128 thoughts on “Youth Conference Flyers: Hyles Retro Edition”

    1. Actually a couple of friends of mine from here in Northern Ireland went to hear Hyles in his church. They were only in the door when an obviously well to do business man approached them and made them welcome. He told them that if they ever needed help then he was willing to help them and desposited either a $100 note (bill) or 2x$50 in one of their top pockets. My friend returned the money, thanked him, but said that they didn’t need any money as they were able to pay their own way. Just remembered this as I looked at the article.

  1. Could no one recognize the hubris?

    I have a bright red sports car! I have cheerleaders! I am young at heart! I am athletic, intellectual, strong, and even rebellious! I am also the speaker at all six GIANT services.

    What about the meek, the lowly, the pure in heart, those who hunger for righteousness? Or is it only for those who hunger for power and red 944 Porsches?

    1. They seem to think Jack Hyles has the star power of, say, George Clooney or Beyonce (in 1987, that probably would have been Madonna).

      1. I’ve heard that they cheered insanely when he came out on the platform (shades of Herod, imo – Acts 12). They wore buttons supporting him, would line up to get his signature in their Bibles, and even had a song they’d sing about how much they loved him. *insert barfing emoticon here*

        1. Yeah, I was there when all that “Brother (Lord) Hyles” worshipping was going on and I constantly questioned it in my head and in my heart but DARE NOT say a word!

          During my 2nd year in the early spring I got a few of my things together, neatly packed up the remaining and walked out of my dormitory through the “forbidden door!”

          I’m eternally grateful for the epiphany and the strength to do so!

          Jack Hyles was full of himself and so was jack schaap! Hubris indeed Pastor’s Wife!

          ~~~Heart 🙄

        2. Yes, I was present when he walked on to a platform (not at his church); the crowd went wild; yes, he was cheered insanely. I mean, it is one thing to respect a man’s accomplishments — it’s completely different to be treated like a rock star or an idol.

          This ad was from 1987; the buttons came out after the Sumner article appeared an 1989. He did not initiate the idolatrous buttons, but he never spoke against them, but yes, absolutely, there were buttons.

          Yes, people had him sign their Bibles, but that was pretty commonly done – still is, in certain circles.

          And yes, there was the song he had taught some people to sing about how much they loved HIM (not the Lord Jesus Christ).

        3. Yeah, in one or the other books, “Fundamental Seduction” or “Wizard of God”, I can’t recall at the moment, he was questioned about that very issue and he denied it! (Getting on stage at the college, flexing his bi-ceps for all of the college girls to act as though he were Hercules!) You know… He did not allow any males in the chapel during these visits!

          I actually talked to some college friends about it, who stayed in the following and continue in Fundamentalism to this day, and they refused to discuss it! Denial!

          Oh brother!

          ~~~Heart 🙄

        4. David & Fundifled,

          That door was BOTH!

          It was actually a door at the end of my dormitory that led out to the gorgeous small lake and beautiful majestic trees there at the Hyles-Anderson campus but we were NOT allowed to exit through it! That very door became my exit from fundamentalism and my entrance into, as you put it, the real world!!!!!

          Thank God!

          ~~~Heart 😎

  2. is Pastor Jack Hyles in the Red 944 Porsche?
    This reminds me of a book I used to read to my preschoolers . . “is Mommy in the shower?” No . . (lift flap in book to discover that Mommy is not in the shower). “Is Mommy in the closet?” “Is Mommy under the table?”
    the last page of the book was missing so we never found out where Mommy was but the kids didn’t care 🙂

    1. is pastor jack Hyles in his office? Noo . . . Is pastor Jack Hyles in the sanctuary? No . . is pastor jack hyles in his secretary’s office?
      😯
      Hey kids, let’s read a different book.
      I’m having way too much fun with this!!

  3. I love how Hyles’ interpretation of intellectual was a lab coat, pocket protector, and stack of high school text books; one of which was a ninth grade Algebra I text.

  4. dan, according to a friend of mine who taught at HAC, they did use junior high and high school textbooks in the college. She taught “biology” there from a 9th grade book and she never graduated from college herself.
    So by Hyles standards that’s actually a pretty high-falutin textbook 😆

    1. I’m a little surprised HAC allows even ninth-grade science to be taught. My ninth-grade biology class included subjects like sexual reproduction and evolution.

      1. well that was back in the early 90s so who knows. It was probably a Christian textbook. When my mom taught at the grade school in the 80s they were just beginning to transition from writing their own textbooks to *gasp* using other peoples’. I know they used some Beka curriculum but also a hodgepodge of other things that my mom hated, like the Victory Drill Book.

        1. I’m surprised Hyles/HAC/HB/ would use Abeka since Hyles made it known several times that he hated PCC and even kicked out people from Pastor’s School who sent their “Darlin’ Down to Pensacola”. Look up the YouTube Video “Jack Hyles Shoots on PCC” as it explains the whole thing.

        2. yes–they flirted with the reading books, but JH didn’t like being beholden to anyone else’s curriculum.
          Also keep in mind JH was initially friendly with Pensacola (they recruited my mom from there to teach at Hammond Baptist) but then there was a falling out . . . oh the flip flopping.

        3. Two of Hyles’ disciples Larry Brown and Al Lacy were also anit-PCC. The video where Hyles rants on PCC was from Pastors School 1996 at the Chicago International Theatre (I’m guessing this was around the time that FBC’s auditorium was expanded to look like what it is today.)

          Hyles didn’t want Hammond Baptist to uses PACES either but he was ok with using Bob Jones. Hyles respected Bob Jones Sr but was not a fan of Bob Jones Jr. and the hereafter.

        4. I was trying to tell my wife about the Victory Drill Book the other night…I think she thought I was raised on Mars. Was that strictly for “Christian” schools or did some public schools use it as well?

        5. I don’t know but I think it was way out of date even when HB used it. Of my mom being the progressive liberal that she was tried to get by using it as little as possible. That has got to be the most cruel and unusual method possible of teaching kids to read.
          Mom did me the dubious favor of teaching me to read phonics-free before I went to first grade, and then plunging me into a Hammond area Christian school (not HBC) where A Beka Phonics reigned supreme. I attribute most of my reprehensible behavior as a grade school child to the fact that I was subjected to the torture that is A Beka Phonics. Duck. Truck. Stuck. Let’s go around the room and read rhyming words from a poster till our brains go numb (heaven forbid we were to read a story instead, where words might actually have some meaning and context). As a first grader I developed the habit of sneaking out of the room during naptime to read books in the bathroom (occasionally, the boys bathroom if I felt particularly rebellious) 😈 I was once sent home from school for grabbing a book off my teacher’s desk (“Joni,” by Joni Earickson) and sneaking off to the bathroom to read it.
          When we finally did progress to reading stories, somewhere around 2nd or 3rd grade, they were all missionary stories transcribed from Vacation Bible School flip books. In 3rd grade I spent an afternoon in the principal’s office for loudly proclaiming “I hate missionaries” during Reading Circle.
          Thus began my illustrious career as an English major 😈

        6. Excomm – I had a terrible stuttering problem as a child, and I think that the VDB helped me with that. I actually tried to find one because my oldest son had verbal apraxia and I thought that repetition might help him with that. I do agree, however, that it does NOTHING as far as helping one to develop reading skills.

        7. I don’t think they use A Beka in HB anymore but since the Beloved’s Son-in-Law is making license plates and getting acquainted with his new playmate Bubba, the new pastor might let A Beka make a come back or even Bob Jones curriculum.

        8. The Victory Drill Book!!! I went through that book over and over again (I can almost recite page 38 in my dreams!) ❗

  5. I can’t decide what’s worse: Hyles’ egomania in appearing on all the pages, or how visually UNAPPEALING and UN-HIP the pamphlet looks.

    1. The pamphlet actually seems to be modeled on the new-car brochures that manufacturers put out in the 1960s and 70s. The fact that this one was produced in 1987 seems about on schedule, culturally speaking, for FBCH.

  6. what’s that bulging out of his pants pockets in the awkward weight lifting photo?

      1. oh the shame! They had to have watched SNL to know about that. But we know of course nobody from HAC or FBC would ever watch TV, let alone at midnight, just a few hours before church. Must have been a coincidence.

  7. I was at this conference with my fundy youth group that consisted of 5 kids and our HAC grad pastor.

  8. There all kins of videos from different youth conferences circa 1988-1991 on YouTube like “Jack Hyles Dating Game”, “Jack Hyles Wrestling Promoter”, “Jack Hyles Vaudeville Team” etc. Hyles didn’t want Funy kids watching television or going to the movies so instead he hired some HAC students to do 1920’s Vaudeville comedy and listen to Tennessee Ernie Ford records instead of listing to modern pop music. This guy truly was stuck in the black and white days and never came into Technicolor.

  9. If you ever attended a Youth Conference at FBC (especially under Hyles) this what you always got:

    Hyles praises FBC Hammond and HAC as the best church and Fundy College in America.

    HAC students tried to recruit the youngsters to HAC and if a student had already pledged to attend PCC (in the later years 1989-2000) Hyles would throw a fit and send that student home early then make fun of that student the next day as well as PCC.

    Entertainment before Hyles lecture usually consisted of off wall Quintin Tarrentino comedy ala Pulp Fiction before its time. Such as a Vaudeville act, Girls singing old fashioned hymnals modeling old fashion dresses and sun bonnets, A wrestling skit that always had an Anti-Muslim message attached to it, and some HAC students pretending to be a “Rock Band” and the Bible man appears and “blows them away” then Hyles proceeds to rant on rock music.

    Hyles never ending rant on CCM music (especially Carmen and Amy Grant).

    Hyles ranting on women wearing pants and shorts as well as men wearing shorts, sandals, ear rings, long hair etc.

    Hyles would promise that if you attend HAC, you’d be 100 times than Michael Jordan.

    Hyles disciple Larry Brown would appear a few times and would go into his “Gallagher” comedy act (smashing televisions on the stage like he did at Pastors School 2011).

    Hyles would rant on dating saying it was a “sin to look at the opposite sex.”

    Hyles would give free Chicago Cubs tickets to anyone who would attend HAC.

    1. “Hyles would rant on dating saying it was a ‘sin to look at the opposite sex.'”

      He must have run over a lot of pedestrians in that Porsche, if he never looked at the opposite sex.

  10. Hyles would give free Chicago Cubs tickets to anyone who would attend HAC.

    Sooo, there’s the source of their curse! 😯

    1. I was thinking the 1920s.
      But their outfits are too shapeless and ill-fitting for any era of cheerleading.

    1. I like to think the deaf interpreters were doing their favorite Richard Pryor routines while Hyles was busy being worshipped.

      I hope so, anyway.

      1. *Points at self* … I WAS an Interpreter there (circa 1998-early 2000s), and all I can say is Miss Jeffries was always there to critique every sign and correct you (even if it was correct). Hyles had his hold and all aspects of the service.

  11. I guess Hyles liked the Porsche since he secretly watched Miami Vice yet condemned anyone who watched Vice. Also in ’87 Hyles told the kids not to watch Miami Vice, Cosby Show, or American Bandstand and to “cover their ears” when they heard secular music if they attended a Cubs/White Sox/Bears/Bulls/Blackhawks game.

    1. what could he possibly have against the Cosby show??!!!

      That reminds me of my former pastor who made a big deal about not looking to the left or right in the grocery checkout line (magazines) or on the roads in Chicago (billboards).

    2. People who are as controlling as that usually can’t control their own vices. They try to make everyone around them as “good” as they fantasize themselves to be. These types of people are delusional and are usually (at least the ones I’ve observed) evil, sick people.

  12. I thought Thursday was a no SFL post day? You just can’t help yourself can you Darrell? 😆

    1. I’m glad he’s continued the every day posting. I was kind of hoping he would!

  13. I saw the “strength” page and the first thing that came to mind was Hans and Frans from Saturday Night Live (lo these many years ago). And it is disturbing to imagine hearing Jack say, “I want to pump, YOU up!” 😯 *shudder*

    1. Odd. Jack Trieber, as you probably know, has a youth conference every year. I went every year for 7 years straight. One year, they introduced two characters–Hans and Frans. Coincidence? I am now thinking not.

      1. PS They were wildly popular and were featured several years after that (and maybe still are, I don’t know).

        1. If those characters were played by twin brothers, then probably not. One was the assistant pastor who is no longer at NVBC.

  14. To even begin to understand IBFdom, and much of what it is today, you need to understand who Jack Hyles was, what he believed, and the impact he made on fundamentalism in the last 50+ yrs.

    He was big on hero-worship. He idolized Dr.John R. Rice and made no apologies for it. He admitted in his book, How To Help People Reach Their Potential, that every Mon. before leaving for the airport, he would stand before a “giant” picture of Dr. Rice and stated, “…in some way I gain strength just remembering and allowing the picture to remind me of one of the greatest men I ever knew–maybe the greatest.”

    This add, disguised as Fundy humor, in reality echoed JH’s real intent(and need)to be the younger generation’s hero.

    “Heroes are made by their followers…I do not think that followers make a great man, but followers can make a hero of a great man.” And, “…If you love all of them (other pastors) more than you love me, that is also fine, as long as you love me. Just put me on the list. That is all I ask.”

    It should be obvious to anyone who knows anything about this man,his past,his books,his sermons, that it was all about Hyles. And, he inspired several generations of preachers to buy into the ‘pastor hero-worship’ aspect of IFBdom that permeates throughout most of American Fundamentalism today.

    1. Fundifled,

      I wish your words could be heard across the nation and sink into all these lost followers!

      What a shame!

      Thanks for sharing!

      ~~~Heart 😮

    2. Well said.

      In addition to hero-worship, he demanded absolute loyalty from all “leaders” – he did his best to control the lives of his followers.

    3. I’ve said it before, but every Jack Hyles sermon, book, pamphlet, or other communication that I know of had the same subject: How great Jack Hyles is.

    1. A trend of 100% awesome. That’s all I can see.

      As an aside, he reminds me of the prison warden in “the Shawshank Redemption”.

  15. In all those pictures, especially the weightlifting one, he looks like Ralphie in “A Christmas Story.”

  16. 1. Maybe its just me, but it bothers me that they left out the “the” before Youth Conference in most of the pictures.

    2. Hyles seems obsessed with attention from girls. To hear about girls only chapels where they would scream for him greatly bothers me as does the girl’s sweater that is laid over the hood of the car in the third picture.

    3. Darrell’s hovertexts might be my favorite part of SFL

    4. At first when Heart said she walked out the forbidden door, I thought she meant the door between Hyles office and his secretary’s office.

    1. “At first when Heart said she walked out the forbidden door, I thought she meant the door between Hyles office and his secretary’s office.”

      You weren’t the only one. 😈
      My understanding, though, is that she wasn’t a secretary; she was some kind of special assistant to the pastor.

    2. OMG Never in a million years… But yeah, there was another “Forbidden Door!”

      ~~~Heart 😯

    3. The sweater in the 3rd picture appears to be the one JH was wearing in the 1st picture, but not sure…The man had real issues with needing to be loved, revered, and adored by all. Apparently, the love of Christ wasn’t enough????

  17. Just curious, was Jesus mentioned anywhere in the brochure?
    After all, it is supposed to be all about Him, right?

    1. I see no mention of either Jesus or God there.
      Just lots and lots of Jack Hyles.
      You wouldn’t want to distract from the main message, would you?

  18. Shout-out to them for using the Pensacola Christian College font on all headlines in this majestic piece…

  19. Does the caption on the first photo read “Is that OR Jack Hyles?” Shouldn’t it be “Our?”

  20. I was at that Youth Conference. One of few (maybe 2 or 3) that I actually attended. I still have my notes too.

  21. Even at 100th place, I’m still the first one from France. Really that’s all that matters to me, but on a secondary note I’m with excommunicated from fundyland, something is going seriously wrong with the bulges on Big Jacks pants as he lifts the weights. Could it be that the weights are real and all the force is splitting the uprights (if you know what I mean). Honestly, whatz that man have in his pants? — otherwise known as the question fundies should have asked 50 years ago.

  22. I worked at youth conference. My dad taught there in the 70s and 80s. Tell me any preacher doing a youth conference that big anymore? Hyles was awesome, great memories from my childhood!!! Not perfect but I learned a lot about soulwinning and work ethic!! Todays Christianity is soft and weak. Thats why Muslims are taking over!! What losers we are these days.

    1. Well, you may be right about today’s Christianity. But, I bet Big Daddy Jack thought he was pretty “hard” and “strong” back in the day. Matter of fact, that is probably what led to a lot of problems. And I’m pretty sure that Muslims never had anything to do with that. As a matter of fact, Muslims might not be taking over if IBF pastors keep their hands off of teenage girls!

    2. I will take “soft and weak” Christians over those who yelled hellfire and brimstone throughout my childhood any day, thankyouverymuch.

      1. Jack Schaap (Hyles’ successor/son in law) preached many sermons full of long rants about what a tough guy he (Schaap) was, including a bunch of threats of physical violence toward people who questioned him.
        Schaap is in the federal penitentiary right now, where rumor has it his tone has become a whole lot less belligerent.

    3. to KKurtz,

      Hahahahahahahahahahahaaahhaaa!!!

      Oh you have so much to learn…you are brainwashed my friend…

    4. There are actually many conferences (youth and otherwise), some of them even bigger (not that numbers matter). They aren’t “fundy approved”, so of course fundies say they don’t count. In reality, God moves and lives are changed.

  23. Is this college you folks are mentioning accredited anywhere? I’m an English professor in Indiana, and I don’t think I’ve ever met any HAC faculty at a professional conference.

    1. HAC is unaccredited, and says it’s proud of that.
      Most of its faculty have no earned degrees except from HAC or similar unaccredited Fundy schools.

    2. cf. Acts 4:13a
      “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled…”

      This is an IFB prerequisite for being Called™ into the ministry.

      1. thanks for the clarification. i was thinking where would they get that “calling” 🙂

  24. Few things irk me more than fake Ph.D.s. Why? Because I spent ten years getting my graduate degrees. (LSU, 1997)

    1. That’s a favorite topic here at Stuff Fundies Like. Try putting ‘honorary doctorate’ into the ‘Search’ box at the top of this page, and you’ll see some of the fun we’ve had with it. You can even get your own SFL honorary doctorate if you want.

    2. wow, congratulations. i strongly agree. i am also severely irked by people with fake PhD.s

  25. Holy sh!t! That guy is in love with …himself.
    In e v e r y picture he could possibly be in???
    wtf??? Demented if you ask me…..

    1. The best part is you appear to not even know the half of it, how bad the ego on these pricks is/was.

      1. I’m not sure what you mean by “you appear to not even know the half of it… etc..” I’m not sure how you could make that statement because how do you know whether I know or don’t know the half of it…. However
        , I think I have a good idea of the ego on those types…. 😉

        1. Was just saying this is just scratching the surface of how egomaniacal Hyles & so many IFB are. I didn’t realize how nutty it was when I found SFL

  26. Gotcha RobM. Just seeing those flyers is SO telling. There is definitely ego there…(((shudder)))

    At least we see it for what it is now. 🙂

  27. Jeez, it’s like the Trix rabbit; “Silly rabbit, Trix are for kids!”. Jack, maybe the “Youth conference is for the youth!”…he sure loved attention. I’ll admit when he came to our church, we fell all over ourselves to adore him.

  28. thanks for posting this. i was looking for more information about him – Jack “The Man” Hyles, especially after i heard the news about his son-in-law, another “Jack” Schaap

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