# Warren W. Wiersbe

Warren Wendall Wiersbe (May 16, 1929 – May 2, 2019) was an American Christian clergyman, Bible teacher, conference speaker and a prolific writer of Christian literature and theological works. Wiersbe is perhaps best known for his series of 50 books in the "BE" series: Be Real, Be Rich, Be Obedient, Be Mature, Be Joyful, etc., and other theological works. He pastored the Moody Church in Chicago (1971–1978) and succeeded Theodore Epp as director of the Back to the Bible radio ministry.

## Early years and education

Wiersbe was born on May 16, 1929, in East Chicago, Indiana, the youngest of four children of Fred and Gladys Wiersbe. His mother was of Swedish descent, and his father was of German descent. Wiersbe attended Washington High School in East Chicago, where he became a committed Christian at a Youth for Christ rally there in 1945. After graduation, he studied at Indiana University at the Indianapolis campus, Roosevelt University, and graduated in 1953 from Northern Baptist Theological Seminary in Lombard, Illinois.

## Ministry

While attending the seminary, he was ordained as pastor of Central Baptist Church in 1951 and served until 1957. From September 1957 to 1961, Wiersbe served as Director of The Literature Division for Youth for Christ International. From 1961 to 1971 he pastored Calvary Baptist Church of Covington, Kentucky south of Cincinnati, Ohio. The church grew from a church seating a congregation of eight hundred to build a new church seating of two thousand. This church drew members from the Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky Tri-state Area. His Sunday sermons were broadcast as theCalvary Hour on a local Cincinnati radio station. From 1971 to 1978, Wiersbe pastored Chicago's Moody Church, named for 19th century evangelist Dwight L. Moody. While at Moody Church, he continued in radio ministry as speaker on the Songs in the Night nationally syndicated radio program that moved to Moody Church in 1968. Between August 1979 and March 1982, he wrote bi-weekly for Christianity Today as "Eutychus X". During the same time frame between 1978 and 1982, Wiersbe taught practical theology classes at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois and wrote the course material and taught "Imagination and the Quest for Biblical Preaching", a Doctor of Ministry course at Trinity and Dallas Seminary. While pastoring in Chicago, Wiersbe served on the board of Slavic Gospel Association (SGA) from 1971 to 1983, ten of those years he served as chairman of the board. From 1980 to 1992, he went to work for the Back to the Bible radio broadcast and succeeded Theodore Epp as general director the last six years of his time there.
In 1995, Wiersbe became Writer in Residence at Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Distinguished Professor of Preaching at Grand Rapids Theological Seminary. A contributing editor to Baker Book House, he wrote books beginning in the 1950s under several publishing house labels; completing more than 150 books including the popular "BE" series of commentaries on every book of the Bible which has sold over four million copies. Most of this information is available through Warren Wiersbe's autobiography Be Myself: Memoirs of a Bridgebuilder.

## Personal life and death

Wiersbe married Betty Warren on June 20, 1953; they had met at Northern Baptist Theological Seminary. They had four children. He died on May 2, 2019, aged 89. Before his death, Wiersbe and his wife Betty gifted their massive personal library of over 13,000 volumes to Cedarville University in Ohio.