TULSA, Okla. — Evangelist Oral Roberts was remembered Monday as a charismatic leader who deftly used television to spread the message of Christianity throughout the world.
Thousands packed an arena at Oral Roberts University for the memorial service for the man who founded the evangelical liberal arts school. Roberts died last week in California of complications from pneumonia. He was 91.
“You sent us a man who we know and loved and who walked with God and never gave up the common touch,” fellow evangelist Pat Robertson said during the ceremony’s opening prayer. “I know you broke the mold with Oral.”
Roberts rose from poverty and tent revivals to become one of the nation’s most recognized and influential preachers. Roberts, along with Billy Graham, helped pioneer TV evangelism and used the power of the new medium — and the message of God’s healing power — to build a multimillion-dollar ministry.
ORU president Mark Rutlege noted how adept Roberts was at using the medium of television to spread his message: “There was something when Oral leaned into that TV and said, ‘Something good is going to happen to you today.’ “
Claiming God told him to build a university to spread the Christian faith, Roberts chartered ORU in 1963. The school became the first Pentecostal university in the world.
Other deaths.
