Alan Redpath

Alan Redpath was born in 1907 in England. He was trained as a chartered accountant and began his career in business. He was a capable man with a keen mind for figures, and he rose in his profession. He was also, by his own later account, a man who lived for himself. He attended church but had not given his life to Christ. In his young manhood he came under conviction of sin, and he turned to Jesus. From that day he felt that he was meant to give his life to the ministry and left behind the career he had planned.

He served as a pastor in England and held a pastorate at Duke Street Baptist Church in Richmond, Surrey, during the years of the Second World War. The church was in the shadow of the bombing that fell on London, and he ministered through fear and loss. He came to be known as a faithful Bible teacher whose messages were clear and direct. He took his texts seriously and showed the people how they applied to everyday living.

In 1953 he accepted the call to be pastor of the Moody Memorial Church in Chicago, the great church that D. L. Moody had founded. He served there until 1962. It was a heavy responsibility, and the church was a landmark in American evangelical life. Under his preaching it remained a center of the Bible-centered faith. He was also a speaker at conferences and conventions across the United States and was widely loved for his warm manner and his Scottish and English humor.

In those years he began to write the books for which he is best known. They came out of his sermons and have been read for decades. Victorious Christian Living is a set of studies in the book of Joshua and shows how the believer enters the land of promise by faith. Victorious Christian Service takes up the story of Nehemiah and the work of rebuilding. The Making of a Man of God follows the life of David. Blessings Out of Buffetings is a study of Paul's second letter to the Corinthians and deals with the way God uses trials. His style was simple and straightforward, with Scripture at the center and frequent applications to the heart.

He returned to Britain in the 1960s and continued to preach and to teach. He served in churches in Scotland and in England. He also became known as a speaker at the Keswick Convention, the great annual gathering for deeper Christian life. He spoke often about the need to deal with sin and to hand over the heart to the lordship of Christ. He had a way of showing people their need and then pointing them to the Savior who meets it.

He was a human being with limits. He worked hard and had times of weariness and discouragement. He once spoke of times when he felt dry and unfit for the task. He also knew the strain that ministry puts on a family. Even so, he kept on, and he gave thanks that God could use a man who was no more than a vessel.

He died in 1989. Many have been helped by his books, which are still in print. His life shows that a quiet man who loves the Word and tells the truth plainly can serve the church long after he is gone.