This unpublished homiletical biography of Ray Stedman (±80 web pages) is a late addition (2007) to the Ray C. Stedman Online Library. With his unique sermon-style approach in this memoir, Dr. Wade Whitcomb brings out some jewels, both his and Ray’s, that will absolutely sparkle and impact your thoughts . He brings home the importance of clear Biblical preaching in the ministry of the church which can in no way be overstated even today.
It is indeed difficult to try to sum up the life of one of the great expository teachers of the 20th century, and especially of a shepherd who let the Lord live so vibrantly in and through him; but Whitcomb performs a yeoman’s service in bringing together Ray’s life and ministry as a concise, memorable, and informative read for everyone even though he aimed it at pastors. Wade Whitcomb wrote this paper as his Doctoral Dissertation for his seminary. Read Wade’s 1998 Introduction.
For a fuller biographical view of Ray Stedman's life see: Portrait of Integrity.
FORWORD by J.I. Packer REFERENCES
FOREWORD
There are some people with whom one bonds ("clicks," as we used to say) very quickly, and at a very deep level. For me, as for many others, Ray Stedman was one such. Our first conversation left me feeling we had been buddies for years, and that was not just because I had told him of my long-standing, whole-hearted agreement with the vision of the local congregation set out in his book Body Life which he was implementing at Peninsula Bible Church.
At Ray's invitation, I visited Peninsula Bible Church (PBC), taught a little in its Scribe School, and shared in Sunday worship there. Later I was with him on the Council of Biblical Exposition (COBE) and took part in the big conference for preachers that it mounted in Houston. Ray aimed to be a teacher of teachers, as do I, and our cooperation was for me, at least, a delight.
He was laid-back; he was genial; he was wise; he was well-read, thoughtful, and sharp as a tack in discussion; he was theologically aware, and thoroughly God-centered; he was a commanding person, though unassuming and without conceit; and his relaxed intensity in exegeting and applying Scripture made you listen to every word, and search your heart constantly. He was, as we say, a fine gentleman, and a fine minister. Such men ought to be remembered, and it is therefore with great joy that I introduce Wade Whitcomb's memoir of him.
I would pay tribute also to Ray's wife Elaine, who supported him magnificently throughout his ministry.
"Remember your leaders who first taught you the word of God. Think of all the good that has come from their lives, and trust the Lord as they do. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever" (Hebrews 13:7-8, NLT).
J.I. Packer
1. PROLOGUE
A curious phenomenon is taking place in churches across the country. Churches that have been around for fifty, seventy, even one hundred years are radically changing their form of worship. Pews are being removed and replaced by theater style seating. Drama and professional contemporary music are becoming a regular part of the morning worship service, and every reminder of the "boring" theological church of the past is being eradicated.
Churches with a long tradition of denominational affiliation are dropping the words "Baptist", or "Presbyterian" from their names. New names such as "Hard Rock Community Church" are replacing First Baptist or First United Methodist Church.
Some of these churches are experiencing amazing growth; the kind of growth that can make a pastor an instant celebrity; the kind of growth that even makes denominational leaders happy about the deletion of the denominational designation, "if that is what it takes to grow." These churches, known as "seeker sensitive" churches are being planted in growing communities with a core group of about thirty-five excited, energetic people ready to win the community for Christ and ready to build a church that fulfills the great commission and pleases God.
We are told by one West Coast pastor that this is a wave that is supplied by the Holy Spirit at this time in church history. After observing the California surfers, he comments that the surfers will wait patiently for a swell to come and then, having caught the wave, will ride it, propelled by the mighty power it releases. He suggests that this is what is happening today with the seeker sensitive movement: it is a powerful wave provided by the Holy Spirit, and we should be catching and riding the wave.
As an Orange County California pastor, I minister in a unique environment. The church I have been privileged to lead for the last three years is a three-hundred member American Baptist Church in Garden Grove. When it comes to megachurch models, I do not have to look too far to find one to emulate. About five miles from my church is the Crystal Cathedral under the strong vision and leadership of Robert Schuller. About 30 miles south is the dynamic Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa, one of the largest churches in North America which began in a tent with a small group of beach kids who responded to the more informal style of worship. In the city of Anaheim, less than 10 miles away are two more famous large churches: Anaheim Vineyard, known for its exciting worship and manifestation of the gifts; and Melodyland Christian Center, where miracle services or new phenomena such as "laughing in the Spirit" are common. These two churches evidence a much more visible, "outward demonstration" of the Holy Spirit's power.
Clearly, many different types of megachurch models exist right in the backyard of our congregation. Like most pastors, I would like to see First Baptist grow. It is one hundred years old and has been a faithful witness to the community for all those years. Growth should be relatively easy. I am the recipient of a great plethora of promotional materials, highlighting the benefits of one church growth seminar after another, promising principles which have been used by other megachurches, and which can practically guarantee growth from thirty-five to 10,000! I strive to be teachable and non-judgmental, but I must admit to some skepticism. I just don't see the same techniques that exploded the growth of one church in southern California transferring over to the hundred year old First Baptist. I am, however, familiar with many of the principles. The first thing I am told is that I should perform a demographic study of Garden Grove to begin understanding the members of the community, and to ascertain what style of church they prefer. Second, I give a fictitious name to the typical resident of my community; something like "Garden Grove Gary." As a result of my study, I learn that "Garden Grove Gary" earns about $40,000 per year, is thirty-eight years old, and prefers a low-key, casual type of church. One of the difficult tasks of this step is to convince my church that certain changes are necessary if we are to reach "Garden Grove Gary." Perhaps I gently explain that the word "Baptist" conjures up images of Elmer Gantry to unchurched Gary, and repels him before he even hits the front door. A name like Sea Breeze Community Church references our proximity to the beach, and has no discernible labels. The third step is a complete revamping of our worship services, making them more contemporary, more entertaining....
After fifteen years of ministry, I am becoming overwhelmed. Is First Baptist Church a relic of the past, doomed to either hop on this wave or fail? Is First Baptist just like the Mom and Pop hardware store I used to frequent as a kid, but can't find today because they can't compete with Home Base or Home Depot? Is this the wave supplied by the Holy Spirit and I better be on it or miss out?
As a surfer myself, I realize that swells occasionally look really good, the wave seems to be forming perfectly, and many surfers "drop in" only to find that the wave had no shape and "closes out" on them. If you watch southern California surfers long enough, you'll notice that many of them catch a wave, realize that it is not what they thought it would be, and quickly 'kick out." The words of Dr. Dick Hillis, one of the most significant influences in my life before I entered the ministry, have stayed with me these last fifteen years. "Don't worry about being a Billy Graham or a Bill Bright or a Chuck Swindoll," he warned; "Just be faithful to what God has called you to do." As a pastor, God has called me first and foremost to preach the Word, and I am afraid that this swell may not be producing the perfect waves we thought we saw. In Ken Hemphill's book The Antioch Effect, he demonstrates that when all is said and done and the dust has settled, the facts actually reveal that the church growth movement is not keeping up with the population growth. 1 Of course, as he points out, we could ask how much worse would things be if it were not for this emphasis on growth? We must also ask, however, is the salt losing its savor?
All of us want to carry out God's will. All of us want to see fruit. We must be careful, however to accomplish God's will in God's way. We must always be cautious of the temptation to accomplish His will in the flesh. The obvious question arises: "What is God's method for declaring His Word?" Too often the temptation for pastors and church leaders today is the same as it was for Aaron and the golden calf…give the people what they want, a temptation that has plagued leaders ever since.
What follows is not a critique of the "seeker sensitive", "user friendly" churches that are springing up today. It is, however, an appeal that whether the church is First Baptist, or Hard Rock Community, whether it's high church or low church, and whether it is target oriented or baby boomer oriented, that the preaching is not compromised. It is easy in our megachurch mindset of today to focus so much on being managers that we forget our calling. We run the risk of leading our churches to be secularized. Os Guinness says in Dining with the Devil,
Secularism is a philosophy; secularization is a process. Where the philosophy is obviously hostile to the body of Christ and touches only a few, the process is largely invisible and touches many. Being openly hostile, secularism rarely deceives Christians. Being much more subtle, secularization often deceives Christians before they are aware of it, including those in the church growth movement. How else can one explain the comment of a Japanese businessman visiting Australia? "Wherever I meet a Buddhist leader, I meet a holy man. Wherever I meet a Christian leader, I meet a manager."
The two most easily recognizable hallmarks of secularization in America are the exaltation of numbers and technique. Both are prominent in the megachurch movement at a popular level. 2
We need to remember that preaching is still the primary means by which the kingdom of God advances. Paul said: 'How shall they call upon Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?" (Rom 10:14)
Jesus himself came preaching (Mark 1:14). Matthew says, "Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom (Matthew 9:35). During His lifetime, Jesus sent the apostles out to preach. "And he appointed the twelve, that they might be with Him, and that He might send them out to preach." After Pentecost, the apostles also gave priority to preaching. In Acts 6:4 they say, "But we will devote ourselves to prayer and the ministry of the Word."
Peter wrote later in his first letter about the salvation that is found in Christ. Telling his readers that the prophets who spoke before were "not serving themselves but you, in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit" (I Peter 1:12).
Many of us feel like Moses when he was asked to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. He realized how ill prepared he was to do such a great work. "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?" God, however, assured him that He would provide the necessary power to accomplish this monumental task.
Ken Hemphill stated: "Preaching the Word is the centerpiece of worship. Preaching is declaring the truth of God in the power of the Holy Spirit. Paul expressed his conviction about the centrality of preaching in the first two chapters of I Corinthians. The Jews, Paul said, clamored for signs: —some spectacular evidence of God's presence and power (ref. 1:22). Sounds a little like the "signs and wonders" movement in church growth. The Greeks, he continued, sought for wisdom (ref 1:22). Thus, Paul determined to preach the cross of Christ because it was the power and wisdom of God (ref 1:23). Paul could have been tempted to meet the "felt need" of his day, for dramatic signs and wisdom, but rather chose to meet the real issue of human need through the preaching of the cross." 3
Fortunately for those of us who struggle with being faithful to our calling yet still desire a church that grows, we have a model that gives us hope that a church can grow without state of the art sound systems and professional quality actors and actresses. In 1948, Ray Stedman came straight out of seminary to a small church in Northern California. In many respects, he began what easily could be considered the first seeker sensitive church, if not the prototype. Ray and the elders led a church that was loving, caring, and accepting of everyone. It was a church where the seeker could feel free to visit. There was a more "casual style" of worship and young adults, college and high school kids were quickly filling the pews. It is crucial to remember however that preaching was central to this ministry. The Word, not the audience was sovereign. Ray Stedman sympathized with the frustration of the proponents of the "seeker sensitive" philosophy. Long before many of these pastors were out of grade school, Ray said:
One reason why so much of the church today is written off by people who have come to see what Christians are like is that they are turned off by the morbidity and dullness of what we call worship. In many church services across this land today the diet is what can only be described as predictable pabulum, dished-up Pollyanna, as dull and unexciting as it can be! Many services are so totally predictable that, without being present, you can look at your watch and, at any given moment, say what is happening. 4
Certainly Stedman's assessment of the church is valid. Many are "dead." In this, Ray and the "seeker sensitive" proponents would agree. However, where the two would disagree is that Stedman understood that the real problem lies not in the presentation but in the preaching. How then does a church capture the excitement and joy? With drama, drums, bells and whistles or anything else? No, it is when preachers cease to be shallow and repetitive. The authentic joy found in churches is when they are confronted with and conformed to the majesty of the Word of God.
The church Ray Stedman pastored for over forty years was a lively, joyful church. The fruit produced is amazing. Peninsula Bible Church was founded in Palo Alto in 1950 by five businessmen who had only intended to establish a low key fellowship. The group quickly mushroomed and called Stedman as its first pastor. Within the first 20 years, PBC became one of the largest evangelical churches in Northern California. However, the pulpit was not moved aside for drama. Instead, preaching was central and the joy that was present was not because of guitars and drums or comfortable theater seats. Joy was present from God's Word being expounded and people discovering the gospel of Jesus Christ. The music at times was far below the professionalism demanded in many of today's churches. Yet worship was certainly there.
Years later, Stedman and his long time friend Howard Hendricks would talk about their concern over some of the seeker sensitive churches. They worried that they were "about sixteen feet wide and one sixteenth of an inch deep". 5 Perhaps pastors today could learn from Martin Luther. He advised young preachers with these words: "Look solely to His honor and not to applause—Although I am old (he was 48) and experienced, I am afraid every time I have to preach."
Why was this? Was it merely a matter of "stage fright" for this great reformer? Could it be that he was timid? The one who stood at the Diet of Worms in the presence of all the power that the ecclesiastical world had to offer and said, "unless I am persuaded by reason and the Word of God, I cannot and will not recant." Could he have been worried about the approval of men? No, the one thing that caused fear in Luther was not the disapproval of men, but the disapproval of God. Somewhere, we have lost this attitude.
If Martin Luther trembled as he announced the Gospel, how much more should preachers today? The problem of course is not that the modem preachers feel superior to Luther; the problem is they don't understand the importance of the preacher's calling. D. Martyn Lloyd Jones, the great preacher from Westminster chapel (to whom J.I. Packer compared Ray Stedman in some very distinct ways), said: "to me the work of preaching is the highest and greatest and most glorious calling to which anyone can ever be called." 6 If we understood the preacher's calling as Martin Luther and D. Martyn Lloyd Jones did, preaching in today's churches would radically change. Preaching would return to its proper prominence.
Unfortunately, the passion for the Word of God that was so much a part of Ray Stedman has not been carried over into all churches and all pulpits. Consequently, we are living in a world where it appears the salt is beginning to lose its savor. Our passion to grow churches is at an all time high, but our passion to preach seems to be at an all time low.
After traveling around the country and observing different churches, Ray came back to the pulpit in Palo Alto and said:
Here on the West Coast we are seeing much new life coming into the churches. But in the rest of the nation this is just barely beginning in a few spots. For the most part, the evangelical churches are carrying on in a very sterile, dry, dull, empty shell of performance, with services which are appallingly dull, and are turning off most of the youth of their areas. Young people are frankly saying so all over the country. What is the reason for this? Well, it is largely because we have substituted for the intended power by which Christians are to live the processes which the world lives on around us. We have substituted slick organization and electronic techniques and high gear promotion and pressure tactics as the means by which we hope the church will affect the world. But God's people have never moved successfully on that basis, either in the Scriptures or in subsequent history. 7
Why is this? Perhaps we are falling into the age-old trap of trying to accomplish God's work in the flesh. In Genesis chapter 16, Sarai, Abram's wife made a self sacrificing and generous offer. Because God had promised her husband a son, and after ten years there still wasn't one, she decided to help carry out God's will. It made perfect sense to her that the best thing to do would be to give her maid Hagar to him. Abram, also aware of God's promise, was anxious to see the fruit that he knew would one day be his. Now, after considering his wife's offer and, both of them optimistic about the fruit that they hoped would follow, the decision was made. Verse 3 tells us: "And after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Abram's wife Sarai took Hagar the Egyptian, her maid, and gave her to her husband Abram as his wife." The result of their effort was in fact fruit. Ishmael was born. The problem of course was that God intended the fruit to be Isaac. In a 1966 sermon, Ray commented on Genesis 16:
We find in our Bibles what we call "the Great Commission." (Mark 15:16). "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation." This is the goal he wants us to fulfill. We say: now the rest is up to us. We must plan all the strategy; we must raise the money, and determine where it will be spent. We must convince candidates that they should go. It is all up to us to carry out God's will.
And we do get some fruit from this; we get results. We hold our meetings and plan our programs and put on our pressures and we get results, but oh, they are so unsatisfactory. Do you know why? We've gotten Ishmael instead of Isaac!
We hear our Lord say in the first chapter of Acts, "You shall be witnesses," and every truly Christian heart says, "All right Lord, this is what you want me to do—I will do it." We never bother to find out how he wants it done, or whether he has a program to carry it out. We start out in fleshly zeal and pass out tracts to everyone we meet, or buttonhole people at meetings. When it all fails, we recognize that something is wrong and we wring our hands and quit. We say, "I've tried to obey the Lord, but it doesn't work, so I quit!"
We read in Scripture that we should have elders in every church, and God's plan is to direct his church through these men. So we hold an election and put up the wealthiest members or the most popular ones, and these men run the church as they would a business, stumbling on in total disregard of the Living Head who is completely capable of running his own church quite successfully. We never bother to find our how he makes known to us the men of his choice, and how he proposes to declare his will through them. So we have a church filled with divisions and strife, and realize we have Ishmael on our hands instead of Isaac. 8
The fact that, in much of Christianity today, we have Ishmael on our hands can be seen from the rather alarming statistics that we are now learning about the church. In Dining with the Devil Os Guinness reflects:
A very large part of church-growth success in the West (as much as 80 percent in America, some say) is growth by transfer, not conversion. As Jim Petersen of the Navigators says: "Increase of this sort isn't church growth at all. It's just a reshuffling of the same fifty-two cards."
What does it say of the church when Newsweek can note that "the least demanding churches are now in greatest demand?" Or when one church can advertise: "Instead of me fitting a religion I found a religion to fit me?" 9
Certainly this is a problem and quite possibly the problem is the pulpit of America.
How else could we explain one professor's sorrowful assessment of pastors today? In 1987, Eugene Peterson, a professor at Regent College in Vancouver, B.C. wrote these words:
The pastors of America have metamorphosed into a company of shopkeepers, and the shops they keep are churches. They are preoccupied with shopkeeper's concerns—how to keep the customers happy, how to lure customers away from competitors down the street, how to package the goods so that the customers will lay out more money. Perhaps no one has so bluntly stated a significant problem within the church today.
Some of them are very good shopkeepers. They attract a lot of customers, pull in great sums of money, and develop splendid reputations. Yet it is still shopkeeping; religious shopkeeping to be sure, but shopkeeping all the same. The marketing strategies of the fast food franchise occupy the waking minds of these entrepreneurs; while asleep they dream of the kind of success that will get the attention of journalists. "A walloping great congregation is fine, and fun," says Martin Thornton, "but when most communities really need is a couple of saints. The tragedy is they may well be there in embryo, waiting to be discovered, waiting for sound training, waiting to be emancipated from the cult of the mediocre." 10
It could never be said that Ray Stedman was guilty of becoming a shopkeeper. One also could never level the charge against him of being an entrepreneur. Instead, Ray was completely committed to the importance of good Biblical preaching. It was a commitment that he carried with him all through his ministry. The fact that Ray Stedman never wavered from his view of the primacy of the Word of God is admirable when we consider that the "temptation" to make the audience sovereign instead of the Word, was so prevalent when Ray was beginning his ministry at PBC.
During the late 40's and early 50's a new way to accomplish God's work was being presented by a seminary professor in Germany. This way, like many others that would follow, promised results of church growth and also made the audience not the message sovereign. His name was Rudolph Bultmann and he would end up becoming perhaps the most influential theologian of the century.
During the war, Bultmann published a forty page essay entitled, "New Testament and Mythology," which catapulted him into the center of theological controversy and introduced into theology the term "demythologization." Although Bultmann retired from his professorship in 1951, his years of greatest influence have come during his retirement because of the debate his essay stimulated. 11
This perhaps was the beginning of modem man's attempt to "help God" accomplish his goals by producing Ishmael instead of Isaac. The typical evangelical of today would be appalled if they realized how much the seeker sensitive movement actually reflects the liberalism of the 19th Century and Bultmann of the 1950's. The goal behind Bultmann's theology was to get the good news of Jesus Christ to the modem thinker. To him, Christian faith is not concerned with Jesus as a past event in history. As such, Jesus was just another martyred hero. Christian faith is interested only in the risen Christ who brings new life to man as he is met today in the words of preaching and in the sacrament of the church. The important thing about the Gospels is not what they tell us about Jesus "as he really was," whatever that might mean, but that they show us what Jesus meant to the first Christians and thus what he can mean to us. As William Hordern has summed up, "Bultmann is concerned with how men today can understand the Bible as a Word addressed to them." 12
This almost sounds like the war cry of the modern seeker sensitive movement. The problem is Bultmann was actually partially right, and so is the seeker sensitive position; men today need to understand the Bible as a word addressed to them. However, he misses the mark when he assumes that Jesus as 'He really was' is not important. The baby boomer and the seeker need both. They need to see who Jesus really was, and how the risen Christ and his word apply to them today. Not only do they need both, they actually are fascinated by God's word when it is not watered down, not made more acceptable, not even defended but simply set free to defend itself.
Preaching has fallen on tough times today. Many argue that the idea of one man standing up proclaiming God's Word is too archaic for the sophisticated computer and MTV generation of today. Others tell us that if we do not get in line with the high energy, high production, entertainment oriented avenue for communicating the gospel, then we will not have an audience to preach to. We would agree with John Stott, himself a faithful preacher who said: "The very reason that preaching is the primary means of advancing God's kingdom is because it is 'foolishness' —therefore all the glory goes to God."
Instead of faithful preaching the emphasis today is too much on the audience and not on the message. We continually hear from the seeker sensitive camp, almost a mantra, that "theology is no good without an audience." Therefore we need to market the church.
Os Guinness has astutely pointed out:
One church growth marketer claims that the difference between "growth" and "evangelism" and "marketing" is only semantics. He is absolutely wrong. As historian David Potter pointed out in his penetrating analysis of advertising: once marketing becomes dominant, the concern is not with 'finding an audience to hear their message but rather finding a message to hold their audience.' After all, when the audience and not the message is sovereign, the good news of Jesus Christ is no longer the end but just the means. 13
Aware of the danger of weak preaching in churches Ray stated to a group of pastors at Glen Eyrie: "I believe that preaching in general has fallen on rather evil days. I don't hear a great deal of good solid biblical preaching today. In fact I was in a seminary just a few weeks ago where I spoke in chapel on the subject of preaching today. Afterward, the professor of homiletics took me aside and he said: "you know you were talking about the content of preaching, and what we should preach, but the problem at this seminary is not what but whether we should preach at all." 14
What a sad commentary on the CEO mentality of much of the church today. We are riding a wave that right now looks great; however, if preaching—the primary means of advancing the kingdom is not foremost in our churches, the "wave" will "close out" on the church.
Os Guinness said it well: "The church of Christ is more than spiritual and theological, but never less. Only when first things are truly first, over even the best and most attractive of second things, will the church be free of idols, free to let God be God, free to be herself, and free to experience the growth that matters." 15
Pastors have been given the wonderful privilege of preaching: "the highest and greatest and most glorious calling to which anyone can ever be called." What follows is a model for all of us to learn from. Ray Stedman understood that calling and had great appreciation for the wonder of the Word of God. Perhaps it's time to kick out of this wave and learn from the faithful model that Ray Stedman leaves behind. The story, however, does not begin with the pulpit. It begins long ago in 1917.
2. BEGINNINGS
The most basic quest of our life is to belong to someone, to be identified with them, to be loved by someone and to be accepted and possessed and owned by someone else. And nothing is more pitiable and pathetic than someone who feels that no one loves him, that he doesn't belong to anyone, that no one cares for his soul. — Ray C. Stedman
In the fall of 1917, German offensives were routing the Italians and destroying the Russian army. In the United States, millions of men registered quietly with the local officials whom the War Department authorized to supervise the draft. President Wilson made General John J. Pershing head of the American Expeditionary Force, and the world was in the midst of a violent war.
Theologically the world was being shaken up as well. Modernism had crept into such schools of theological training like Princeton and Yale. Union Theological seminary was gaining a strong reputation as a school of modem thought. Albert Schweitzer's book, The Quest of the Historical Jesus had been written eleven years before, and the theological world had embraced many of its themes. Like other books of similar nature, it did not describe Jesus, the Galilean carpenter of the first century, but a figure who taught and acted like a nineteenth century intellectual. American thought regarding sin, the person of Jesus, miracles and other matters of orthodoxy was being affected by European Christianity. Profoundly influencing these discussions were the teaching of people such as Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768-1834). Schleiermacher insisted that the great debates over proofs of God, the authority of Scriptures, miracles and the like were all on the outside fringe of religion. The heart of religion was and always had been feeling, not rational proofs and discussions. 1
In 1917, preaching was still strong in many churches and in many denominations! Sunday morning worshippers still eagerly anticipated hearing God's herald expound the Scriptures. Throughout the country however, many preachers were no longer "earnestly contending for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 3)." Charles Hadden Spurgeon had warned during his last great controversy (1887-1891) that Christians needed to wake up to the danger of the church "being buried beneath the boiling mud showers of modem heresy." Apparently, we hadn't listened.
Far away from the great war raging in Europe and equally distant from the confusing transitions in theological debate, Ray C. Stedman was born, on October 5, 1917, in a small town in North Dakota. Certainly, no one could have imagined the impact he would one day have in the Christian world as a preacher and a contender of the faith. Many years later, Ray Stedman would accept the responsibility of leading a Christian fellowship group of 35 which eventually became one of the fastest growing churches in Northern California, swelling to a community of over 3,000. (In addition, five "spin-off' churches were planted on the Peninsula.) The impact of this church for the cause of Christ was significant. Billy Graham once referred to PBC as: "One of the most dynamic companies of Christian believers on the West Coast." 2
Peninsula Bible Church would grow without all the trappings that many modern church growth movements consider essential. PBC thrived in the back yard of Stanford University, at a time when church growth clinics and seminars were non-existent, before the proponents of the modem "seeker sensitive" movement were out of grade school, and without the sophisticated contemporary Christian pop worship prevalent in many churches today.
Ray Stedman's book Body Life which defined the philosophy of PBC's community, was cited by church growth expert C. Peter Wagner as being one of the most significant books written in this generation. What was the foundation for this church's great success? Many people assert that it was because of the success of the "body life" principle, a principle that, simply duplicated in another setting, would easily produce growth. Those who assume this have missed the real strength of Ray Stedman and the ministry at PBC. Body life was clearly evident. The fellowship and care that is lacking in so many churches was certainly present at PBC. People were welcomed and accepted and loved. The focal point, however, was that God's Word was proclaimed, believed and treasured, and the church community was loved and nurtured into a fuller understanding of God's Person, and His design for this world and their lives.
When Ray Stedman came into the world on October 5, 1917 in Temvik, North Dakota, no one could have known that God would put His hand upon him and use him in such a mighty way. There was certainly no way that his parents or older brother could have imagined the trials and heartache that lay ahead, or that through all of it God would use those experiences to mold a man of God who would not just pastor a church, but faithfully preach the Word.
A look back at the rough childhood of Ray quickly dispels any notion that he was born with a "silver spoon in his mouth." Ray's father, Charles Leslie Stedman was born in Woodstock, Minnesota on July 21, 1889 to Guy and Mary Jane Stedman. Traveling by covered wagon, the family relocated to Blunt, South Dakota. The trip was long and difficult for the entire family. It was during this move that one of Charles' brothers was born. The trials and struggles that the Stedman family went through were almost beyond comprehension for most people living a century later.
During the early 1900's (1904-1905), Guy Stedman decided to homestead west of Temvik, North Dakota. Although what the family established was literally a little house on the prairie, it was nothing like the Hollywood rendition. The older boys labored long and hard, assisting their father with the construction of a sod house, a home for the family. That house would eventually become the final residence for their mother, Mary Jane Stedman. She died in 1907, leaving nine children. Charles was a teenager when his mother died and in time started working as a building contractor. Some of the barns he built are still standing today. In 1912, Charles married Mabel Allen of Ipswich, South Dakota. Three boys would eventually follow: Allen, Raymond, and Donald. The Stedman boys were also dealt a difficult hand early in life. Their father Charles had difficulty finding work and keeping the family settled in one spot, and their mother Mabel's health was failing. After seemingly endless moves, Charles finally found a job in construction in Denver Colorado. A short time after settling his family, the most pivotal episode in Ray Stedman's life occurred: his father left, abandoning his wife and sons. Perhaps the strain of raising a family during tough times, or the worry about his sickly wife caused him to leave. No one really knows. He left abruptly and was never heard from again. His brothers and sisters were shocked and angered. Although many efforts were made to locate him, none was successful. In her letters Mabel declared her continued love and faithfulness to him. She always hoped Charles would return. That day never came.
By this time, Mabel's health had deteriorated badly. Bertha Abrahamson, Mabel's niece, stated: "I remember when Aunt Mabel and Donald, who was about two, visited us one winter. At that visit, I remember her awful siege of asthmatic attacks when she inhaled the flames from some burning substance that helped to partially relieve her discomfort. In time she developed a heart condition, and that more or less, confined her to the lighter air in Denver. I also remember mother receiving letters from her telling that she had cut short her visits to see her sister Beulah and Raymond." 3
Because his mother could not care for all the boys, Ray and his older brother were put into an orphanage. After a few years in the orphanage, God's providence would again become evident. Ray's aunt and her husband, Fred and Beulah Sheets, picked the boys up and assumed the responsibility of caring for them. Since Ray's aunt and uncle were Methodists, Ray was exposed to the great teachings of the mystery that is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Ray would also end up living in Montana, the state that he affectionately referred to as home. Now for this young boy, the dreary walls of the orphanage had given way to the big sky country of Montana. Even in Montana, Ray did not feel that he really belonged, or fit in.
He once confided in his friend and "son" Luis Palau that his uncle would introduce the family, identifying each of his boys as 'my son," and naming them, and then refer to Ray as "my sister Mabel's son Raymond." He told Luis that he hated his name Raymond, despised his middle name Charles and even disliked his surname Stedman. Throughout his adult life, he was known as Ray C. Stedman. 4
At ten years old, Ray's entire life changed. He became a Christian. Of this time, Mrs. Stedman says:
When he went to live with his aunt and uncle, they always lived in little towns where there was rarely ever a church. In those days in Montana there were often evangelistic tent meetings. You wonder what they would have been like...With the sawdust floors and the whole thing…they were just exactly as you would picture. It was at one of those meetings a fire and brimstone preacher was preaching from something in the Old Testament about the sins of the fathers, and it really got to Ray. 5
Ray tells it in his own words:
This is the way that I came to Christ. I read and heard quoted from the Bible, some wonderful promises. I read of One who spoke as no other man spoke and I heard him speak enticing words to my heart:
"Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls" (Matthew 11: 28-29).
"He who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life" (John 8:12).
"I am the door; if anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture" (John 10:9).
As I heard such verses, hope flared in my heart because this is what I longed to find, as it is what you and every man and woman longs to find today: rest, fulfillment, supply, companionship, blessings, and light in place of darkness. These are the things hoped for, but then I heard the story of some unseen things. I heard of the cross in all its wonder and mystery; that simple story of how they lifted up the son of God and how in the darkness of that scene, God accomplished some strange and mysterious transaction. Somehow the sin of the human race was lifted off men and laid upon Jesus Christ, that his righteousness might be imparted to them. I couldn't understand it fully, since I was only about ten years of age when I heard this story and believed it—but I realized that here was a God who could do something about my problems. I believed His Word and when I did so, the course of my life was altered. I didn't look any different on the outside, and I didn't act very differently for a while, but I found a new capacity to love and I had new attitudes. Though there has been stop and go progress along the way, the course and direction of my life from that time has never altered. 6
After Ray's conversion to Christ, he began to grow. Fortunately for the cause of Christ, Ray wanted to grow both as a man and as a Christian. Once while preaching he looked back to his childhood and this desire.
I had a happy childhood, but I would never want to go back into it because, as I recall, when I was a boy I couldn't wait to be a man! I found the restrictions of childhood rather irksome and frustrating; I felt so inadequate and incompetent, and I was always fearful of failure and of not being quite able to handle a situation. When I grew up I gloried in the sense of adequacy and liberty that being grown up gave me. I do hope as Christians we begin to see that salvation never really begins to make sense until we start acting as mature sons of God. This is when our salvation begins to count—when we enter into the wonderful liberty of the sons of God. 7
Ray did grow and he sensed even then a desire to preach. What few people know is that the first sermons Ray "preached" were to the cows he worked with on the ranch. From early in his life the call upon Ray Stedman must have been strong. Already God was putting into his heart the desire and the calling to proclaim God's Word. We can only imagine what the content or style of those sermons was like. We also must be content simply to speculate on what his "captive audience" thought of this young man's preaching!
These young days also influenced Ray in other ways. In some sense, it gave him his identity. For most of his life, when people would casually ask Ray what he did, he would say, "I'm a sheep herder." As a youth, he did in fact herd sheep; as a preacher, he also was committed to his responsibility to "herd the sheep" (Palau interview). Working on the ranch to contribute to the family budget also helped to toughen Ray, and he became a strong, seasoned cowboy. Elaine Stedman is quick to point out that he was a real cowboy—"not the dime store kind that we see romanticized today." He was a real cowboy, toughened by hard work.
As Ray grew up his life went into two areas that would later change. First, he attended a Pentecostal church in Montana. Second, he began to pursue a career in medicine as a surgeon. Ray entered college in the mid 30's. With the Great Depression grinding on, most people were postponing college until "Happier Days Were Here Again." However, Ray chose to attend college, the logical first step for an aspiring surgeon. The first school he went to was a little college in Helena, Montana called Rocky Mountain College. Ray spent one year there, taking pre-med classes. A second year, however, would prove to be impossible. A huge earthquake did so much damage to the campus that it had to be closed, and later it moved to Great Falls.
Ray was about 20 years old, and unable to find suitable employment in Montana. He had secured employment in Chicago, and had to take a bus for the long trip from Montana to Illinois. Dr. Bill Lawrence of Dallas Seminary remembers Ray relating this experience at a Bible study group in Dallas.
It was cold; it was dark; it was snowy and he was leaving everything he knew. He was scared, it was hard, and he was becoming nostalgic. While on that bus, however, God communicated with him. God spoke to him and said: "I will be your father." I really think that was an immense key to Ray. The big issue in his life was the fact that he didn't have a father. He didn't have a father from the time he was 11 years old. I mean, it's kind of like looking for that void to be filled, and God said: "I will be your father." Ray's story basically is that God was his father. 8
This experience had a lasting impact on his life. Many years later, Ray told his congregation about the impact of that bus ride.
Almost fifty years ago I left the little town in Montana where I had attended high school to go to Chicago. I had never before visited a city as large. Through the intervention of a friend I had obtained a job there in the days of the Depression, when jobs were as scarce as hens' teeth. I knew only one person in Chicago, my uncle. I didn't want to show it but I was scared. I was leaving all my friends. The town I came from was so small you could locate it right between the second and third Burma Shave signs! It was a thousand-mile journey by bus to Chicago, but all through that long trip I was strengthened and comforted by the sense that Jesus was with me. Although I was heading into the unknown, I look back on that as one of the most joyful bus rides of my life. When I arrived in Chicago the city was blanketed in a great blizzard that tied everything up for several days so that I had to sit alone in a hotel room for the duration of the storm. Looking back, however, my memory of that period is one of fragrant companionship with One who was with me, strengthening me and helping me throughout. For fifty years His companionship never left me. There has never been a moment of pressure and trial that I could not feel his presence with me. 9
The reason that Ray was a father figure to so many young men could directly be traced to his own heartache as a young boy, and his redemptive relationship with Jesus Christ. Ray's wife Elaine says: "Mentoring just came naturally to him. That's another of the ironies... his father deserted him. In these days, if you have that kind of dysfunctional parenting, you are a victim and you have to live out your life as a victim. Ray turned it into something totally redemptive. He became a father to others. I loved that." 10
Still desiring to be a surgeon, and finding that his college campus was in the process of relocating, Ray himself decided to relocate to Whitworth College in Spokane, Washington.
While continuing his course of study in pre-med, Ray's education would again be interrupted by another "earthquake" which caused the aspiring surgeon to leave Whitworth. As was so common in those days, Ray found his family in need of financial help, which necessitated his withdrawal from college. In the latter part of the 1930's this was not an uncommon scene. Many young men had to give up their desires of college to do what was right with regard to their families. Ray was one of those men and perhaps it was another one of those lessons that Ray learned from. Perhaps it was even part of the secret will of God. While employed at the railroads, Ray performed clerical and accounting functions. It was something at which he was competent, and it also prepared him for a significant internship with Dr. Ironside later in his life. This may have been the first step in redirecting Ray from medicine into ministry.
Ray continued to work for the railroads for a little over a year. Then another "earthquake" hit. This earthquake however was rumbling for years before it finally hit. Ray, as well as the rest of the world could see it coming. It began September 1, 1939 with the invasion of Poland by Germany and the beginning of World War II. December 7, 1941 the United States would be involved and young men all over the country hurried to join the war effort. Ray and his brothers were among those. Allen and Donald joined the army and later Ray would join the Navy.
It was 1944 when Ray entered the Navy, and as God's providence would have it, Ray was stationed at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. During this desperate time in world affairs, the 27 year old navy man found his first opportunities to preach God's Word at a small Southern Baptist church in Honolulu.
Ray describes these days himself:
...back in the days of World War II when I was in the Navy and stationed at Pearl Harbor... I had been teaching a Bible class in a church for some time before that and had become interested in and fascinated by the Scriptures. Many sailors of the U.S. fleet came through Pearl Harbor, so I had a Bible class on Tuesday nights for the servicemen and was attempting to teach the book of Romans. Because I wasn't yet very skilled, I looked around for helps. I began to run into books by an expositor who soon became my model and whose name is familiar to all of you—Dr. G. Campbell Morgan. Shortly after I finished Romans, I started Matthew; I would lie on my bunk and read G. Campbell Morgan and then that evening teach what I had read, not trying to steal Morgan's outline or his approach, but to gather the truth that he had so diligently put together. In his day Morgan was known as "the prince of preachers," and he was a wonderful expositor. I learned from Morgan something of the beauty of language, but I learned more than that. I learned that it is not oratory or rhetoric that carries the point, but that it is necessary to work first at understanding the text. I was startled to read that Morgan never began to expound a book of the Bible until he had read it 50 times! After 50 readings of a book, you begin to catch on to something of its message. It seeps down and permeates you, and, to use Spurgeon's term, "your very blood becomes Bibline." 11
Ray became fascinated with the Scriptures and developed a deep love for it.
While in Hawaii, on October 22, 1945, Ray married his sweetheart: Elaine L. Smith from Montana. Decades later he would tell his congregation about those days: "Some 22 years ago when, as a much younger man, I was in Hawaii, I found myself engaged to a lovely girl who lived in Montana and whom I hadn't seen for three or four years. We were writing back and forth in those lonely days, and she sent me her picture. It was a beautiful picture and I showed it to all my friends dozens of times. I propped it up on the desk and I would look at it at least three or four times a day. It was all I had to remind me of her and it served moderately well for that purpose. But one wonderful day she arrived in Hawaii and I saw her face to face." 12
Ray continued his study of the Scriptures and by the time the war ended, the call of God upon his life was clear. He would not return to college and he would not be a surgeon. Instead he and Elaine sensed the clear leading of the Lord to attend Dallas Theological Seminary. Here the boy from Montana would gain the necessary tools to become an effective expositor of God's Word. Here he would meet some of his life long friends, and here he would come in contact with men of God who would confirm for Ray the need for expository preaching. Ray and Elaine arrived at Dallas in 1946. Their home for the next four years would be a place called "Trailerville," also nicknamed "Conception Park" by those who lived there. If it sounds elegant, it wasn't. It was simply a group of about 17 trailers under pecan trees in the area of the seminary where the Chafer Chapel is today. The school installed two showers and the dirt area that surrounded them soon became a mud area/hole during the winter. Boards were placed throughout "the city" so people could walk. The rule was simple: if you stepped off the boards, you were in trouble. People customarily lined up for the showers, which was a tough thing during cold winters. As is often the case in circumstances such as this, humor was not far away. Those emerging from the showers were often met with the sounds of "Why do you tarry?" from a not-so-harmonious-sounding "choir" of those waiting their turn.
Life was difficult for the residents of Dallas Seminary in those days. Only a few students owned cars and life was full of work and study and very little extra money to go around. It was a time, however, of great significance for Ray Stedman because it was at this trailer city that Ray met the man who would be his best friend. Dr. Howard Hendricks remembers those days. "I met Ray the first semester I was here and of course we became very, very close friends. I would say he was more like a brother to me. We bonded together early on. We thought alike, and we had the same vision." The two friends quickly adjusted to life in the seminary. Howard Hendricks came to Dallas directly after graduating from Wheaton College. Ray came directly from the Navy. Of Ray's ability as a student, Hendricks says: "He was gifted intellectually: a man with a razor sharp mind. He constantly dialogued with the professors and whenever there was a test, Ray was almost always the first one done and out the door. Often times we would argue issues with one another. It could be anything. If eschatology, Ray would take one side and I would defend the other. Then we would switch. This helped us develop and understand what it was that we really believed and what we could defend."13
Ray and Elaine, and the Hendricks would cherish those days. Yes, life was tough but as Dr. Hendricks says: "Those were different days than today. People accepted hardship and adversity and simply made the best of it." Ray and Howard did make the best of those days and God brought significant opportunities for Ray to learn.
During two summers Ray had the privilege of working as a youth intern in Pasadena, California at J. Vernon McGee's Lincoln Avenue Presbyterian Church. The third summer, he served as a youth pastor at Immanuel Baptist Church in Pasadena. Those summers would prove to be times of tremendous learning for the young Stedman. As he was acquiring tools for ministry at Dallas, he was also acquiring a new respect for God's Word and for expository preaching in Pasadena.
Ray watched and learned as Dr. McGee preached. He saw the tremendous power of the Word of God when it is let loose to a hungry world. The experience also proved to be another one of those "life lessons" that Ray was learning from. Each summer when Ray arrived in Pasadena, fresh from the trials of final exams at Dallas, he would find himself in another trial: a trial that was all too common for most theological students in those days. He was out of money. Ray decided that the best solution was to take the only thing he had of value to a pawn shop and pawn it for whatever cash he could get. This would prove to be just enough money to last him until he got his first paycheck from the church. Once he was paid, Ray would return to the little shop and purchase his typewriter back. This life experience not only taught Ray about God's care and provision for his life; it also taught him a significant theological lesson. It occurred to Ray that is just what God does with us in redemption. To "redeem" means to "restore to usefulness that which previously was useless." While Ray's typewriter was at that little shop, it just sat on a shelf. It was not being used for its intended purpose. However, when Ray came back, a price was paid and the typewriter was "redeemed" and restored to its intended purpose. God was teaching Ray at Dallas, at Lincoln Avenue Presbyterian Church, and even at a little pawn shop in Pasadena.
Naturally, while in school, there was the usual seminary diet of Greek and Hebrew and hermeneutics, etc. However, for Ray, the highlights were those special men who would significantly contribute to his education. In 1982 he thought back to the Dallas days and said:
The highlights of my years there were the visits of special expositors who came for two weeks at a time and lectured to the students. One of them was Dr. Jack Mitchell from Portland, Oregon, who is now in his ninety-second year and still expounding the Word of God. Another was Dr. H.A. Ironside, the long-term pastor of the Moody Church in Chicago, a member of the Plymouth Brethren and a great Bible teacher. 14
After graduation in 1950, Ray was given one of the most significant opportunities of his life. He became the chauffeur and secretary for Dr. Ironside for three months. It would mean a three-month separation from Elaine and their daughters Sheila and Susan (ages 2 and 8 months), but again, those were different times. Ministry came first and everybody sacrificed, including Elaine and the children. Ray told his congregation about those months:
In September of 1950 I came to this area, to what was then called Peninsula Bible Fellowship, to begin a ministry, after three months of travel and close companionship with Dr. H.A. Ironside. Dr. Ironside (who was often called "The Apostle of Fundamentalism") was well known as a great Bible teacher. He had been pastor for eighteen years at the Moody Memorial Church in Chicago. I had long admired him as a model of expository preaching.
It was a great and choice privilege to be with Dr. Ironside for three months. It was a fascinating time for me. Because he was almost blind with cataracts in both eyes, I was his constant companion. I was his chauffeur, his secretary, and his companion. We lived, ate, bled and died together for three months. Because I was young I listened to him with great interest, and watched everything he did. I saw his great strengths as a Bible teacher. I saw his warmth and compassion as a human being, and I saw some weaknesses. Though all this was thirty-three years ago, I have never forgotten any of the events of that three months. He made an unforgettable impression on me. As the saying goes, "I could write a book." 15
With his seminary education complete, and significant internships with Dr. McGee and Dr. Ironside behind him, Ray was now ready for the next step.
While Ray was studying in Dallas, a group of businessmen had begun a small Bible study, prayer and fellowship group in Palo Alto, California. By 1950 the group was known as Peninsula Bible Fellowship, and had grown to the point where the participants saw the need for pastoral care. Three letters arrived in the PBF mailbox on the same day. The letters were written by John Walvoord of Dallas Seminary, J. Vernon McGee now of Church of the Open Door, Los Angeles, and John Mitchell, one of the founders of Multnomah School of the Bible. All three were unaware of each others' correspondence, and all three recommended that PBF consider calling Ray Stedman as their first full time teacher. These three were not alone in their assessment of the great potential of Ray Stedman. Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer also saw something in Ray that convinced him that God was going to give this young seminarian a great ministry. Ray remembers what a significant encouragement that was to him.
I will never forget an incident in my own ministry when I was a young man. I was still a student at Dallas Seminary, but was spending my summers in Pasadena. I worked one summer as a youth minister in a church there, when Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer, the President and founder of Dallas Seminary, a great man of God, a great man of faith, came to town. He was gracious enough to spend an afternoon with my wife and me.
I took Dr. Chafer to the church where I was working and showed him around the very impressive, beautiful building. The congregation at this time did not have a pastor, though they were seeking one, so Dr. Chafer said to me, "Do you think you might end up here in this church?" I said, "I don't know. Who knows what God will do? I don't have any particular plans for that." "I don't know either," he said, "but it would be a great place for you because I believe God is going to give you a great ministry." I do not know what he had in mind by that. He may have been impressed by the beauty of that building. (I am sure he did not realize that someday I would end up in a building like this, where the architecture is clearly early Safeway!) But his words have been a great encouragement to my heart. Many times as a young man I remembered Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer had seen something in me, that was an encouragement. 16
While on a business trip to Texas, Bob Smith, one of the original members of PBF stopped in Dallas to meet Ray Stedman for the first time. Soon after, a call was extended. There was no mention of salary, only a promise that "all your needs would be met." Ray never candidated and the members of PBF never heard him preach prior to his arrival. Ray and Elaine accepted the call and moved to Palo Alto in 1950.
3. THE CALLING TO PREACH THE WORD
A congregation meets so that they might hear the Word of God, taught by a man of God, led by the Spirit of God, implanting that Word into every individual life and heart. — Ray C. Stedman
When Ray arrived in Palo Alto, he came with one main purpose in mind: to preach the Word.
By the time I graduated from Seminary, I was already deeply immersed in the world of biblical exposition; I believed in it and I was anxious to get my teeth into it. Then I came to Palo Alto to a church that had just begun. In fact, it was not even a church when I arrived. I didn't actually come as a pastor but as a kind of director of activities. During this time I eagerly began to go through books of the Bible and preach from them, using much material from others, but about four months after I arrived I found my barrel was totally dry. I had to dig in and begin to learn for myself what the text of Scripture actually said and how it related to contemporary life. 1
As the new pastor/teacher of PBF, Ray's concern was that the church community come to know God through His Word, and do God's work in God's way. No shortcuts. No compromise. Throughout his ministry, Ray's pervasive belief was that his first and most critical task was to preach the Word. He was committed to following the instructions left by Paul to Timothy: "I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and His kingdom: preach the Word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires; and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist; fulfill your ministry" (2 Timothy 4-1-5 NASB).
Ray Stedman had a very distinct opinion about preaching: good preaching and bad preaching. He spoke often and extensively about the effective church, and sympathized with many in the community at large that had given up on church altogether.
The preaching which comes forth is so shallow and repetitive that people have turned off their ears and no longer listen. Why they subject themselves to coming at all, I do not understand. I honestly do not blame those who do not come. Church people complain that men are out playing golf and boating on Sunday morning. But until the church recovers the excitement and joy of a wedding feast, and the people are gladsome of heart, they cannot be blamed for not coming. 2
Through effective preaching and Bible studies centered in God's Word, Ray and the leaders of PBC strove to produce saints who were soundly trained. The original intent of PBC was never to produce a megachurch. In many ways the opposite was true. Ray says this of the five original members. "They did not have any intention whatsoever of beginning a new church, but merely wished to supplement the spiritual diet they were getting. To do this they rented a small room in the Palo Alto Community Center and began holding Sunday evening meetings, while they were still attending their own churches in the mornings. It is now possible to look back and see that what they were hungering for was koinonia, the body life of the early church. This they achieved to a considerable degree and the meetings were so warm and enjoyable that they attracted many others who dropped in regularly for Bible teaching (often by visiting pastors) and the songfests and informal atmosphere." 3
So acceptable was the ministry that at the end of one year, the people approached the five leaders and asked if they would consider having a Sunday morning Sunday School, as well as the evening meeting; since their children needed the biblical instruction, which the parents were receiving in the evenings. This was done, and on the first Sunday in Palo Alto, the number of regular attendants, both adults and children, was 90.
When Ray came as pastor, his purpose was to preach the Word and emancipate people from the cult of the mediocre that was so prevalent in churches in the early 50's.
Instead of concentrating on the size of the church, Ray believed people should be equipped for the work of ministry as they are empowered through God's Word.
In the 1950's when PBC was really beginning to grow, Ray and the others had to decide what kind of church it would be. As these men began to establish how the church would be structured they were careful to do everything according to God's Word. Their desire from the start was simply to be faithful. Certainly none of the men had a megachurch model which they sought to emulate. In 1950, schools of church growth were almost non-existent, and no yearly church growth seminars were offered by the highly successful churches. Ray and the other leaders determined to be faithful to God's Word. Consequently, as an outcome of their understanding of I Timothy, PBC was established as a church administered under elder rule. The leaders felt that although a congregational or democratic form of church government was more American, it was not necessarily more biblical. Ray Stedman assumed the role of the teaching elder, avoiding the title of "senior pastor" altogether.
Dr. Bill Lawrence of Dallas Seminary said of Ray, "I think what Ray stood for number one, was his absolute total commitment to the Word of God. Unswerving in every way. I learned theology here (at Dallas Seminary), but I learned the reality of inspiration there (PBC), because everything that happened was done biblically. I didn't always agree with his hermeneutic and I wasn't always confident with his interpretation, but I was absolutely certain if he was going to do something, it was going to be in the Word. If you were going to make a proposal to Stedman and you didn't have the Word to back you up, then you might as well not bother. His model was phenomenal in that area. His commitment was to expository preaching." 4
The first sermon Ray preached was on Ephesians 4: "…and he gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ. Until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ" (Eph 4:11-13).
Ray remembers back to those early days:
"The only thing clear to me at the time of my arrival was deep conviction derived from Ephesians 4, that the work of ministry belonged to the people and not to the pastor. I was rather vague as to what that ministry was, but felt from the first that my task as pastor was to unfold the Word of God in its fullness, as best I could understand it, and leave to laymen the major responsibility for visitation of the sick, presiding at and leading church services and evangelizing the world." 5
Elaine Stedman later remarked on Ray's comment: "This is the basic premise behind keeping the "pulpit" ministry focused on the Word—not evangelism, not evangelistic messages—but training the people to be Christian, winning the lost to Christ by living and speaking the Word of Truth at home and in the marketplaces of life."
Howard Hendricks adds: "We thought alike, we had the same kind of vision; we often used to meet under the pecan trees and develop what we called "pecan theology." He went on to implement it at the church; I went on to implement it here at the seminary (Dallas). It grew out of a commitment to Ephesians 4 and 2 Timothy 2:2, basically based on equipping the saints for the work of ministry."
Part of the "pecan theology" was the understanding that everyone is useful to the body (the church). Everyone should be discovering and using their gifts. The leadership's primary role is not to build the biggest church possible using whatever means available.
Instead it should be the pastor's desire to equip and train the saints. In his book, Body Life Ray says: "There seems little doubt that this is where the early church began with new converts. Whenever anyone, by faith in Jesus Christ, passed from the kingdom and power of Satan into the kingdom of God's love, he was immediately taught that the Holy Spirit of God had not only imparted to him the life of Jesus Christ, but had also equipped him with a spiritual gift or gifts which he was then responsible to discover and exercise. The apostle Peter writes to certain Christians and says, "As each has received a gift, employ it for one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace." 6
As the years progressed, people continued to come to PBC and sit under the majesterium of the Word of God. Small group home Bible studies including non-Christians were formed long before they were fashionable. Men and women were discipled and expected to live out God's Word. Through Bible studies, discipleship, and Ray's preaching, people were equipped and grew as disciples of Jesus Christ. As people grew in their knowledge of the Word and in their faith, the natural outcome was a church that was fulfilling the dream Ray had way back at Dallas Seminary. PBC became known as a caring church where people were truly loving one another and using their gifts "to the building up of the body of Christ." As a result they were "attaining the unity of the faith." Pecan theology became known as body life: a simple concept that was by no means unique to Ray Stedman and Howard Hendricks. Others had also come to the same conclusions from studying Ephesians. Among those people was J.I. Packer who remembers his friend Ray this way:
Our relationship was one, I think, of mutual appreciation. It wasn't either of us giving the other person something they haven't quite got; rather, it was each of us recognizing in the other qualities that we very much appreciated—as I know I recognized in his body life material, things I had been saying almost since I was converted. Early on I did a year on the faculty of British Seminary, in 1948-49, where I became friends with Alan Stibbs, who was probably Britain's best Bible teacher. Alan had been a missionary to China and at that time, C.I.M. had Brethren leadership and Alan picked up from that source the body life idea. Alan was very much church oriented and he used to insist that no church should have more than 200 members, because if it did, it would be carrying passengers and passengers are not using the gift for ministry that God has given them. So I recognized this in Ray and was just delighted to hear it. 7
Evangelism, nurture of the saints... all functions and responsibilities of the church germinated from a true understanding of God from the Scriptures, and His design, His methodology for the ministry of the church. Many years later, after 37 years of preaching, Stedman still considered preaching to be his primary task. He lauded the examples of great preachers of the past and present, such as Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Dr. J.R.W. Stott and Dr. Stephen Olford. "The fact that these are all British preachers speaks well of the quality of British preaching, and perhaps of the relative weakness of the American pulpit. To the degree that this is so I would attribute it to the fact that British evangelicals tend more toward expository preaching than their American counterparts. For it is expository preaching that constitutes, in my judgment, the only true form of preaching." 8
Stedman's mentor Stott remarked: "Preaching is indispensable to Christianity. Without preaching, a necessary part of its authenticity has been lost. For Christianity is, in its very essence, a religion of the Word of God. No attempt to understand Christianity can succeed which overlooks or denies the truth that the living God has taken the initiative to reveal himself savingly to fallen humanity; or that his self-revelation has been given by the most straightforward means of communication known to us, namely by a word and words; or that he calls upon those who have heard His Word to speak it to others. 9
Ray considered great preaching to be the pivotal point around which all other activity in the church revolved. Great preaching, he asserted, was an essential foundation to great worship. "It has been my experience that the most worshipful moment in any congregation is when the congregation has sat under the Magesterium of the Word of God and there's a holy silence that falls upon them as the words of the living God have penetrated their minds and thoughts." 10
Since PBC was built on a simple principle of doing God's work in God's way, as much as possible, they tried to avoid the trappings of the flesh. Ray once said:
When I look at Christianity today, I am sometimes appalled at the degree that we depend upon the flesh. I am amazed and intrigued as we look at the Scriptures to see that God always works in simplicity and with a low-keyed approach. God loves that. Our attempts, the flesh's attempts are almost always characterized by high gear, high promotion, and complexity. I learned long ago that when things start getting very complex, when you need finely tuned organizations to carry them out and hundreds of people—somehow you've missed it; for God's work is characterized by simplicity. Paul wrote in II Corinthians 11:3, "I am greatly concerned about you lest Satan should woo you from the simplicity that is in Christ." It is only by a sense of weakness that rests upon the power and wisdom of God that we can accomplish anything. When we do, we don't need high gear, high power machinery. We don't need expensive approaches. One of the things that turns me off about Christendom is to see how much of it depends upon the power of money. I believe that God never needs money, but He uses money. Money is always available when God is at work. But if a project depends on money and people are thinking in terms of money, they have missed the simplicity that is in Christ.11
Ray's concern that the integrity of Scripture be preserved in all aspects of Church ministry, and that the pastors of tomorrow not lose this focus was instrumental in his participation in the formation of the C.O.B.E. (Committee on Biblical Expostion) conferences. These meetings, known as conferences of biblical expositors, were designed to bring pastors back to "the highest and greatest and most glorious calling to which anyone can ever be called." Ray Stedman and other participants of C.O.B.E., such as J.I. Packer, John Stott, R.C. Sproul, Chuck Swindoll, all understood that God's method today remains the same: to speak through the man of God as he proclaims His Word.
As it turned out, the three men that wrote to PBF, recommending Ray Stedman for their teacher were discerning. Ray preached faithfully for 40 years in that one pulpit. What he learned during those years he passes on to us with these words:
I'm very much persuaded at the power of preaching and the fact that it is by God's design the most powerful motivation of a congregation that you will ever use. Nothing turns people on like God's truth, and when they see the remarkable plan of God for the functioning of His people, they can hardly wait to find opportunity to put it into practice. And much of the artificial prods that we use today to get people going are simply a confession on our part that we have not found the way to motivate people by the power of the preaching of the Word of God. 12
4. CHARACTER
A pure life is the platform from which an effective ministry proceeds; without that all the words mean nothing. — Ray C. Stedman
Ray Stedman preached the Word of God, and invariably, the Word fell on receptive ears. Why was he so successful at communicating God's message? Surely one reason was because Ray believed the Word, and he believed that what he learned from the Word and taught to others also applied to his own life. Howard Hendricks says,
I would say that was probably the thing that attracted me most to Ray. What you saw was what you got. In fact to his death he despised people in the ministry who tried to be other than what they were, who would put themselves on a pedestal and so forth. He even got shook up with the seminary, that the faculty always remained on the platform. He felt that wasn't Christian; they should be down in the audience with the students. So he would talk to me and he would always say: "When are you going to get those guys off that platform?" That attracted me to him because it is somewhat my own personal commitment. I just rush in the opposite direction in the face of someone trying to impress me with himself or herself. 1
This is something that Stedman learned at an early age while a boy in Montana. One of his boyhood memories was of a man who used to lead in prayer at the Methodist church.
When I was growing up as a boy in Montana, we used to have Methodist services only once a month because there was no Methodist church in town. Each month when the service was held you could count on the fact that a lean, tall man would always lead in prayer. His prayer was anywhere from ten to fifteen minutes in length. Almost everyone went to sleep on him. But what made it worse was that he was widely known in the community as the biggest rascal in town. His sharp business practices had turned everybody off, so that his prayer was hypocrisy, and he was despised in the community as a hypocrite.... When men pray in public they must live in private what they pray. 2
Perhaps that man thought no one saw the contradiction in his life. In reality, he didn't even fool a ten-year old boy named Ray. One of the most dangerous pitfalls for preachers is in this area of consistent obedience. Ray didn't make the mistake that is too frequently charged against pastors. Many who have been so careful to accurately interpret the Scriptures have neglected the daily weeding of their own gardens. The same care and watchfulness preachers extend to guard against misinterpretation and heresy is critical in the evaluation of their daily thoughts and actions. John Stott has said:
We make great claims for Christ and his salvation while up in the pulpit, but when we descend from it we deny Him and give no more evidence of being saved than anybody else. Then our message lacks credibility. People will no more accept our Christian message if our life contradicts it than they would take a cold cure recommended by a salesman who coughs and sneezes between each sentence. We greatly hinder our own work, says Baxter, if for an hour or two on Sunday we build up with our mouths, and then during the rest of the week pull down with our hands. 3
Ray's closest friends attest to his consistency. Luis Palau reflects: "I cannot think of one moral flaw in Ray Stedman. He was utterly consistent in his life and his preaching. The one thing I remember in his character (is found in) the words in Galatians: if I was a servant of men I would not be a servant of Christ. Ray was no servant of men; I can tell you that. I'm not drooling at stars, but Ray... I can't find a flaw." 4
Ray's genuineness made him attractive and believable to others. "What you see is what you get. His sincerity is something that everybody was attracted to," said Dr. Bill Lawrence of Dallas Seminary. Again John Stott states:
A strongly fascinating power is exerted by those who are utterly sincere. Such believers attract unbelievers, as with the case of David Hume, the eighteenth century British deistic philosopher who rejected historic Christianity. A friend once met him hurrying along a London street and asked him where he was going. Hume replied that he was going to hear George Whitefield preach. "But surely," his friend asked in astonishment. "You don't believe what Whitefield preaches, do you?" "No, I don't," answered Hume, "but he does." 5
That was Ray. He never watered down the message to make it easier to accept. What he did was preach it fully and live it faithfully. He lived in such a way that even though people might disagree with the words preached, they would have no doubt that Ray believed them.
Cohn Morris said: "It is not from a pulpit but a cross that power filled words are spoken. Sermons need to be seen as well as heard to be effectual. Eloquence, homiletical skill, biblical knowledge are not enough. Anguish, pain, engagement, sweat and blood punctuate the stated truths to which men will listen." 6
Once while reading through the journals of Francis Asbury, the young Methodist missionary, this quote caught Stedman's eye:
The Lord is pleased to show me the danger in which a preacher is of being lifted up by pride and falling into the condemnation of the devil. How great is the danger of this! A considerable degree of ballast is highly necessary to bear frequent and sudden puffs of applause. Lord, fill me with genuine humility that the strongest gust from Satan or the world may never move me. 7
Many of Ray's closest friends commented that Ray was very concerned about falling into this trap and was very careful to watch for it. Dave Roper remembers: "His humility stands out for me. You know Jesus said come to me because I am meek and lowly in heart. To me the best communicators are humble. He was never threatened by anyone else's success. He was always happy when somebody else got recognition. I never saw him do a dishonest thing. He was never caught in a lie. I saw him walk with the Lord."
Howard Hendricks reflects on the personal power of Ray's presence and his focus on humility:
When Ray Stedman speaks, it's like E.F. Hutton. Everybody listens. He was the kind of guy that when he walked into the room, the whole dynamics would change. Everyone talked, but when Ray would talk, the room would get quiet because everyone wanted to hear what he had to say. He was a very commanding individual, and being committed to humility, as he was... it was an interesting combination. 8
Stedman did not give in to the temptation to "believe his own press clippings" or become preoccupied with his own importance. Humility characterized him, and was for most who knew him one of his most endearing qualities. While eulogizing Ray during a 1994 Insight for Living Bible program, Chuck Swindoll stated: "He never polished his own trophies." 9
So aware of the pitfalls of pride and the need for humility, Ray once wrote:
No teacher has the right to teach whose life does not exemplify his teaching. If he tries to say one thing and be another, the Chief Shepherd will suddenly pull the rug from under him and his ministry will be despised.
Again, the ministry of shepherding and teaching must be done without desiring personal glory. How well pastors know that right here is where the full force of temptation to pride can strike. There is something very pleasing to the ego to stand in front of others and have every eye fastened on you and every ear open to what you have to say. It is terribly easy to learn to love that feeling and to find subtle ways of nurturing and encouraging it.
As a pastor I must confess that I had to stop the practice of going to the door after a service and greeting people as they went out. I found that when I did it regularly it ministered to my ego in such a way that I had a terrible battle with pride. People were saying nice things to me and I found myself loving to hear them. It is very easy for a pastor or teacher to carry on his work for hidden reasons of personal prestige or glory. Pastors love to be regarded as dedicated, mature Christians. 10
Hendricks speaks of Ray's commitment to humility and Roper echoes the fact that this was something that Ray really worked on. "Ray said one time that he made a vow that he would never do anything that would seek praise." As a testimony to Ray's "success" in his commitment to humility, J.I. Packer observes:
Even though he built up PBC from virtually nothing, it was a big work, a significant work. Yet he was just the same unassuming man. Never at any stage was Ray anything other than Ray Stedman. He never threw his weight around and there was a certain transparency about him. You never felt that this chap had a hidden agenda. You felt that he was an honest man. He was happy to share with you any wisdom he had and happy to get from you any wisdom you've got. He was a lovely man to talk to. Like a professional preacher, he loved to talk about preaching. It was his life. But never as I've said did he act the public figure, which impressed me very much. I think that is a great testimony to his character. 11
Because of the sheer size and popularity of PBC, the success story of the growth of that congregation and the fact that Stedman was sought after as a speaker and a leader, the lure of power that has caused the shipwreck of so many could have netted him in its trap. Bill Hull wrote:
Popularity will erode human veneer. The pressures that come with success will drive the true nature of a person to the surface. That may require years as culture slowly eats away at one's biblically based perspective, leaving behind essentials for the esoterics. The tragic fall of many evangelical leaders can be attributed to their leaving behind their fundamental doctrinal convictions and simple devotion that brought them success in the first place. Nevertheless, many gifted pastors and leaders have remained faithful. 12
Ray Stedman was one of those that remained faithful to the end.
The display of such character often points back to the influence of godly parents on the life of a young and developing child, whose personal security is nurtured first in context of the family relationship, and also in the understanding of what it means to be a child of God. Stedman's strength in this area is remarkable considering the difficulty of his childhood, and the absence of his parents. Perhaps some credit could go to his aunt and uncle. Perhaps the rough life of a rancher contributed to Stedman's determination to make it through, and to live what he believed. In that sense, he was an ambitious man. His ambition, however, was not that of a pastor who wanted to be approved of by men. Ray understood the difference and once told his congregation:
There are two kinds of greatness, two kinds of ambition. There is the ambition to be approved and applauded by men, and the ambition to be approved and applauded by God. These are as different as night and day. There are those who want to gain fame and attention and influence and power. The measurement of the ambition to be great before men is always: "How many serve me? How much power do I exercise over others? How wide is the extent of my influence? How far has knowledge about me traveled?" Who of us has not suffered many times this desire to be known, to be admired, to be considered important and great in the eyes of men?
But Jesus points out that true greatness is never found there. The measure of true greatness is: "How many do I serve? How many am I willing to minister to? How many can I help? This is the mark of greatness in the eyes of God. This is enduring greatness. You can see how disparate these two views are, how widely they diverge. Christianity is a radical faith! It will completely revolutionize our thinking. It is exactly the opposite of the natural instincts of the heart. 13
That is key to the character of Ray Stedman. He understood that Christianity is a radical faith. He understood that it should completely revolutionize the thinking of the follower of Christ, and he understood that it was "the opposite of the natural instincts of the heart." He therefore determined and simply set his mind and heart to live in obedience to the revealed Word of God, strengthened by the Holy Spirit.
In Genesis 18 the Lord is about to bring judgment upon Sodom. In verse 17 we read, "The Lord said, 'Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, seeing that Abraham shall become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall bless themselves by him? No, for I have chosen him'..." Commenting on this verse, Ray said in 1968:
Do you see the parallel of the Christian today? Every believer in Jesus Christ stands in exactly the same relationship with God. We have been given by grace—not on our own merits—a favored position before God. We have been called into the family of God and made sons of the living God by faith in Jesus Christ. Furthermore, we are being taught by grace how to walk righteously before him and as we learn that lesson, we become the people to whom God tells his secrets. It is not enough to have the favored position. I think many Christians believe that because they have accepted Jesus Christ, all God has is now open to them. But there must be the walk, the daily appropriation of what he is so that we learn to walk in righteousness. When we do, then God begins to share his secrets. I think the reason some people get a lot more out of the Bible than others is that they have learned this two-way relationship: God loves to tell secrets to his people. 14
Perhaps this explains why Ray had such a dynamic understanding of the Bible. He was committed to "the walk, the daily appropriation of what He is—and God loves to tell his secrets to his people."
Howard Hendricks said:
I think his character affected his preaching in the sense that it was sort of the underlay of the whole ministry that he had. I saw it in his leadership. I saw it in his preaching. I saw it in the boards that we served under. It's just that he was trusted by people. Ray wouldn't promise something that he wouldn't produce, if it was humanly possible. And I think it gave a reality orientation to his preaching that made him very attractive. 15
As the years went on, Ray Stedman and the preaching that was going forth from PBC were having a tremendous impact on the people of Palo Alto. Non-believers were coming to know Jesus Christ and put their faith and trust in Him. Christians who had been hungering for more than a diet of watered down theology were discovering the unfathomable riches of the Word of God. Even in the backyard of Stanford University, PBC was beginning to have a profound impact on the modern mind.
5. AUDIENCE—REACHING THE MODERN MIND
Surely the first mark of greatness is that you learn increasingly to have no respect of persons, to welcome people simply because they are people, to take no consideration of whether they can do something for you or not, and not to be concerned whether knowing them enhances your own prestige so you can drop their names where it will do you the most good, but simply to be interested in people because they are people, and because, potentially at least, they are sons and daughters of God himself. That is the first mark of children of God. — Ray C. Stedman
One of the most remarkable qualities Ray Stedman possessed was the ability to reach the great variety of people he interacted with personally, or through his preaching ministry. J.I. Packer reflects: "Right from the first sentence you knew this chap was a very attractive human being who has been where you are, who understands people like you. . . Few preachers I have known have had as much honest, unpretentious humanity to them." Luis Palau stated that PBC was full of recent converts, and reflected that throughout its history, this ministry drew a great number of unbelievers. He observed that Ray, and the others on his staff were transparent, and straightforward. You could see them in public or in private, and they were the same persons. This personal honesty and genuineness attracted and reached people.
Ray also loved people, and reacted strongly against the lack of care he saw evidenced in the church:
I have just returned from traveling across the face of this country from coast to coast, and have been ministering in the Middle West, I have come back with the deep conviction that this is one of the most grievous ways in which we have offended today. We evangelical Christians across this land have been prejudiced and biased in the name of Jesus Christ! We have been loveless against one another in the name of Christ, and have thought we were honoring God in the doing! As a result our churches are filled with people who are going through empty religious forms and ceremonies, all because they think God wants this, while their hearts are very, very far from him. No wonder this has "turned off" 8 out of 10 youths in this country today.
A letter was waiting for me when I came back. I want to share some of it with you because I think it expresses this so well. I don't know the girl who wrote. She is a student in a midwestern university. She evidently got my name from an article of which I am unaware in a paper she had read. She said,
Dear Pastor Stedman,
I can't understand this drive within me to write you, but I can't study or think about anything else but writing. I must be ill, because I don't even know what I'm going to say. I read an article in a "Today" paper about your church. I'm usually really turned off by articles such as this, but I read it anyway. I guess I feel they're fake or really making up about 99%. Things don't happen that way. Church is a place you go and see all these people sitting all "religious" and then they pass their bodies out the church door, noses straight up in the air.
If someone is having problems, something is immediately assumed to be wrong with them, and it's best to stay away so as not to pick up any of their deadly germs. Or if one should mention a problem, they are weak; and putting a wet blanket on the fun, or they're no fun to be around, since they are so depressing.
Sure, I go to church. But lately I go back to the dorm sick. This past week I have really come to doubt my sanity. Emotionally I am a wreck—afraid, confused, depressed and alone. I've talked to God, and even found a cool verse I memorized: Psalms 18:18-19. "On the day when I was weakest, they attacked. But the Lord held me steady. He led me to a place of safety, for he delights in me." But I still feel the same way. It seems I need more.
Then she describes her family life, which is very difficult, and finally says,
Therefore, I really think it's neat if everything in the article is on the level, that people in your church really talk about their problems and care for one another. It sounds like Christians are allowed to have problems. I wish your church a continued blessing, and in this family-type concern, even more growth.
Well, I have to answer that letter this week. I don't know quite what I'll say, except to point out that I'm afraid the condemnation is justified. There has been a great deal of unwitting harm done in the name of Jesus Christ. And when we see it, we need to repent and make restitution, to try to correct it as far as possible, reaching out to others who are in need. 1
Bill Hybels, the pastor of Willow Creek Church, made this observation. "One prerequisite to effective preaching to non-Christians is that we like them (emphasis his). If we don't, it's going to bleed through our preaching. Listen closely to sermons on the radio or on television and often you'll hear remarks about 'those worldly secular people.'
Unintentionally, these speakers distance themselves from the non-Christian listener; it's us against them. I find myself wondering whether these preachers are convinced that lost people matter to God. It's not a merciful: 'let's tell them we love them,' but a ticked off, 'they're going to get what's coming to them.' These preachers forfeit their opportunity to speak to non-Christians because the unchurched person immediately senses, they don't like me (emphasis his)." 2
One of the unique aspects of Ray's ministry was his ability to attract and reach the modern thinker, the existentialist, the agnostic and the theological extremist. Howard Hendricks says of Ray: "I think his great ability was his ability to accept people, even people who didn't agree with him or didn't understand him." Ray Stedman's genius was in his ability to balance that love and acceptance with truth. "Ray was unswerving but not inflexible. I saw in him a flexibility that enabled him to relate across a lot of barriers. He didn't change his convictions. He just didn't raise barriers," reflects Lawrence. On an individual level, he loved to interact. He'd take on anybody. Gary Vanderet, one of the pastors at PBC, observes that Ray was always honest but was very respectful of the person. "He could fit in places others didn't. He could just blend in because he spoke the truth." 3
A striking example of this occurred in the spring of 1975, at a Gay Pride Rally sponsored by the gay students' union at Stanford University. The particular object of their anger was the Christian church. Ray tells about the event himself:
I saw in the newspaper an announcement of a meeting of the Gay People's Union, at Stanford University. Two prominent speakers were featured—one a woman homosexual, a professor at San Francisco State University, the other a young man, also a homosexual, who had been ordained to the ministry in the United Church of Christ. They were speaking on the subject, "Homosexuality in the Church." One of our interns and I went over to the meeting. We found about a hundred young people, with a few older ones here and there, fairly evenly divided between men and women. We listened an hour or so to these two speakers. The woman was very vitriolic. She denounced the church in almost every form, in every way. She said that it had to be destroyed, that it was the enemy of human liberty and freedom.
The young man was milder in his approach. He told of his own desire to find a place within the church, but of how, nevertheless, he found himself struggling because of the homosexuality he endorsed, and of how he had been mistreated on occasion because of misunderstanding on the part of others. 4
When opportunity was given, Ray Stedman went up to the microphone to speak. With the previous speakers having fired up the audience to the wickedness of the church, there was probably not a more difficult audience for this conservative pastor to speak to. In addition, there was probably not a man on the campus that day with a background further removed from those of his listeners. After all, this was Ray Stedman, the cowboy, the orphan, the kid who grew up in Montana working on a ranch, the "man's man", now facing a group of homosexuals adamantly renouncing the body of Christ whom Ray loved. The scene is really quite remarkable.
Brian Morgan, an intern at the time, says that when Ray took the microphone, it was perhaps one of his greatest moments... not because he lashed out at all those opponents of the church; not because he out-argued, or out-shouted the previous speakers. It was a great moment because on the platform, Ray exhibited the love and compassion of Jesus Christ.
Ray spoke into the microphone and said: "I'm Ray Stedman, the pastor of Peninsula Bible Church here in Palo Alto. On behalf of the church, I want to apologize for much of what I have heard here today. You are right... the church has failed you in many ways. We often times have not shown the love of Jesus. For this I apologize. However..." 5 He then went on to explain the new life that is found in Jesus Christ. Because Ray really loved people he was able to see through their weaknesses and personal failings and notice things about them that others missed. Ray said later about one of the speakers:
I could agree with a great many things he said about the church and its weaknesses. And I noticed one thing in particular as he spoke. He referred several times to Jesus and his ministry with people. And it was true... that no one who uses his name will soon after be able to speak evil of him. Whenever this young man spoke of Jesus, it was with great respect and obvious admiration of his ministry. 6
Roper reflects on this same incident: "Ray could be so... sweet. I don't know how else to say it. He just had a gentle way of talking and he had very kind eyes. He would state truth—and I mean truth that would really inflame the crowd, but he would state it in such a way... they sensed he loved them. When it was over, they gave him an ovation and a number of people came to him." Roper adds, "He understood what Paul meant in 2 Timothy 2:24: 'The Lord's bondservant must not be quarrelsome, but kind, able to teach, patient when wronged.' Non-Christians were not the enemy but the victims. Ray could 'duke it out' with the best of them, but I remember him talking about the different ways that Jesus spoke to people. With the Pharisees he tended' to be very harsh, and Ray's belief was that He did that because they were so into themselves... but with the 'garden variety' unbeliever, He didn't do that." 7
The love Ray demonstrated was genuine. He loved people and viewed them simply as people for whom Christ died. In answer to Warren Wiersbe's question: "you may love to preach, but do you love the people you preach to?" Ray's affirmative was communicated in a lifestyle that was characterized by that love. Ray once referred to something he learned from Dr. Ironside, that stuck with him throughout his ministry:
I remember Dr. Ironside used to say to me on many occasions, "Remember, Ray, don't ever insist that other people walk in the light of your conscience." That is a good rule. Don't try to get somebody else to walk in the light of what you feel free to do or feel restrained from doing. In these areas we stand as individuals, alone before the Lord. The Christian who insists on exercising his liberty at the expense of somebody else is turning liberty into license. The action of love, you see, is to restrain yourself deliberately.
Did you ever see a father walking down the street with his little boy? How he walks slowly and takes small steps and goes along adjusting himself to the little one by his side? He has perfect liberty to walk out in full, free stride if he wants to; but if he did he would walk away from his little boy and leave him alone. So love limits. And love limits in these matters. 8
Ray had a special gift. He understood life. He was a wise man and his preaching always connected with and spoke at a deeper level of life. He really ministered in an age of existentialism; he ministered to those dark sides of emotion, the confusion and emptiness. (Lawrence interview) Ray, however, was uncompromising in his respect for the sovereignty of the Scriptures and his commitment to the truth. Ray was certainly not alone in his desire to reach the modern mind. He just took a different approach.
Many who desire to be faithful defenders of the faith and effectively win the lost have mistakenly fought this battle in the area of argument alone. There are those who seem to think that if they just have the right answers, if they can simply "win" the argument, then even the most hostile critics will eventually yield their lives to Christ after absorbing a well reasoned and persuasive defense.
Others argue that what the modern critic needs to see is an outward demonstration of the Spirit of God, namely signs and wonders which will attract unbelievers and draw them irresistibly to God. They will be compelled to respond to the "evidence" of the reality of God by confessing faith in Christ. "In June 1982, at a meeting of the consultation on the relationship between evangelism and social responsibility (sponsored by the World Evangelical Fellowship and the Lausanne Committee on World Evangelism), fifty evangelical leaders from twenty-seven different countries gathered in Grand Rapids, Michigan to discuss social signs of the gospel. In their final report, they said, "We believe that signs should validate our evangelism." 9
Ray understood that it is not a wide-eyed signs and wonders presentation of the gospel that necessarily moves people to conversion. He once referred to the raising of Lazarus as the greatest miracle of Jesus, apart from His own resurrection. He points out however that after this great sign, Scripture states: "Many therefore of the Jews, who had come to Mary and beheld what He had done, believed in Him. But some of them went away to the Pharisees, and told them the things which Jesus had done." What was the response of the Pharisees? John 11:53 records, "So from that day on they planned together to kill Him."
Acts 7:8-10 reports, "And Stephen, full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people. But some men from what was called the Synagogue of the Freedmen, including both Cyrenians and Alexandrians and some from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and argued with Stephen, and yet they were unable to cope with the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking. Clearly they had lost the argument. Did they respond by giving their lives to Christ? Verses 11-12 state: "Then they secretly induced men to say, 'We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God.' And they stirred up the people, the elders and the scribes, and they came upon him and dragged him away, and brought him before the Council." Stephen's irrefutable arguments and the signs and wonders he performed did not convince the people of his time to believe in God.
Ray's approach can be clearly differentiated from the ones just described. He followed Acts 6:4, which says, "But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the Word." During a sermon on 2 Timothy Ray asked: "How do you defend a lion?" and responded with: "You don't. You just let it loose and it will defend itself."10 Ray believed like Spurgeon and Luther that Scripture was a lion. He loved it, was enthralled by it and was constantly amazed at the unfolding mystery of Christ revealed in its pages. His approach to evangelism was to dedicate himself to prayer and the ministry of the Word—to let Scripture loose and leave the results to God.
Ray was not tempted to soften or change the message in order to make it more attractive to the unbeliever. In contrast, early in his ministry he made a startling discovery:
We began a series of outreach Bible classes distinctly aimed at non-Christians, held in the homes of brand-new believers who were all excited about their Christian life and who had a whole host of friends who knew
nothing about the Lord. We all sat down in an informal way and I began to open up the Scriptures, usually beginning with the book of Romans. I began to see the powerful attractiveness of Scripture to the non-Christian, which surprised me. I had thought that Christianity was something which would only interest religious people and that you could only teach the Bible to Christians. But I discovered that these people were fascinated by the word of God. Many of them, of course, were typical men and women of the world. The air was often blue with smoke and we sometimes had to deal with someone who had drunk a little too much. When I would announce a Bible book such as Romans, I would often hear someone whisper, "Where in hell is Romans?" Many of them became Christians, and out of that I began to see that the word of God is an intensely practical thing, and very attractive to the non-Christian world." 11
Rather than being offended or turned off by the Word, unbelievers were attracted to it and even fascinated by it. Dr. John McIntyre, a young nuclear physicist who later left Palo Alto and became a professor of nuclear physics at Texas A&M University, came to faith in Christ through the ministry of PBC. In an article that was printed in "HIS" magazine, he told how he came to Christ and what it was that reached him.
I began to attend a home Bible class where the Bible was studied in the same critical manner that I was accustomed to in my daily work in physics. The class assumed the Bible to be consistent and understandable, just as the scientist considers nature to be consistent and understandable. We wrestled with portions that were difficult to understand or to reconcile with other parts of the Bible and compared them carefully with other pertinent Bible passages. We considered a Scriptural difficulty a challenge to the understanding and an opportunity to modify our present incomplete ideas, rather than consider that the Bible was in error. This approach to studying the Bible closely parallels the scientist's attitude toward nature. He expects, even welcomes difficulties, and finds persevering study rewarded by deeper understanding. In brief, a person should investigate God's Word, the Bible, with the same methods, even excitement, that he would use in investigating His handiwork, the physical world around us. 12
God's Word was assumed to be consistent and understandable, just as the scientist considers nature to be consistent and understandable. That simple and uncompromising approach reached Dr. McIntyre.
Ray understood humanity, and his humility placed him in the ranks with every other man. He loved and accepted people, and he gave each person who met him access to the majesty of the Word of God and to the God portrayed in it. It was the Word and the Christ, laid bare by the messenger, which gripped the hearts and minds of people in all walks of life and would not let them go.
6. ILLUSTRATION
The key to true teaching is first to awaken interest and arouse attention. — Ray C. Stedman
Most people who work their way up the corporate ladder, hope to one day have that coveted window office. Most hotels, apartments, and houses will pull in a much higher price if they have a "room with a view". We are people who love to see, feel and even smell the beauty around us.
As Ray continued to preach week after week, he learned an important aspect of preaching. In his book Body Life he explains what he came to realize.
Paul describes his own ministry in these terms: Him (Christ) we proclaim, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man mature in Christ (Col. 1:28). The process Paul followed in shaping up the saints was first to warn them and then to teach them. Teaching alone—the imparting of correct doctrine—is not enough. It must be preceded by the ministry of warning. Does it seem wrong to you (as it did to me) to put warning before teaching? Surely one teaches first, and then if the teaching is not received it is appropriate to warn of the results. But when I looked more closely at the original word translated "warning", I found that it is the Greek word for "mind" combined with the verb "to put". It means to put in mind or to call attention to something. It indicates that the first task of a teacher or pastor is to capture the attention and interest of his hearers.
There is a very old (perhaps even odorous) story about a man who wanted to train his mule. The first thing he did was to pick up a big stick and hit the mule a resounding wallop between the ears. As the mule staggered about someone asked the man, "Why did you do that?" And the man said, "In order to teach a mule anything, you must get his full attention first." That