chicago and with the Metal Cookware Manufacturers Association (MCMA). The scrapbook in Box 79 contains some articles on Billy Graham's 1959 crusade in the town of Wheaton, Illinois, as well as material on the preparation for the 1962 crusade in Chicago. The scrapbook in Box 78 contains articles on Graham's 1971 crusade in Chicago. Other information on activities of the BGEA can be found in Box 75 and Box 73, Folder 23.

A second addition to this collection is made up mostly of correspondence between Taylor and/or his representative with various Christian organizations as they concern the Christian Workers Foundation. Many of these organizations have received financial aid from the Foundation. The organizations which have carried on correspondence with Taylor are the following: Acapulco Christian Fellowship, African Enterprise, American Management Association, Best Seller Publicity, Campus Crusade for Christ, Chicago Bible Society, Chicago Sunday Evening Club, Child Evangelism Fellowship, Inc., Christian Businessmen of Chicago, Christian Life Publications, Dial-A-Story, Inc., Eternity, Evangelical Child Welfare Agency, Evangelical Ministers Association, Evangelistic Endeavor, Inc., Far Eastern Gospel Crusade, Inc., Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Gospel Broadcasts Association, Gospel Films, Inc., Greater Chicago Sunday School Assn., Greater Europe Mission, Institute of Church Renewal, Inc., Inter-Varsity, Judson College, Language Institute for Evangelism, LaSalle Street Church, Laymen's Leadership Institute, Literature Crusades, and The Navigators.

Some of the information contained in this correspondence is of special interest. Unique ways of conducting evangelistic work are mentioned. One example is the Language Institute for Evangelism, Inc., which operates an English Language Institute in Tokyo. Besides taking advantage of the interest of the Japanese to learn English, the Institute used biblically based materials and had chapel periods during each class session.

Another organization of interest is Best Seller Publicity, which produced posters with Bible verses and illustrations. These posters are found on subways, busses, billboards, etc., and seen by millions of people every day in more than 900 cities throughout the world. One other folder contains information relating to Explo '72 sponsored by Campus Crusade for Christ. There is in this addition a folder containing miscellaneous materials. Another folder contains general correspondence with various individuals, such as Donald L. Bailey, Kenneth L. Block, George Truman Carl, Evon Hedley, Keith L. Hunt, Mrs. Manuel E. Lichtenstein, Harry G. Saulnier, and Frog Sullivan. Another addition to this general section contains materials about the Four-Way Test (folder 88-3).

Provenance

The main body of materials in this collection were donated to the Wheaton College Billy Graham Center Archives by Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Taylor and the Christian Workers Foundation in February, 1977. Earlier, in September of 1975, Mr. Taylor gave the Archives five reels of film of the 1962 Chicago Crusade. The 1977 donation was moved by Archives staff members from the Christian Workers Foundation office in Chicago's Civic Opera Building. The 1978 addition was given to the Archives by Mrs. Herbert Taylor through Wheaton College Chaplain Pat Patterson. Materials received in 1979, 1987, and 1989 were donated to the Archives by Larry Kendrick. The 1984 materials were donated to the Archives by Pioneer Ministries. Paul Heidebrech of the Christian Service Brigade gave materials to the Archives in 1986 and 1990.

Accession 75-9, 76-15, 77-9, 78-41, 79-98

August 4, 1978

Robert Shuster

S. Short

S. Henderson

P. Kahil

L. Parker

M. Schimmels

L. Stockton

A. Labiano

Revised, April 16, 1979

Robert Shuster

A. Labiano

G. Gallup

Revised, August 30, 1979

Abraham Labiano

G. Gallup

R. Shuster

Acc. 84-36, 86-7, 87-98, 89-22, 90-119

Updated, October 31, 1994

Janyce H. Nasgowitz

K. Cox

Acc. 80-96

Updated November 28, 2012

Bob Shuster

R. Tan

Title
Collection 020 Papers of Herbert J. Taylor
Author
Bob Shuster
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Roman Script

Repository Details

Part of the Evangelism & Missions Archives Repository

Contact:
501 College Avenue
Wheaton IL 60187 US
630-752-5910