“There Is A Redeemer” - Melody Green

1946–

She was a Jewish hippie and then a Jesus freak; a hardworking designer and then a ministry leader; a loving wife and then, tragically, a single mom. Melody Green was only thirty-six when her husband, singer Keith Green, died in a plane crash, along with two of their children. (She was caring for her third child at home and was expecting a fourth.) Melody soldiered on, continuing the ministry they had started together.

Both Keith and Melody were children of the sixties, caught up in the Southern California counterculture of drug use and spiritual searching. They met and married and continued their quest together. Melody was designing clothes, and Keith was singing in clubs when they were invited to a small Bible study in 1975. Through the Bible study, they turned their lives over to Jesus.

The Greens took their newfound faith seriously. They opened their modest home to people in need. When that proved to be too small, they bought and rented other homes in the area, offering shelter, food, and support to runaways, recovering drug addicts, pregnant teens, and so on. This was the beginning of an enterprise they called Last Days Ministries. Keith became a popular Christian singer, with Melody cowriting some of his songs, but he shied away from celebrity status.

In 1979, Last Days Ministries moved to a ranch in East Texas. They continued to shelter people in need, but they also developed a national, even international, outreach. Melody edited the group’s magazine. Keith went on concert tours. Both were invited to speak at Christian gatherings. Their message was prophetic, challenging Christians to live what they claimed to believe. By 1982 there were about one hundred people working for Last Days Ministries. And then the plane crashed.

That fall, Melody spearheaded a Keith Green Memorial Concert tour. He was gone, but their message still needed to be heard. One key element of that tour was a challenge to young people to become missionaries. Hundreds responded.

Melody Green is known as the writer of several songs still currently used by churches, notably “There Is a Redeemer,” but her story is much richer. And the Greens’ challenge still confronts us. How serious are we about our faith? Are we living what we claim to believe?

Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches.

Revelation 2:7