EDITORS’ NOTE: The following three stories focusing on an outbreak of revival in Easley, South Carolina, during the early 1970s are part of a monthly Baptist Press series to explore and describe how individuals, churches, associations and conventions exhibit a passion for Christ and His Kingdom.
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Although 30 years have passed since its peak, those who were involved in a revival that spread across a wide region are still celebrating its impact.
According to those involved, a revival in Easley, South Carolina, began soon after a Christian coffeehouse opened in 1970. The outreach was organized by Southern Baptist layman Terry Ballenger and his wife, Greer.
“It was some golden days for my wife and me,” said Ballenger, communications manager at Blue Ridge Electric Cooperative near Easley. “We look back at what happened with a sense of awe. Jesus just showed up.”
Louisiana pastor Larry Thompson, one of the first converts, said the move spread to Easley High School and led to numerous area revival services.
From there, he said it spread to nearby Anderson and North Greenville colleges (now universities) and eventually to areas of Georgia and North Carolina.
The excitement also led Ballenger to charter two buses to take approximately 80 students to “Explo ’72” in Dallas, an evangelistic-oriented event organized by Campus Crusade for Christ.
No one tracked the number of conversions. Still, participants say because of the revival several dozen people are in fulltime Christian work today. Hundreds more are faithful church members.
Each Christmas season, 15 to 30 participants gather in Easley to reminisce about the revival and celebrate what God has done.
Dale Ellenburg, vice president for academics at Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary near Memphis, Tenn., likens what happened to a late 1850s revival that originated with a prayer meeting called by businessman Jeremiah Lanphier.
“It was an unexplained, spontaneous moving of the Holy Spirit that has put people in ministry throughout the past 30 years -– dozens of them,” Ellenburg said. “It was amazing.”
“I’ve never gotten over it,” said Thompson, pastor of First Baptist Church in Westlake, Louisiana. “I’ve never gotten over the Bible and seeing people saved. I get frustrated when it doesn’t happen. I have an intense desire to see revival come again.”
Ballenger, who found a closer walk with Christ through Campus Crusade while in college, organized a Sunday evening home Bible study for Easley teens that went by the name “Christians Unanimous.”
The Bible studies circulated to various participants’ homes before later settling in a hut in a city park that had once been home to a Boy Scout troop.
It became known as the coffeehouse because they brewed coffee in the beginning. Ironically, when no one drank any, they stopped serving it after six months, Ballenger said.
Thompson recalled how young people -– many dressed in 1970s “hippie” style clothing -– painted the hut’s walls black and added Scripture verses in fluorescent colors. The verses would glow when the youth turned on a black neon light.
The primitive furniture and fireplace contributed to a casual atmosphere that drew crowds of high school and college students, Thompson said.
The coffeehouse was open Thursday and Friday nights and Sunday evenings after church.
After fellowship, Ballenger would call for quiet and teens would be expected to read or study the Bible. This would be followed by prayer, testimonies and music, Thompson said. “Then we would hit whatever restaurant would let us scrounge there,” he joked.
“We were always free to let the Holy Spirit lead,” Thompson said. “Sometimes on Sunday there would be a guest speaker, but more often than not there was a teen doing preaching or teaching.”
These early sparks quickly spread to Easley High School, where morning Bible clubs formed. In addition to drawing dozens of students, the clubs led to revival meetings at the high school and other locations.
While Christian speakers gave anti-drug or other positive messages in school assemblies, they would invite students to return to evening revival meetings, Thompson said.
“A bunch of us were asked to do youth revivals,” Thompson said. “I was 18 years old, in blue jeans, preaching at First Baptist churches across the state and people were getting saved constantly.
“It wasn’t just at church and youth rallies. Many of us led people to Christ in classes, at restaurants and at football games. It was natural for me to get a knock on the door at 2 or 3 in the morning and someone who had been a Christian for one or two weeks would say, ‘Joe needs to get saved. Can you tell him how to do that?’”
Although known as the leader, Ballenger said he wasn’t that spiritually mature when the revival began.
When standing-room-only crowds materialized a year after the coffeehouse opened, Ballenger recognized God was doing something special.
“I helped as I could but I had to grow myself,” Ballenger said. “That ministry encouraged me and helped me get deeper in my faith. I got deeper into the Word and understanding the Old Testament and how it’s important to the New Testament.
“All those things brought me to a better understanding of how to live as a Christian. The discipline of a daily quiet time is something I practice to this day.”
Despite the excitement, the revival ebbed in the latter half of the 1970s, something Ellenburg called natural.
“Revivals and great awakenings don’t last,” Ellenburg said. “They’re not supposed to; you can’t stay in perpetual revival. God graciously sends them for times of refreshing.”
Measured against societal changes of the past 35 years, though, the question is whether the coffeehouse is a viable model for other communities that would like to see a youth revival.
While Ballenger thinks it is possible, he said it won’t be simple to replicate, particularly because of life’s hectic pace.
For example, he mentioned how Easley used to come to a standstill because almost everyone went to high school football games on Friday nights; today, however, that isn’t as common because of other distractions, such as video games, the Internet, cable TV and mega-malls.
Still, Ballenger pointed out that young people still hunger for spiritual growth and answers to life’s perplexing problems.
Whether a coffeehouse or another venue or strategy, Ballenger said, “It would be up to us as believers, especially those of us who want to see young people get off on the right foot, to figure out what that is.”
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REVIVAL AT A COFFEEHOUSE STILL FUELS THEIR MINISTRY, by Ken Walker
The revival that drew Larry Thompson to Christ as a 17-year-old continues to influence his ministry long after he left South Carolina for pastorates in four other states.
“These are the kind of things I have attempted all through my ministry,” the pastor of First Baptist Church in Westlake, Louisiana, said. “I’ve often said that I’ve based my ministry on teaching the principles of revival, just in case the Holy Spirit decides to do it again.”
In particular, Thompson retains a strong desire to see others accept Christ. This spark was lit by his conversion in the early days of a revival that began in Easley, South Carolina, and a youth conference that summer sponsored by the South Carolina Baptist Convention.
In addition to lessons from the conference on prayer and personal Bible study, Thompson attended sessions on how to share his faith. By Thursday of that week, he had led his first convert to Christ and by Sunday, two dozen more.
And he wasn’t the only person from Easley who led numerous people to Jesus, Thompson said.
Reflecting on the revival, the pastor outlined four primary traits that characterized it:
• AN INTENSE DEDICATION TO THE WORD OF GOD.
Counting Sunday and Wednesday nights, some participants were involved in Bible study five nights a week, Thompson said.
“Most of us carried the Bible everywhere,” Thompson said. “A lot of us got ridiculed because of that.”
• AN INTENSE DESIRE TO SEE OTHER PEOPLE COME TO CHRIST.
The people involved in spreading the revival knew they needed to lead their friends, co-workers and others to Christ, so they prayed and witnessed together, Thompson said.
• AN INTENSE BOLDNESS.
Thompson said once when a girl at school heard a group of football players swearing, she shouted, “Stop it! That’s my Father you’re talking about!”
As a result, the starting quarterback accepted Jesus as his Savior as did several other players, Thompson said.
• INTENSE LOYALTY.
The youth who were experiencing revival identified with each other as fellow Christians, not a denominational entity, Thompson said.
“There was nothing we wouldn’t do for each other,” he said.
Others called into ministry because of the Easley Revival have similarly fond memories, such as Dale Ellenburg, vice president of academics at Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary near Memphis, Tenn.
In addition to his academic credentials, Ellenburg has served in pastoral roles for 24 of the past 31 years.
Currently serving as a preaching associate at Kirbywoods Baptist Church, Ellenburg attributes his love of the pulpit to the spiritual fire that touched him as a teenager.
“In 1975 I surrendered to ministry because of the spiritual excitement at the coffeehouse,” Ellenburg said, referencing the initial gathering point in Easley where the revival began. “And after 31 years in ministry, I haven’t seen anything like it.
“To this day I love teenagers and desire to see another revival among teenagers. God’s done it before. I hope He’ll do it again.”
Although he accepted Christ at the age of 9, as a teenager Ellenburg said he had strayed from God and embraced a rebellious lifestyle.
That is, until he went to the coffeehouse.
“Those people talked about a relationship with Christ that was so fresh and real,” Ellenburg said. “I had never experienced anything like that.
“Those folks led me to a firm rededication of my life [to Christ] that is as much a hallmark as my salvation at 9.”
Although he went to one of the earlier home Bible studies with a girlfriend, he didn’t visit the coffeehouse until after they broke up and a football teammate invited him.
From that night on, the Holy Spirit began working in his life, Ellenburg said.
While he recommitted his life to Christ at a meeting where evangelist Bob Harrington spoke, Ellenburg said he wouldn’t have been there if it hadn’t been for the coffeehouse group.
“At first the area churches were afraid of us,” Ellenburg said. “But little by little they began to realize [that the leader] Terry Ballenger was the real deal. He wasn’t going to let that thing get out of hand theologically.”
At the time, Ellenburg said, no one realized the length and breadth of what God was doing.
Looking back, he calls it “remarkable” that several dozen people from a small town are scattered across the world in ministry positions.
Terrell Peace agreed, saying the number of participants who followed that path was disproportionate to the size of Easley, about 10,000 then (approximately 18,000 today).
“The thing I never thought about that much was the inspiration and leadership of the Holy Spirit and leading people into ministry,” said Peace, director of teacher education at Huntington University in northeast Indiana.
An engineering major at Clemson University when the revival started and a member of Easley’s Brushy Creek Baptist Church, Peace was a frequent coffeehouse speaker.
Still, Peace was close to enrolling in graduate school for further engineering studies when he sensed God calling him to a different occupation, which Peace attributes to the revival’s influence.
Finally, Peace took a day off to pray and list the pros and cons of engineering versus ministry. The latter won out; Peace spent three years with Campus Crusade for Christ before enrolling in seminary.
“All the pros for grad school were monetary and all the pros for ministry were eternal,” Peace said.
“I don’t know that I ever connected the dots to that whole revival thing. We had a couple guys who went into ministry with the Navigators, some to Campus Crusade for Christ and a lot into churches.”
Peace ultimately chose an educational path. After earning his master’s and doctoral degrees at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, he taught in its religious education school for 11 years.
Eight years ago Peace moved to Huntington, a small school sponsored by the United Brethren in Christ.
Though no longer in a Southern Baptist environment, Peace said one reason the revival occurred is because people were willing to set aside denominational labels.
“I think we’ve lost some of that willingness to see the larger body,” Peace said. “I think our desire for uniformity rather than unity is a barrier to that kind of movement.”
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MULTITUDE OF LAYPEOPLE TESTIFY TO REVIVAL’S LASTING IMPACT, by Ken Walker
For layman Terry Ballenger, a gratifying result of the revival that broke out in Easley, South Carolina, in the early 1970s is hearing the preaching of those who were called into the ministry and how their spiritual gifts have developed over the years.
Ballenger, communications manager at Blue Ridge Electric Cooperative, is equally pleased with the vast numbers now serving as deacons, Sunday School teachers and Christian influences in the workplace.
After listing examples in nursing, accounting and the federal government, Ballenger said, “You’ve got folks like that I can name right and left who went into secular work like me.
“In 1970 I saw myself going to seminary. I told my boss when I came here, ‘I’m giving you one year and if I feel the Lord calling me, I’ll have to go.’ But I never felt the Lord calling me.”
Ballenger isn’t fond of the notion that God’s call refers primarily to becoming a pastor, missionary or Christian educator.
He noted that the tendency to see pastors as a church’s primary witness leads to members expecting the pastor to do all hospital and home visitation when not all pastors have that gift.
“My prayer is more people in the church will get involved in ministry,” Ballenger said. “When the church is the church, that takes the load off the pastor so he can spend his time praying and studying and preparing sermons.”
A pair of church members touched by the Easley revival are among those who have lived out this call over the past 30 years.
Cathy McQueen, who has worked in a variety of occupations, including currently managing a prison industry for the South Carolina Department of Corrections, said she shares her faith whenever the opportunity arises.
“If we relied on the pastoral staff to do everything, it couldn’t be done,” McQueen said. “My calling has been to be what I can, to be where I can, where God wants me.”
McQueen, who often led spiritual discussions at the coffeehouse in Easley where the revival began, noted that it couldn’t be identified with Baptist, Presbyterian or with any other denomination.
“It was Jesus-centered,” McQueen said. “I honestly do not think I would be where I am in my faith had I not had that when I did.
“If people don’t have a group to bond with, it’s like trees in a forest,” she added. “If one is alone, the wind could blow it over. But if it’s in a cluster, the wind may blow off a few branches, but it won’t fall.”
Then attending Glenwood Baptist Church in Easley, McQueen was a student at the University of South Carolina when the revival broke out.
Though active with Campus Crusade for Christ, McQueen often drove home on weekends to attend coffeehouse meetings.
“The coffeehouse ministry and all it entailed felt like a safe place,” McQueen said. “The early ’70s was a different time; there was a lot going on. What Terry and Greer [Ballenger] did to hold that together was mind-boggling.
“They gave a lot -- to give us the foundation they did. I feel like we’ve been their children because they never had any children. They were willing to answer a call they heard and give us the freedom to find our own call.”
Members of Northside Baptist Church in suburban Columbia, South Carolina, for 24 years, she and her husband have been Sunday School teachers, choir members and athletic coaches while raising three children. However, because of serious parental illnesses in recent years, they dropped such activities to act as caregivers.
Such strains help McQueen appreciate the spiritual lessons she gleaned from the Easley revival.
“There are times I feel the pull of that foundation,” McQueen said. “Even if things get rough, I can pull back and center myself. That truly is what keeps my life together.”
Gene Odom, a veteran in sales who now works with an executive search firm in the Atlanta area, has been an active church member ever since the Easley revival.
He and his wife attend an interdenominational church where they are active in two small groups. Over the years he has been a Sunday School teacher, youth leader and hosted home Bible studies. The Odoms also started a Young Life outreach while living in Edwardsville, Illinois.
Odom grew up at Park Street Baptist Church in Easley and first attended college at Anderson University, then a junior college.
When the revival spread from Easley to Anderson, Odom and a friend formed a music and speaking team that traveled to various high schools, including his alma mater.
“Once I went down there I was hooked,” Odom said of the Easley coffeehouse. “It was a mainstay in the community.”
The revival had a key impact on his life, Odom recounted. While attending the “Explo ‘72” evangelistic event in Dallas with a group from Easley, he met a group from Greenville (Ill.) College, where he had been invited to play for the baseball team. And he met a couple there who offered to help pay for his schooling since Greenville didn’t offer athletic scholarships.
After enrolling at the college, he met his wife.
“This was a turning point in my spiritual career,” Odom said of the chain of events that led him to Greenville. “Next to my salvation, the best thing that happened to me was meeting my wife.”
The coffeehouse also showed him the reality of following Christ in daily life, after previously having seen numerous church members act one way on Sundays and differently during the week.
However, at the coffeehouse, kids had a chance to fellowship in a setting that proved to be authentic, Odom said, noting, “I had an opportunity to see people live their faith during the week, not just on Sunday,” Odom said.
“That has stuck with me all my life. I believe that’s why all our [three] kids love the Lord. We are no different this afternoon than on Sunday.”
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