About Ralph I. Tilley

I was converted to Christ at the age of sixteen in a Sunday evening service in Columbus, Indiana, in the summer of 1961. While kneeling at the altar, I sensed God calling me into Christian ministry. Following the service, I was driven by my brother Gordon to the manufacturing plant where my father was employed as a night watchman. I informed my father of my conversion and asked his permission to enroll (for my senior year) in a Christian high school in Cincinnati, Ohio. Having received my father’s permission, I went home, apologized to my stepmother for my sinful attitude toward her, packed a suitcase, and was taken by my brother to school that evening.

I joyfully identify with the long history of the orthodox, Evangelical stream of the Church. Theologically, I am a conservative. On issues of secondary importance, I will not quibble with my brothers and sisters in Christ. We are called to “maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” I hope I have no doctrinal biases; however, I realize that is a practical impossibility: “Now I know in part.”

Furthermore, ecclesiastically and theologically, my roots are in the Wesleyan tradition, for which I am grateful. However, for many years now, I have ministered among and fellowshipped with a cross-section of believers, representing various branches in Christ’s Church. As to my local church commitment, my wife and I are members of a local church where I joyfully teach a Bible class and occasionally preach. I also host regular prayer fellowships in my study with some of God’s choice people.

The apostle Paul rebuked the Corinthian Church for exalting one man over another: “One of you says, ‘I follow Paul’; another, ‘I follow Apollos’; another, ‘I follow Cephas.’ ” (1 Cor. 1:12). Much damage has been done in the Church because we have said I follow a certain man.  Many Bible scholars and preachers have stimulated me in my walk with God across the years from a variety of Evangelical traditions. While I have not always agreed with each writer or preacher on all of their doctrinal interpretations, neither would they agree with me on all of my views. If a person has a high view of the inspired Scriptures, confesses Jesus Christ as Lord, and is Christ-centered in their proclamation, teaching, and living out the gospel of Christ, I extend to them the right hand of fellowship. “I am a companion of all who fear you, of those who keep your precepts” (Psa. 119:63). I will be content if there are those along the way who will be able to recognize me as a follower of Christ—a mere Christian. Jesus is Lord! In the words of Thomas O. Chisholm,

I have one deep, supreme desire,
That I may be like Jesus.
To this I fervently aspire,
That I may be like Jesus.

– Soli Deo Gloria –