Harold Ockenga (1905-1985)

Harold John Ockenga was a leading figure of mid-20th-century American Evangelism. He was part of a reform movement known as 'Neo-Evangelicalism '.
He was a Congregational minister and for 33 years was the pastor of Park Street Church in Boston, Massachusetts. In 1950 his church was involved in Billy Graham’s first evangelical crusade and as a result he became chairman of Christianity Today until 1981. He helped to found the Fuller and Gordon- Conwell Theological Seminaries. He also founded the National Association of Evangelicals. He was a prolific writer on many religious topics.

Harold was born on 6th June 1905 and raised in Chicago. His father had German ancestry and his surname is East Frisan. His mother took him to Olivet Methodist Episcopal Church where aged 11 he became a member. As a teenager he had a sense God was calling him to the ministry

In 1927 he graduated from Taylor University, a Methodist institution in Indiana, and enrolled at Princeton Theological Seminary (PTS). He left in 1929 to go to the new Westminster Theological Seminary where he graduated from in 1930 and earned a PhD degree in 1939.
(Many tutors and students left PTS during the ‘fundamentalist-modernist controversy’ - Princeton had became too liberal .)
While studying at Pittsburgh University he met and married Audrey Williamson in 1935.

His pastoral work began with 2 Methodist churches in New Jersey. In 1931 he became an assistant at the First Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh. In the same year he was recommended as pastor at Point Breeze Presbyterian church. In 1936 he became first associate, then pastor, at Park Street Church (PSC) (1936-69).

His congregation thrived during his pastorate as he exercised considerable talents as a preacher, evangelist, leader and and organizer.

Harold delivered many sermons which later formed the substance of various books he wrote. (See ‘Works’ for list of books)

Harold was very much an evangelical reformer and leader.
He was the founding president of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) (1942-4)
He was the founding president of Fuller Theological Seminary established in 1947.
When he retired from PSC he took over the presidency of GCTS (1970-9). He had been involved in the late 1960’s of the merger of Gordon Divinity School and Conwell School of Theology.

Information on the Neo - Evangelical Movement begins with this statement:
The NEM was a response among orthodox evangelical Protestants to the Separatism of fundamentalist Christianity beginning in the 1930s. (Read on)

Harold died of cancer on 8th February 1985

He was a giant among giants. I thank God for his friendship
Billy Graham