Luther Willis Warren

by Diego Rocha

Please excuse my capitalization, but

WHY? Why are we not talking about LUTHER WILLIS WARREN just enough?

I literally just finished reading this book (picture below), a biography of Luther Warren by Sharon Boucher, and I am in tears!

Typically, all we know about him is that he and Harry Fenner started the first Young People or AY Society in 1879, in Hazelton MI. And that’s it. We don’t even see a real picture of him, just that drawing of two boys praying by a tree.

I didn’t even know he was a minister! And mind you, I’m an amateur Pathfinder/Adventist historian myself (graduated from the University of My-Own-Mind).

He is such an important character in the history of Adventist Youth Ministries that we should know more about him. I honestly thought we just didn’t have more information about him. Then I decided to dig a little deeper myself.

Thankfully, we have this biography of his and we have ESDA! Professor Brian Strayer did a great job in his article and on this video below, but please do yourself a favor and buy the book. In the book there’s a touching JAMAICA story, but I won’t tell you anything about it.

Luther Warren, a minister, a revivalist, an evangelist, one of the best speakers of the denomination at his time, THE FOREFATHER of Youth Ministries, who LOVED children and young people and they LOVED him, but we – Pathfinders, Adventurers, Master Guides – don’t even know that. Why?