Tribute to Robert Walker

When Robert Walker died on March 1, just weeks before his 96th birthday, he left a legacy unequalled in the world of evangelical publishing.

Long before there was Christianity Today Robert Walker was publishing Christian Life. Long before there was a Christian Booksellers Association he was shaping the world of Christian publishing. Long before there was a Tyndale House he was mentoring Ken Taylor, who later founded it.

Born in 1912-- the same month the Titanic sank-- he grew up before there was radio, television, or the internet was even thought of. It was a day when Christian periodicals only wrote "inspirational articles" or features about people who had already died. It was considered risky to write about someone who was living. The first time he wrote an article about a Christian cartoonist he was roundly criticized.

Walker grew up in a family of nominal Christians. His father and uncle invented and received a patent for the first mechanical and then electric dishwasher. But he didn't like people to know that lest they thought he was bragging.

He attended Wheaton College in the 1930s in order to play football. While at Wheaton he met Jesus Christ by picking up a Bible while he was waiting out a rainstorm on a fishing trip. And after praying that if God existed He would make His Word come alive, Walker found himself reading the Bible for hours and becoming a Christian.

In the early 1940s he founded HIS magazine for Intervarsity. Later he took over publishing a magazine called Christian Life & Times from a friend and renamed it Christian Life in 1948. The event was considered so newsworthy that Newsweek wrote a story about it.

As a young man Walker was involved in the founding of the National Association of Evangelicals. Later he was one of the ones who worked to establish the Christian Booksellers Association, and then published the first Christian trade magazine called Christian Bookseller (which today is called Christian Retailing).

Walker was also one of the founders of the Evangelical Press Association. He was the last one among the founders to pass away.

In the late 1940s Christian Life published the first feature length article on Billy Graham at a time his ministry was not well known. Over the years they worked together in many ways and became fast friends.

Walker wrote one of the first articles about what later became the charismatic movement in the early 1950s, posing the question to evangelicals in the headline: "Are we missing something?"

After being exposed to Pentecostals in the National Association of Evangelicals he sensed that there was a deeper walk in the Spirit that he was missing. Later he received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Over the years he was a bridge-builder between the two groups of Christians. I don't doubt that it was his early endorsement in covering the things that happened that was the tipping point that caused the movement to develop rather than just be a few isolated spiritual outpourings.

Walker was the first one to write about Pat Robertson and his fledgling Christian Broadcasting Network. He served on the founding board of CBN. Later he wrote the book about how singer Pat Boone's life was changed when he received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. That book called A New Song sold more than 2 million copies and helped launch Creation House (which continues today under my leadership).

Walker was the one who discovered a young missionary named Bruce Olson who told his story in the book Bruchko which soon will be made into a movie by Matt Crouch.

The list goes on and on. He influenced the lives of many leaders such as Ken Taylor and Billy Graham in the Christian movement.

In 1986, at age 74, he took a chance with a young journalist who felt he had a similar calling for his generation-- me. We merged our magazines and I continued his publishing legacy. It's the reason today that we publish books and why we serve the Christian retail industry with various publications. Over the last 22 years Walker and I developed a very close friendship. He visited our offices in Florida whenever he could. The last time he visited us was November 2005 when he attended our first "Night to Honor Israel." He was a strong supporter of Israel and one of the founders of the Fellowship of Christians and Jews. That was the last plane trip he took.

Shortly thereafter his health deteriorated. Although he was an athlete and a very strong and vigorous man most of his life, he contracted Parkinson's disease and suffered a measure of dementia in the last 18 months of his life.

Knowing that he didn't' have long to live I visited him last Spring. We had some great conversations which I recorded. I took him out to eat. We prayed together and I said goodbye knowing I would probably never see him alive again.

In February, he contracted pneumonia which-- for a man in his weakened condition-- proved to be fatal.

In 1996 when he was still in his prime I videotaped a 2-hour interview knowing that someday it would be valuable for us "for posterity." I edited that down to 13 minutes which will be shown in his memorial service at the Wheaton Bible Church on March 14. You can click here to watch it. In his own words Walker shared about his family, his relationship with Billy Graham, his work in Christian journalism, his conversion experience, his experience with the Holy Spirit, and how he wants to be remembered.

I have greatly admired Robert Walker as long as I've known him. But during these last 2 decades I grew to love him. After the death of my mentor Jamie Buckingham in 1992 and my father's death in 1997 he became a father figure in my life. On a personal basis I'll miss him greatly.

I consider it an honor to continue his legacy in Christian publishing-- even as the world changes, the market changes, and technology changes to thrust us more into the digital age.

We have many more ways to communicate. Technology makes it faster and easier. But the world is still in dire need of a Savior. The Holy Spirit is still moving throughout the earth. Christian Life's motto in the 1980s was "Reporting what God is doing in the world today." That's what we do today.

Robert Walker is gone, but he won't be forgotten. As a Christian I look forward to the day I'll see him in heaven. In the meantime I'm honored to continue his legacy. He was a great role model and I hope that I can be as faithful to my calling as he was to his.