Millions of people have already watched, on YouTube, the same video: a thin preacher with a raspy voice telling thousands of excited young people that the emotion of a worship service does not substitute genuine conversion. That preacher is Paul Washer, and the video made him known throughout the world.
Born on September 11, 1961, in Brookport, in the American state of Illinois, Washer was studying law at the University of Texas at Austin, with plans to work in the oil and gas industry, when he converted to Christianity.
After his conversion, he earned a Master of Divinity from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. In 1988, he moved to Peru, where he lived as a missionary for about ten years, learned Spanish, and served alongside local churches and preachers.
Still in Peru, he founded HeartCry Missionary Society, an organization created to financially support native preachers who evangelize their own people, rather than depending solely on the sending of foreign missionaries. The organization today supports hundreds of workers in dozens of countries.
In 2002, he preached in Montgomery, Alabama, the sermon that became known as the Shocking Youth Message. Before thousands of young people gathered at an evangelism conference, he warned that much of popular Christianity lacked genuine repentance. Recorded on video, the sermon spread across the internet and made him known worldwide.
Now based in Roanoke, Virginia, Washer continues to lead HeartCry, overseeing support for missionaries in dozens of countries. He has faced serious heart problems, a heart attack in 2017 and coronary bypass surgery in 2023, but kept preaching and writing even during recovery.
His emphasis on self-examination as proof of genuine conversion has also drawn criticism from theologians who fear that such weight on introspection might needlessly undermine the assurance of salvation in sincere Christians who are still unsure of their own faith.
Author of more than a dozen books, including the Recovering the Gospel trilogy, Washer has become one of the most quoted voices of contemporary Reformed evangelicalism, reminding preachers and churches that the gospel demands more than a simple emotional decision.
