FOUND IN ST. LOUIS - THE BARBARA SPRICK COLLECTION - PART 1

Francis Schaeffer Studies has now made several trips to St. Louis visiting the Francis Schaeffer Institute at Covenant Seminary. The first trip took place in May, 2015 and the second in June. You can see some pictures from the first trip here.

Schaeffer's "Summer Bible School"
St Louis Globe Democrat
July 23rd 1944
Digitization:
francisschaefferstudies.org
FULL VIEW
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Part 1 - 1944 Schaeffer's Summer Bible School Newspaper Write-up

While we were in St. Louis, we had a wonderful opportunity to connect with two of Dr. Schaeffer's students from his early days as a pastor in St. Louis prior to the formation of L'Abri in Switzerland. One of these students of the Summer Bible School, Barbara Sprick, mentioned on the phone that she had a "newspaper clipping" to show us. Providentially, we had been able to meet with Mark Ryan, Director of the Francis Schaeffer Institute at Covenant Seminary, who informed us that he had been contacted by Barbara and that he had vouched for us (Thanks Mark!). So we were excited to meet her for an interview and to see this clipping. Well, as it turned out, it was not just a clipping! It was a full page write-up!
Not only that, she had a collection of photos of the students over multiple years and a brochure with an original photo taken by her father! We'll share more on these a little later. However, what further surprised us, is that she not only showed them to us, but she wanted us to have them! We are honored and blessed to receive these wonderful glimpses of Schaeffer history into the FSS collection. He hope that they will be a valuable resource for others in their studies in future!

The full-page write up provides a wonderful glimpse of Dr. Schaeffer's early ministry. One thing you will note upon viewing is that this activity was in cooperation with the school district who even provided buses. My how far we have come!

According to Wayne Sparkman at the PCA Archives, young Francis Schaeffer, had first utilized this new concept of "Summer Bible School" (what we would now call Vacation Bible School) in his first church in Grove City, Pennsylvania, with much success and had finally wrote to Dr. A. L. Lathem who had founded the idea. Francis would eventually become a member of his Board of Directors of the Summer Bible School Association which grew his relationship with it's elder founder. Dr. Lathem was the senior pastor of the Bible Presbyterian Church in Chester, 50 miles way from Grove City, and eventually Francis would receive an offer to work with Dr. Lathem as an assistant pastor. While Francis did well at the position, he was largely tasked with overseeing a building project, rather than working more directly with the children's ministry he had come to love and see as a calling. With another building project on the horizon, Francis and Edith realized the need to accept a new pastorate in the pursuit of their calling. They would assume the pastorate of the First Bible Presbyterian Church in St. Louis from John W. Sanderson Jr. Their ministry flourished through the founding of the first Summer Bible School program in St. Louis, which later led to the founding of Children for Christ. Here is a thought from Edith on the development:

This was the beginning of our work with young people that later grew into L'Abri, even as the Bible School was our beginning work with children that was going to include our "Children for Christ" work later. Many seeds were planted in Grove City. ~ Edith Schaeffer, The Tapestry

It is wonderful to think that a man who is often known to be one of the greatest Evangelical intellectuals of the past generation, was also a deeply gifted communicator to children. Dr. Schaeffer's tenderness, excitement, emotion and thoughtfulness must have resonated well with them. Something for us all to deeply consider.

~ Dan Guinn

Watch for our next article in this series and also an upcoming mini-documentary!
  



 

RESEARCHING THE SCHAEFFER COLLECTION AT SEBTS

In April, while presenting a workshop at the 2015 International Society of Christian Apologetics Conference in North Carolina, I spent some time in the home of Pastor Adam Johnson, whose family showed me great hospitality and warmth during my stay. Adam is a friend and fellow researcher of Dr. Schaeffer's works. After many talks, I asked Adam if he would share with us his experience researching at the Francis Schaeffer Collection at SEBTS, and the journey of life that led him there. I am sure you will find it edifying! Watch for more from Adam in the future! ~ Dan Guinn, FSS

Adam Johnson

I’m a PhD student studying Philosophy of Religion under Dr. Bruce Little at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, NC.  I also serve as an Associate Pastor at Tega Cay Baptist Church.  My church allowed me to take a four week sabbatical in December 2014 in order to help Dr. Little research the Francis Schaeffer Collection at Southeastern.  Not only was it a terrific academic opportunity, it was also a spiritual experience for me.

Francis Schaeffer’s books played a huge role in my spiritual development.  I became a Christian in 1994 around the age of 17 but in my twenties I went through a terrible spiritual crisis.  I was struggling with questions and doubts about whether or not Christianity was true.  It’s difficult to explain the emotional stress and anxiety I felt during that ordeal; trust me when I say that I was nearly at my wit’s end!  As I see it now, there was some incorrect theology in my background which led me to wrong conclusions about what faith is, how sovereignty worked, and the role of apologetics.  For instance, I thought it would be ungodly and unbiblical to use apologetics to try and strengthen my faith.  Thankfully someone gave me a copy of Schaeffer’s Trilogy – The God Who Is There, Escape From Reason, and He Is There and He Is Not Silent.  Needless to say, it changed my life.  Through his books, Schaeffer helped me come to, as I see it today, the correct understanding of faith and reason, sovereignty, and apologetics. 

As I worked through my own struggles and conquered my major doubts, I began talking openly about my struggles.  I found that many others were also struggling with doubts too and God began using me to help them work through their questions.  I had always aspired to serve in ministry but had recoiled back because of guilt over my struggle with doubt.  Having overcome this struggle, I decided to follow God’s leading and leave my career in Actuarial Science to pursue whatever ministry He would call me to.  I completed my M.Div. in 2013 and immediately started on my Ph.D. at Southeastern.

I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Udo and Deborah Middelmann had entrusted Southeastern to hold in custodianship the Francis Schaeffer Collection.  The Collection includes vast amounts of Schaeffer’s personal correspondence, his early drafts and manuscripts, books and articles he annotated, his seminary notes from the 1930’s, as well as numerous audio and video items.  Needless to say, this is a literal treasure trove!  You can read more about the Collection here.

In the rest of this article I’ll summarize my experience researching the Collection.  First of all, access to the Collection requires the approval of Dr. Little who serves as its Director.  After I was approved, archivists in Southeastern’s library (Dr. Bill Youngmark and Steve Jones) helped me find my way through all the material.  The research is made much easier by the finding aid they’ve created.  This finding aid is simply a massive spreadsheet that is 50,000 rows long.  It lists all the paper material (letters, notes, articles, books, etc.) in the Collection but not the audio and video items.  Each row represents a different item in the Collection and some items are several hundred pages long.  For example, Schaeffer took 108 pages of handwritten notes in his Apologetics class at Westminister and this item is described in one line of the finding aid spreadsheet. 

Thus there are hundreds of thousands of pages of material in the Collection.  The finding aid also lists what physical box and folder each particular item can be found in.  Thankfully though, all of the paper material has been digitized (not all of the audio and video has been digitized yet).  So when I found something in the finding aid I wanted to look at, say a specific letter from Francis Schaeffer to Billy Graham, I could access a digitalized version of that item in just a few seconds.  I spent four weeks digging through the paper material.  I estimate that I looked at roughly 2,000 items but I specifically made detailed notes concerning 700 items that were pertinent to my research.  Through my research I came to have a much better understanding of Schaeffer’s epistemology and apologetic method.  I wrote a research paper for Dr. Little this spring about Schaeffer’s epistemology and Udo Middelmann gave me permission to quote from some items I found in the Collection.  I’m hoping the research I did will eventually roll up into my dissertation work.        

I’ve often described the time I spent researching the Collection as a spiritual experience because it was similar to reading the biography of someone who God had worked through in a mighty way.  I felt like I got to know Francis Schaeffer in a more intimate way as I read about his personal struggles, concerns, weariness, and victories.  I was inspired to see how God could use a normal human being in such a mighty way in so many people’s lives.  A lot of the personal letters are just about logistics—making arrangements for people coming to L’Abri, or plans for Francis and Edith to go and speak somewhere, etc.  But there were also many letters from those who were searching for truth and struggling through various spiritual issues.  It was humbling to read Schaeffer’s replies and how he poured out his heart to so many strangers.  You can really see his love and compassion for others in his letters.  Schaeffer continues to inspire me to serve Christ with everything I am.  

~ Adam Johnson

To learn more about the Francis A. Schaeffer Collection at SEBTS you can watch videos from our playlist documenting the collection, including our documentary filmed in 2012: