How American Gospel teams helped to revive British evangelicalism

From the war and into the Sixties, Gospel teams formed by American servicemen on military bases helped revive many local British churches. This is the story …

The Friendly Invasion

The UK was already at war from September 1939 but after the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the US joined the conflict. In 1942, this led to vast numbers of Americans coming over to the UK for what was called the ‘Friendly Invasion’. The US eighth Air Force got here to airbases throughout eastern England. Millions of men and just a few thousand women crossed the Atlantic, often in ships just like the Queen Mary.

Chaplains

The American military had its own Chaplain Corps, and every airfield had its own chapel. The chapel was served by chaplains who held religious services but additionally had the sad task of holding funerals and memorial services for deceased servicemen. During the war American servicemen were normally classified as Protestant, Catholic or Jewish, and just a few may additionally discover as Mormon. Typically, a big base would have three chaplains: a Protestant minister, who might typically be Baptist, Methodist, Congregational or Presbyterian; a Catholic priest, and a Jewish rabbi. Many of the American servicemen identified as Christian, although only a small number would actively worship on the chapel on the bottom, some might find a neighborhood church to hitch when he was free, and others can be nominal Christians. For many the context of war might either deepen their faith, or sometimes the evils of war might challenge it.

American-issue New Testaments

The American chaplains were issued with small New Testaments within the King James Version. These were about three inches wide by 4 and half inches high in brown leather, normally printed by the American Bible Society. The version was the King James Version, because modern translations we’re used to today weren’t available then. Inside each of those New Testaments was a printed page with a letter with the printed signature of Franklin D Roosevelt which read: “As Commander-in-Chief I benefit from commending the reading of the Bible to all who serve within the armed forces of the United States. Throughout the centuries men of many religions and diverse origins have present in the Sacred Book words of wisdom, counsel, and inspiration. It is a fountain of strength and now, as at all times, an aid in achieving the very best aspirations of the human soul.”

Gospel teams

On some military bases chaplains formed Gospel teams from evangelical Christian servicemen.  They provided spiritual support and provided religious instruction to fellow servicemen. These were normally cross-denominational, and it did probably not matter in case you were Baptist, Methodist, Congregational, Presbyterian, Pentecostal or one in all the various other denominations. If there have been many bases in a single area then Gospel teams were more itinerant, travelling between military bases. Membership might change because the staff modified over time. 

Function

Gospel teams provided spiritual support by conducting Bible studies, prayer meetings, and worship services. They aimed to encourage servicemen of their Christian faith, by holding full of life services on the chapels at military camps and hospitals. Many times, their point of contact with people was through grief and injury as a result of their work. They would distribute Gospels, New Testaments, and other materials. Most often they might give out chaplaincy-issue, small pocket-sized New Testaments.

Gospel team services

Over time Gospel teams began to make connections with local British congregations. Often the connection would start with a neighborhood minister who was also a military chaplain, or when one in all the servicemen became friendly with a neighborhood congregation. Typically, a team can be 4 to seven men, and one would open the service, one might lead the prayers, one other preach the sermon, and others might sing songs as solos, duets, or quartets. Another might play an instrument, and they might sing catchy choruses. Typically, a number of of the lads would give his testimony. Sometimes they might deliberately pick men from different denominations, or from different American states. They were normally called an “American Gospel Team” or sometimes a “Forces Gospel Team” or a “Witness Team”.

The testimonies of religion were much more interesting within the UK, because they featured details of American life, or answers to prayer in a military context which fascinated local British people. The men themselves were often not very old, perhaps only 19 or of their early twenties which appealed to young people.

After each service if anyone made a career of religion, they might give them a small chaplaincy-issue New Testament, and the group might write the date and sign the within cover as a reminder of the person’s commitment. Typically, they may take a service in a single church after which be invited to a different one and so they built up a neighborhood fame, and a few young people might follow their itinerary. For some young girls, the handsome young men in uniform were an added attraction and reason to attend. 

Bovingdon Gospel Team

From August 1942, Americans were based at Bovingdon Airfield on the Bucks/Herts border within the Chilterns. It was probably the most vital bases and Colonel Frank L Miller, Chief of Chaplains, was based there. A gaggle of evangelicals were related to the airfield chapel, and were befriended by the local Methodist minister, Rev Dr Wearmouth, who in addition to being a circuit minister was also a military chaplain. He had written a book called “Pages from a Padre’s Diary”, about his role as a chaplain within the First World War.

A gaggle of American servicemen at Bovingdon formed the “American Gospel Team”, even though it sometimes included some Canadians, led by Sergeant Gib Clark of Ohio, and Bill Dyer of Tennessee. They took Saturday evening youth evenings within the village of Ley Hill, and Sunday services in local Methodist and Baptist chapels across the Chilterns in and around Chesham, Hemel Hempstead, and Berkhamsted, but especially within the Chiltern villages near Chesham. In those days, most Chiltern villages had a Methodist or a Baptist chapel, although some have since closed. 

After the war a number of the men stayed and held week-long revival missions in some local churches. The group didn’t remain the identical, some left, and so they recruited some local people, and it became the “Anglo-American Gospel Team”. Then in 1946, after the Americans left, two churches formed their very own Gospel Teams.

United Nations Witness Team

A Gospel Team was formed in London in 1942 called the United Nations Forces Witness Team. It was sometimes called the United Nations Gospel Team and was formed in London from American, British, and Canadian servicemen, but at different times had also included people from New Zealand, Australia, Jamaica, India, and Holland. They used to satisfy in Marble Arch and welcomed as much as 300 people to Bible Study and prayer meetings. 

A team, chosen from fifty men and girls in various shades of uniform, took services in churches within the London area. The story was later told in a book called “Saved to Save Others – the Story of the United Nations Witness Team”, written in 1947 by team members and edited by Harry Young, who led the group until it disbanded later in 1946. In the foreword written in 1947, Tom Rees wrote “The youth of Britain are searching for sincerity and reality … Theirs was an up up to now religion and one which worked.” 

Other wartime Gospel teams

In 1945 a gaggle called the “TNT Gospel Team” operated out of Lakenheath Airbase and took services in churches within the Bury and Newmarket area of West Suffolk. Another group was made up of Americans from bases within the Preston areas of Lancashire and was called the “Preston Gospel Team”. 

Post-war Gospel teams

After the war many American bases remained within the UK due to the continuing Cold War and events akin to the Berlin Airlift. In peacetime it was easier for Gospel teams to operate, and latest ones were formed at different bases. In the Fifties and Sixties there was a gaggle based at Lakenheath Base in Suffolk, who were referred to as the “Soldiers of the Cross” and later because the “King’s Messengers”. 

Another group operated from Scunthorpe Base referred to as the “American Gospel Team” and one in south Wales was called “The King’s Envoys” led by Mr Frank Gonzales. In January 1964, a gaggle was formed by Jim Smith of Pasadena in California, who was based at Wethersfield Base in north Essex. The group was called “the Gospelairs” and so they took services within the Saffron Walden area until 1966.

Legacy 

Back in North America, many of the men from these Gospel Teams went into Christian ministry. Their bases and the churches of Britain where they received a welcome were their energetic training field. The men went on to develop into missionaries, pastors, or served as leaders in evangelical organisations throughout the post-war religious revival within the US.Meanwhile there had been a form of revival among the many local churches they visited, which now had greater youth groups. Churches adopted a number of the latest choruses, and types of full of life worship. Once the Americans left, some churches adopted the thought and created their very own Gospel teams. Many of those young people continued to inform the story of the Americans who got here and witnessed about their faith in Jesus. 

These Gospel teams had a cultural impact because they helped lay the groundwork for the post-war evangelical movement. When Billy Graham got here, many British people already had a taste of American-style evangelical mission and liked it. 

Today in small corners of England, there are a diminishing variety of elderly individuals who still fondly remember the American servicemen who got here and livened up their churches and kindled their faith.