Graham Pulkingham - Building Up A Run-down Church in Houston

Building Up A Run-down Church in Houston

In September 1963, Graham Pulkingham took over as rector of the Church of the Redeemer in Eastwood, a Houston suburb. Few people attended, and there was a sense of terminal decay. All this changed in August 1964 when Pulkingham drove to New York to seek counsel of David Wilkerson, whose book "The Cross and the Switchblade" had made him famous. Pulkingham's original intent was to ask Wilkerson's advice on ministering to drug-addicted youth but Wilkerson discerned that Pulkingham lacked the necessary spiritual power to change his church, much less the surrounding neighborhood. Wilkerson prayed over Pulkingham to be "baptized in the Holy Spirit," a post-conversion experience mentioned several times in the New Testament Book of Acts as essential to the Christian life. This experience transformed Pulkingham and he returned to Houston a changed man. Pulkingham began preaching dynamic sermons, people started getting miraculously healed at Redeemer's altar and visitors began pouring in. By 1966, a group of five elders had formed including Graham, a Methodist layman called Ladd Fields, Galveston attorney Jerry Barker, a local physician known as Dr. Bob Eckert and John Grimmet, a foreman at Houston Lighting and Power. The elders began inviting people - many of them trying to get off drugs - to live with them, unintentionally starting a community household experiment that eventually included nearly 400 people in 40 households. By 1972, the average weekly attendance figure had reached 2,200 and Sunday morning attendance alone was 900-1000 people. In September 1972, Pulkingham relocated 27 church members including himself and his family to Coventry, England to start a community there and his assistant, Jeff Schiffmayer, eventually replaced him as rector. Pulkingham returned to Redeemer for a brief stint from 1980-1982, returned to the UK, then relocated his community to Aliquippa, Pa. in 1985.

Jeff Schiffmayer resigned in 1983 to start a mission church in College Station, Texas. He was succeeded by Ladd Fields, one of the five original elders of Redeemer during its heyday in the 1960s. Fields was succeeded in 1994 by Steve Capper, an Episcopal priest from Indianapolis. Redeemer had several more rectors over the years as its membership declined. Unable to carry out extensive repairs needed on the building, it closed in late February 2011 with a congregation of 70. However, while the physical church building closed its doors, the congregation continues to worship and minister to the community. They are currently sharing a worship space with a nearby Lutheran church.