The Story of Billy McCarrell

How does a young man with no spiritual interest change into a spiritual giant affecting lives across the world? Billy McCarrell's only interest in church was to vex the Sunday school teachers until one day it all changed. His total surrender to Christ led him on an unknown path as he told God that he would take the hardest place in America, no matter what the sacrifice was to him personally. McCarrell was a man of one book - the Bible.

A pastoral opportunity in a struggling church outside of Chicago turned out to be a life-long calling. The devastation caused by Al Capone and the Mob created a desire to influence the community for Christ. As the years went by, one crisis after another, McCarrell ministered to his congregation with the sole focus on their spiritual growth and evangelism for the lost.

His energy and passion extended past the church walls as apostasy in the nation grew. Known as one of the founders of the independent Bible church movement, McCarrell organized churches with similar beliefs to form the Independent Fundamental Churches of America. Through the years he served on more than fifty organizations, boards, and councils in an administrative, advisory, or endorsement capacity including Wheaton College, Faith Theological Seminary, Pacific Garden Mission, and Bryan College. He was a teacher at Moody Bible Institute for over eighteen years.

As McCarrell considered retirement at the age of seventy, his congregation numbered over eleven hundred and supported over thirty full-time missionaries. He had also started eighteen branch churches that had become self-supporting. He and his wife, Minnie, had nine children, one who died in World War II.