Rev. Sheldon practiced goodwill toward all his fellow human beings, ardently believed in temperance and denounced nations that went to war. Born in Wellsville, New York in 1857, he was the son of a missionary father, who in 1869 moved his family to the Dakota Territory. The senior Sheldon was the territory's first official missionary. In 10 years he started 100 churches.
Education and First Church
Young Sheldon graduated from Brown University in 1883 and Andover Theological Seminary in 1886. His first call as a pastor was at Congregational Church in Waterbury, Vermont in 1886. He quickly became involved in community life in Westbury, where he started Bible study classes, helped to start a newspaper and took an interest in beautifying the town.
When some citizens died of typhoid, Sheldon worked with a doctor and discovered that the commonly held view that nothing could have helped the victims was wrong. Sheldon's investigation determined that the victims had died after drinking water that had been contaminated because it was too close to pig pens.
Sheldon Marries and Goes To Pastor a Church in Topeka
In 1891 Sheldon wed Mary Merriam, a native of Topeka, Kansas, who he had met in 1888. Her parents were among the first members of Topeka's Central Congregational Church. In 1889 Sheldon became pastor of that church. The couple's only child Merriam Ward Sheldon was born in 1897.
Sheldon tried to understand the authentic lives of others. So once in Topeka, in late 1890 he decided to spend seven days each getting to know certain groups of people: college students, streetcar operators, blacks, railroad workers, doctors, lawyers, businessmen and newspapermen. He was so affected by his experience in the black community that he spent four weeks there instead of one.
Sheldon Brings The Kindergarten to Topeka
The rundown part of town where many black Topekans lived was called Tennessee Town. In fact, it was near Sheldon's church. Tennessee Town is thought to have been so-named because many of the blacks who came there were from Tennessee. Sheldon helped the black residents of Tennessee Town get health care and also helped to start a library for the youth of that community.
As a champion of the new idea from Germany of kindergartens, Sheldon made another significant social reform for his community when in 1893 he started two kindergartens, one at Central Congregational and the other in Tennessee Town. Working mothers now had a safe place to leave their children. The Tennessee Town kindergarten was the first for blacks west of the Mississippi.
By 1895 the enrollment at the black kindergarten stood at more than 200. In 1897, Central Congregational started training kindergarten teachers. After completing the program, these new teachers carried their knowledge to many states in the union. In 1910 the state of Kansas took over all the kindergartens in the state.
Writes In His Steps Or What Would Jesus Do
The spur that got Sheldon writing In His Steps Or What Would Jesus Do was his desire to boost attendance at his Sunday evening church service by creating and delivering episodic stories rather than giving traditional sermons. If those who attended wanted to know how the stories unfolded, they would have to come back week after week.
In 1896 he began writing In His Steps. He delivered the first chapter to worshippers on October 4, 1896. Advance magazine began serializing the stories in late 1896. In 1897 the magazine gathered the serialized stories into a book. Sales were impressive.
In 1899 it came to light that because the book had not been properly copyrighted, it was in the public domain. Therefore, anyone could publish the book without offering Sheldon any royalties. The book is still in print today. It is said to have been published by dozens of publishers in many languages.
In His Steps follows the lives of a pastor, some of the respected members of his church and the affect a stranger who is down on his luck has on their lives. In church, the stranger asks the worshippers what would Jesus do in the face of the troubled world in which they live. The pastor ponders the stranger's question and challenges the members of his congregation to pledge for a year not to make any decisions as individuals without first asking "What would Jesus do?"
Over the years the book's words and covers have been updated to appeal to contemporary audiences. In the 1980s a Sunday School teacher in the U. S. injected new life into the concept when she had some inexpensive bracelets made for the teens in her class that had the letters WWJD (What Would Jesus Do) on them. The bracelets became popular nationwide with Christians. Though In His Steps was Sheldon's most popular book, he wrote about 50 others.
After stepping down from the pulpit of Central Congregational in 1920, Sheldon edited The Christian Herald: An Illustrated News Weekly for the Home from 1920 to 1924. A lifelong teetotaler, he hated alcohol and the evils he believed it brought to society. He wrote a prohibition position paper for Alfred M. Landon's run for governor of Kansas. In 1939 he criticized the Nazis for their treatment of Jews. Sheldon died on February 24, 1946.
Sources
- Charles Monroe Sheldon. ksha.org. Accessed 7 March 2011.
- Neighbors, Chuck. "The Story of 'In His Steps." masterimage.com. Accessed 28 February 2011.
Linda N. Riggins - I have written freelance articles for Victorian Homes,Catholic Digest, the Old Farmer's Almanac, Fine Homebuilding, the Christian Science ...
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