Singer, scholar receive top evangelism award
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Bill Mann |
Jan. 26, 2006
By Linda Green*
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) — A renowned singer of sacred music and a scholar who
has spent his life exploring the depths of the Christian faith are recipients of
one of the highest awards in evangelism.
Bill Mann and the Rev. George E. Morris are this year’s Philip Award winners,
chosen by the National Association of United Methodist Evangelists.
The association, affiliated with the United Methodist Board of Discipleship,
presented the awards at the annual Congress on Evangelism, held in early January
in Atlanta.
The award, named for the apostle Philip, has been presented to two people
annually since 1974. Past recipients have included the Rev. Billy Graham, the
Rev. Joe Hale, Evelyn Laycock, the Rev. Walter Kimbrough, and the late Bishop
Earl Hunt Jr. and Harry Denman.
Mann of Richardson, Texas, often referred to as the “Golden Voice of Methodism,”
is an international artist who has performed in concert halls in England,
Scotland and Ireland as part of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
Born in Bessemer, Ala., Mann has been singing since age 10 and has acquired a
reputation “for being one of America’s greatest singers of hymns, gospel songs
and religious music,” the association said. He has used his “fine tenor voice
and keen interpretation of all music” to sing in concert, evangelistic campaigns
and ecumenical gatherings as well as in more than 3,000 churches since 1946, the
association added.
His sacred music ministry allowed him to perform with musical greats such as
Ethel Waters, Mahalia Jackson, Henry Mancini, George Beverly Shea, Jerome Hines
and many others. He has also shared ministry with United Methodist bishops and
other critically acclaimed preachers. He calls singing for Helen Keller one of
the highlights of his career.
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The Rev. George E. Morris |
The Rev. George E. Morris |
For the past seven years, Morris, of Canton, Ga., has served as the Hankey
Senior Professor of World Evangelism for the World Methodist Council.
“Truly George E. Morris is in the great tradition of Philip, as he has given
vast, extensive ministry to that of sharing the good news of the gospel through
the word, deed and sign so that the world may know Jesus Christ,” the
association said.
He has been an ordained United Methodist pastor for nearly 50 years and has
authored several evangelism books, including Let the Redeemed of the Lord Say
So! — coauthored with the Rev. H. Eddie Fox — and a recent publication
titled The Mystery and Meaning of Christian Conversation. Along with Fox,
he developed the Faith-Sharing New Testament, a “Methodist-Wesleyan
Personal Worker’s New Testament” in 1994. That resource has sold 50,000 copies
in English and is published in 37 languages around the world.
Morris served on the former Methodist Board of Evangelism under the leadership
of Harry Denman and on the United Methodist Board of Discipleship. For more than
16 years, he was the Distinguished Arthur J. Moore Professor of Evangelism at
United Methodist-related Candler School of Theology, Atlanta. While in that
position, he became the founding director of the World Methodist Evangelism
Institute, the primary arm of World Methodist Evangelism for training and
developing indigenous evangelists on every continent.
The association said Morris “is immersed in the Holy Scriptures, shaped by
Wesleyan theology, and is one of our greatest Methodist evangelists.”
*Green is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in Nashville, Tenn.
News media contact: Linda Green, (615) 742-5470 or
newsdesk@umcom.org.
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Resources
Previous Philip Award Recipients
World Methodist Evangelism
Congress on Evangelism
Foundation for Evangelism
General Board of Discipleship?s Evangelism Section
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