The Story Behind the Song
Baylus Benjaim McKinney (1886-1952), better known as “B. B.”, was one of the most formative figures in Southern Baptist worship development, serving as a gospel song writer, evangelistic singer, teacher, and music editor. Early in his professional life, before the Southern Baptist Convention had any official music and worship program, B.B. McKinney was a music editor for Robert H. Coleman, a Dallas, Texas businessman who was the chief publisher of gospel music in the South. He put out his first songbook in 1909; over the next 30 years he published 33 collections. McKinney was a music editor for the Coleman company for much of that time, from 1918 to 1935.
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At the same time, McKinney taught in the newly formed (1915) School of Gospel Music at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Ft. Worth. He was a professor of voice, harmony, and composition from 1919 to 1931 until the financial hardships brought on by the Great Depression forced the seminary to reduce its faculty. He then served Travis Avenue Baptist Church in Ft. Worth as assistant pastor for four years.
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It was during this stage in his life that McKinney went to lead the music at a revival at First Baptist Church of Muskogee, Oklahoma in 1934. The Great Depression, precipitated by the stock market crash of 1929 and exacerbated by the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, was in full effect:
- More than 1,300 of the nation’s 24,000 banks had failed by the end of 1930.
- The economy had bottomed out in 1932, shrinking 27% since its peak in 1929.
- The unemployment rate had peaked at 24.9% in 1934.
It was in this environment that B.B. McKinney sat one night, listening to the evangelist preach. He felt the need to exhort the people to place their faith not in their circumstances (which were quite dismal at the time), but in their Lord, Who was “on His throne.” He began writing the hymn during that service, then finished both words and music later that evening in his hotel.
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As we sing all four stanzas of Have Faith in God with the chorus after each stanza, we’ll repeat one phrase 24 times—“Have faith in God.” It’s not a convoluted theological construct that requires years of training to comprehend. It’s not a deep mystery of the faith that requires extraordinary piety to experience. It’s simply a command that Jesus spoke to his disciples in Mark 11:22. And it’s the answer for us when our pathways are lonely and our prayers seem unanswered, when our hearts are touched by grief and despair and our kingdoms are falling all around us.
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The year after writing Have Faith in God, B.B. McKinney went to Nashville to take a new position as music editor for the Baptist Sunday School Board, and in 1941 became the first head of the newly created Department of Church Music, a position from which he had a great impact on the music and worship in Southern Baptist churches. “Under his leadership the board inaugurated an annual Church Music Week at the Ridgecrest Baptist Assembly (1940), fostered the practice of having a secretary of music employed by each state Baptist convention (1944), developed the Church Music Training Course (1946), and began the publication of the Church Musician (1950).”
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Throughout his life, McKinney wrote both words and music for 149 hymns and gospel songs. In addition to Have Faith in God, he also penned:
- Glorious Is Thy Name (glorious name)
- Let Others See Jesus in You (coleman)
- Lord, Lay Some Soul upon My Heart (leila)
- Serve the Lord with Gladness (lee)
- Speak to My Heart (holcomb)
- Wherever He Leads I’ll Go (falls creek)
- Send a Great Revival (travis avenue)
- Lord, Send a Revival (matthews)
- The Nail-Scarred Hand (lubbock)
- Satisfied with Jesus (routh)
- God, Give Us Christian Homes (christian home)
B.B. McKinney died in a car accident in 1952 returning from Church Music Week at Ridgecrest Baptist Assembly in North Carolina. But his influence lives on through the songs he wrote, the standards for trained leadership he helped establish, and the place he helped create for music and worship in thousands of churches.
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