Biography
Raymond Charles Stedman was born on October 5, 1917, in Temple, Oklahoma, and grew up in Montana, in a family that was not religious. His father was a hard drinker, who died when Ray was a boy, and his mother raised the family in poverty. He grew up in the Great Depression in rough conditions, and he worked as a young man in a variety of jobs, among them as a laborer and a farmhand. He was a restless and ambitious youth who dreamed of a different life. At about the age of nineteen, he was invited to a church by a friend, and he heard the gospel. He was converted. He was a person with a sharp wit and a keen intelligence.
He felt a call to the ministry and went to the Dallas Theological Seminary, where he studied under Lewis Sperry Chafer and others. He graduated in 1950. He was ordained and began as a pastor at the Peninsula Bible Church, in Palo Alto, California, a small congregation that had started in 1950 with a group of a few families. He served as a pastor of the church for forty years. Under his guidance, it grew into a large church with thousands of members. It was a congregation that attracted many from the nearby Stanford University and the new technology firms of Silicon Valley.
He was a gifted expositor, who taught the Bible with clarity and a conversational style. He worked through books of the Bible verse by verse, and he avoided flashy methods. He also had a vision for a church in which all the members took part in the ministry. In the late 1960s, he came to see that the church was a living body, in which each member had a gift to use. He led his church in a new direction. He built up a style of worship and fellowship that he called Body Life. It stressed the sharing of burdens, the use of spiritual gifts and the open discussion of needs. In the Body Life services, held on Sunday evenings, the members were invited to share their problems and to receive help and prayer.
He described the idea in a book, Body Life, published in 1972, which was a best seller and was widely used by pastors. It was a call to renew the church by making it a place of mutual care. The book had a deep influence on the church in America. It was part of a movement that stressed the role of lay people and small groups. He also wrote a number of other books, including Authentic Christianity, Spiritual Warfare and Folly, Friendship and the Feast. He gave a popular series of messages on the Sermon on the Mount and on the book of Romans. His teaching was warm and personal.
He was a man who took an interest in a number of leaders in the church. He was a mentor to many pastors. He was a friend of the writers and teachers of his time, and he took part in a number of conferences. He helped to form a network of churches, called the Peninsula Bible Church, and he was a leader in the Bible church movement. He was a plain-spoken man, with a quick humor, who made friends easily. He took a stand for the unity of believers, and he avoided denominational labels.
He was also a man who bore burdens. He suffered from a number of health problems, including heart disease and other illnesses. He also carried the pain of a number of conflicts in his church. In the 1980s, there was a period of unrest at the church over matters of authority and governance. He was criticized by some who thought that he was too domineering. He also took a hard stand on some issues. He acknowledged his failings.
He died on October 7, 1992, in Palo Alto, two days after his seventy-fifth birthday. His life shows the effect of a pastor who put the ministry of the whole body at the center of the church. His work has been a source of renewal for many congregations.