Anyone who has ever attended a Billy Graham Crusade will recall hearing the smooth bass-baritone voice of George Beverly Shea (1909-2013 … yes, he lived to be 104!) singing what many regarded to be his signature song, “I’d Rather Have Jesus.” That, along with “How Great Thou Art,” have become permanently associated with him.
The crusade choir composed of hundreds of singers from local churches led the singing under the director of Cliff Barrows, all seated beneath the huge white banner, with the words from John 14:6, “Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.” It’s hard to picture one of those crusade meetings without hearing in your mind the sound of Bev (as he preferred to be called) singing, and then Billy standing up at the podium as he delivered his sermon, his Bible held high and folded open in one hand with his index finger of the other hand pointing to the audience as he said, “The Bible says ….”
Shea was often described as “America’s beloved gospel singer” and was considered “the first international singing ‘star’ of the gospel world,” as a consequence of his solos at Billy Graham Crusades and his exposure on radio, records and television. Because of the large attendance at those crusades around the globe, it is estimated that Shea sang live before more people than anyone else in history. Toward the end of his life, he recalled that he had sung “I’d Rather Have Jesus” more times than any other.
That signature song of his, “I’d Rather Have Jesus” had a very special place in Bev Shea’s heart. He often told the story of how it came to be written. He composed the music for these 1922 lyrics from Mrs. Rhea F. Miller (1894-1966). She was the wife of Dr. H. V. Miller, one of the General Superintendents of the Church of the Nazarene. After her husband’s death, she taught piano and traveled all around the area in her little gray Nash coupe giving lessons. It was her mission to get into pastors’ homes and teach the children how to play the piano so that they would have something to contribute to the church when they grew to adulthood. She would offer to teach these kids for free and to make up the difference with her other students. She was known as a very inspirational woman and made a deep impact on many lives. She had a very positive personality and was always smiling, full of encouragement, and always enthusiastic.
Her father, Martin James Ross, had been a drunk for some time and would actually steal money from his wife’s purse, just to get enough money to buy another drink. Mrs. Ross was a good, solid, faithful Christian, though, and she just kept living her life for Jesus. She would walk to church in any kind of weather – rain, snow, sleet, mud, whatever it was – just to get there to be with God’s people. Eventually her steadfastness broke through the walls with which her husband had isolated himself. He surrendered to the wooing of God’s Spirit and was wonderfully delivered from the awful bondage of sin. He stood one night in a service in Brooktondale and began his testimony of how much Jesus meant to him with the words, “I’d rather have Jesus than all the gold or silver in the whole world. I’d rather have Him than anything this world has to offer.” As Rhea Miller sat there and heard the words of her father’s testimony, a new song was born: “I’d Rather Have Jesus”.
Bev Shea said he was 23 when he found the song in 1932. While he wrote the music that year, he didn’t copyright his version until 1939. Here he describes (from his book. “How Sweet the Sound”) the impact that this song had on him. One Sunday morning in the family home by the piano he discovered a poem with the title “I’d Rather Have Jesus.”
At the age of twenty-three, I was living at home with my parents, continuing to work at Mutual Life Insurance and studying voice. Going to the piano one Sunday morning, I found a poem waiting for me there. I recognized my mother’s handwriting. She had copied the words of a poem by Mrs. Rhea F. Miller, knowing that I would read the beautiful message, which speaks of choice. As I read these precious words: “I’d rather have Jesus than men’s applause. I’d rather be faithful to His dear cause.” I found myself singing the words in a melody that expressed the feelings of my heart.
George Beverly Shea was born on February 1, 1909 in Winchester, Ontario, Canada, the fourth of eight children of Rev. Adam Joseph Shea, a Wesleyan Methodist Church minister, and his wife. The family served churches in Winchester, Ontario, Houghton, New York, Ottawa, Ontario, Syracuse, New York, and Jersey City, New Jersey. Bev died on April 16, 2013 in Montreat, North Carolina, near the mountain home of Billy Graham. He was buried at the Billy Graham Library. He married his first wife, Erma L. Sharfe in 1934. She had been his childhood sweetheart. They had two children: Ronnie and Elaine, both of whom became committed believers at a young age. Erma died in 1976, and in 1985 he remarried, the ceremony being performed in Billy Graham’s home. This second wife, Karlene Aceto, 33 years younger than he (she was born in 1942), died in 2013, the same year as Bev’s death. They had enjoyed 28 years of great happiness. Friends remember Bev being like a teenage in love when he and Karlene wed!
Shea himself said that he became a Christian at the age of five or six, but made a rededication to Christ when he was 18, at the Sunnyside Wesleyan Methodist Church in Ottawa.
There were times when I needed to rededicate my life to the Lord Jesus. When I was 18, my dad was pastoring a church in Ottawa, and I was feeling not too spiritual. The church was having a “special effort,” as they called it, for a week. I remember that on Friday night Dad came down from the pulpit and tenderly placed his hand on my shoulder. He whispered, “I think tonight might be the night, son, when you come back to the Lord.” Whatever Dad did or said, I listened to him and respected him. And, yes, that was the night!
Shea was taught to play the violin by his father, and the piano and organ by his mother. Shea’s bass-baritone voice brought early recognition and provided many opportunities for him to sing in his father’s church. He began singing at religious meetings in the Ottawa Valley. Shea attended Annesley College in Ottawa, before transferring in 1928 to Houghton College in southwestern New York state, where he studied singing. Financial difficulties made it necessary for him to terminate his studies in 1929. After leaving college, Shea became a clerk in the medical department in the New York City offices of the Mutual of New York life insurance company, where he worked for the next nine years.
While working there, Shea appeared on an amateur hour radio program hosted by Fred Allen. Despite losing to a yodeler, Shea earned second place, and a spot singing popular music on Allen’s program. Although Shea “impressed the critics and scores of fans”, he still didn’t feel he had discovered a direction for his life. In 1933 a network radio director heard Shea sing and arranged an audition for him to sing popular songs for “Your Hit Parade,” a national program with the Lynn Murray Singers broadcast on NBC. Shea passed the audition and was offered a job, but reluctantly turned the position down because he didn’t feel right about performing secular music. He continued singing Christian songs on several evangelical radio programs, including WKBO’s “Old Fashioned Gospel Hour.”
Shea began his recording career at the U.S. branch of Decca Records after being signed by a representative who told Shea: “If you do better than the singer we have in mind, we will give you a contract. If not, you’ll have to take the records on yourself.” Shea recorded “Jesus Whispers Peace,” “Lead Me Gently Home, Father,” “I’d Rather Have Jesus,” and “God Understands,” accompanied by Ruth Crawford (wife of famous theater organist Percy Crawford) on the organ. About 7,000 copies were sold, and they are prized by music lovers today.
After auditioning for a spot on a CBS radio program that originated in Chicago, Dr, Will Houghton, the president of Chicago’s Moody Bible Institute, offered Shea a staff position with “duties that included emceeing, interviewing, news-casting, continuity writing, programming, administration, auditioning, and singing” on radio station WMBI, “the powerhouse of evangelical radio,” the first non-commercial Christian radio station in America.
On January 2, 1944 Shea began his ministry as a featured soloist on Billy Graham’s “Songs in the Night” weekly radio program, which was broadcast live on Sunday evenings for 45 minutes from 10:15 pm from the basement of the Village (Baptist) Church in Willow Springs, Illinois, pastored by Graham, and transmitted on the Chicago radio station. The popularity of Shea helped make the previously financially struggling program self-sustaining within weeks. Shea’s singing “skyrocketed the broadcast into a great success,” so that soon “Songs in the Night” was broadcast twice on Sundays.
After eight years Shea turned over his duties on this program to another so that he could devote his energies full-time to the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA). In June 1944 Shea resigned from WMBI to sing gospel on a 15-minute weekday radio program, “Club Time,” the second oldest hymn program on commercial radio. Shea’s job was to host the program and sing several songs, including the favorite hymn of various famous people. It was on “Club Time” that Beverly Shea became George Beverly Shea at the insistence of the advertising agency, since it seems they felt most listeners were confused by a man named “Beverly.” “Club Time” was broadcast nationally from September 1945 for the next seven years over the ABC Radio and Armed Forces Networks and many independent stations. This show brought Shea national recognition, and by 1951 Shea was the most prominent male soloist in gospel music.
By the summer of 1947 Shea was signed to the Singspiration Sacred Recordings label, which had been founded in 1941 by Dr. Alfred B. Smith (1916-2001), where he sang on a number of 78 rpm albums. In the summer of 1942 Shea took a leave of absence from WMBI to join Word of Life evangelist Jack Wyrtzen for evangelistic crusades in the New York area. He spent this summer traveling throughout New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut, singing at youth rallies while also singing on radio on Sunday mornings. When Shea returned to Chicago in September 1942, he talked with evangelist Torrey Johnson about conducting youth meetings in that area and soon “Chicagoland Youth for Christ” was held in Orchestra Hall, with Shea singing and preaching by Billy Graham, a close friend of Wyrtzen. From this initial concert, Johnson founded Youth for Christ, and Shea sang in YFC rallies across the U.S. and Canada.
Shea first met Billy Graham in 1940 while Graham was pastor of the Village Church in Western Springs, Illinois. In a September 2007 interview Shea recalled how he first met Billy Graham.
One morning, there was a rap on my office door. I looked out and there was a tall young man with blond hair and we shook hands. He was 21 and I was 31. It was Billy Graham and he had traveled in from Wheaton College on a train just to say ‘hello.’ He said he listened to my morning hymn show called “Hymns From The Chapel.” That’s how we first got acquainted. I came into this work with Mr. Graham in 1947 after we had exchanged letters and talked on the phone. He said he wanted me to be his gospel singer. I thanked him but told him the only gospel singers I’ve ever heard about would sing a verse or two and stop and talk a while. “Would I have to do that?” I asked him. He chuckled and said, ‘” hope not.” With that, I said, “Well, I’d like to come with you.” That was in November of 1947 and I’ve been with him ever since.
In 1948 Shea, along with Graham, Cliff Barrows, and Grady Wilson, formulated a set of ethical guidelines, later designated as “The Modesto Manifesto,” that became the cornerstone of the BGEA. Shea, along with Graham, Barrows, Grady Wilson, and George Wilson, was one of the five directors of the BGEA.
Shea sang at the unofficial launching of Graham’s crusades in the old Armory in Charlotte, North Carolina in November 1947. His first song was “I Will Sing the Wondrous Story.” In the early days of his association with Graham, Shea earned a wage for each meeting. Since the beginning of Graham’s crusade ministry Shea and Cliff Barrows have been the nucleus of the crusade musical team. Barrows was choir director, platform emcee and radio-television program director. They were joined in 1950 by pianist Tedd Smith, and through the years organists Don Hustad and John Innes have provided additional accompaniment.
As the musical mainstay in Graham’s crusades, Shea was often called “America’s beloved Gospel singer.” In each crusade Shea “brings a quiet solo immediately preceding … Graham’s message. His solo serves as a transition from the song service into the message.” “Shea’s solos set the tone for the preacher’s messages. With his full, rich booming baritone voice, Shea not only charmed audiences, he also touched them with the message of each song he chose.” Graham said that Shea always prepared his crowds by singing before the message, and he felt the song was more powerful than the sermon. In a 2002 interview in “The Ottawa Citizen,” Billy Graham said, “I’ve been listening to Bev Shea sing for more than 50 years, and I would still rather hear him sing than anyone else I know.” Shea himself indicated the importance of his solo: “Billy looks forward to the solo before the message as a time for people to quiet down and for him to gather strength.” Shea obviously made an invaluable contribution to the increased effectiveness of Graham’s crusades.
On December 5, 1950, the “Hour of Decision” radio broadcasts began in Atlanta, Georgia on 150 radio stations. By its fifth week “Hour of Decision” had the largest audience of any religious radio program in history. By 1952 Shea was singing regularly on this program. He has recorded approximately 500 vocal solos on more than seventy albums of religious music (including nine compact discs) on both the RCA Victor and Word records. His television appearances have included the 1957 Madison Square Garden telecast which attracted an average of over 6.4 million viewers!
During his career, Shea was nominated for ten Grammy Awards, winning the Best 1965 Gospel award on March 15, 1966. In 1978, he was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame, as just one example of the numerous accolades he has received, including the National Religious Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 1996. On February 12, 2011, Shea received the 2010 Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award alongside Julie Andrews, Dolly Parton, and the Julliard String Quartet. In 1956, Shea received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from his alma mater, Houghton College, and in 1972 an honorary Doctor of Sacred Music from Trinity College (now Trinity International University) in Deerfield, Illinois.
In the hymn “I’d Rather Have Jesus,” each stanza voices a choice of something that is far, far better than anything imaginable in any realm of our existence. And it reflects a pattern of making choices that we find in the Bible. Near the end of his life, Joshua challenged the people to “Choose you this day whom you will serve.” On Mount Carmel, Elijah told the people that “If the LORD is God, follow Him, but if Baal is god then follow him.” And Jesus called the rich young ruler to choose to follow Him. Over and over again, Mrs. Miller has us sing the phrase “I’d rather …” We regularly use that word to speak about things we would “rather have” instead of other possibilities. I’d rather have chocolate chip ice cream than butterscotch. I’d rather live in Florida than in New England (except at Christmas!). I’d rather study theology than quantum physics.
But those pale in significance to the options we have in this song. I truly would rather have Jesus than anything this world has to offer. And what did Rhea Miller and George Beverly Shea have in mind with the phrase to “have Jesus?” Surely that is to belong to Him as one of His lambs, to be one who is ingrafted into Him as the branches are to the vine, to be a joint heir with Him of all the glories of heaven, and to be eternally loved by Him. All that and more is what I’d rather have!
In stanza 1 we sing that having Jesus is greater than material possessions. The Biblical allusions are unmistakable. There are things more valuable than silver and gold: Proverbs 16:16. We must learn not to trust in uncertain riches: 1 Timothy 6:17-19. Those who follow Christ may have to leave houses or lands: Mark 10:29-30. He reaches out to us today with nail-pierced hands.
I’d rather have Jesus than silver or gold;
I’d rather be His than have riches untold;
I’d rather have Jesus than houses or lands.
I’d rather be led by His nail pierced hand.
In the refrain we sing that to have Jesus is greater than everything else in this world. Satan offered Jesus the kingdoms of this world, but His is an even greater kingdom and were are part of it from our conception. We are born into this life already “in sin’s dread sway,” but having Jesus sets us free from that slavery and makes us instead a people united to Him.
Than to be the king of a vast domain
Or be held in sin’s dread sway.
I’d rather have Jesus than anything
This world affords today.
In stanza 2 we sing that having Jesus is greater than worldly goals. Once again we sing in terms of clear biblical allusions. We should indeed beware when all men speak well of us and applaud us: Luke 6:26. There is no profit if we gain the whole world including its fame but lose our souls: Matthew 16:26. Being true to the name of Jesus is more important than anything else: Acts 4:12.
I’d rather have Jesus than men’s applause;
I’d rather be faithful to His dear cause;
I’d rather have Jesus than worldwide fame.
I’d rather be true to His holy name.
In stanza 3 we sing that having Jesus is greater than all worldly beauty. Yet again, we sing with well-known biblical images. A lily is a pretty flower, but Jesus is fairer than lilies: Song of Songs 2:1-2. He also, like His words, is sweeter than honey: Psalm 119:103. And He is all that is needed for those who hunger after righteousness: Matthew 5:6.
He’s fairer than lilies of rarest bloom;
He’s sweeter than honey from out the comb;
He’s all that my hungering spirit needs.
I’d rather have Jesus and let Him lead.
Here’s a link to Bev Shea singing it years ago at one of the Billy Graham Crusades.