Gerald Coates - Pioneer: The Story of a Book







‘Should I? I mean, really, should I?’


It’s early in 2011 and I’m considering a radical step. Leaving
my job as Pensions Director for the Mars Group- and starting a Masters in Theology
at Mattersey Bible College.


Roh, my wife, looks on as I pontificate. She knows she doesn’t
need to say anything. I’ve made my mind up. I’m just trying to rationalise it!


It was a bold step, but out of it came much more than a Masters.
My final dissertation was on the house church movement. It was 57 years since
Arthur Wallis wrote his ground-breaking In
the Day of Thy Power.
My dissertation title seemed quite clever at the
time: 57 Years of Restorationism in the
UK: Ongoing Legacy or 57 Varieties?


The dissertation gave me access to a number of the house
church pioneers- Peter Lyne, Terry Virgo, David Matthew…. And Gerald Coates.


I was grateful for the day spent with Gerald. I left him a
copy of my last biography, Cheating
Death, Living Life – Linda’s Story,
a story of God’s miracles in what could
have so easily been a tragic life. And I said that if ever he wanted a biography
done, to let me know.


I heard nothing.


We corresponded on something else via Facebook. I suggested
the book again. Nope.


Then Anona, Gerald’s wife, steps in. The book should be
written.


And so it was.


Starting with reams of wallpaper to plan out the timeline,
two further days spent with Gerald and Anona, a lot of recording, a glass or
two of wine, a contract with Malcolm Down Publishing, rewrites, rewrites and
rewrites… and finally a book.


Gerald’s is an important story. It tells of God’s goodness
and the work of the Holy Spirit in our generation. I’m grateful to have had the
privilege of writing it.




 




5 Comments

  1. Hi Ralph. While there's much that's very interesting in this biography - I found that it's flattering to a degree that it's disturbing. So much on his connection to Royalty - but what about his prayer life before the King? What about his life of Bible study? What about his humility before God. Did he really approve of all this utterly self-congratulation being published about him?
    Thanks and best regards
    tom

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  2. sorry - my post comes over as rather negative. I have no desire whatsoever to offend. Please remove it altogether.
    Blessings
    tom

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  3. Hi Tom. No, happy to leave your comments there. It's a hard job getting the tone right. The intention is to point to God not to Gerald. maybe I wasn't successful all the time. I do mention prayer, bible study and the like though. Cheers

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  4. Ralph - Many thanks for writing such an informative and interesting ... indeed, fascinating ... book. I could hardly put it down and read it all in two evenings. And thank you for making yourself available for comments (and conversation?) through your website; it's so frustrating to read a book and not to be able to correspond with the author afterwards (like it's been since time began, in fact!!)

    I wonder whether, in a reprint, you would be willing to make a tincy-wincy correction. You say that Kingdom Life started as early as 1979. In fact it started a year earlier: the 1978 week ran from 10th-17th September. I know coz I was there ... and I have the photos to prove it. At least, they prove it if you accept the details I scrawled on the transparencies when they came back from Kodak!
    I must admit that I was surprised to read that those Kingdom Life weeks carried on until 1984. I went to the 1979 and 1980 weeks (9-16 Sept and 6-14 Sept, since you ask!) and my recollection is that I didn't go to any more because they ceased. As Gerald started Festival '83 in, well, 1983, in Staffordshire, it seems most unlikely that he would have run Kingdom Life as well, back in Cobham.
    BTW I have a picture of Alan Kay at the 1980 event. Would you like it? He was a very practical guy and I loved chatting with him, but I've sadly not seen him since.

    PS I agree about punctuation on Facebook. And everywhere else. How about a book about the demise of the semi-colon?

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  5. Stephen, thank you. I will be more than happy to make the correction- hopefully before the paperback comes out. And I'll ask Gerald to double check his memory as to when Kingdom Life finished- although I think I sourced it from other places as well, so maybe it was more of a localised event.

    Cheers, Ralph

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