January 26, 2006
By Linda Green

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – A renowned singer of sacred music and a scholar who has spent his life exploring the depths of the Christian faith are recipients of one of the highest awards in evangelism.

Bill Mann and the Rev. George E. Morris are this year's Philip Award winners, chosen by the National Association of United Methodist Evangelists.

The association, affiliated with the United Methodist Board of Discipleship, presented the awards at the annual Congress on Evangelism, held in early January in Atlanta.

The award, named for the apostle Philip, has been presented to two people annually since 1974. Past recipients have included the Rev. Billy Graham, the Rev. Joe Hale, Evelyn Laycock, the Rev. Walter Kimbrough, and the late Bishop Earl Hunt Jr. and Harry Denman.

Mann of Richardson, Texas, often referred to as the "Golden Voice of Methodism," is an international artist who has performed in concert halls in England, Scotland and Ireland as part of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.

Born in Bessemer, Ala., Mann has been singing since age 10 and has acquired a reputation "for being one of America's greatest singers of hymns, gospel songs and religious music," the association said. He has used his "fine tenor voice and keen interpretation of all music" to sing in concert, evangelistic campaigns and ecumenical gatherings as well as in more than 3,000 churches since 1946, the association added.

His sacred music ministry allowed him to perform with musical greats such as Ethel Waters, Mahalia Jackson, Henry Mancini, George Beverly Shea, Jerome Hines and many others. He has also shared ministry with United Methodist bishops and other critically acclaimed preachers. He calls singing for Helen Keller one of the highlights of his career.

For the past seven years, Morris, of Canton, Ga., has served as the Hankey Senior Professor of World Evangelism for the World Methodist Council.

"Truly George E. Morris is in the great tradition of Philip, as he has given vast, extensive ministry to that of sharing the good news of the gospel through the word, deed and sign so that the world may know Jesus Christ," the association said.

He has been an ordained United Methodist pastor for nearly 50 years and has authored several evangelism books, including Let the Redeemed of the Lord Say So! – coauthored with the Rev. H. Eddie Fox – and a recent publication titled The Mystery and Meaning of Christian Conversation. Along with Fox, he developed the Faith-Sharing New Testament, a "Methodist-Wesleyan Personal Worker's New Testament" in 1994. That resource has sold 50,000 copies in English and is published in 37 languages around the world.

Morris served on the former Methodist Board of Evangelism under the leadership of Harry Denman and on the United Methodist Board of Discipleship. For more than 16 years, he was the Distinguished Arthur J. Moore Professor of Evangelism at United Methodist-related Candler School of Theology, Atlanta. While in that position, he became the founding director of the World Methodist Evangelism Institute, the primary arm of World Methodist Evangelism for training and developing indigenous evangelists on every continent.

The association said Morris "is immersed in the Holy Scriptures, shaped by Wesleyan theology, and is one of our greatest Methodist evangelists."

United Methodist News Service
Linda Green is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in Nashville, Tenn.