Jack Hyles

File:Jack Frasure Hyles FBC Hammond.jpg

Jack Frasure Hyles (September 25, 1926-February 6, 2001) was a leading figure in the Baptist movement. He pastored the First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana from 1959 to his death and was a leading innovator in the church bus ministry. Jack Hyles built a church of fewer than a thousand members to a membership of 100,000 including a church and class attendance with as many as 20,000 people every Sunday making it rank first in attendance for a protestent church in the United States. Over the course of his nearly 50 years as a church leader, Hyles was occasionally criticized for his doctorinal views and for alleged scandals. His literal interpretation of the Bible often put him at odds with even other fundamentalist Baptists.

His life and ministry

Hyles was born in Italy, Texas and he was raised in the poverty stricken area of Dallas, Texas. Hyles often described his "less-than-ideal" upbringing with distant parents. Hyles was drafted into the United States Army and served his time during World War II as a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division.

He married his wife, the formerly Beverly Slaughter during this time. After the war was over, Hyles graduated from East Texas Baptist College. Hyles also attended Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, an offshoot of Baylor University in Fort Worth, Texas. After this time period, Hyles started preaching at several small Texas congregations, after which they all became large congregations. These churches included: Marris Chapel Baptist Church, Bogata, Texas; Grange Hall Baptist Church, Marshall, Texas; and Southside Baptist Church, Henderson, Texas.

Hyles then led the Miller Road Baptist Church in Garland, Texas for about six years in the 1950s. During this time period, Hyles grew the size of the congregation from 44 members up to 4,000 members. Despite his wide admiration among Southern Baptists, Hyles separated from the denomination over theological differences, with it being reported once that Hyles was kicked out of the Southern Baptist denomination because he was too conservative for them. Hyles then ran Miller Road Baptist Church as an independent preacher for a while.

In 1959, Hyles became the pastor of First Baptist Church in Hammond, Indiana. When he arrived, the church was attended by high-society types and its congregation had a membership of around 700 people. Initially about a third of this membership left the church. Hyles then led the Church to its status as an independent Baptist church; freeing it from its ties with the American Baptists. Hyles started his bus ministry and soon shepherded the church from a congregation of several hundred to more than 20,000. In the early 1990s a national survey ranked First Baptist as the largest church in the nation, by average weekly attendance figures.

Beginning in 1969, and continuing for several years, First Baptist Church of Hammond received recognition for the size of its Sunday School. The current Vice-President of Liberty University, Elmer L. Towns, who holds a doctorate degree in the ministries, wrote a book in which he analyzed FBCH's Sunday School in 1969. He presented a plaque to Jack Hyles in 1971, naming First Baptist Church of Hammond the nation’s largest Sunday school. In 1972, and for several years following, Christian Life Magazine proclaimed First Baptist Church of Hammond to have "The World's Largest Sunday School."

Jack Hyles co-founded Hyles-Anderson College (an unaccredited institution) with Russell Anderson to specialize in training Baptist ministers and school teachers in 1972. Hyles-Anderson College never sought accredition because Hyles insisted school accreditation meant government control and he did not want other people telling him how to run his religious school. Some, such as Kenneth Hemphill the president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary disagree that accreditation does this.[1]

One of the most notable aspects of Jack Hyles' ministry is his church bus ministry. As early as 1975, Time magazine described the phenomenon in an article titled, "Superchurch." The Time article notes that First Baptist Church of Hammond Sunday School, which regularly ran almost 14,000 (the church had an active membership of 22,000), pushed the church to a record attendance of 30,560 on March 16, 1975, thanks to a boisterous contest between two bus route teams. In that year, according to the Time article, the First Baptist Church of Hammond bus route ministry consisted of 1,000 workers using 230 buses to ferry as many as 10,000 people every Sunday. The Chicago Sun Times reported in 2001, that a fleet of over 200 buses was regularly ferrying 7,000 to 15,000 people from throughout northwest Indiana and the Chicago, Illinois area to learn the fundamentals of Bible teaching.

Hyles was also a leader in the Independent Baptist movement through his speaking at 'The Sword of the Lord' conferences with John R. Rice and his own annual "Pastors School". The school continues to attract as many as 7000 visitors to the Hammond area.

Hyles wrote approximately fifty works in his lifetime with over 14 million total copies in circulation, including the popular Is There A Hell?, based on a sermon he preached at a National Sword of the Lord Conference. Another work, Enemies of Soul Winning tackled many issues considered controversial in fundamental and evangelical circles, which include the doctrine of repentance, Lordship salvation, and the role of the church in soul winning. The Calvary Contender wrote, "Hyles will be remembered as a one-of-a-kind, ever controversial leader whose ministry touched the lives of multitudes."

Jack Hyles was better known as "Brother Hyles" to his tens of thousands of congregants.

Honors, awards, accolades, and praise

Hyles has been the recipient of much praise, honors, and other accolades throughout the course of his life, and even continuing on past his death.

Hyles received an honorary doctorate from Midwestern Baptist College, an unaccredited bible college for budding pastors, missionaries, evangelists, and Christian school teachers.

In 2001, the Hyle's boyhood home, a 384 square foot shack in Italy, Texas (30 miles south of Dallas, Texas) was purchased for a planned museum to honor Hyles. The home was shipped from Texas to Hyles-Anderson College. The home was planned to house Hyle's writings, photographs, and other relics on the 2,700-student campus. Ray Young, a close friend of Hyles, said, "We have 5,000 to 7,000 independent Baptists who come here each year for conventions. Reverend Hyles was very much adored by independent Baptists across the country. It should be a major attraction for them.

Hyles' commitment to poor children grew out of his own childhood. He was raised in poverty by a single mother during the Great Depression. Hyle's is given recognition for his commitment to the poor, mostly black and Hispanic children from Chicago's inner-city neighborhoods, whom he has bussed to private Christian schools in Hammond every day.

Hyles was known as a great preacher among the fundamentalist preachers. The Washington Post compared the meek preaching style of Jerry Falwell to the "spit and fire" of Jack Hyles. The Post suggested that after you heard a preacher like Hyles, "you knew that you'd been preached to".

In the Chicago Sun Times' Cathleen Falsani wrote about Hyles on the occasion of his death, "When he chose the interests of poor, inner-city kids over millionaire church members, they said he'd never keep the doors of his church open. In more than 50 years of ministry, the Rev. Jack Hyles, pastor of mammoth First Baptist Church in Hammond, Ind. proved them all wrong. In the process he build one of the largest congregations in the country, a college, six schools, and a vibrant ministry that will now have to survive without him."

In the same article, the President of Hyles-Anderson College was quoted as saying Hyles is "a tremendous man of integrity, business acumen, leadership ability, organization. You didn't have to do everything his way. But after you experimented, you usually found out his way was the best way".

Matthew Barnett, while discussing his work at an inner-city Los Angeles ministry, explained how he learned from Jack Hyles. He explained how he and his dad learned the whole bus ministry and bus captains idea from Hyles during a conference. Barnett also expounded on how Hyles was a tremendous soul winner, and how Hyles had great influence throughout the entire Chicago area.

The Rev. Jerry Falwell, chancellor of Liberty University, said that "Dr. Hyles will be remembered as a leader in evangalism through the local church." Falwell also said, "He inspired me as a young pastor to win others to Christ through Sunday school, the pulpit, and personal witnessing. He made a great contribution to the calls of Christ".

The mayor of Hammond, Illinois, speaking of Hyles, said, "He had a tremendous following at his church, but when other people where moving out of downtown Hammond, the reverend decided to stay. Many of his congregation lived in Hammond, so I would say he had a very important impact here."

Hyles was honored in Hammond, Indiana with a huge portrait of Hyles and his widow, Beverly, dominating the skyline of the town. He is also honored in Founder's Park at his college, where they laid 30,000 bricks as flooring for life-sized statues of Hyles and his widow.

Controversy and criticism

Teachings

The Richmond Times quoted ex-Hyles follower and later critic, Robert Sumner, who said "Jack Hyles, runs his church in an authoritarian, almost 'cultist,' manner." Sumner's paper "The Biblical Evangelist, published in Ingleside, Texas, devoted the lion's share of a 24-page issue this month to what it headlined as "The Saddest Story We Ever Published" detailing Nischik's charges and editor Robert Sumner's contention that Rev. Hyles has strayed from biblical teaching and into cultlike mind control. According to the Richmond Times Sumner's article had over 100 allegations. Among the various allegations was that Hyles had "sex satellites" in Petersburg, Beaumont, Texas; and Anniston, Alabama".

Hyles has long denounced and denied the allegations by Sumner and he said Sumner's accusations were "all lies".[2]On May 28 the Tribune repeated this and added Nischik's allegations of questionable financial dealings.

In 1993, the Northwest Indiana Times reported a news station "recapped a sermon in 1990 in which Hyles pretended to pour poison into a glass and asked an associate pastor, Johnny Colsten, to drink from it. Colsten said he would." Hyles, who has said in interviews that the so-called "poison sermon" was said in jest and was taken out of context, has said the reports have maligned his church. Hyles ridiculed the broadcast and said it was "pack of lies."

Furthermore, "The WJBK report said the sermon has the "ring of Jonestown to it - the mass suicide in Guyana in 1978 by followers of cult leader Jim Jones." The mini-series also "showed footage during its report of" Hyles "brandishing a rifle form the pulpit, along with "people with guns and walkie-talkies patrolling the outside of the church at times." In an newspaper interview, Hyles claimed he had to increase the security at his church because he had received bomb threats and threats on his life. The police-trained security men were also provided by Hyles to protect the children at his school. As for the gun, a 1903 Springfield bolt-action rifle, Hyles said it was the only gun taken to church and it was only been taken out of the case "show people how pretty it is." Hyles pointed out that it wasn't taken out during a Sunday service with children as the show implied, but rather it was shown at a function reserved for adults.

Personal conduct

On May 25, 1989 The Chicago Tribune reported that Victor Nischik, a former deacon of the First Baptist Church, accused Hyles of committing adultery with Jennie Nischik, Nischik's wife and Hyles' long time assistant. On May 28 the Tribune repeated this and added Nischik's allegations of questionable financial dealings. Hyles replied by saying the charges were "false". Hyles was not ever charged with a crime.

Hyles responded to the Nischik charges when said, "Everything that I am charged with is a lie". Hyles received "love offerings and honorariums" from his nationwide speaking engagements and he said that gifts given to him he shared with others, especially with those that worked with him. Hyles said that "money doesn't mean anything to me" and that he has given away "hundreds of thousands of dollars to needy friends" but he doesn't keep records of all the gifts he has given out over the years. Hyles also pointed out that his accuser was known to him to be an immoral man. Hyles said that Nischik 's wife discovered him alone in his pajamas with another woman and soon after Nischik's wife divorced him.

Hyles also responded to the charges of financial impropriety by pointing out that his salary was only $18,308 in year. He said, "I'm not a wealthy man...I could have been, but I have chosen not to be." Hyles pointed out that the Nischiks and other workers and needy friends regularly received many gifts from himself, including new cars. Hyles replied by saying the charges were "false" and indicating that "he has given 'hundreds of thousands' of dollars to needy friends over many years but has kept no records of the transactions." Hyles was not ever charged with a crime.

In 1991, the Northwest Indiana Times reported that a pamphlet called Fundamental Seduction: The Jack Hyles Case, written by Voyle A Glover, "delves into Texas-based evangelist Robert Sumner's allegations of moral laxity, doctrinal heresy and financial impropriety by Hyles." On May 24, 2001 Glover was interviewed about his claims against Hyles by "The Channel 2 News" over the 1993 scandals.

Sexual allegations involving the First Baptist community

Hyles was a target of occasional criticism during his thirty-odd years at First Baptist. 1,300 supporters of Hyles gathered to listen to Hyles as he branded the news reports linking him to a nationwide pattern of sexual molestations and abuse as "ridiculous assumptions and malicious lies". He said the reports were really an attempt to end Sunday school "bus ministries" operated by his church and others like it. He told hundreds of supporters that "If ever there was a lie spawned by Lucifer out of hell, this is it."

There is one documented instance where a member of First Baptist was found guilty of a crime of abuse. Daniel Lehmann of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote, "In March, 1993, a deacon at First Baptist, A.V. Ballenger, was found guilty of one count of child molestation dating from 1991." During a Sunday school class "a church worker reportedly witnessed the act and removed the girl from the room, police said." The Chicago Tribune in a 1991 article reported that Hyles was sued for $1 million by the parents of the girl molested by Ballenger. The paper reported the "lawsuit claims Hyles and the church had not fulfilled their obligation to ensure that children were protected from harm during Sunday school." This stemmed from the parents allegation that the molestation was brought to Hyles' attention who then allegedly promised to "investigate." After two months of allegedly nothing being done, the parents went to the police.[3] Furthermore they decided to sue Hyles and his church for $1 million and "claim the minister told the child's parents that Ballenger 'just liked little girls,' and 'you don't have a case.'" The girls parents' lawsuit against Ballenger and the church was settled out of court, with the parents refusing to discuss any of the terms. Ballenger was sentenced to five years in prison in 1993.[4]

The Northwest Indiana Times noted "regrettably, Hyles does not seem to think that Ballenger's conviction is something that should require the former deacon to be removed from any contact with church children. Voyle Glover, a Hyles critic, wrote that the following was a quote from a Hyles sermon given on October 23, 1991: "The family, the parents of the daughter should not have gone to court and they wouldn't have if a crooked lawyer hadn't got a hold of 'em. They shouldn't have gone to court. They should have come to me. That's what they did. They had only one witness. I told them in my office, I'm sorry, I cannot investigate a case unless there's two witnesses." This is because Hyles strictly interprets that Bible and he believes that it specifically forbids people from condemning people based on the testimony of a single witness. The Deputy Prosecutor of the Ballenger case Clarence Murray said "that the church has maintained 'a conspiracy of silence' by closing ranks behind Ballenger.

In May 1993, WJBK of Detroit, Michigan area news team, did a story called Preying from the Pulpit where it followed up on allegations of child molestation." The news report "began airing a six-part series Sunday night that stemmed from child sexual abuse allegations last fall against deacon Mark Foeller and associate pastor Timothy Leonard of North Sharon Baptist Church near Ann Arbor." The San Diego Union-Tribune noted "the news report found seven U.S. churches - all with ties to Hyles, it said - involved in sex scandals." Hyles "disputed the latest reports point by point in a speech to Midwest ministers and businessmen, brought together by COMPASSION - Churches Organized & Mobilized for Preservation and Safety for Sunday Schools in Our Nation." During that speech, Hyles said that those that the report indicated had attended Hyles-Anderson College really had not even attended the school. Several hundred people signed a statement supporting Hyles' in an advertisement placed in the Tuesday June 1, 2003 Chicago Sun-Times.

On May 14, 1993 "the FBI was asked to look into allegations minors were taken from Michigan to Northwest Indiana by employees or officials of North Sharon Baptist Church near Ann Arbor for events sponsored by Hammond First Baptist Church." The FBI concluded, "there is insufficient evidence to probe allegations." On Friday, May 19, 1993 Sgt. Charles Hedinger, a Hammond police detective, described the Hyles investigation as "open-ended." Jack Hyles said that he welcomed an investigation of the police and he attended a meeting with city officials to discuss it. Hyles emerged from the meeting saying that there was no investigation. Confirmation of this came on Wednesday, May 24, 1993, when Hedinger's boss, the Chief of Police detectives, Capt. Bill Conner was quoted in the Tribune saying that, "There is no investigation of the First Baptist Church of Hammond or Jack Hyles". On June 1, 1993 The Lake County (Indiana) prosecutor's office stated that it did not have any cases involving Hyles or the First Baptist Church of Hammond. On the same day, the Hammond Police Department reaffirmed the statement it made the previous month when it confirmed that there was no investigation of Hyles or the church.

On December 8, 1997 Christianity Today reported that Hyles and his church, the First Baptist Church of Hammond, were being sued for "for negligence in connection with alleged sexual assaults on a mentally disabled church member over a six-year period" The lawyer for the woman, Vernon Petri, "says Hyles is a defendant because he failed to protect the woman", such that "Controls have to be set to be sure things are conducted appropriately..." According to the lawyer, "a church program instructor led her to a room and served as a lookout while two to three males raped her."[5] The women develop a "serious" infection and doctors "found, embedded in her, a plastic object."[6] "The "civil suit filed in Lake Superior Court in Gary claims the Chicago woman was "induced by agents" of the church in 1991 to ride a bus to attend Sunday."[7]

However, despite the rape and abuse claims by the woman's lawyer, Christianity Today noted that no criminal charges were ever filed in either the 1991 case or the 1996 case. Also, Hyles denied the allegations claiming he would have been the first one to want someone punished for such an act, providing there is more than one witness (Hyles will only investigate cases of sex abuse where this more than one witness as claimed with the Ballenger case.). Hyles said the church told police about the teacher's report in 1991 and that the case was "shock" because his "records" allegedly show "the girl has not attended our church since that occasion."

Bibliography

• Blue Denim and Lace. Hammond, Indiana: Hyles-Anderson Publishers (1972)
• Enemies of Soul Winning. Hammond, Indiana: Hyles-Anderson Publishers (1993) (148 pages)
• Logic Must Prove the King James Bible. Hammond, Indiana: Hyles-Anderson Publishers
• Is There A Hell? Hammond, Indiana: Hyles-Anderson Publishers
• Jack Hyles Speaks on Biblical Separation. Hammond, Indiana: Hyles-Anderson Publishers (1984) (112 pages)
• Teaching on Preaching. Hammond, Indiana: Hyles-Anderson Publishers (1986) (153 pages)

External links

Hyles Ministry

• The Jack Hyles Home Page -- books, sermons, & links
• Hyles Publications -- a publisher of books and bibles including many by Jack Hyles
• JackHyles.net - An unofficial Jack Hyles site with archival copies of books and sermons and links to discussion groups

Criticism

• Biblical Discernment Ministeries criticism of Hyles
• The Jack Hyles Story by Robert Sumner