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Saturday, June 12, 2010

CHARLES LIVINGSTON ALLEN Christian Pastor and Author

Charles Livingston Allen

written by Mary Katherine May
QualityMusicandBooks.com


The Christian is not one who has gone all the way with Christ.
None of us has. The Christian is one who has found the right road.
… Charles Livingston Allen

Charles Livingston Allen was born in 1913 to the Rev. J. R. Allen and Lula Franklin Allen, one of six brothers and sisters whose childhood was lived out in church parsonages, the first in Newborn, Georgia.

Allen was a very successful church leader. His style of preaching has been called “lucid and transparent.” In 1947, Charles founded the homiletical Journal, Pulpit Preaching, which later became Pulpit Digest He spent the bulk of his pastoral years at Grace United Methodist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, and at First Methodist Church in Houston, Texas. During his tenure, the first grew to be the largest Methodist Church in Georgia, while the latter became the largest Methodist church in the world with 12,000 members.

Rev. Allen is the author of over forty books, pamphlets and articles, many of which are still in print. His most popular book was God’s Psychiatry. One book store in Atlanta sold more copies of this book that Gone with the Wind.

In 1954, following the Supreme Court Brown v. Board of Education Ruling , several states prepared to close their public schools rather than desegregate. In Georgia, the state legislature passed laws that would allow the privatization of their school system. The pastoral community came together against the unchristian actions of the community when eighty pastors signed what has come to be known as the Minister’s Manifesto in November, 1957. Charles Livingston Allen was one of the signers. It was published in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Leila Haynes Allen, Charle’s wife, were the parents of three children. One son and his wife preceded him in death. Charles went home to be with the Lord in 2005 at the age of 92.

In his biographical obituary printed in the Houston Chronicle, it states that along with the authoring of many books, he was a columnist for the Chronicle, he conducted more than thirty tours of the Holy Land, and preaching during his life time on five continents.

Despite all of his achievements, there is very little on the internet about Pastor Allen. The two links provided here contain the bulk of the information available, and following is a partial bibliography of his works.

Links and References

Wikipedia Article : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_L._Allen
Charles L. Allen Obituary: http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl?id=2005_3900507
Minister’s Manifesto: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15643777
Charles L. Allen Publications: Partial Bibliography 

1943 When Christmas Came to Bethlehem 1964 
19-- Two Sermons 
1952 In Quest of God's Power 
1953 God's Psychiatry: Healing for the Troubled Heart
1953 Change Your Life in Seven Days with the Twenty-Third Psalm
1955 The Grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ .
1955 When the Heart Is Hungry: Christ's Parables for Today
1956 Touch of the Master's Hand: Christ's Miracles for Today, The
1957 Christmas in Our Hearts
1958 Peace of Jesus 
1958 All Things Are Possible Through Prayer : And the Healing Power of Poetry
1959 When You Lose a Loved One 
1959 Candle, Star and Christmas Tree
196- Eternal Life [and] the Twenty-Third Psalm
1961 Healing Words
1961, © 1948 Our church : a brief statement concerning the origin, faith and outreach of the Evangelical United Brethren Church for members and prospective members 
1961 Twenty-Third Psalm (gift edition)
1962 Life of Christ, The
1963 God's psychiatry : the Twenty-third Psalm, the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, the Beatitudes
1964 12 Ways to Solve Your Problems
Charles L. Allen speaks to you through the Sermon on the Mount.
1966 Sermon on the Mount
1967 Beatitudes, The: an Interpretation
1968 I Believe
1968 Roads to Radiant Living
1969 The riches of prayer. Selections from All things are possible through prayer and Prayer changes things,
1970 Charles L. Allen Treasury, The
1972 When You Graduate
1972 Miracle of Love, The
1973 Miracle of Hope, The
1974 Miracle of the Holy Spirit, The
1976 What I Have Lived By: an autobiography
19-- Lord's Prayer, The 

Mary and Rick May own QualityMusicandBooks.com, an online Christian gift, music and book webstore based in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  Mary hosts and produces The House United, a Christian variety problem through Northwest Community Television in the Northwest suburbs of Minneapolis, MN.

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