Steve Brady, Principal of Moorlands College in Dorset, will tell you that he is from Liverpool and a true Evertonian.
Steve Brady loves football, but truly comes alive when talking about the Word of God. Steve comes from a mixed church background and had little to do with church during his childhood.
The Bible and the FA Cup
At the age of 14, he was given a Bible as a Christmas present. He thought that reading the Bible every day would mean that God would help him and also Everton. So, he read three chapters every day and doubled this amount at weekends, plus a few extras. Within eight months he had read the entire Bible – and Everton had won the FA Cup!
While reading the Bible a second time, he started attending a church in Liverpool, where, under deep conviction of sin, he came to Christ for mercy just before his 16th birthday. The same night he also felt the Lord calling him to full-time service. He compares the experience to that of Paul, who, on the day he was converted, also was commissioned.
Concrete jungles
Steve went on to work for local government and then studied at the London School of Theology, where he met his wife, Brenda, PA to the Principal.
‘The Lord’, he says ‘clearly impressed on me that I was not called to overseas mission, although I’d gone to college to train to be a missionary in the Amazon jungle. He was calling me to the concrete jungles of the UK.’
Steve has preached the Word of God throughout the UK and beyond ever since. He was ordained in Leicester, spent ten years working in East London, another ten in Bournemouth and then joined Moorlands College as a lecturer in 1998. One year later, he was appointed Principal of the college where he remains today.
Revelation
Steve is a much loved speaker at the Keswick Convention and a trustee. This year, in Week 2 of the Convention (23 July – 29 July), he will be teaching on the Book of Revelation.
‘Whether working on the mission field, or when ministering locally,’ Steve comments, ‘it can often seem that what we do is insignificant, especially when we look at the vast amount of people who still do not know Christ. Similarly, political and economic uncertainty, like that created as a result of the Referendum, can make us feel helpless. It is easy to lose perspective and to forget the Christian hope. The Book of Revelation, however, is written against a backdrop of a church in massively uncertain times with power brokers threatening to bring it down. All that has passed, but the Lamb of God is still on the throne of the universe.
The rule of God in Christ
‘That is what should shape our vision, rather than the proud empires that come and go. The Kingdom of God is about the rule of God in Christ. That should refocus our perspective, lift our spirits and give us hope. Christ has won, and we will conquer through him.’
Steve and Brenda have two children and four grandchildren. Steve continues as an ‘unrepentant Evertonian’.
