Evangelist R.W. Schambach Passes at 85

For more than five decades he boldly declared, “You don’t have any trouble … all you need is faith in God.” Now, the general of the faith has gone home to be with the Lord.

R.W. Schambach passed away on Tuesday of heart failure. He was 85.

Best known for his classic gospel message of faith and power, Schambach devoted his life to preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, believing for signs and wonders to confirm the Word. Through his ministry, the lame have walked, the blind saw, the deaf heard and many captives were set free by the power of the Holy Ghost.

“Legendary father of faith, R.W. Schambach, was received by the Lord to his reward Tuesday, Jan. 17, when his heart failed,” reads a statement on his ministry website.
“His life and ministry were a divine military mission, which began on a destroyer of the coast of Japan in WWII. He and his wife Winn served in international crusades, inner-city tent meetings, bringing countless thousands to the saving knowledge of Jesus for over 6 decades.”

Schambach preached the Word of God in more than 200 nations, and will be widely remembered for his gospel tent. Schambach traveled across the United States with tents that held between 2,000 and 8,000 people.

“I remember going to his tent revivals and when he was in the Bronx I had the honor to work as one of his ushers. I praise the Lord for allowing me to be a small part of this ministry while growing up and the best part was talking to him and hearing him preach the Word of the Lord. I will never forget what a great man he was. Rest in the presence of the Lord,” Rebecca Garcia Escarfuyette wrote on Schambach’s Facebook page.

Schambach received his ministry training at Central Bible Institute in Springfield, Mo. in the mid-1940s after serving in World War II as a navy boiler-maker on a destroyer in the South Pacific and Asia. His mentor was A.A. Allen, a miracle evangelist from the 1940s and 1950s.

“When he was interviewed on TV by Phil Donahue he was asked, ‘What makes you able to heal?’” a Facebook fan named Janet Tourville Dabbs wrote on his Facebook page. “Schambach replied, ‘If you would get saved and filled with the Holy Ghost you too could heal people. You could lay hands on the sick and they would recover.’ He was full of the Holy Ghost and boldness! He did so much good on the earth. Awesome man of faith and power.”