Once a fiery Southern Baptist evangelist, James Robison mellowed after a powerful encounter with the Holy Spirit. He has since earned renown for bridge-building efforts between multiple denominations.
That included organizing the National Affairs Briefing in 1980, partially credited with creating the momentum for Ronald Reagan’s election that year as president.
Robison later put aside traveling evangelism to host a daily syndicated TV talk show that airs worldwide. Life Today also formed a humanitarian outreach that helps feed and clothe thousands of children around the globe.
“When we began to serve other ministries worldwide and went into mission outreaches, we went from seeing thousands of people saved a year to millions,” Robison says. “Our ministry exploded when I sat on a sofa by my wife rather than standing in coliseums.”
More recently, Robison organized leadership summits in 2010-11 for more than 80 pastors, ministry leaders, rabbis and others to discuss society’s moral and cultural decay.
The result appeared in February: The Stream (stream.org), a site of news and commentary that builds the case for biblical values.
It generated nearly 1.3 million page views in its first four months. “The verse that sums us up is found in Psalm 46:4: ‘There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,” Robison says. “Those tributaries are truth. I’m encouraging all of these tributaries of truth to understand that each of us is vitally important with our unique giftings. We need to learn to honor God by honoring one another.”—Ken Walker
