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Preached Live @ Second Ebenezer Church-Detroit, Michigan
Raised in poverty in Texas, Hill grew to be an early confidant of Martin Luther King Jr. and a close friend of Billy Graham. He also served as a leader in the National Baptist Convention, the nation's largest grouping of black churches, and in 1972 was elected as the youngest president of the California State Baptist Convention. Hill was co-chairman of the Baptist World Alliance and associate professor of evangelism for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. In 1971, he was one of eight black clergymen whom Graham took to the White House to speak privately with President Richard Nixon.
Hill would have celebrated his 42nd anniversary as pastor of Mt. Zion this month. Under his leadership, the Los Angeles Times reported Feb. 26, Hill's congregation became a center of political and social activism in Los Angeles that drew visits from presidents and preachers.
The Times said on one occasion, Graham arrived unannounced so he could hear Hill preach, and President George H.W. Bush visited Mt. Zion in the days following the 1992 Los Angeles riots.
A Republican, Hill gave the inaugural prayer for President Nixon's second term during Watergate and twice led clergy committees for Ronald Reagan's presidency, the Times said. Hill spoke often at Promise Keepers men's rallies across the nation and aligned himself with Christian conservatives such as Jerry Falwell.
"Located in the heart of the Watts section of L.A., Dr. Hill served as an important mediator between factions there," Falwell said in a release Feb. 25. "Even in the darkest times in that community, Dr. Hill always pointed people toward their only real hope -- Jesus Christ."
James Dobson, founder and president of Focus on the Family, counted Hill as a dear friend and example in the faith. In his "Complete Marriage and Family Home Reference Guide," Dobson answers a question about the ways men need their wives by giving an example of Hill and his first wife, Jane Edna Hill, who died in 1987.
As a struggling young preacher, Dobson said, Hill had trouble earning a living and decided to invest in the purchase of a service station. His wife knew he lacked the time and expertise to oversee his investment, and soon the station went broke and Hill lost everything.
"It was a critical time in the life of this young man," Dobson writes. "He had failed at something important, and his wife would have been justified in saying, 'I told you so.' But Jane had an intuitive understanding of her husband's vulnerability. Thus, when E.V. called to tell her that he had lost the station, she said simply, 'All right.'
"E.V. came home that night expecting his wife to be pouting over his foolish investment," Dobson continues. "Instead, she sat down with him and said, 'I've been doing some figuring. I figure that you don't smoke and you don't drink. If you smoked and drank, you would have lost as much as you lost in the service station. So it's six in one hand and a half-dozen in the other. Let's forget it.'"
Hill went on to write two books late in his ministry, one called "A Savior Worth Having" in 2002 and another called "Victory in Jesus" to be released in May. In "A Savior Worth Having," he told about being one of five children raised by a single mother during the Great Depression in rural Texas. A woman he called "Momma," who was of no relation to him, announced to her church when he was in the ninth grade that, "My boy is gonna finish high school." Most young black men in rural Texas dropped out of school in the 10th grade and started working for $2 a day. But Hill finished high school just as "Momma" said he would. Then she said he would go to college, so she bought him a bus ticket, a suit, a couple of pairs of blue jeans and some shirts, took him to the bus station, gave him $5 and said, "I'll be praying for you."
17 окт 2024
