Amazing Story of Faith Behind Song of Commitment


I Have Decided to Follow Jesus

“I Have Decided to Follow Jesus” is sung to a traditional folk tune from India (ASSAM), and it is named after the northeastern Indian state once home to tribes known as “head-hunters” due to their custom of collecting heads and hanging them on their walls. In his book Why, God, Why?, Dr. P. Job reports that 150 years ago a Welsh missionary converted a man, his wife, and his children to Christianity. After the village chief demanded that the man renounce his faith, he spontaneously sang the now-famous words, “I have decided to follow Jesus.” Reportedly, the chief ordered his archers to kill the man’s two children, threatening to kill his wife as well; but the man sang, “Though no one joins me, still I will follow.” The archers shot his wife, but still the man refused to deny Christ, and he was executed while singing: “The cross before me, the world behind me.” Allegedly, the chief was so moved that he declared, “I too belong to Jesus Christ!” and the entire village converted.

Indian Christians still sing this hymn to proclaim their commitment to Christ. In America, it has been popularized by composer and hymn editor William Jensen Reynolds’ arrangement, which first appeared in the 1959 Assembly Songbook. This version was frequently used at Billy Graham’s crusade meetings. (Source: Christian Classics Ethereal Library Newsletter 10-3-2011 www.ccel.org).