All You Need Is Faith In God!

Years ago when I was growing up I remember this yelling preacher on the radio. Each morning as my mom would drive us to school she would have the radio tuned into to a local christian station. This was a station that had more preaching on it than music. Since that trip to school was typically the same 10-15 minute window every morning, I got real familiar with this one preacher. There was never a day when he didn't get cranked up. At some point during those 10 to 15 minutes he would let loose. To this day I still remember how he ended every program. "You don't have any trouble, all you need is faith in God!"

This screaming preacher was R.W. Schambach. Its really interesting that years later I would find myself working at that very radio station that I once listened to when I was a child. One of the programs that I often played during my shift was "The Voice of Power," with R.W. Schambach. He never changed his style of delivery. He seemed to embody the idea that it was like fire shut-up in his bones.

I learned this week that heaven welcomed him home. My first thought was one of great sorrow. Not for him, but for us. As for him, I can picture him today shouting, dancing, singing, and having a blast. But, for us, we just lost a powerful man of God. I met a lot of ministers while working at that radio station, but unfortunately I never had the opportunity to meet R.W. Schambach face to face. I heard stories though of those who had met him. All of the stories were consistent. He was an intimidating figure. Not in a bad way, but in the sense that he carried with him an anointing that often made you feel as Isaiah did when he was in the presence of the Lord and fell face down on the floor. I heard it said of his eyes that they seemed to pierce right through you. I heard from men who knew him that what you saw on the platform wasn't simply a charismatic preacher but was the result of a man who had been with Jesus and was consistently found in prayer.

While I'm sure there are those who couldn't handle the preaching style of Rev. Schambach, its hard to ignore the fact that because of his faithfulness to God's call on his life that millions of lives were affected. Heaven is and will continue to be populated by those who were touched by this man's ministry. There are those who are saved, healed, and delivered today because this preacher shouted the life changing message of Jesus wherever he went. I heard him say once that "it seems like God has sent me to the poor, the hurting, and the outcast." It was a calling he seemed to truly embrace. He didn't set up camp and go after the rich in order to fill his pocketbook and to provide him with a lavish lifestyle. He went after those to whom he was called in order to set the captives free and fill up heaven. While some would call him "old-school," I think ministers today could learn a great deal from this man.

As time ticks away, our generation is quickly losing great men of God like R.W. Schambach. What's sad is many young men and women today fail to see the value in men like him. Ministers go to school, learn preaching techniques, how to read Greek and Hebrew, and how to gather a crowd. They think they've arrived when they have a group of people who will sit and listen to them as they show off all their knowledge of Scripture with a polished delivery style. And they are extremely successful if they can gather more than the guy down the street. Somehow, I think R.W. Schambach wasn't near as focused on the number that showed up as he was in the number of people whose lives were transformed by the power of God. Schambach was a pillar in the body of Christ. I'm just wondering who in our generation picks up his mantle?

Schambach is one of those men who left this earth better off than it was when he got here. He impacted the world by simply allowing God to work through him. I was one of those impacted by his ministry and I will be forever grateful for his faithfulness to the call of God. I will never forget and we all would do good to never forget that "we don't have any trouble, all we need is faith in God!"