W. Ian Thomas

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Walter Ian Thomas (born September 13, 1914 in Hampstead , United Kingdom , † August 1, 2007 in Estes Park , Colorado ) was a British major , evangelist , author and founder and long-time leader of the Missionary Fellowship of Torchbearers .

Life

Walter Ian Thomas was born shortly after the outbreak of the First World War, the son of an architect , and grew up in an Anglican family home. At the age of 12 he experienced during a children's camp a conversion . At the age of 18 he began studying medicine and later went to mission as a doctor . He was very involved in Christian activities and mission, but soon felt exhausted and burned out. It was in this situation that he made his formative experience of faith: for years he had tried to live his life for God , now he came to the realization that God wanted to live his life through him . When he shared this message with his friends, he experienced enormous openness to it. He soon ran out of time for his studies and was more engaged in Christian ministry than ever before. At a young age he became a sought-after preacher and was invited to many congregations of various denominations. While in one of his field services in Ireland , he became aware of Joan, a dedicated nurse, whom he married and with whom he spent 66 years together. There are four children from their marriage. He was active in the field ministry well into old age.

The Second World War temporarily ended his career as an evangelist and Bible teacher. Soon W. Ian Thomas held a responsible position as a young officer ; first as a company commander and later as a battalion commander . As such, he was eventually awarded the highest order of bravery in the British Empire . After the end of the war he became site commander in Velbert on the Lower Rhine. Here, too, he was increasingly invited to preaching services in local Christian communities. The origins of the Torchbearer Movement lay in the contacts made there .

Act

In 1947 Major Thomas and Mrs. T , as they were commonly known, acquired the shabby aristocratic property of Capernwray Hall in northern England , which was expanded into an international Christian youth center and short Bible school. After the work was originally designed mainly for young people from Germany , it quickly grew into a large international movement. Starting from Capernwray Hall, 26 torchbearer centers have been set up in Europe , Asia , North and Central America and Oceania to date .

Publications

  • The Saving Life of Christ , London / Edinburgh 1961 et al.
(Eng. Christ in you - Dynamics of Life , Wuppertal 1964 etc.)
  • The Mystery of Godliness , London / Edinburgh 1964 et al.
(Eng. You need God to be human , Neuhausen 1975, etc.)
  • If I perish, I perish: The Christian Life as Seen in Esther , London 1967 et al.
(German dead cannot die , Neuhausen 1973 etc.)
  • The Indwelling Life of Christ: All of Him in All of Me , Sisters, OR 2006
(Eng. Powerful Christianity: Living from Abundance , Holzgerlingen 2006)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lutz Kettwig: "The founder of the torch-bearer movement is dead. An obituary", in: AllianzSpiegel 22 (2007), No. 79 (PDF; 1.7 MB), pp. 25-27.
  2. ↑ Joan Thomas: Major W. Ian Thomas and the History of the Torchbearers . Hänssler, Holzgerlingen 2015.
  3. ^ Herb Brasher: A Survey of the History of the Capernwray Missionary Fellowship of Torchbearers , Obernhof 1989.
  4. ↑ http://www.torchbearers.org

Web links


personal data
SURNAME Thomas, W. Ian
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Thomas, Walter Ian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British major, evangelist and founder of the Torchbearer Movement
DATE OF BIRTH September 13, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Hampstead , UK
DATE OF DEATH August 1, 2007
Place of death Estes Park , Colorado