#70 Keith Green’s Story with Melody Green

Season 6
Written By Paul Hastings
 

Melody Green was raised in the Jewish tradition, but during the 70s married a fiery young singer named Keith Green, who was exploring the teachings of Jesus, a Jewish Rabbi who appeared to have found the pathway to God.

Alongside her husband, Melody embarked on a personal quest to live a life of sold-out devotion to this Messiah. But when God blessed their efforts and grew their ministry with meteoric speed, the unthinkable occurred, where Melody would have to trust the God she had found.

The following is a summary of the podcast interview above with Melody Green. Many more details are included in the original podcast episode and we encourage you to listen.

Written by Jace Bower

Simple Beginnings

Melody Green was born in Venice, California to Jewish parents. Melody’s mother brought her to their local synagogue a few times a year and Melody’s Jewish heritage was a core part of her identity.

She grew up hardly knowing anything about Jesus Christ and what she did know was confusing and not positive. People looked down on her because of her ethnicity and implied that, as a Jew, she was at odds with the man called Jesus.

Searching For Meaning

As Melody grew up, she began searching for meaning and turned to other religions. She traveled to Japan and explored Eastern mysticism and spirituality. Upon returning to California, Melody got a job at a video production studio and that’s where she would meet a man who would change her life.

Keith Green was 19 years old when he came to tour the production studio where Melody worked. He was accompanied by his dog and a couple of family members. As Melody gave Keith a tour of the studio, she realized he was more interested in her! He asked her out later and the two of them began dating.

Like Melody, Keith was also Jewish. And he was also searching. But unlike Melody, he was fascinated by Jesus. Every religion seemed to look at Jesus with respect. His teachings were at least worth reading for themselves. Keith was reading the Bible, particularly the parts with red letters: Jesus’ teachings.

Marrying Keith

When Keith moved into Melody’s apartment, he threw out her books on mysticism and spirituality. He encouraged Melody to read the Bible with him and they did. Shortly after, Keith became convinced they should get married. Melody wasn’t sure yet, but Keith’s personality was pretty convincing.

Keith and Melody got married in 1973 and started visiting churches. In each church they attended, they would sit and listen to the preaching but if the divinity of Jesus Christ were ever mentioned, Keith and Melody would get up and walk out. They appreciated the teachings of Jesus but didn’t want to hear about Jesus’ claims to be God.

Resisting the Truth

A friend invited the couple to his Bible study and both Keith and Melody could feel something different in the room when they walked in. Their friend gave a message and then presented the gospel and asked anyone who wanted to be saved to raise their hand. 

Melody could tell that Keith had raised his hand. She wanted to raise hers but she resisted. Her Jewish heritage had taught her too much about the history of persecution her people had faced and it seemed that Christians were often the instigators. She felt like it was a betrayal of her identity as a Jew to convert to Christianity.

She didn’t raise her hand that first time but the couple returned to the study again. And yet again, Melody felt like raising her hand. She resisted until the Bible study leader said he felt like there was one more person who needed to raise their hand. That person was Melody and she finally gave up her resistance.

Ministry Begins

Keith and Melody were baptized in the Pacific Ocean a few months later. Immediately they got involved in ministry on the boardwalks and beaches where they lived. One day, while ministering on the boardwalk, they met a young woman who was pregnant and fleeing domestic abuse. Keith invited the woman to live with them for a while. This was the first of many people that the Greens welcomed into their home.

As their hospitality began to outgrow their own home, Keith and Melody bought the house next door and rented several more homes in the area to house people who needed a place to stay. This included the homeless, hippies, people fleeing cults, troubled youth, and more.

Keith’s Music Ministry

Amid this ministry, God was also using Keith’s gift for music to proclaim the gospel. Keith recorded his first album and it took off. Letters of support poured in from around the country and this prompted Keith and Melody to start first a newsletter and then a magazine. They called their new ministry “Last Days Ministries”. 

God provided for the Green’s ministry as they continued to give away their albums, their resources, and even Keith’s concert appearances. In the midst of their generosity, God was using the ministry to touch countless lives. 

Keith and Melody had started their family in the early days of the ministry and eventually had three children with another on the way. It was at this time that Melody’s life would be dramatically changed.

The Tragedy

By this time, Melody is pregnant with their fourth child. The Greens are hosting some church-planting friends and their children. Keith wants to take them up in the small airplane the ministry owned. As Melody stands at the sink washing the dishes, Keith begs her to join them. 

“No.” Melody isn’t interested in going up tonight. It’s getting dark and it’s time to leave. Keith reluctantly leaves Melody behind and starts loading the kids, except for one-year-old Rebekah, in the car to drive to the airstrip.

Melody stands in the doorway and asks a strange question, unsure why she’s even asking it.

“Hey! If you don’t come back, what do you want me to name the baby?”

Keith shouts back across the long driveaway, to his wife standing in the door, “No need to name the baby after me if it’s a boy! But raise Rebekah to be a woman of God!”

And then he climbs into the car and pulls away.

A few minutes later, Melody gets a call that the plane went down. She drives to the airstrip to find her worst fears realized. The plane isn’t at the airstrip. But she sees a trail of smoke rising from the woods on the nearby horizon.

When she reaches the crash site, she finds only a mangled wreck with no survivors. In a moment, she has lost her husband and two of their children, along with the pilot and their friends. Melody later learns that the crash was caused by too much weight in the small plane which prevented it from taking off properly.

Grief in the Aftermath

For the next several years, Melody’s life was one of daily grief and anger. She was now a single mother of two young children. But even in the midst of tragedy, Melody knew that God was still there with her.

On the day of the fateful crash, Melody felt God’s presence as abnormally large raindrops hit her windshield as she drove home from the wreckage site. She felt as though God Himself was mourning the loss of Keith with her.

The many friends that the Greens had made through their ministry were there to support Melody and her family. And today, Melody encourages other Christians to come alongside those who are grieving.

Grief and loss are not quickly forgotten or overcome, even with a strong faith in God. It takes ample time and a community willing to minister over the long haul to those going through tragedy. 

Melody’s story began with a Jewish girl suspicious of Jesus and his followers. But God transformed her life and opened her heart to the gospel of the true Jewish Messiah, Jesus Christ. And this man Jesus is the person that Melody fully rested her faith on in the midst of all the hardships of this life.

—
Jace Bower is a writer with a passion for justice and biblical principles. He writes at jacebower.com.

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