Tom Rees was an evangelist who proclaimed the gospel, and here I should declare a personal interest: he was my wife’s great-uncle, the brother of Dick Rees, her grandfather, who was also an evangelist.
Thomas Rees was born in 1911 and grew up in Watford. His brother Dick became a Christian, prayed for his brother’s conversion, and Tom received Christ at the age of fifteen. Immediately, Tom became involved in evangelistic activities, soon bringing friends to Christ. He left school to work but soon became convinced that he was to be an evangelist. He took on youth work in a parish church for three years but resigned when criticised for being involved with other churches. Tom then refused to be tied to any one denomination and was happy to work with any church that believed in preaching the gospel.
During the 1930s Tom worked with Scripture Union as an evangelist and conducted fruitful missions in Northern Ireland. He had remarkable gifts as an evangelist: he was humorous but never frivolous, urgent but not hurried, persuasive but never manipulative.
In 1936 Tom married Jean Sinclair who shared his vision for evangelism. Together they had a daughter Jennifer (later Jennifer Rees Larcombe) and a son Justyn, both of whom were to become involved in Christian ministry.
In the late 1930s, sensing a need for change, Tom became the pastor of a small Baptist church in Somerset. As the Second World War moved towards its close he returned to evangelism and, with extraordinary faith, began evangelistic meetings in London. He hired ever-larger halls, culminating in a series of gospel rallies that filled the Albert Hall fifty-two times. It’s worth noting that Tom was going against the mood of the time. The corrosion of liberal theology had undermined confidence in the power of preaching to the point that popular opinion was that the age of gospel rallies was long over. Tom, however, was a man who took his guidance from prayer and the Bible – he had memorised the entire New Testament – and took a very different view.
Tom’s rallies, which he also took around the United Kingdom, saw many conversions and also prepared the way for the subsequent Billy Graham events. Tom met Billy on his first visit to the United Kingdom in 1946 and they always remained supportive friends. Tom also conducted fifty missions in North America, mainly Canada, and also spoke at conventions such as Keswick.
As the war ended, Tom, ever the visionary, began to think about something without obvious precedent: a Christian conference centre. This led to him boldly buying the rambling property of Hildenborough Hall, near Tonbridge, Kent, in 1946. Here he hosted conferences and special evangelistic weekends. Although Tom had many able helpers, not least Jean, he took much of the management on himself. Tom gave up the Tonbridge centre in the Fifties – it is now a medical centre – and opened a new centre in Frinton-on-Sea in Essex, before finally moving to the Otford hills in Kent. He continued to use the name Hildenborough Hall for the new ventures and part of what it did now continues with Oak Hall Expeditions.
Tom was a much-loved man, extraordinarily effective in the Lord’s work, and gracious and generous with others. He was perhaps less gentle on himself, and an inability to delegate and pace himself may have contributed to his death in 1970 at the relatively young age of fifty-nine.
In thinking about Tom Rees I recognise his remarkable preaching gift. While every Christian should, and must, share the gospel, there is a special supernatural empowering for those called to be evangelists, and Tom had it in great measure. Beyond that, I think three things strike me about Tom.
First, Tom was a man guided by purpose. Many people drift through life but there was no sense of that with Tom: a natural organiser and planner, he devoted his talents and energy to the church to bring people into the Kingdom through evangelism and discipleship through his residential centres. The life of Tom Rees raises a question for us Christians: what is our purpose in life?
Second, Tom was a man governed by prayer. He was a great doer but an even greater pray-er. It was common for him to spend three hours every morning in prayer. He let prayer cover all he did and all whom he knew. He didn’t just pray, he encouraged others to pray. He believed that few conversions occurred without prayer and he challenged Christians to pray for conversions. Tom practised prayer, trusted Christ in prayer and preached prayer.
Third, Tom was a man with God’s perspective. To look at the old photographs of his Albert Hall campaigns, with the men in suits and women in hats, encourages the notion that Tom was a defender of tradition. The opposite is true. Tom was constantly looking ahead to see what could be done to preach the gospel and extend Christ’s Kingdom through the church. He innovated in both his preaching events and in his residential centres. In his thinking and actions, Tom was a pioneer who let himself be directed by God, not tradition or culture.
Tom Rees saw much fruit in his lifetime and sowed seeds that, after his passing, brought much more. Let us fulfil the purpose and call of God in our lives.
J.John
Reverend Canon
