The Alliance After Simpson

Much has been said – by me – in these blogs – about our founder AB Simpson – a visionary leader that the Alliance movement owes a great debt to.  Albert died in 1919, leaving many local churches, a bible college, a printing ministry with a missions magazine and many foreign missionaries.  Here is the struggle with finding the next leader to carry on the mission – a position fraught with complexity.  That leader was Paul Rader.

Born in 1879 in Denver – the wild west at the time – his dad left business and went with the Methodists to Wyoming to be a missionary among the rough-hewn people there.  Little Paul went along with his dad – singing and learning ministry life.  At 16 he was allowed to start preaching.  He broke broncos on the side to earn a little money.  

Paul attended the University of Denver and the University of Colorado where he became known for boxing and football.  While there his faith was severely tested and doubts troubled his mind.  Eventually he taught and coached at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma until 1904 when he took a church as pastor.  Doubts still plagued him and he resigned in 1907 over these doubts and went into business as a boxing promoter and an oil service company.  In 1912 he came to a faith crisis and found Christ to be enough.  That is when he got involved with the Christian and Missionary Alliance – serving as song leader and assistant to AB Simpson.  He was a busy man running evangelistic campaigns and pastoring the Moody church in Chicago.  All this while serving as vice president of the Alliance (makes me tired just thinking about it!).  When Simpson died, he became president of the movement from 1919 to 1924.

From there he went into radio work, evangelism and pastoral work.  He developed prostate cancer and died in Los Angeles at 58 years old.

Paul wrote a little book and described his return to Christ in the context of his western upbringing.  His crisis was – who is going to run my life – me or the Lord?

“That is the problem of the bronco and that is what you break.  You break his idea that he can run things.  That is all you break, not his leg nor his back, and when this is kicked out of him, he is broken.  Every bronco buster believes in the second blessing.  You do not try to feed him chocolates until he is busted.  When he gets the idea you are up there to stay, he will be in his proper position.  You belong to Christ.  The bronco will eat your hay, he is nice looking, but he does not want you to break him, and when you first throw the rope around the neck and say, ‘come hither’, he doesn’t want to  ‘hither.’  And when Jesus said, after you were saved, ‘come hither, go hither’ you do not want to come and go….He asks you to do something and you say you don’t want the job.  You have got a stiff mouth and a stiff neck.  So you buck on… He cannot buck all his life like this.  You will try another way, finally you say to yourself, ‘There is no use fighting any longer, I am just wild’, and you cry out to God, ‘Get Your own way in my life somehow.”

Can you relate?  Can you say to the Holy Spirit – tame me and use me as you will?  What an encounter!

Pastor Leon Throness

PS John Stumbo – recent US Alliance president – did a piece on Paul Rader.  You can watch it HERE.