J. Edwin Orr

James Edwin Orr was born on January 10, 1912, in Belfast, Northern Ireland. His father was a shipyard worker and a devout Christian, and he grew up in a home where prayer and Scripture were central. He was converted at an early age. He was a gifted boy with a keen mind, and he loved to read. At the age of fifteen, he began to preach, and he held evangelistic meetings in the streets and halls of Belfast. He was also an adventurous youth. In his late teens, he made a journey around the world, preaching as he went, often traveling as a hobo and staying with local Christians.

He studied at Northern Baptist Theological Seminary in Chicago and later at Oxford University, where he earned a doctorate in 1948. His thesis was on the history of the evangelical awakenings in Britain, and he became the leading authority on revivals. He wrote a series of books on the subject, beginning with The Second Evangelical Awakening in Britain, published in 1949, and followed by works on the revivals in America, Asia, Africa and the Pacific. These were based on careful research in the original sources. They remain valuable accounts of the history of revival and prayer movements.

He held that revivals are the result of prayer. He drew attention to the fact that every great awakening in the history of the church had been preceded by a movement of prayer among believers. In his lectures, he used the phrase that revival is the people of God coming back to the will of God. He stressed that it begins with the church and not the world. He spoke on this theme in many countries. He traveled widely, giving talks to students and pastors across the globe. He went to more than a hundred nations, and he was known as a world traveler.

He also took part in the work of evangelism. In the 1930s, he held missions in Britain and in the Pacific. In World War II, he served as an officer in the American air force and ministered to the men. After the war, he returned to his study of revival and began to travel in the cause of prayer. He founded the Oxford Association for Research in Revival and the Fuller Seminary's School of World Mission, where he taught for many years as a professor. He also founded a movement called Awake Awake and Pray. He worked with the leaders of the prayer movement.

He was a man of strong views and a quick wit. He could be abrupt and was not always diplomatic. He had a habit of making sweeping statements, and some critics thought him too sure of his own opinions. He was a strict teacher and had little patience for superficial work. Yet he had a warm heart, and he gave much to others. His home life was marked by the strains of constant travel, and his wife, Ruth, was often alone. He loved his family and spent time with them when he could.

He was also a poet and a lover of music. He wrote hymns and songs and enjoyed folk singing. He gave a famous lecture on the hymns of revival. His most popular hymn is a short chorus, Search Me, O God, which he wrote in 1936, after hearing a request for prayer on a train. It has been sung around the world. He wrote that he had been moved by a verse in the Psalms.

He died on April 22, 1987, in Los Angeles, at the age of seventy-five. His life's work was to teach the church to hope for revival and to pray for it. He wrote and spoke for fifty years on the subject. His books are still used by those who wish to know what God has done and what He may do again.