Leonard Ravenhill was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 Christian evangelist

Evangelism

Evangelism refers to the practice of relaying information about a particular set of beliefs to others who do not hold those beliefs. The term is often used in reference to Christianity....

 and author who focused on the subjects of prayer and revival. He is best known for challenging the modern church (through his books and sermons) to compare itself to the early Christian Church as chronicled in the Book of Acts. His most notable book is Why Revival Tarries which has sold over a million copies worldwide.

Biography

Born in Leeds

Leeds

Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...

, in Yorkshire

Yorkshire

Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...

, England, Ravenhill was educated at Cliff College

Cliff College

Cliff College is a Christian theological college in Calver, Derbyshire, that teaches Biblical Theology at undergraduate level and a number of mission courses to postgraduates. There are currently about 60 full-time undergraduates, 40 part-time undergraduates and 100 part-time postgraduates...

 in England and sat under the ministry of Samuel Chadwick

Samuel Chadwick

Samuel Chadwick was a Wesleyan Methodist minister.-Early life:Samuel Chadwick was born in Burnley, Lancashire in the industrialized north of England into a devout Methodist family. His father worked in a cotton mill and, at the age of 8, Samuel joined him, working 12-hour shifts...

. He was a student of church history, with a particular interest in Christian revival. His evangelistic meetings during the Second World War drew large crowds. Many converts devoted themselves to Christian ministry and foreign missions.

In 1939, he married an Irish nurse, Martha. The Ravenhills had three sons: Paul, David, and Philip. Paul and David are Christian ministers, and Philip is a teacher.

In 1950, Ravenhill and his family moved from Great Britain to the United States. In the 1960s they traveled within the United States, holding tent revivals and evangelistic meetings.

In the 1980s, Ravenhill moved to a home near Lindale, Texas

Lindale, Texas

Lindale is a city in Smith County, Texas, United States. The town had an estimated population of 5,024 in 2006. It is part of the Tyler, Texas Metropolitan Statistical Area.-History:...

, a short distance from Last Days Ministries

Keith Green

Keith Gordon Green was an American gospel singer, songwriter, musician, and Contemporary Christian Music artist originally from Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, New York. Beyond his music, Green is best known for his strong devotion to Christian evangelism and challenging others to the same...

 Ranch. He regularly taught classes at LDM and was a mentor to the late Keith Green

Keith Green

Keith Gordon Green was an American gospel singer, songwriter, musician, and Contemporary Christian Music artist originally from Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, New York. Beyond his music, Green is best known for his strong devotion to Christian evangelism and challenging others to the same...

. He also spent some time teaching at Bethany College of Missions in Minnesota, and some time in Seguin, Texas.

Among others influenced by Ravenhill were Ray Comfort

Ray Comfort

Ray Comfort is a New Zealand-born Christian minister and evangelist. Comfort started Living Waters Publications and The Way of the Master in Bellflower, California and has written a number of books.-Early life and career:...

, Ravi Zacharias

Ravi Zacharias

Frederick Antony Ravi Kumar Zacharias is an Indian-born, Canadian-American evangelical Christian apologist. Zacharias is the author of numerous Christian books, including Gold Medallion Book Award winner Can Man Live Without God? and bestsellers Light in the Shadow of Jihad and The Grand Weaver...

, Tommy Tenney

Tommy Tenney

Tommy Tenney is an American preacher, best known for his message of "God Chasing".In his book The God Chasers , Tenney relates experiences of being "in the presence of God", including one occasion when a pulpit was purportedly divinely split in two...

, Steve Hill, Charles Stanley, Bill Gothard

Bill Gothard

William W. Gothard is an American Christian minister, speaker and writer, and the founder of the Institute in Basic Life Principles , notable for his ultraconservative teachings...

, Paul Washer

Paul Washer

Paul David Washer is the Founder/Director & Missions Coordinator of which supports indigenous missionary work.He is also a Southern Baptist itinerant preacher...

, Randy Goudeau, and David Wilkerson

David Wilkerson

David Ray Wilkerson was an American Christian evangelist, best known for his book The Cross and the Switchblade...

.

He was a close friend of pastor and writer A. W. Tozer.

Through his teaching and books, Ravenhill addressed the disparities he perceived between the New Testament Church and the Church in his time and called for adherence to the principles of biblical revival.

Tozer said of Ravenhill:

"To such men as this, the church owes a debt too heavy to pay. The curious thing is that she seldom tries to pay him while he lives. Rather, the next generation builds his sepulchre and writes his biography – as if instinctively and awkwardly to discharge an obligation the previous generation to a large extent ignored."

Ravenhill died in November 1994 and is interred at Garden Valley Cemetery in Garden Valley, Texas, near the grave of Contemporary Christian music

Contemporary Christian music

Contemporary Christian music is a genre of modern popular music which is lyrically focused on matters concerned with the Christian faith...

 artist Keith Green

Keith Green

Keith Gordon Green was an American gospel singer, songwriter, musician, and Contemporary Christian Music artist originally from Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, New York. Beyond his music, Green is best known for his strong devotion to Christian evangelism and challenging others to the same...

.

In 2011 Free Grace Press published a full biography of Leonard Ravenhill written by Mack Tomlinson titled, "In Light of Eternity."

Quotes

“Would we send our daughters off to have sex if it would benefit our country? Yet, we send our sons off to kill when we think it would benefit our country!”

"I am not angered that the Moral Majority boys campaign against abortion. I am angry when the same men who say, "Save OUR children" bellow "Build more and bigger bombers." That's right! Blast the children in other nations into eternity, or limbless misery as they lay crippled from "OUR" bombers! This does not jell."

"Today’s church wants to be raptured from responsibility."

"If weak in prayer, we are weak everywhere."

"Men give advice; God gives guidance."

"Are the things you are living for worth Christ dying for?"

"A sinning man stops praying, a praying man stops sinning"

"The only reason we don't have revival is because we are willing to live without it!"

"God pity us that after years of writing, using mountains of paper and rivers of ink, exhausting flashy terminology about the biggest revival meetings in history, we are still faced with gross corruption in every nation, as well as with the most prayerless church age since Pentecost."

"The Church used to be a lifeboat rescuing the perishing. Now she is a cruise ship recruiting the promising."

"The opportunity of a lifetime must be seized within the lifetime of the opportunity."

"My main ambition in life is to be on the devil's most wanted list."

"If Jesus had preached the same message that ministers preach today, He would never have been crucified."

"Entertainment is the devil's substitute for joy"

Books

• Sodom Had No Bible, Bethany House Publishers (June 1981), ISBN 0-87123-496-3
• Tried & Transfigured, Bethany House Publishers (June 1982), ISBN 0-87123-544-7
• Meat For Men, Bethany House Publishers (June 1979), ISBN 0-87123-362-2
• Revival Praying, Bethany House Publishers (June 1981), ISBN 0-87123-482-3
• America is Too Young To Die, Bethany House Publishers (September 1979), ISBN 0-87123-013-5
• Why Revival Tarries, Bethany House Publishers, Expanded Edition, (August 1979), ISBN 0-87123-607-9
• Revival God's Way, Bethany House Publishers (June 1986), ISBN 0-87123-620-6

External links

• Leonard Ravenhill Official Website
• Interview with Leonard Ravenhill on the topic of Revival
• Excerpt from Revival God's Way
• Excerpt from Why Revival Tarries (from a book published in 1959)
• Find-A-Grave entry for Leonard Ravenhill (one photo there shows Keith Green's gravesite behind Ravenhill's.)
• Biographical Sketch by David Bercot
• Video: Ravenhill's Sermon The Judgement Seat of Christ