George Vandeman
Encyclopedia
George Edward Vandeman (October 21, 1916 – November 3, 2000), was a Seventh-day Adventist
evangelist who founded the It Is Written
television ministry.#
) in Berrien Springs
, Michigan
. He found a job working at a weekly 15-minute radio broadcast in Elkhart
, Indiana
. While there, he met Nellie Johnson and they were married the following year on October 2, 1938 in South Bend
, Indiana. After completing his second year of college, Vandeman began working as a full-time evangelist. During a series of meetings in Muncie
, Indiana, Nellie gave birth to their first child, George Jr. The birth of their sons Richard and Robert soon followed. The Vandeman's fourth child, Connie, was born in 1956.
Vandeman received his Master of Arts
degree in speech and communication from the University of Michigan
. His 1946 thesis was entitled, "Spurgeon
's theory of preaching". He was then ordained
as a minister, and worked as a field instructor in evangelism at Emmanuel Missionary College for four years. He then joined the Ministerial Association at the General Conference
(world headquarters of the church) in 1947, taking the position of associate secretary, and at age 33 becoming one of the youngest to work in Adventist church leadership.
In the years following World War II
, Vandeman and other charismatic Adventist speakers like Fordyce Detamore spearheaded a drive for the public evangelism
of major cities. He conducted campaigns in Pittsburgh in 1948, Washington, D.C.
in 1951 and London
in 1952, amongst other places.
, he was asked by the new General Conference President R. R. Figuhr to continue with the Christian television program. Six years earlier then-president J. L. McElhany had convinced Vandeman to try television as a means of reaching others with the Gospel. As such, he created a six-month experimental evangelistic effort for television. At the time, he wasn’t able to get the financial support he needed, and temporarily put the effort on hold.
In the mid 1950s Vandeman started work on a series of television programs called "It Is Written
", which he planned to air for several weeks in an area as a warmup to an evangelistic program. In spring 1956, It Is Written launched its first telecast in black and white—a full-message, Bible study telecast in Washington, D.C. The program later became one of the first religious television
programs to air in color. The program's title was based on the Bible
verse , "It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God."
Vandeman ran the first It Is Written campaign in Fresno
, California
in 1958, and later in Washington, D.C., Detroit, Philadelphia and other cities. The telecast was launched to all of California in 1962, and this effort was followed by a month-long series at the Los Angeles
Memorial Sports Arena
. By the mid 1960s it was being broadcast internationally on a weekly basis.
In 1971, the It Is Written production studios moved to the Adventist Media Center in Thousand Oaks
, California. In 1975, Vandeman began conducting Revelation Seminars. The seminars consisted of a one-day, eight-hour Bible study followed by a luncheon. Over a course of 10 years, tens of thousands of It Is Written viewers traveled hundreds of miles to attend one of 300 seminars.
In 1979, the ministry’s success was noted by Excellence In Media, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting excellent family-oriented programs by honoring media with Angel Awards. Vandeman and the It Is Written team were given their first Angel award. They would ultimately received a total of 10 Angel Awards from Religion in Media. Vandeman was later presented with an International Distinguished Achievement Gold Angel award — Excellence in Media’s highest honor. In 1980 he received the Religious Heritage of America Faith and Freedom Award for Television Religious Personality of the Year. He was a member of Religious Heritage of America
, the Strategy for the Elevation of People Foundation, and the Year of the Bible
Committee. Vandeman was invited to presidential briefings during both the Reagan
and Bush
administrations.
By the 1980s, It Is Written had more than 600,000 regular viewers. That number surpassed 1.5 million in the 90s. In 1990, the It Is Written production team and Vandeman traveled to the Soviet Union
to tape "Empires in Collision," an eight-part series. It Is Written was one of the first religious telecasts to be aired on Soviet television
. In 2000 it was broadcast in 8 languages to over 150 countries. It was a "pioneering force" in Adventist evangelism.
One of his most popular series was "What I like about...", which investigated shared beliefs between Adventists and Baptists, Methodists
, Catholics, charismatics
and others. See: Seventh-day Adventist interfaith relations
.
Vandeman founded the New Gallery Centre in London.
He served as the primary speaker of It Is Written until his retirement in 1991, when Mark Finley
succeeded him. He died on November 3, 2000 at age 84, at his home in Newbury Park
, California of heart failure while asleep. He was survived by his wife, Nellie of Camarillo
, California, and by children George Jr., Bob, Ron, and Connie Vandeman Jeffery.
According to Paul Harvey
,
According to Paul Harvey
,
According to Mark Finley,
Seventh-day Adventist Church
The Seventh-day Adventist Church is a Protestant Christian denomination distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the original seventh day of the Judeo-Christian week, as the Sabbath, and by its emphasis on the imminent second coming of Jesus Christ...
evangelist who founded the It Is Written
It Is Written
It Is Written is an internationally broadcast Christian television program founded in 1956 by George Vandeman. Its title comes from the Gospel of Matthew: "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.'" The programs are produced by the...
television ministry.#
Biography
Vandeman was born in 1916, on 21 October. At the age of 21, he attended Emmanuel Missionary College (now Andrews UniversityAndrews University
Andrews University is a Seventh-day Adventist university in Berrien Springs, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1874 as Battle Creek College in Battle Creek, Michigan, it was the first higher education facility started by Seventh-day Adventists, and is the flagship university of the Seventh-day...
) in Berrien Springs
Berrien Springs, Michigan
Berrien Springs is a village in Berrien County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 1,862 at the 2000 census. The village is located within Oronoko Charter Township. Berrien Springs is best known for its Seventh-day Adventist community and Andrews University...
, Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
. He found a job working at a weekly 15-minute radio broadcast in Elkhart
Elkhart, Indiana
Elkhart is a city in Elkhart County, Indiana, United States. The city is located east of South Bend, northwest of Fort Wayne, east of Chicago, and north of Indianapolis...
, Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
. While there, he met Nellie Johnson and they were married the following year on October 2, 1938 in South Bend
South Bend, Indiana
The city of South Bend is the county seat of St. Joseph County, Indiana, United States, on the St. Joseph River near its southernmost bend, from which it derives its name. As of the 2010 Census, the city had a total of 101,168 residents; its Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 316,663...
, Indiana. After completing his second year of college, Vandeman began working as a full-time evangelist. During a series of meetings in Muncie
Muncie, Indiana
Muncie is a city in Center Township, Delaware County in east central Indiana, best known as the home of Ball State University and the birthplace of the Ball Corporation. It is the principal city of the Muncie, Indiana, Metropolitan Statistical Area, which has a population of 118,769...
, Indiana, Nellie gave birth to their first child, George Jr. The birth of their sons Richard and Robert soon followed. The Vandeman's fourth child, Connie, was born in 1956.
Vandeman received his Master of Arts
Master of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...
degree in speech and communication from the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
. His 1946 thesis was entitled, "Spurgeon
Charles Spurgeon
Charles Haddon Spurgeon was a large British Particular Baptist preacher who remains highly influential among Christians of different denominations, among whom he is still known as the "Prince of Preachers"...
's theory of preaching". He was then ordained
Ordination
In general religious use, ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart as clergy to perform various religious rites and ceremonies. The process and ceremonies of ordination itself varies by religion and denomination. One who is in preparation for, or who is...
as a minister, and worked as a field instructor in evangelism at Emmanuel Missionary College for four years. He then joined the Ministerial Association at the General Conference
General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists
The General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists is the governing organization of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. It is located in Silver Spring, Maryland, United States, where it moved in 1989...
(world headquarters of the church) in 1947, taking the position of associate secretary, and at age 33 becoming one of the youngest to work in Adventist church leadership.
In the years following World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Vandeman and other charismatic Adventist speakers like Fordyce Detamore spearheaded a drive for the public evangelism
Evangelism
Evangelism refers to the practice of relaying information about a particular set of beliefs to others who do not hold those beliefs. The term is often used in reference to Christianity....
of major cities. He conducted campaigns in Pittsburgh in 1948, Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
in 1951 and London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in 1952, amongst other places.
It Is Written
After returning from a mission project in EnglandEngland
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, he was asked by the new General Conference President R. R. Figuhr to continue with the Christian television program. Six years earlier then-president J. L. McElhany had convinced Vandeman to try television as a means of reaching others with the Gospel. As such, he created a six-month experimental evangelistic effort for television. At the time, he wasn’t able to get the financial support he needed, and temporarily put the effort on hold.
In the mid 1950s Vandeman started work on a series of television programs called "It Is Written
It Is Written
It Is Written is an internationally broadcast Christian television program founded in 1956 by George Vandeman. Its title comes from the Gospel of Matthew: "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.'" The programs are produced by the...
", which he planned to air for several weeks in an area as a warmup to an evangelistic program. In spring 1956, It Is Written launched its first telecast in black and white—a full-message, Bible study telecast in Washington, D.C. The program later became one of the first religious television
Religious broadcasting
Religious broadcasting refers to broadcasting by religious organizations, usually with a religious message. Many religious organizations have long recorded content such as sermons and lectures, and have moved into distributing content on their Internet websites.While this article emphasises...
programs to air in color. The program's title was based on the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
verse , "It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God."
Vandeman ran the first It Is Written campaign in Fresno
Fresno, California
Fresno is a city in central California, United States, the county seat of Fresno County. As of the 2010 census, the city's population was 510,365, making it the fifth largest city in California, the largest inland city in California, and the 34th largest in the nation...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
in 1958, and later in Washington, D.C., Detroit, Philadelphia and other cities. The telecast was launched to all of California in 1962, and this effort was followed by a month-long series at the Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
Memorial Sports Arena
Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena
The Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena is a multi-purpose arena, in the University Park neighborhood, of Los Angeles, California, at Exposition Park. It is located next to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, just south of the campus of the University of Southern California.-History:The Los Angeles...
. By the mid 1960s it was being broadcast internationally on a weekly basis.
In 1971, the It Is Written production studios moved to the Adventist Media Center in Thousand Oaks
Thousand Oaks, California
Thousand Oaks is a city in southeastern Ventura County, California, in the United States. It was named after the many oak trees that grace the area, and the city seal is adorned with an oak....
, California. In 1975, Vandeman began conducting Revelation Seminars. The seminars consisted of a one-day, eight-hour Bible study followed by a luncheon. Over a course of 10 years, tens of thousands of It Is Written viewers traveled hundreds of miles to attend one of 300 seminars.
In 1979, the ministry’s success was noted by Excellence In Media, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting excellent family-oriented programs by honoring media with Angel Awards. Vandeman and the It Is Written team were given their first Angel award. They would ultimately received a total of 10 Angel Awards from Religion in Media. Vandeman was later presented with an International Distinguished Achievement Gold Angel award — Excellence in Media’s highest honor. In 1980 he received the Religious Heritage of America Faith and Freedom Award for Television Religious Personality of the Year. He was a member of Religious Heritage of America
Religious Heritage of America
The Religious Heritage of America Foundation was founded by W. Clement Stone as a national interfaith organization in the U.S. It was instrumental in getting the phrase, "one nation, under God", added to the US Pledge of Allegiance....
, the Strategy for the Elevation of People Foundation, and the Year of the Bible
Year of the Bible
In the United States, 1983 was designated as the national Year of the Bible by President Ronald Reagan by Proclamation 5018, made on February 3, 1983 at the annual National Prayer Breakfast. President Reagan was authorized and requested to so designate 1983 by Public Law 97-280 In the United...
Committee. Vandeman was invited to presidential briefings during both the Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
and Bush
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...
administrations.
By the 1980s, It Is Written had more than 600,000 regular viewers. That number surpassed 1.5 million in the 90s. In 1990, the It Is Written production team and Vandeman traveled to the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
to tape "Empires in Collision," an eight-part series. It Is Written was one of the first religious telecasts to be aired on Soviet television
Television in the Soviet Union
Television in the Soviet Union was owned by the state and was under its tight control and Soviet censorship.The governing body in the former Soviet Union was "USSR State Committee for Television and Radio Broadcasting or USSR Gosteleradio , which was in charge both of Soviet Central...
. In 2000 it was broadcast in 8 languages to over 150 countries. It was a "pioneering force" in Adventist evangelism.
One of his most popular series was "What I like about...", which investigated shared beliefs between Adventists and Baptists, Methodists
Methodism
Methodism is a movement of Protestant Christianity represented by a number of denominations and organizations, claiming a total of approximately seventy million adherents worldwide. The movement traces its roots to John Wesley's evangelistic revival movement within Anglicanism. His younger brother...
, Catholics, charismatics
Charismatic movement
The term charismatic movement is used in varying senses to describe 20th century developments in various Christian denominations. It describes an ongoing international, cross-denominational/non-denominational Christian movement in which individual, historically mainstream congregations adopt...
and others. See: Seventh-day Adventist interfaith relations
Seventh-day Adventist interfaith relations
This article describes the relations between the Seventh-day Adventist Church and other Christian denominations and movements, and other religions. Adventist resist the movement to full ecumenical integration with other churches, believing that such a transition would result in a renouncing of its...
.
Vandeman founded the New Gallery Centre in London.
He served as the primary speaker of It Is Written until his retirement in 1991, when Mark Finley
Mark Finley
Mark A. Finley is the former speaker/director of It Is Written , for which he traveled around the world as a televangelist, and spoke on the weekly television show It Is Written...
succeeded him. He died on November 3, 2000 at age 84, at his home in Newbury Park
Newbury Park, California
The community of Newbury Park, California is located in the western portion of the city of Thousand Oaks and Casa Conejo, an unincorporated area of southeastern Ventura County's Conejo Valley, which is also in the northwestern Greater Los Angeles Area...
, California of heart failure while asleep. He was survived by his wife, Nellie of Camarillo
Camarillo, California
Camarillo is a city in Ventura County, California, United States. The population was 65,201 at the 2010 census, up from 57,084 at the 2000 census. The Ventura Freeway Camarillo is a city in Ventura County, California, United States. The population was 65,201 at the 2010 census, up from 57,084 at...
, California, and by children George Jr., Bob, Ron, and Connie Vandeman Jeffery.
According to Paul Harvey
Paul Harvey
Paul Harvey Aurandt , better known as Paul Harvey, was an American radio broadcaster for the ABC Radio Networks. He broadcast News and Comment on weekday mornings and mid-days, and at noon on Saturdays, as well as his famous The Rest of the Story segments. His listening audience was estimated, at...
,
- "George Vandeman has completed his earthly ministry in his 84th year. When the roll is called up yonder, and you and I hear that gently persuasive voice again...we'll know we made it to the right place."
Style
According to one report,- "Vandeman's warm voice defined a new approach for religious television. Instead of preaching, he quietly shared insights from God's Word to meet people's needs."
According to Paul Harvey
Paul Harvey
Paul Harvey Aurandt , better known as Paul Harvey, was an American radio broadcaster for the ABC Radio Networks. He broadcast News and Comment on weekday mornings and mid-days, and at noon on Saturdays, as well as his famous The Rest of the Story segments. His listening audience was estimated, at...
,
- "[Planet in Rebellion] impacted my life so constructively."
According to Mark Finley,
- "George Vandeman was a visionary who often was far ahead of his time". "He had the unique ability to see possibilities where others saw only problems. George had the ability to communicate to people at all levels, but he especially ministered to people who are highly educated, affluent, and in upper echelons of society. He seemed to understand their heartaches, their longings, and their basic human needs."
Publications
- Planet in Rebellion (1960)
- Psychic Roulette (circa 1973)
- The Cry of a Lonely Planet (1983)
- Lost at birth, save by miracle (1990)
- My Dream: Memoirs of a One-of-a-kind Disciple (1995)
- What I Like About...
External links
- It Is Written website
- Articles by Vandeman cataloged in the Seventh-day Adventist Periodical Index (SDAPI)