Robert Pierce (1914–1978) was an American
Baptist
Baptists are a Christian denomination, denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers (believer's baptism) and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches ge ...
minister and
relief worker
Humanitarian aid is material and logistic assistance, usually in the short-term, to people in need. Among the people in need are the homeless, refugees, and victims of natural disasters, wars, and famines. The primary objective of humanitarian a ...
. He is best known as the founder of the international charity organizations
World Vision International
World Vision International is an interdenominational Christian humanitarian aid, development, and advocacy organization. It was founded in 1950 by Robert Pierce as a service organization to provide care for children in Korea. In 1975, emerge ...
in 1950 and
Samaritan's Purse
Samaritan's Purse is an evangelical Christian humanitarian aid organization that provides aid to people in physical need as a key part of its Christian missionary work. The organization's president is Franklin Graham, son of Christian evangelis ...
in 1970.
Early life and education
Pierce was born on October 8, 1914, in
Fort Dodge, Iowa
Fort Dodge is a city in and the county seat of Webster County, Iowa, United States, along the Des Moines River. The population was 24,871 in the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, a decrease from 25,136 in 2000 United States Census, 2000. F ...
. He moved with his family to
southern California
Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural List of regions of California, region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its densely populated coastal reg ...
in the mid-1920s. He attended Pasadena Nazarene College and studied for the ministry. From 1937 to 1940 he spent time traveling across California working as an evangelist. In 1940 he was ordained a Baptist minister and soon thereafter he became involved with the Los Angeles branch of the WWII-era
Youth for Christ (YFC) movement.
Ministry
During several visits in the late 1940s until the conclusion of the
Chinese Civil War
The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led Nationalist government, government of the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic of China and the forces of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Armed conflict continued intermitt ...
in 1950, Robert Pierce worked with the
Youth for Christ, in a series of evangelical rallies held in China and witnessed the wartime destruction of hospitals, schools, and churches. On one trip, he met Tena Hoelkeboer, a missionary teacher, who presented him with a battered and abandoned child. Unable to care for the child herself, Tena asked Pierce, "What are you going to do about her?" Pierce gave the woman his last five dollars and agreed to send the same amount each month to help the woman care for the child.
He was deeply aroused by the wartime poverty and human suffering that he witnessed in both China and Korea and in 1950 he founded
World Vision International
World Vision International is an interdenominational Christian humanitarian aid, development, and advocacy organization. It was founded in 1950 by Robert Pierce as a service organization to provide care for children in Korea. In 1975, emerge ...
, at least partly due to his associations with local pastors such as Korean Presbyterian minister Kyung-Chik Han.
In 1959 journalist
Richard Gehman wrote that "
iercecannot conceal his true emotions. He seems to me to be one of the few naturally, uncontrollably honest men I have ever met." Pastor
Richard Halverson wrote that Pierce "prayed more earnestly and importunately than anyone else I have ever known. It was as though prayer burned within him. … Bob Pierce functioned from a broken heart."
Pierce was also a filmmaker and during his leadership World Vision used movies, shown mainly for church audiences, as the main marketing tool. Since in the worldview of Pierce Christianity was the only religion able to counter communism, these movies were full of anti-communist cold war rhetoric and promoted Christian missionizing as a way to counter communism. With the extensive use of movies as funding tool, Bob Pierce's World Vision had together with the
Salvation Army
The Salvation Army (TSA) is a Protestantism, Protestant Christian church and an international charitable organisation headquartered in London, England. It is aligned with the Wesleyan-Holiness movement. The organisation reports a worldwide m ...
a leading role in the development of the evangelical social action movie.
Pierce was a close friend to
Abraham Vereide. Like other leading figures of World Vision, e.g. Richard Halverson, Senator
Frank Carlson, or later Winston Weaver he was also involved in
The Fellowship and the associated prayer breakfast movement founded by Vereide for which he worked during the 1950s as a field representative.
In 1967 he resigned from World Vision. In 1970, he founded the hunger relief organization that became the
evangelical Christian
Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes evangelism, or the preaching and spreading of th ...
organization
Samaritan's Purse
Samaritan's Purse is an evangelical Christian humanitarian aid organization that provides aid to people in physical need as a key part of its Christian missionary work. The organization's president is Franklin Graham, son of Christian evangelis ...
that was modeled after the early World Vision International.
Illness and death
Pierce began having marital issues with his wife, and decided to "temporarily" move away from his family. Pierce was then diagnosed with blood cancer, which caused his wife, Lorraine, concern. In 1978, he reluctantly agreed to a last reunion with his family. Four days after the reunion, he died of
leukemia
Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia; pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and produce high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or '' ...
.
[Dunker, M. P. (2005). Man of vision: the candid, compelling story of Bob and Lorraine Pierce, founders of World Vision and Samaritans Purse. Waynesboro, GA: Authentic Media. doi: https://www.spiritofgrace.org/articles/nl_2013/various/00_bob_pierce.html]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pierce, Robert
1914 births
1978 deaths
American evangelicals
People from Fort Dodge, Iowa
Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)
20th-century Baptist ministers from the United States