This week in Christian history: Dwight Moody joins church, PCUSA changes rules on fidelity

Dwight L. Moody accepted into church membership – May 4, 1856

This week marks the anniversary of when famed evangelist Dwight L. Moody was accepted into the membership of Mount Vernon Congregational Church of Boston, Massachusetts, at age 19.

There was initial apprehension about receiving Moody as a member, as the committee overseeing the matter delayed a decision under the belief that he wasn't spiritually mature.

According to a book published in 1900 by Arthur Percy Fitt and Paul Moody, the latter being the famed evangelist’s son, “Moody never complained of the action of the committee in this case.”

“On the contrary, he thought they had done the wise and proper thing,” they wrote. “He was very solicitous in later years about persons being admitted to membership in our churches without having really been ‘born again,’ and directed his efforts to bring men and women face to face with this question …”

In addition to his evangelism travels and founding the Moody Bible Institute, Moody was also known for his efforts to promote education, help neglected children and was an advocate for ecumenical cooperation.