Robert D Pilgrim

"...Robert has set his heart to know and preach the truth..." - W.E. Nunnally, Ph.D.

I have known Evangelist Robert Pilgrim for almost thirty years.  He and I come out of the same church (Southside Assembly of God) and were mentored by the same pastor (Rev. Gerald D. Wilson).  Although our ministries have taken drastically different routes, we have remained close friends and functioned as sources of support and as sounding-boards for one another for three decades.

When Robert came to the Lord, it was a nothing-held-back, no-holes-barred, total commitment that he made to serving Jesus as Master and Lord.  At no time have I ever seen him flag in this "sold-out" dedication to loving and living for Jesus, and in his preaching and teaching, he consistently calls his hearers (believers and unbelievers alike) to this same level of commitment.  It has been the dominant force in his life that has given him a healthy marriage, financial integrity, and relational reality - in sum, a sterling reputation that should exemplify those in public ministry.

In addition to Rev. Pilgrim's personal life and witness, there is another aspect of his ministry that has consistently appealed to me as an academic.  From the very beginning of his walk with Jesus and from the commencement of his public ministry, Robert has set his heart to know and preach the truth.  He has little concern for the frivolous, the temporarily popular, and even for biblically unfounded tradition.  Like Ezra of old, when he made the commitment to follow Jesus, Robert "set his heart to study" the Scriptures (Ezra 7:10).  Today, he is still that same single-hearted studier of God's Word, and it exudes from him every time he speaks, whether in personal conversation or when preaching to thousands.  To know God and His will through His written Word is the passion of his heart.  He knows the Scriptures and he knows how to expound them in their perfect, divine balance.  His messages are hard but not harsh.  The pure challenge of the apostolic gospel that "turned the whole world upside down" (Acts 17:6) is evident each time he ministers.

To press this point further, Rev. Pilgrim is distinguished from so many other evangelists in that he refuses to separate mind and heart, knowing that the same Jesus who called him to salvation also called him to "Love the Lord with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind" (Matt. 22:37).  Consequently, his messages are not merely balanced: they are well-researched, stimulating, engaging, contextualized treatises that contain a strong call to the same sold-out commitment proclaimed by the first generation of believers.  Thus, Robert has never had to resort to gimmickry, manipulation, human-generated guilt, or "priming the pump" in order to obtain the incredible results that have so marked his ministry over the last three decades.  Instead, he has established a consistent track record of an exemplary life, excellent preparation (both in prayer and study) and delivery, and complete reliance upon the God the Holy Spirit to "give the increase."

Because these "basics" are so consistently seen in Rev. Pilgrim's personal life and public ministry, it is without reservation that I am able to give him what I can give to few others among us today: my unreserved endorsement and enthusiastic recommendation.