Jerry Falwell dies, remembered in Bangor for church intervention

BANGOR – The Rev. Jerry Falwell, who died suddenly Tuesday in Lynchburg, Va., was remembered in Maine as the man who saved Bangor Baptist Church more than 20 years ago.

“If it were not for the generosity and guidance of the Rev. Falwell, our ministry would not be operating today,” the Rev. Jerry Mick said Tuesday afternoon in a phone interview. Mick, who has been pastor of the independent Baptist church on outer Broadway since 1997, was in Boston when he learned of Falwell’s death.

Falwell, 73, died Tuesday morning shortly after being found unconscious in his office at Liberty University. Dr. Carl Moore, Falwell’s physician, said he had a heart condition and presumably died of a heart rhythm abnormality. The evangelist and founder of the Moral Majority is credited with using the power of television to transform the religious right into a mighty force in American politics.

The last time Falwell came to Bangor, in November 2000, it was to help Bangor Baptist blast its mortgage into the night sky and watch it explode in a fireworks display. Falwell was part of the celebration, an event that ended a painful chapter in the church’s history: Fifteen years earlier, he helped the church restructure a debt of more than $2 million.

“What began with despair became a challenge that God was bigger than,” he told the 700 people who attended the celebration seven years ago, according to a Bangor Daily News article. “I cannot tell you how exciting it is to realize what great things the Lord has done in record time here.”

Bangor Baptist Church was founded in September 1966 when a dozen people began worshipping in the former YWCA with the Rev. Herman “Buddy” Frankland. A year later the church incorporated and in 1969 moved into its newly constructed brick building on outer Broadway on the campus where it still is located along with Bangor Christian Schools, radio station WHCF-FM and Grace Evangelical College and Seminary.

The congregation grew rapidly, Mick told the BDN previously, but with growth came increased debt. A year after Mick, who one day would lead the congregation, joined the church, Bangor Baptist was rocked by scandal.

In October 1985, founding pastor Frankland confessed publicly to having committed adultery and resigned as head of the church he had led for 19 years. Many left the congregation, and attendance dipped from more than 700 on a Sunday morning to a low of fewer than 70, Mick said in 2000. Enrollment at the school dipped to fewer than 100 students and the radio station tottered on insolvency.

Falwell and members of his Lynchburg, Va., ministry stepped in as interim pastor for four months. He sent the Rev. Ken Chapman, an instructor at Falwell’s Liberty University, to serve as pastor for the next two years. The church’s financial records were audited, and while there were no irregularities, the congregation was $2.2 million in debt. The debt was scheduled to be paid off in 2008, but thanks to a debt reduction plan Mick instituted when he took over as pastor, the church was debt-free eight years early.

In 2001, Bangor Baptist helped launch Grace Evangelical, the only evangelical seminary in northern New England. Falwell and his ministry have not been involved with the institution, the Rev. Lyman “Terry” Phillips, president of the seminary, said Tuesday, but a large part of the Virginia minister’s legacy is the example of great leadership skills he provides pastors and lay leaders.

“He showed us what a leader does,” Phillips said of Falwell’s impact on the broader church. “A leader can’t just communicate ideas, he’s got to get people excited about those ideas. He put legs to vision. He made the stars dance for people.”

At the mortgage burning party seven years ago, Falwell saw a bright future for the debt-free church.

“Bangor Baptist’s ministry will do greater works in the next 10, 20, 30 or 40 years,” he predicted. “[The Lord] brought you through the storm of the last 15 years, and you are stronger in every way. Spiritually, you have never been stronger than you are right now.”

Mick said Tuesday that the congregation is growing. Sunday attendance fluctuates between 750 and 900, and about 1,600 people attended services last month on Easter Sunday. There are 350 pupils in the school and the church has added a 50,000-watt contemporary Christian music station in addition to the 100,000-watt station, WHCF-FM, which Frankland founded.

“The credit all goes to Jerry,” Mick said. “Without him, it would not be there.”

Frankland, who has returned to the pulpit as pastor of Messiah Baptist Church in Bangor, also had fond memories of Falwell.

“He had real compassion for people and he was a giver as far as his time and his energy,” Frankland said. “I could say nothing but awfully good things about him.”

“We owe him an enormous amount of gratitude,” Mick said, “and because of his help, we are looking forward to a great future.

“He was just a very, very gracious man, always willing to help,” the pastor said.