with Rev Dr Chris Walker
Alan Walker (Biographical sketch 1)
Rev Dr Sir Alan Walker is best remembered for his evangelistic ministry which held together the personal and social dimensions of the gospel, for starting Lifeline the telephone counselling service that became an international movement, and for his prophetic stance on social issues such as opposing the White Australia policy, the Vietnam War and Apartheid in South Africa. He became well known in Australia when he led the “Mission to the Nation” program of the Methodist Church in the 1950s. He was a regular on television especially through the high rating “I Challenge the Minister” program, and was constantly in the various media. Internationally he was a frequent guest speaker to other nations such as the USA and South Africa. When he became the Director of World Evangelism for the World Methodist Council he travelled constantly to the many countries with Methodist Churches and had a significant impact through his powerful speaking and writing.
Alan Walker
Biographical sketch (1)
Rev Dr Sir Alan Walker was one of Australia’s best known Christian leaders. He is remembered for the way he consistently held together the personal and social dimensions of the Christian faith in his preaching and ministry.
His father was a Methodist minister and evangelist. The most dramatic memory of Alan’s boyhood was of a hot Sunday afternoon when he travelled with his father from their home at Wallsend to the Boolaroo Methodist Church. Alan didn’t remember what his father preached that day but when, at the close of the service, he appealed to members of the congregation to give their lives to Christ, the preacher’s son was one of three who responded.
Early Ministry
Alan went on to candidate for the Methodist ministry in New South Wales and entered Leigh College. He was a very capable student and was encouraged to pursue his studies further. He served as a probationary minister at Hornsby where he met a young woman, Winifred Channon. He then served as a probationary minster at North Croydon. He was ordained in March 1935 becoming the minister at North Croydon. He also served as Associate Director of the Methodist Young People’s Department at this time.
In March 1938 he married Win Channon. Some leading lay people of the Malvern Hill Methodist Church, having been impressed by Alan, offered to pay a one way fare to England in order to further his ministry experience. They encouraged him to visit some of the vigorous Methodist mission churches there. So Alan and Win set off for England. In the year in England Alan had the opportunity to have contact with the three most notable Methodist leaders of the time: Donald Soper, William Sangster and Leslie Weatherhead. Also important was time with the evangelical Norman Dunning and contact with Hilda Porter, a missionary in China who founded Methodist International Houses. They visited the Continent where they attended a Faith and Order congress in Switzerland which included meeting William Temple, the Archbishop of Canterbury. In Germany they were very aware of the ominous presence of the Nazis. It was Soper, with his social witness, who was particularly significant. On the return ocean voyage to Australia Alan decided for Soper’s challenge to become a pacifist, renouncing violence and working positively for peace.
Back in Australia Alan was appointed to Cessnock in 1939. During this time he experimented in ministry, began regular radio broadcasts, and writing a column for The Cessnock Eagle. He completed his M.A. a sociological study published as Coal Town. This led to writing articles commenting on the coal mining situation and giving evidence at a national coal enquiry.
In 1944 he became superintendent of Waverley Methodist church. Here he developed a community centre that quickly attracted 500 young people regularly and was used for various programs. He became the religious editor of the Sydney Morning Herald in 1946 following an exchange with the owner and editor of the paper. In 1948 he represented the Australian Methodist church at the first assembly of the World Council of Churches in Amsterdam. In 1949 he was asked by the prime minister of Australia to be an advisor to the Australian delegation to the United Nations which was to discuss the imprisonment of church leaders in Hungary and Bulgaria.
Mission to the Nation
In 1951 the Methodist church decided to have a crusade for Christ and chose Alan Walker as the person to lead it. A six week program of university missions in the USA gave him new experiences, contacts and stimulus. In 1952 the Mission to the Nation was planned with the assistance of Sim Rubensohn, the head of an advertising agency, who Alan had helped pastorally. Missions were planned for the capital cities, selected provincial cities, use of radio which included a radio series “Drama with a Challenge,” press publicity and a book. Alan wrote the Mission to the Nation book Heritage with out End, the story of Australian Methodism, which sold 50,000 copies.
When the large opening of Mission to the Nation in Melbourne was drawing near, Alan was anxious. He walked into the stillness and gathering darkness of the Australian bush. Beneath the towering gum trees he lay on the ground, on the dry autumn grass, and tried to pray. The conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus in Jerusalem came to mind. Jesus spoke about the wind which blows where it will, you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. He later wrote, “As I thought of it all there came to my mind, there in that Australian bush, a simple sentence. The wind is in the gum trees! The wind is in the gum trees! It was to me a promise. I knew that God would bless the Mission to the Nation. We would hear the wind of the Spirit blowing across Australia.”
The opening of the Mission to the Nation in April 1953 had a crowd estimated at 6,000 and was described on the front page of The Melbourne Ageas “one of the greatest evangelistic events Melbourne has seen.” The opening was broadcast live on 23 radio stations and reported in dozens of newspapers across the country. Over the next six months the response exceeded all expectations. There were big audiences wherever Alan came with his Christian message of personal and social challenge and invitation. The thanksgiving service in September 1953 in the Sydney Town Hall with overflow venues had a broadcast audience of some 500,000.
The church decided to extend the Mission to the Nation beyond the initial six month period into 1954-55. A National Christian Youth Convention was held at the Sydney Showgrounds in January 1955 with 3,000 young people attending. Mission to the Nation was the largest religious event seen in Australia to that time and paved the way for the huge crowds Billy Graham later received in his 1959 visit to Australia.
Following the success of Mission to the Nation, the Methodist Church in the USA through the General Board of Evangelism invited him to conduct similar missions across North America in 1956. So Alan and Win and their four children moved to Nashville. This also meant some contact with the United Church of Canada. In 1957 he accepted the position of visiting professor of evangelism at Boston University for a semester. The family then spent some time in England and Europe before returning by ship to Australia through the Suez Canal. In a stop over in the Middle East, Alan arranged as many contacts as possible which included dialogue with Arab and Muslim leaders, including the President of Syria.
Rev Dr Chris Walker
(National Consultant Christian Unity, Doctrine & Worship)