An inspiring teacher, an out standing preacher, and an accomplished writer has been chosen to be the featured person for the H.M.S. Richards lectureship on preaching and evangelism for 1996. Mervyn A. Warren, chairperson of the Religion Department at Oakwood College, will deliver the lectures at the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary, Andrews University, October 20, 21, 1996. Warren has published an award-winning sermon in the first volume of Best Sermons (Harper San Francisco). In the Richards lectureship he will speak on the theme "Prickly Enquiries in the Side of Preaching."
The Richards lectureship honors the life and ministry of H.M.S. Richards, Sr. (1894-1985). The lectureship began in 1957, was sponsored by the Columbia Union Conference and cosponsored by Washington Missionary College (now Columbia Union College). Fifteen years later it was revived on the campus of Andrews University. The first and second lectureships at Andrews University involved two speaking teams, Wilber Alexander and Winton Beaven in 1994, and Ivan Blazen and Louis Venden in 1995. Besides thus honoring an Adventist evangelist, Andrews University has become the home of some of the precious papers of H.M.S. Richards. The Adventist Heritage Center of the James White Library at Andrews University has received more than 125 boxes of historical records from the Voice of Prophecy documenting its growth from the 1930s to the mid-1980s. The Voice of Prophecy, founded by H.M.S. Richards in 1930, is the longestrunning Christian evangelistic radio broadcast in the United States.
