CITY CRUSADE WITH THE JANZ QUARTET

Vernon Community Center Auditorium

In 1968 I wrote to the Janz Quartet to inquire as to whether the quartet would consider coming to the Vernon Alliance Church for a week of evangelistic meetings  the next time they came home to Canada from Germany.  They responded with the question as to whether there would be interest in making it a city-wide crusade.  I took their proposal to the ministerial association.  The response was favorable and in due time the wheels were soon set in motion for the Janz Quartet to come to Vernon. Since I was still a solo pastor, with no assistant pastor or paid secretary and a church whose attendance was now double what it was when I arrived in 1963, the pastor of the Emmanuel Baptist Church agreed to be the chairman and I agreed to be the vice-chairman, which was no small task.

January 12 through the 19th, 1969 a Sunday through Sunday evangelistic crusade led by the Janz Quartet became a reality in the new 1,000 seat Vernon Community Center Auditorium.  For the rest of this post I am going to quote from an article, entitled It Was Worth It All, that I wrote for the March 1969 issue of the  Reporter, the Janz Brothers Gospel Association's paper.

"You've gotten us into it again...  These were the words of a pastor of a church in the city of Vernon, British Columbia, when I first presented the idea of a united crusade with the Janz  Quartet.  He was already groaning at the amount of work and preparation that was before us in such a crusade.

"The crusade is now history, and that pastor along with 19 other pastors and congregations is rejoicing in all that God did during the week of January 12 through 19, 1969.

"In spite of abnormally cold weather conditions which prevailed throughout the crusade, the attendance was good.

"Was it worth the involvement?  Was it worth the extra work? The committee meetings?  The choir rehearsals?  Was it worth inviting friends to attend?  Was it worth supporting financially?

"The opening Sunday a mother of six walked down the aisle in responding to Evangelist Leo' Janz's invitation.  She was a Christian, but fruitless.  She wanted to learn how to win souls.  Before the week was through she saw one that she had been witnessing to and taking to church step forward and accept Christ as Saviour.

"A Sunday School superintendent confessed to his counselor, 'I have just been a blind leader of the blind.  I have spent more time reading pocket books than I have my Bible.'

"On Thursday a young mother, whose infant child of three months I laid to rest the day before Christmas, stepped into the aisle and made her way through the crowd to the front of the auditorium,  She accepted Christ as her Saviour. She wrote a few days later on her first follow-up lesson: 'I was saved on January 16th while attending a Janz crusade in Vernon, BC.  The Lord spoke to me.  When I discovered that He gave up His Son to die for us, I realized how much He loved us.  So after a few minutes of deliberation I overruled my pride and admitted it in public.  Furthermore, my baby daughter had passed away in December and I knew I must meet her in heaven.'

"On the closing Sunday of the eight-day crusade, a high school teacher stepped forward.  He had recently married a young Christian woman who had been very active in her church.  He had to confess that he was leading his young wife astray.  He was backslidden and was not living for Christ as he ought to be.

"An Indian mother came to the Lord one night and in another service a 73 year old man received the Lord Jesus Christ. 

"Was it worth it?  All the work?  These people mentioned are only six of many who walked down the aisles of the Vernon Community Center Auditorium.

"May Vernon, British Columbia, situated so beautifully between three lakes in the North Okanagan Valley, see the beauty of Christ in the days that are ahead and continue to feel the impact of the Janz Brothers Crusade For Christ upon its 11,000 residents.

"To God be the Glory great things He hath done!  It was worth it all!" 

That article, published in the Janz Brothers paper, sums up that week of meetings better than my memory would have.

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