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Heartbeat’s Landon Saunders put ‘Jesus in the center of everything’
Beloved minister and radio speaker who brought authenticity and joy to broadcasts dies at 86.
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Landon Brady Saunders, evangelist and broadcaster whose authenticity and joy inspired generations, died Nov. 14, 2023, at his home in Norwich, Vt. He was 86.
Friends and theologians shared memories and tributes to a man known for his warm voice and intense, genuine interest in each person with whom he came in contact.
Landon Saunders
Mike Cope, director of ministry outreach at Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif., reflected on 40 years of friendship with Saunders that included holidays shared with Cope’s family and summer hikes on the Appalachian Trail.
“What seems unmatched in Landon’s life is that his authenticity was the same in every setting,” Cope recalled. “He could lift a crowd of thousands with words that would age well. Every sermon he preached from the ’60s could be on YouTube today. He focused on the Gospel and the meaning of putting Jesus in the center of everything.”
Saunders was born July 26, 1937, in Charleston, W.Va., and grew up in Appalachian poverty in Teays Valley. He graduated from Freed-Hardeman and Harding universities and later attended Harding School of Theology. He received Harding’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 1981 and was awarded an honorary doctorate from Abilene Christian University in 2023.
In the wake of his passing, professors and theologians from the breadth of Churches of Christ and beyond were among those who paid tribute to Saunders’ impact over seven decades.
Milton Sewell, Freed-Hardeman chancellor, recalled first hearing Saunders as a “young effective preacher” in the 1950s when he was a student at FHU.
“He has been back on campus, and we have visited since and observed the dynamic way he has impacted the Kingdom,” Sewell said. “He will be missed by many Christians whom he helped to bring to Christ.”
David Wray, past Summit director and professor emeritus at Abilene Christian University in Texas, first knew Saunders during his own graduate school days.
“How do you describe the kind of things he did across the nation and the world — addressing culture in a way churches were not able to?” Wray said. “In a day when we’re talking about divisions in culture — he was able to cut through all of that and center on things that mattered. Very few people have been able to do that.”
“How do you describe the kind of things he did across the nation and the world — addressing culture in a way churches were not able to? In a day when we’re talking about divisions in culture — he was able to cut through all of that and center on things that mattered. Very few people have been able to do that.”
Ross Cochran, professor of practical theology at Harding University in Searcy, Ark., said “a person like Landon comes along once a century.”
“Through ‘Heartbeat’ he focused on speaking good news to people he assumed would never enter a church building and did so using language they would understand and receive,” Cochran said. “He embodied really well the joy that he wanted others to experience. I’ve heard him say joy is not an end we pursue — it’s an energy we apply. He did that in every conversation, every interaction.”
Beginning in 1971, Saunders was the voice of “Heartbeat,” the first evangelistic radio program ever accepted for broadcast as a commercial message by NBC. Created in connection with Herald of Truth Ministries, the program became Heartbeat Inc. and was expanded to include events worldwide.
Landon Saunders in his rocking chair at his Vermont home.
Saunders was recruited to begin the ministry by Herald of Truth president Clois Fowler. “Heartbeat” was designed as a different type of program than the more traditional Herald of Truth broadcasts.
The TV program of the 1970s featured luminaries from Churches of Christ like Batsell Barrett Baxter, Harold Hazelip and Joe Barnett, all well-known ministers from Tennessee and Texas.
Barnett, now in his 90s, is the only one still living. He also pointed to Saunders’ authenticity as key to his effectiveness.
“One of the main reasons his messages resonated with everyone was that they sensed that he was authentic. There was no deception,” Barnett said. “Everyone sensed that he was credible. You sensed that what he said was what he lived. He not only spoke the message, he lived the message.”
That credibility extended beyond the broadcasts, Barnett said. “It was also true in his dealings within our fellowship. Some disagreed with his methods, but no one could find his person disagreeable.’”
“Heartbeat” was not Saunders’ first foray into media. For nine years he produced a 15-minute program for a station in Corning, Ark., the small northeast Arkansas community where he preached and also taught sixth grade for a year. From there he embarked on 15 months of international travel encompassing 60 nations, a trek he described as evangelistic but also as an opportunity “to observe churches at work in the world and to search for universals of the Gospel.”
He was on that journey, in India, when Fowler contacted him and persuaded him to come to Abilene and begin the program that became “Heartbeat.” Its first broadcast launched Jan. 3, 1972, after a year of research and planning. In 1975, the program was accepted by NBC radio, and in 1979, CBS radio donated free public service time for it to be aired nationwide.
Don Williams, longtime Heartbeat Inc. board chair, described Saunders’ message as focused on “how to have joy and human flourishing at the center of your life because that is the very nature of God.”
Landon Saunders at home in his living room.
Williams said Saunders “was a Christian humanist, meaning people were first, not the message first.”
“That’s pretty rare in theological circles, especially in our fellowship.” Williams added. “It was always about helping people. … He was always about people, never about money or growth or the size of ‘Heartbeat,’ but always how he could be useful.”
Prior to launching “Heartbeat,” Saunders preached at Churches of Christ in Tennessee, Arkansas and Texas. In the 1970s, he preached in Abilene, Texas, at the Minter Lane Church of Christ and spoke frequently at the Highland Church of Christ, where his Wednesday night college class drew more than 1,000 students weekly.
Most recently, he was a member of the Brookline Church of Christ in Massachusetts.
Brookline member Bob Randolph, chaplain emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said Saunders was, at heart, “an evangelist to those who seldom found their way into a church building. His ministry through ‘Heartbeat’ — on the radio and through gatherings across the nation — opened eyes and hearts that needed to see and hear a grace filled message.”
Randolph said Saunders “changed lives by having the courage to proclaim a simple truth: You are loved by God.”
Saunders lived in the Northeast for the last decades of his life, making his home in Vermont where he walked the property and reveled in its beauty. He was a fellow of the Caris Life Sciences Foundation and served on the board of the Yale Center for Faith and Culture.
Miroslav Volf, director of the Yale center and Henry B. Wright professor of theology, called Saunders “a man of insuppressible hope and joy” and an invaluable member of the center’s community.
Robert Rhodes, ACU provost (left) and president Phil Schubert surprised Landon Saunders with an honorary doctorate during the annual Friends of the ACU Library event where the university announced creation of the Landon Saunders Center for Joy and Human Flourishing.
“He shared with us a deep conviction that modern cultures suffer from the neglect in study of and striving for deeply flourishing life and that a compelling vision of flourishing is embodied in the person of Jesus Christ,” Volf said.
In 2023, Abilene Christian established the Landon Saunders Center for Joy and Human Flourishing, an academic center described as dedicated to “preserving his legacy and forwarding his vision to develop generations who will learn how best to live as human beings.”
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In one of the final things he wrote — a column for ACU Today magazine — Saunders described his joy at the creation of a center that would enrich students. He recounted his time in that 1,000-plus Wednesday night Bible class as “one of the great joys of my life. Their bold and questing spirits thrilled me. Conversations with them greatly influenced me and the work I was creating.”
He characterized the connection between joy and human flourishing that had guided his life’s work:
“Joy is love’s great ally! Joy holds no condemnation, judgment or fragility. Joy provides the atmosphere in which love grows, stays healthy and endures. Joy surrounds love, paves the way to love, evens out the bumps along the way of love. Joy steps in when love is strained; it keeps us balanced when anticipated love comes up short. In the presence of that joy, love is at its best.
“Joy is love’s great ally! Joy holds no condemnation, judgment or fragility. Joy provides the atmosphere in which love grows, stays healthy and endures. Joy surrounds love, paves the way to love, evens out the bumps along the way of love. Joy steps in when love is strained; it keeps us balanced when anticipated love comes up short. In the presence of that joy, love is at its best.
“I have made joy the default setting of my heart. No matter what happens, no matter my failure, no matter my loss, no matter my sadness, no matter the disease that now weakens my body, my heart returns to joy. Joy has room for all our disappointments, grief, tragedies, depression and fears.”
A memorial service for Saunders is being planned for 2 p.m. Jan 13 at the Light of the World Church of Christ in Dallas. Those wishing to honor Saunders’ memory may do so with a gift to Heartbeat, P.O. Box 64895, Lubbock, TX 79464, or the Saunders Center at acu.edu/give, adding a note that the gift is for the Saunders Center.
