Word on the street is that LifeWay is publishing a new edition of The Baptist Hymnal this summer. As a personal lover of hymns–the older the better!–I am excited about the venture. Yesterday, a student introduced me to a hymn that I am convinced needs to be added to the new hymnal. It has history. It has panache. And it is Southern Baptist to the marrow. So without further adieu, I give you “A Million More in ‘54,” the companion hymn for the well-known SBC Sunday School enrollment campaign of the mid-1950s:
A Million More in ‘54
A million more in fifty-four! Enrolled in Sunday School,
To hear the gospel, read the Word And learn the Golden Rule.
A million more in fifty-four, To leave the paths of sin;
To meet the Saviour, know His grace, And find new peace within.
A million more in fifty-four! The gospel will be sown
In hearts of women, boy and girls, And men who have not known
The saving pow’r of matchless grace Provided by God’s Son
Who came and died on Calv’ry’s tree To save them, ev’ry one.
A million more in fifty-four! Depends on workers true;
Our hearts, our strength, our wills, our time, We dedicate anew.
We each must visit, work, and pray In answer to God’s call.
A work to honor Christ our King Demands our best, our all.
Chorus:
A million more in fifty-four, Enrolled in Sunday School;
A million more in fifty-four, Enrolled in Sunday School.
[By W. Hines Sims. Copyright, 1953, Broadman Press]
Although I’m pretty sure my reading audience is relatively young, I would suspect that more than one reader can remember singing this hymn in childhood days. The Million More in ‘54 campaign is arguably the most influential program/denominational emphasis in the convention’s history, rivaled only by the 75 Million Campaign of the late teens and early 1920s. The two of them (along with some other factors) greatly contributed to the modern denomination that the SBC had become by the 1950s. There would have likely never been a Bold Mission Thrust, a call for us to be Empowering Kingdom Growth, or a reminder that Everyone Can! were it not for the relative successes of these two earlier programs.
Posted in Baptist History, SBC | Tags: Denominational Programs, Hymns
