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Who is Jim Miller? Singer, Songwriter, Christian Entertainer by John S. Torell
Jim Miller was from Fort Worth, Texas; he ministered to the Jesus people but also reached out to the “straight kids” in the churches. Many of the songs he sang, he wrote himself. He recorded two vinyl albums in the early 1970’s, Come to the Water and I’ve Seen A Lot of People. On his record, I’ve Seen a Lot of People, he wrote the following: “This top quality stereo album produced by the Holy Spirit.” When Jim came to our church to hold revival meetings, he and his wife lived in Richardson Springs, California, which at that time was a well-known Christian retreat and conference center. When the founder died, the staff wanted the facilities to stay in the Christian family, so Youth with a Mission (YWAM) became the savior of this wonderful place. In 1976, Jim signed a contract with us and gave us the right to produce cassette copies of Come to the Water and I’ve Seen A Lot of People. Since that time, we have sold a limited number of these recordings, but since Jim disappeared from the Christian music scene in the late 1970's, he is now an unknown singer to the current generation. With our present capacity in using computers to extract old recordings and put them on compact disc, I think the time has come to make Jim’s music available once again to the current Christian generation so that they can hear the anointed singing from the time of the Jesus revolution. The message from back then is just as good today as it was 35 years ago. Once you hear these songs, the melodies and the words will stay in your mind as they point you to Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour.
It is with great joy that I present to you,
my good friend and brother in Christ, Jim Miller. I have not heard from
him for about 30 years and do not know if he is still alive on this earth
but I encourage you to take the time and let Jim Miller take you back to a
time when the Holy Spirit saved hundreds of thousands of young people and
turned them into evangelists on fire for the Lord! UPDATE
To my great joy, we received an email from Jim and Carla Miller on
February 22, 2007. They are both well and walking with the Lord. A day
later, I talked with Jim over the phone and asked him why he had stopped
singing. He said that U.S. churches in the late 1970’s cut back on singing
evangelists with the downturn in the economy. In order to provide for his
family, Jim started an aircraft painting business in Texas which he later
sold and moved to Arizona where he now resides and has since started
another aircraft painting business with the help of his wife and sons. Jim
continues to preach and minister in jails and rescue missions. He has put
together a collection of new and old songs which we hope to present to the
Christian community in the near future. In the meantime, we are releasing
a second album by Jim called,
I’ve Seen a Lot of People. ANOTHER UPDATE We were recently reunited with Jim and Carla Miller and received a package from them containing the Sold album along with others which we will be releasing soon. I was very excited when we received the box containing remnants of Jim’s music ministry. I remember from our meeting in Lodi, California, Jim spoke of a new song called, “Lazarus,” but to my recollection he never did play the song for us. So when I heard this song for the first time, I could not stop playing the track because it is a message to a generation of Christians with so little faith! Each song in this album has its own unique sound with lyrics that are strong and convicting. In a world of mostly fluff Christian contemporary music, we are blessed to have Jim Miller giving us some songs that will keep repeating themselves in our minds. You owe it to yourself and your loved ones to purchase this album in order to build faith, hope and love through Jesus Christ.
Music by Jim Miller:
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Jim Miller was a young Christian singer
with a wife, guitar, and a small private airplane that he used to fly all
over the United States in the aftermath of the awakening from the Jesus
revolution in the early 1970’s. Very few people know anything about the
terrible times of the Hippie Movement which was birthed in the 1960’s and
started the use of drugs and free sex with anyone at anytime. Its
strongholds were in San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York but in the
midst of this dark time, the Holy Spirit moved upon tens of thousands of
hippies who were born again and became “Jesus Freaks,” or as most people
remember them, "The Jesus People." Thousands of them came to a small
unknown pastor named Chuck Smith, and with him at the helm, they became
the foundation for what is now known as Calvary Chapel churches.
