Warren Wendel Wiersbe was an Americanpastor, Bible teacher, conference speaker and a prolific writer of Christian literature and theological works. Born in East Chicago, Indiana, 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.
Biography
Wiersbe studied at Indiana University in Indianapolis, Roosevelt University, and graduated in 1953 from Northern Baptist Theological Seminary in Lombard, Illinois. 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 KentuckyTri-state Area. His Sunday sermons were broadcast as the "Calvary 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 to include Speaker on "Songs in the Night", a national 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 from 1971 to 1983, ten of those years he served as chairman of the board. From 1980 to 1990 he went to work for Back to the Bibleradio broadcasting network and served 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 has been writing books since 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." Wiersbe died on May 2, 2019, aged 89. Before his passing, Wiersbe and his wife Betty gifted their massive personal library of over 13,000 volumes to Cedarville University in Ohio.
