A.W. Tozer first committed his life to God as a teenager after hearing a street preacher proclaim that to be saved, someone had to cry out to Jesus to have mercy on him—a sinner. Years later, after becoming a pastor and then a prolific author, Tozer consistently proclaimed that same message of humanity being forgiven of their sins and being reconciled back to God through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Born into an impoverished home, Tozer only completed the sixth grade. However, he taught himself Christian theology. In 1919, five years after committing his life to Jesus, Tozer became pastor of his first church. He went on to serve 44 years as a pastor in the Christian and Missionary Alliance.
His first pastoral position was at a small storefront church in West Virginia. Then, from 1928 to 1959, he pastored the Southside Alliance Church in Chicago. He led Avenue Road Church in Toronto, Ontario, during his last years as a pastor.
In 1931, Tozer started writing for Alliance Weekly, the denominational magazine of the Christian and Missionary Alliance, and eventually had his own column. In 1950, he became editor and stayed in that position until he died in 1963.
While writing for Alliance Weekly, he also wrote his first books: biographies of A.B. Simpson and Robert A. Jaffray. But his third book, The Pursuit of God (1948), became a bestseller. He went on to write nine other books, and many more have been made by compiling his articles and sermons.
Tozer was steadfast in this theology throughout his career as a pastor and writer. He believed the Bible to be fully God’s word and fully true. Using the Bible as his foundation, his greatest theological interest was man’s pursuit of God, including understanding God’s character—his majesty, awe, mercy, etc. Tozer wholeheartedly agreed with the Westminster Catechism “to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” Leading by example, he challenged others to make the pursuit of Christ the main goal in life.
Additionally, he believed in the Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and that God is our judge and yet gives us grace. Tozer consistently taught that God’s love compelled Him to send His Son to die for the sins of all humanity—a joint agreement by all three Persons of the Trinity.
Tozer also passionately read the Christian mystics from throughout history. He didn’t advocate for their theology but greatly appreciated their deep experiences with God. Like them, he wanted to be in an intimate communion with God. He believed many Christian martyrs, reformers, evangelists, and missionaries had the same mystic qualities. Tozer believed this practice of the presence of God, moment by moment, was core to the Christian experience.
Additionally, Tozer sought out those who could become “modern day prophets.” He believed God specifically chose a few to have the gifts to prophesy to their current generation. Their role requires being infused with Christ and the Holy Spirit to proclaim God’s message to the hardened hearts of the masses.
Tozer’s biographer, James L. Snyder, wrote that Tozer often neglected his family as he was often away on speaking engagements. And when home, he devoted most of his time to studying and writing. He was so focused on impacting his congregation and readers that he devoted little time as a husband and father.
In A Passion For God: The Spiritual Journey of A.W. Tozer by Lyle Dorsett, Tozer’s widow comments on Tozer as a husband and her remarriage to Leonard Odam, “I have never been happier in my life. Aiden [Tozer] loved Jesus Christ, but Leonard Odam loves me” (160).
Various writers and pastors have given various responses to this comment. It is fair to say that Tozer combined heroic efforts to advance the kingdom of God with great flaws that affected his personal life.
Tozer’s life showed the strengths of seeking God earnestly and the consequences of caring so much that the minister’s family life suffers.
On the one hand, he dedicated himself to prayer, study, and declaration. He would get to his office early, change into a wrinkled pair of pants and pray on his knees—for hours at a time. He was continually focused on the love of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. He also lived a simple lifestyle, using the remaining money to help others. His family never owned a car and took the bus and train instead. After becoming a successful writer, he devoted much of his earnings to those struggling financially.
On the other hand, he pursued ministry at the expense of his relationship with his wife. Some biographies have reported that his children found him an absent father or felt he gave away so much money that their needs weren’t met.
The full story of his family life is probably more complicated than any summary. However, Tozer’s life does serve as a reminder that individual holiness is not the only thing Christians are called to. Pastors and other full-time ministry leaders are often tempted to neglect their families to devote more time to God’s kingdom. We must remember that a person’s family is also a ministry opportunity.
1. “In olden days men of faith were said to walk in the fear of God...[with] the conception of God as awesome . . . This idea of God transcendent runs through the whole Bible.” — “Walk Around the Clock,” Crosswalk.com
2. “We need never shout across the spaces to an absent God. He is nearer than our own soul, closer than our most secret thoughts.” — The Pursuit of God: The Human Thirst for the Divine
3. “The old devotional writers used to emphasize that Christ is to the church what the soul is to the body. You know what the soul is to the body; it is that which gives it life, and when the soul flees the body, it cannot keep the body alive. When the soul is gone, then the embalmer takes over, and in the church of Christ—any church, anywhere, of any denomination, whatever it may call itself—as long as Christ is there, imparting life to that redeemed company, you have the church.” — “What It Means to Delight in God,” Crosswalk.com
4. “To have found God and still to pursue Him is the soul’s paradox of love.” — The Pursuit of God
5. “The one who does not expect God to speak will discount every single time that God does speak.” — “What I Learned When God Went Silent,” Crosswalk.com
6. “Let every man abide in the calling wherein he is called and his work will be as sacred as the work of the ministry. It is not what a man does that determines whether his work is sacred or secular, it is why he does it.” — The Pursuit of God
7. “We might be wise to follow the insight of the enraptured heart rather than the more cautious reasoning of the theological mind.” — The Knowledge of the Holy
8. “We can afford to follow Him to failure. Faith dares to fail. The resurrection and the judgment will demonstrate before all worlds who won and who lost. We can wait.” — Born After Midnight
9. “Unbelief is actually perverted faith, for it puts its faith not in the living God, but in dying men.” — The Knowledge of the Holy
10. “All things as they move toward God are beautiful, and they are ugly as they move away from Him.” — The Attributes of God Volume Two: Deeper into the Father’s Heart
1. The Pursuit of God: The Human Thirst for the Divine. Tozer stresses the importance of a relationship with God to communicate with him regularly, including Him speaking to us. To do this, Tozer encourages the reader to pursue godly disciplines and focus on glorifying God in all things throughout the day. Additionally, he shares about the lives of people from the Bible and the saints who have walked with Christ since.
2. The Knowledge of the Holy: The Attributes of God: Their Meaning in the Christian Life. In each chapter, Tozer describes God’s various characteristics and applies them to modern life. He writes to increase the reader’s view of God—which lack thereof has led to many spiritual issues—and to encourage the meditation on God’s attributes like love, majesty, power, and omnipresence.
3. Divine Humility: God’s Solution to Human Catastrophe. Tozer defends the premise that God created people for a purpose, we rejected it, and cannot be reconciled with God. However, God incarnated Himself as a man to take on the rejection and punishment and reconcile us back to Himself.
4. Prayer: Communing with God in Everything - Collected Insights. This compilation of essays on prayer advocates for prayer as a way of life, a means to come into Christ’s presence, have a personal relationship with God, and be formed into His likeness.
5. The Holy Spirit’s Presence: Accessing God’s Power By Acknowledging Our Weakness. Tozer notes that just like Jesus and The Father, the Holy Spirit will insist on being Lord of one’s life. While the role of the Holy Spirit is often overlooked in modern Christianity, Tozer defends the Christian’s need to surrender to the Holy Spirit absolutely and rely on its help, power, and strength.
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