“A Man Called Peter”

I saw a movie the other night that was quite a pleasant surprise called “A Man Called Peter.” The movie was about the life of Dr. Peter Marshall, a Scottish immigrant who became a very successful minister in the US in the 1930’s and 1940’s. Not only was it a very worthwhile story of a man and his family, but it was quite interesting on a couple of other fronts.

For one thing, Peter Marshall faced the same kinds of problems in the 30’s and 40’s that churches face today with shrinking congregations and people who were holding fast to the traditions of the past while losing their focus on spiritual growth and the Gospel. The other interesting thing about the movie was that it was made in 1955, a regular Hollywood production with known cast members, and was even nominated for an Academy Award in 1956. Needless to say, the way that Christians, Christianity and Jesus Christ were portrayed in 1955 bears no resemblance to Hollywood’s usual portrayal today; a sad thing indeed, for back then, Hollywood portrayed Christianity with respect rather than with contempt.

Dr. Marshall was a guy who recognized that in order for a church to grow and be energetic and vital in its mission, it had to be willing to change, to stop holding onto the old ways of doing things and be willing to reach the lost of

English: Rev. Peter Marshall (1902 –1949), renowned pastor of New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, Washington, D.C., from 1937 to 1949 and Chaplain of the U. S. Senate 1947–1949 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

their time. He wouldn’t compromise on the message itself, but would adjust the presentation to reach the community, and in short order in more than one congregation he had so many attending that loudspeakers had to be set up outside for the overflow. There is a scene in the movie showing hundreds listening to him outside in the pouring rain in fact. Of course there was always someone who prefered the traditions of the past, but in time they came around when they saw the fruit that he was bearing for Christ, a phenomenon I have seen at work today.

I must say that it was a great encouragement to me to see Peter Marshall, 70 years ago facing the same kind of challenges that I have dealt with recently taking the same kind of approach, even though he lived in a different time and culture than we do today… and the Gospel surged forward in his time as we all pray that it will in ours.

As a “special Feature” there was an audio of one of Marshall’s sermons, and I figured I’d listen to a couple of minutes of it just to compare it with the way that Richard Todd portrayed in the movie. I quickly figured out something about Peter Marshall that I wouldn’t have gotten from the film itself: Peter Marshall was a master of telling a Biblical story (Narrative preaching as it’s called now) in a way that absolutely made it come to life… I couldn’t turn it off and listened to the whole thing. I must admit that I wouldn’t recommend that anybody give that sermon today since as an old-fashioned Calvinist presentation it probably had a bit too heavy reliance on the emotion of guilt for modern audiences, but in the way he crafted the telling of the story of the crucifixion it was an absolute spellbinder. I’ll have to give that narrative approach a try one of these days!

I would highly recommend that you see the film, I got hold of it from Netflix…