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Ten Shekels and a Shirt - Part 6
Paris Reidhead

Paris Reidhead (1919 - 1992). American missionary, pastor, and author born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Raised in a Christian home, he graduated from the University of Minnesota and studied at World Gospel Mission’s Bible Institute. In 1945, he and his wife, Marjorie, served as missionaries in Sudan with the Sudan Interior Mission, working among the Dinka people for five years, facing tribal conflicts and malaria. Returning to the U.S., he pastored in New York and led the Christian and Missionary Alliance’s Gospel Tabernacle in Manhattan from 1958 to 1966. Reidhead founded Bethany Fellowship in Minneapolis, a missionary training center, and authored books like Getting Evangelicals Saved. His 1960 sermon Ten Shekels and a Shirt, a critique of pragmatic Christianity, remains widely circulated, with millions of downloads. Known for his call to radical discipleship, he spoke at conferences across North America and Europe. Married to Marjorie since 1943, they had five children. His teachings, preserved online, emphasize God-centered faith over humanism, influencing evangelical thought globally.
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This sermon tells the powerful story of two young Moravians who willingly sold themselves into slavery to reach 3,000 slaves on an island in the West Indies who had never heard of Christ. Their sacrificial act of love and commitment to sharing the Gospel, despite knowing they would never return, reflects the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus Christ for humanity. It emphasizes the profound impact of selfless dedication to spreading the message of Christ's redemption and the call for believers to follow in the footsteps of those who are willing to give up everything for the sake of the Gospel.
Sermon Transcription
Two young Moravians heard of an island in the West Indies where an atheist British owner had 2,000 to 3,000 slaves. And the owner had said, no preacher, no clergyman will ever stay on this island. If he's shipwrecked, we'll keep him in a separate house until he has to leave. But he's never going to talk to any of us about God. I'm through with all that nonsense. 3,000 slaves from the jungles of Africa bought to an island in the Atlantic and there to live and die without hearing of Christ. Two young Moravians heard about it. They sold themselves to the British planter and used the money they received from this sale, for he paid no more than he would for any slave to pay their passage out to his island, for he wouldn't even transport them. And as the ship left the river at Homburg, left its pier in the river at Homburg and was going out into the North Sea carried with the tide, the Moravians had come from Hernhut to see these two lads off in the early 20s, never to return again, for this wasn't a four-year term. They'd sold themselves into lifetime slavery, simply that as slaves they could be as Christian where these others were. The families were there weeping, for they knew they'd never see them again. And they wondered why they were going and questioned the wisdom of it. And as the gap widened and the houses had been cast off and were being curled up there on the pier, and the young boy saw the widening gap, one lad with his arm linked to the arm of his fellow raised his hand and shouted across the gap the last words that were heard from them. They were these, may the land that was slain receive the reward of his suffering. This became the quarrel of Moravian mission. And this is the only reason for being, that the land that was slain, the reward of his suffering.
Ten Shekels and a Shirt - Part 6
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Paris Reidhead (1919 - 1992). American missionary, pastor, and author born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Raised in a Christian home, he graduated from the University of Minnesota and studied at World Gospel Mission’s Bible Institute. In 1945, he and his wife, Marjorie, served as missionaries in Sudan with the Sudan Interior Mission, working among the Dinka people for five years, facing tribal conflicts and malaria. Returning to the U.S., he pastored in New York and led the Christian and Missionary Alliance’s Gospel Tabernacle in Manhattan from 1958 to 1966. Reidhead founded Bethany Fellowship in Minneapolis, a missionary training center, and authored books like Getting Evangelicals Saved. His 1960 sermon Ten Shekels and a Shirt, a critique of pragmatic Christianity, remains widely circulated, with millions of downloads. Known for his call to radical discipleship, he spoke at conferences across North America and Europe. Married to Marjorie since 1943, they had five children. His teachings, preserved online, emphasize God-centered faith over humanism, influencing evangelical thought globally.