IFF: Your book, All in for Jesus: The Life and Ministry of John Guest, has just been published. Congratulations.
Smith: Thank you.
IFF: What led you to write this book?
Smith: I was asked to write John Guest’s biography by leaders of the church he pastored for many years in Sewickley, Pennsylvania, called Christ Church at Grove Farm. The congregation’s current senior pastor is Craig Gyergyo, a 1996 graduate of Grove City College. He majored in elementary education and was an offensive lineman on the football team. His wife, Lisa, who graduated from GCC in 2001, is the daughter of former dean of the chapel, Stan Keehlwetter. Craig and Lisa have two daughters attending GCC—Molly ’27 and Lucy ’28.
IFF: Why is John Guest an important figure in American evangelicalism?
Smith: Guest has been a pioneering figure in Christian rock music, the pastor of two large, prominent congregations in the Pittsburgh area, an evangelist who has led crusades in more than 40 cities in the United States, Eastern Europe, and Africa. He has helped found numerous Christian organizations, including the Coalition for Christian Outreach and Trinity Anglican Seminary, written eight books, and had a long and influential radio ministry. Arguably, in the last one hundred years, only Billy Graham, Leighton Ford, Franklin Graham, Luis Palau, and James Robison have spoken to larger numbers of people about accepting Jesus Christ as their savior and Lord than has John Guest. Thousands of people have become Christians through Guest’s ministry, and he has mentored many men and women who have become important Christian leaders. Guest has been a featured speaker for dozens of important events around the world, including several Promise Keepers conferences.
IFF: Tell us about John Guest’s background.
Smith: Guest grew up in an impoverished family and survived the horrors of the Nazi bombing of London in World War II. He was born in Oxford, but after his father died, he spent the last two years of the war with relatives in two of the more heavily bombed sections of London. After becoming a Christian at age seventeen at a Billy Graham crusade at Harringay Arena in London in 1954, Guest graduated from Clifton Theological College, an Anglican seminary in Bristol, England. Following his ordination as an Anglican minister, he worked as a curate (an assistant to a rector) in Bristol and Liverpool.
IFF: What brought Guest to the United States?
Smith: Between his two assignments as a curate, he spent four months in the United States speaking to and playing his guitar and singing for various Christian groups along the Eastern seaboard. A businessman who sponsored his trip repeatedly invited him to return to the United States to work, and Guest eventually felt God’s call to do so.
IFF: What was Guest’s initial ministry in the United States?
Smith: After arriving in 1966, he worked for Scripture Union, playing his guitar and singing, sharing the gospel with young people, and encouraging them to use Scripture Union books and study guides to help them better understand the Bible. Guest soon formed a musical duo with Charles Hess. They played Christian folk and rock music, performed at Urbana, the giant InterVarsity Christian Fellowship missionary conference, in 1967 and produced an album titled Another Week to Go. After Hess was drafted to serve in Vietnam, Guest partnered with a band called the Ekhursions. Under the auspices of InterVarsity, they performed on dozens of college campuses, at numerous coffee shops, and various other venues including in conjunction with Billy Graham’s crusade in New York City in June 1969. Along with the Sons of Thunder, they were the first Christian rock bands.
IFF: What changed Guest’s ministry from music to the pastorate and evangelism?
Smith: While speaking at a youth conference in Barrington, Rhode Island, in August 1968, Guest met Reid Carpenter, the head of Pittsburgh-area Young Life, an organization that ministers to high school students. Guest was intrigued by the quest of Carpenter and others to make Pittsburgh as famous for God as for steel and accepted an offer to come to Pittsburgh to work with college students. Guest initially continued his itinerant ministry with the Exhursions, but he soon also became the youth pastor at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Sewickley. He also co-founded the Coalition for Christian Outreach, which provided Christian leaders to work in various capacities on college campuses in the tri-state region.
IFF: What happened next?
Smith: Guest was surprisingly called to be the rector of St. Stephen’s in December 1971, which led him to resign as the executor director of the Coalition. For the next 20 years, Guest led St. Stephens as its Sunday morning attendance quadrupled and it became one of the largest Episcopal churches in the nation. During these years, Guest promoted spiritual renewal in the denomination and helped found The National Institute of Christian Leadership, the National Organization of Episcopalians for Life Research and Education Foundation, the South American Mission Society, Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry (now Trinity Anglican Seminary), and the Pittsburgh Leadership Foundation.
IFF: What prompted Guest to become an evangelist?
Smith: In the early 1980s, Guest, accompanied by members of St. Stephen’s, began doing occasional weekend preaching missions throughout the nation. Guest soon sensed God’s call to expand his evangelistic ministry and organized city-wide crusades beginning in Grand Rapids in 1985. He created the John Guest Evangelistic team to direct these campaigns. In 1987, St. Stephen’s released him half-time from his pastoral duties to conduct evangelistic series.
IFF: What result did this produce?
Smith: In 1990, Guest resigned as the co-rector of St. Stephen’s and became a full-time evangelistic. He led campaigns in many other American cities and in Romania, Ukraine, Russia, Uganda, Cuba, Albania, and Ghana. He preached to hundreds of thousands of people, many of whom committed their lives to Jesus Christ.
IFF: What led Guest to return to pastoral ministry?
Smith: Guest greatly enjoyed his work as an evangelist, but it was extremely demanding, and crusades were becoming increasingly difficult to conduct. He also missed the fellowship that came from interacting with a church family. When the New Church of Sewickley (soon renamed Christ Church at Grove Farm) called him to serve as its pastor in September 1995, he accepted. Under his leadership, this church plant grew from 120 to 1,600 members, with a Sunday-morning attendance of about 1,300. Christ Church sponsored 70 ministries that provided a wide variety of opportunities for Christian growth and community service.
IFF: John Guest’s story is fascinating, and his impact for Christ has been huge. We encourage people to read this stimulating account of his life and ministry. Thanks, Dr. Smith, for another unique and important work for the faith.