Minister to Minister Part 1 – Gene’s testimony

Now that’s about all I’m going to say, except there was a world of trouble out there, and somehow, we just came to accept those things. Why did we come to accept those things and continue in them? I think I’m going to add one more thing, and this is one of the reasons I’m very reluctant to talk about any of this, and that is, we as ministers, when we got together, somebody would always tell some of these stories, and that always disturbed me. If these things were true, why didn’t we repent? Why didn’t somebody do something? Do you understand what I’m saying? If you live in the midst of dishonesty, you will become dishonest. And I’m going to speak as a man outside the religious system, whoever once in a while bumped into it.

I live in a world that probably doesn’t have 20 or 30,000 Christians in it in North America. And it is not a world, I don’t know all those 20 and 30,000 people Christians. Do you know that we talk about y’all, I mean, we talk about you as being in the religious system? I don’t mean we gossip about you. I mean, we say you’re in the religious system. You didn’t know that, did you? We’re out there, we’re real, and we’re alive; we exist. We always have for the last 1,800 years. And you know, until the Lord comes, we always will because there has to be a testimony out there.

I don’t know if you understand that, but throughout the ages, you ought to if you’re a Baptist, you were taught this when you were a young man. Haven’t you ever heard of the trail of blood? I know you have. There have always been both out there, and they’re all over the world, but they’re not very large, and every one of them has come out, and all of us bear the same testimony, and it is a testimony of many things, but ultimately is a testimony of conscience. Conscience in relation to the word of God, the word of God within us, the word of God in print before us, and a matter of conscience within our spirit and our soul. We could simply no longer bear it. We knew if we stayed, something would happen to us.

Now, later, I’ll get to when I left, but now I am an evangelist. All right, let me find out how many of you have been Southern Baptist Evangelists. Hi, Peter, how are you doing, buddy? Here’s one right here. Bless your heart. How many more? Brother Jack, Brother Houston, Brother Jim. Yes, brother. What is your name? Clark. Is that the first name? Clark and Ralph. Gene Edwards.

Boy, I didn’t know what I was getting into when I was getting into evangelism. I started out as a Southern Baptist evangelist, but I had a meteoric, is that the word? That thing went to the top fast. My ministry was unique and became very popular. Now, I want you to know something. Those of you who are in the ministry, you as a pastor sometimes get the feeling that you have a lot of trouble around you, and things must really be bad locally. But when you start traveling, something awesome happens. You discover it’s that way everywhere. Kitty, do you identify with that? You, Jack, do you identify with that? This was a real shock to me. I don’t want to pile up your mind with the things that you see, but I will speak generally. Pastors frightened by their people, just under strains that I doubt God ever intended for any man to be under. Not that kind, not that kind of politics. And by the way, a few dishonest preachers out there are as crooked as a dog’s hind leg.

I’ll tell you one story; it’s just a little bitty story. This pastor, I can remember him taking up this offering for me. I was in his church for two weeks too long. Oh man, the money was coming in by the piles. It was really impressive. You can’t help but look. So, when the two weeks were over, he handed me a check for $200. He said before, he was really pushing this offering. Now, you understand? And it was a great two weeks, something like that, rarely, if ever, is seen. He said, “Before you came, the deacons and I voted to give you $200.” And then I remember one other was really funny. They had given me an offering of $150 for that week and when I got through, they also decided to buy some books I had and they bought a bunch of them and they subtracted their purchase of those books from my love offering, and when I got home, I told Helen, “Boy, I’m sure glad they didn’t buy more books than there.” But I want you to know something, brother.

You pastors used to ask me what kind of car I drove and try to figure out whether I was one of those who deserved the big offering or a small offering. The first thing I was told when I was brought into evangelism, I was this by at least two evangelists. Gene, you got to go buy a Cadillac, and you got to dress well, and you got to look good, brother. Shame on you, shame on you. I’m going to say it again, Shame on you.

I decided at the outset of my ministry and evangelism; I would never discuss money with a pastor or a church in any way or form. I went in that way, and I left that way, and when they thought I was one of those top dogs, they gave large offerings, and when they thought I was a peasant, they gave small ones. And I want to take a rag and just wipe it on the table and say, “Brother, I’m not saying that kind of conduct should exist,” brothers, that whole mentality ought not to exist. Just take the whole thing out. Our whole concept and mentality of 20th-century Christianity ought not to exist, and I’m not speaking theologically. I’m speaking of our practice, our mindset, and the schematic of our brain ought not to exist.

Well, I moved from holding meetings with churches to holding citywide crusades. And that’s what I did the last year of my life, and I did it mostly outside of the Baptist circle, and my world broadened to the entire evangelistic world. I think the last two years were that way, I was speaking in coliseums now. Not always, I was speaking in buildings bigger than churches, put it that way.

I was flying all over America constantly, and I was beginning to get the VIP treatment. I don’t know how that might affect you or how much you want that kind of world, but when I sat there on that platform, I better stop and just tell you that brothers, the higher up I got on that ladder, the physically more exhausted I got and the more I searched my heart and what I was seeing and what I was feeling and what I knew of myself, I was becoming a seeker, not the kind that wants to go out and get tongues, speak in tongues to get empowered to go out and do greater wonders and eat bigger cucumbers. I wanted to know my Lord.

I remember sitting in motel rooms and watching TV until 2 and 3:00 in the morning. I couldn’t sleep. Get up the next morning and wonder what in the name of sanity am I doing? Walk out on a platform and be introduced as one of God’s great men of this generation, and just get nauseated. And I got introduced that way by people who didn’t even know who I was. I have been lied about on the platform so many times, it is unreal.

I’m going to ask you one more time. Why do you do that, brother? Why do you do that? I’m going to ask you something else. Why are you always going around saying, “I’ll pray for you, I’m praying for you.” Why do you do that? Why do you talk the way you do? You know, I’ve heard more baritone voices in the last 72 hours than I’ve heard in the last 22 years, with a little quiver at the bottom of them. How do you do that?