When asked to reveal the secret of his apparent power and success in ministry, Dick was known to claim that he "had an advantage."
"What is your advantage," others would ask?
"My advantage," he would reply, "is low self-esteem." Quoting the Apostle Paul, he would identify his low self image as a "thorn in the flesh," which forced him to depend upon the all-sufficient grace of God. "I will boast… about my weakness," he would say, "so that Christ's power may rest on me… For when I am weak, then I am strong." (2 Corinthians 12:7-10).
Growing up in North Dakota, Dick Halverson longed to become an entertainer. He would stand outside the pool hall in Buchanan and sing for nickels. Later, he toured with a vaudeville troupe. Eventually he made his way to Hollywood where, in 1935, he landed a screen test at Paramount Studios.
But Halverson never showed up for that screen test. He got a better offer.
It was New Year's Eve. Halverson sat alone and depressed in his tiny Los Angeles apartment. As he pondered his life, he resolved to go the following Sunday to the little church he passed on the way to work every day - Vermont Avenue Presbyterian. He started attending the church regularly. One afternoon Halverson and his pastor sat talking in a parked car outside his apartment. The pastor was "the first man to honestly confront my father about his enormous ego," says Debbie Halverson. He told Halverson he was conceited and arrogant. Halverson replied that he wanted to change. By the end of the conversation, Halverson had accepted Jesus Christ and signed a "deed," officially turning his life over to the Lord. He later tucked that deed inside his Bible as a lasting reminder of Who really owned his life.
"My father's ego was rooted in deep insecurity and fear of rejection," Debbie says. "But he fought that ego battle early on, and with God's grace won it. That's why he became the man he was."
Ironically, while Halverson started out with an "enormous ego," he ultimately became best known as a humble servant of God. "He always gave Christ and God the glory," says Dr. Louis Evans, Jr., Halverson's friend of forty-five years. "He was not a man impressed with his own ego. Dick's great theme was, 'Lift up Jesus. Honor Christ.'"
Halverson graduated from Wheaton College, and then Princeton Theological Seminary in 1942. His first pastoral assignment was a small church in Kansas City, Missouri. During the summers he worked at Forest Home, a Christian conference center in Forest Falls, California. There he met Doris Seaton, and they were married in 1943. Two years later, Halverson moved to Coalinga, California, to pastor a small congregation. He then moved to the Los Angeles area where he joined the pastoral staff at First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood.
In 1954, Halverson accompanied Dr. Bob Pierce, founder of the international Christian humanitarian organization, World Vision, on what turned out to be the first of many trips overseas. The two became close friends, and Halverson went on to serve on the board of World Vision for twenty-seven years. He was chair of the board for seventeen years, and interim president for two. Halverson was instrumental in World Vision's pastors' conferences, frequently traveling to Asia to meet, teach, and encourage local pastors.
In 1956, Halverson moved to Washington, D.C., to work with the Fellowship Foundation and help coordinate the annual National Prayer Breakfast. In 1958, he accepted the position of senior pastor at Fourth Presbyterian Church in Bethesda, Maryland. Over the next twenty-three years, his influence and reputation grew considerably. Under Halverson's leadership, Fourth Presbyterian tripled in size from 600 to almost 2,000 members. He continued to teach at pastors' and leadership conferences for both World Vision and the Fellowship, traveling throughout Africa, Asia, Australia, Canada, Europe, Latin America, Oceania and the United States. He also authored twenty-seven books on the Christian life, and wrote Perspective, a devotional newsletter read by thousands worldwide for nearly fifty years.
In 1981, backed by Senator Mark Hatfield and other prominent members of the Senate, Halverson was appointed Chaplain of the U.S. Senate, where he served for the next fourteen years. In a city where image is everything, Halverson was known for driving himself to work in an old car and roaming Capitol Hill to greet everyone from senators to janitors. "We live in a very skeptical town," says Senator Robert Byrd. "It is full of doubters and cynics. But Dick Halverson always represented the solid rock of faith, [reminding us that] there is life beyond the Senate, there is a life beyond a political party, and there is life beyond this life."
Tom Getman, then a member of Senator Hatfield's staff, comments, "Whenever you'd walk with Dr. Halverson through the halls of the Capitol, he would call everybody by name -- elevator operators, janitors, subway operators, Capitol police.... He became so dear to people because he reached out to them, knew what was going on in their lives, and would stop and pray with them. He treated everybody as a personal friend." Senator Hatfield recalls him as, "a singing, a suffering, a praying, a preaching, a comforting and compassionate presence in the United States Senate."
"He was a spiritual giant," says John Dellenback, former U. S. Congressman and past World Vision board chair. "He was one of the half-dozen people whom I've particularly treasured as a friend and confidant. I always thought, 'This is a man who walks the walk -- who lives what he talks.'"
Debbie Halverson remembers her father above all else as a man of prayer. "Every morning, he was on his knees in prayer. As I was getting ready for school, the door to his study would be ajar and I'd see him on his knees in front of his leather chair, praying. He did that until he could not physically get on his knees anymore."
On November 28, 1995, at the age of 79, Halverson died of congestive heart failure. His memorial service was attended by politicians and church leaders—as well as by hundreds of "ordinary" people who had been influenced by his life. After listening to numerous tributes by friends and family, Dr. Billy Graham reflected, "Two words that I have heard over and over again tonight sum up Dick Halverson's life. One is 'prayer,' and the other is 'love.'"
Doris Halverson remarks that the many letters she continues to receive since
her husband's passing tell the story of his life best. She offers one example:
Who knows how Dr. Halverson has affected America for good by his influence on
those who write our laws and govern our land? Who knows how many individuals
bless him for his impact on their personal lives as he challenged them to follow
Christ? Who knows how many people learned to stop and pray right then and there,
upon hearing a prayer request, as he did? Because of him, how many learned to
say "I love you" to brothers and sisters in the Lord?
How many have pondered how they are to live "between Sundays?" How many knew "they go nowhere by accident?" How many have learned that where they are at a given time is exactly where God wants them, that this is an "unrepeatable moment?" Who will ever hear "Thou Will Keep Him in Perfect Peace Whose Mind Is Stayed on Thee" and not think of Dr. Halverson singing it as a benediction at the close of the Sunday evening services?
We used to tell our children as we sat in church that they must be quiet and really listen, for this man is one of the great men of God in our time. Someone said today that Dick must be so excited to be gazing into the face of the Savior he shared with so many. And the response was that Jesus must also be excited to look into the face of his good and faithful servant.
Based on "He Lived What He Preached," by Jennifer Ferranti, first published in the April 1996 issue of World Vision magazine. Permission to use is gratefully acknowledged.
