Tommy Lee (T.L) Osborn impacted the global renewal movement in the 1950s through his healing and mass evangelistic crusades, yet until now, no critical examination of his life and ministry has been undertaken This work examines that life and ministry, as well as the theology, and hermeneutics of this extraordinary man, highlighting mission strategies he inaugurated in India that have served as the foundation of mass evangelism in that country over the last fifty years.
Historian Edwin Harrell saw Osborn as a “pioneer of many new techniques for independent foreign evangelism who won the respect of most of his contemporary evangelists.” In the mid-twentieth century when the healing revivals in the United States began to decline, many American evangelists wanted to follow the path of Osborn regarding global evangelism to keep their ministries growing.1 Such an influence on modern evangelism warrants a critical examination of the life and ministry of this extraordinary man.
Osborn’s initial efforts in India failed miserably. But sensing a need for a dramatic shift in his approach to evangelism that would incorporate the Hindu worldview as a tool for communicating the Gospel, he revitalized his ministry using techniques that have become the norm for most contemporary Indian evangelists. This work explores how his work, sermons, and writing responded to critical issues in the Indian culture, including religious pluralism, caste systems, poverty, an understanding of karma, and the status of women. It places Osborn’s work in India within the context of the history, people, and culture that had shaped the Indian mindset at the time of his involvement in the country.
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