Dick Saunders, international ‘crusade’ and radio evangelist, Bible teacher and pastor, died 19 January, 2018 aged 87.
Richard (‘Dick’) Stephen Saunders was born in Hailsham, East Sussex, on 16 July, 1930, the son of a Strict Baptist lay-pastor, Alfred Saunders. He grew up surrounded by the prayers and godly example of his parents, and trusted Christ as his own Saviour at the age of 18. Soon after his conversion he married Betty (née Thomas).
A fire for evangelism
Billy Graham’s Harringay Crusade of 1954 was pivotal in preparing Dick for a lifetime of preaching the gospel: ‘The Lord lit a fire of evangelism in my bones’, he later recalled.
Dick embarked on full-time evangelism in 1956, which led to three years with the Open Air Mission. In May 1960, Dick and Betty joined Counties Evangelistic Work where he began as the evangelist for Hampshire with a tent seating 150 people. He was appointed the national evangelist for Counties in 1967, by which time he was given a tent seating 1,000 people.
Filling Wembley
His popularity as a ‘crusade evangelist’ grew, until he had a ‘cathedral tent’ capable of seating 3,000 people, used for summer missions in towns and cities across the UK. His annual rallies in London filled the Royal Albert Hall and, eventually, the Wembley Arena which seated 10,000. Hundreds went forward at his meetings to commit their lives to Christ and receive counselling.
In October 1965, Dick’s first Way to Life radio programme was broadcast by Trans World Radio from Monte Carlo. The Way to Life Ministry grew rapidly as thousands of letters poured in from around the world. Dick estimated that he produced 24,000 radio programmes in his lifetime.
Bible teaching
By the mid-1980s, as the demand for evangelistic tent missions declined, Dick began using his tent for Bible conventions. This led to a growing Bible-teaching ministry which became the hallmark of his later years. By the late 1980s Dick embraced the doctrine of election, and this led him to return to the Reformed, Calvinistic position of his parents.
In his later years, Dick served faithfully as an elder and pastor at Gordon Road Evangelical Church, Hailsham, whilst maintaining the international radio ministry with repeat broadcasts.
