Gene Edwards

At Tyndale Publishing and SeedSowers Christian Books

July 18, 1932 in Commerce, Texas to December 9, 2022 in Jacksonville, Florida

With a mixture of sorrow, joy and love, SeedSowers Publishing House and the Edwards family announce that Gene, as he preferred to be known, has graduated from this earthly realm to become a permanent resident of the eternal realms. We will miss him, his Texas-sized hugs, contagious sense of humor, and love of laughter, but we know he is now dwelling in the house of his Lord. On the night of December 9, 2022, Gene passed peacefully at the age of ninety. When breath became air, Gene was surrounded by his family who passed him from their arms to those of his Father, while singing the hymns he most loved. They also sang some of the many songs for which he had rewritten lyrics of worship to be sung among the Christians he shared his life with as brothers and sisters in Christ.

As per his request for no funeral or fanfare, Gene’s family will have a simple burial on the afternoon of December 23rd at Laurel Land Cemetery in Fort Worth, Texas: https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/fort-worth-tx/gene-edwards-11065442 In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Destiny Church Ministries, a 501c3 non-profit at 3545 St John’s Bluff Road South, Jacksonville, FL 32224. For those who would like to share a word of encouragement to Gene’s friends and family, a memory, a positive experience in your relationship to Jesus Christ or in a spontaneous expression of church life as a result of his ministry, please send it to: [email protected]. Please specify if you do not want your comments shared in public, possibly on a memorial page at seedsowers.com or geneedwards.com.

A beloved author, storyteller, public speaker, poet, publisher, and scholar of church history. Formerly, he had also been a city-wide crusade evangelist, pastor, church planter, schoolteacher, and roughneck. A man of imagination and creativity, Gene wrote more than thirty books, three of which have become modern Christian classics: A Tale of Three Kings, Prisoner in the Third Cell, and The Divine Romance. In his writing and public speaking, he called the church back to her original practice and called Christians to a deeper walk with Jesus, both personally and corporately.

On July 18, 1932, Gene was born to Blackie (James Columbus) Edwards, an oil field roughneck. and Gladys Brewer Edwards, a schoolteacher. When Gene was seriously ill as an infant, his father prayed that Jesus would save his baby and claim him for God’s work. That prayer was answered when at the age of seventeen, Gene had a life-changing experience of saturation by the love of God, which he once described as “liquid love.” From that point forward, Gene’s life was guided by his passion for telling others that in Christ Jesus, as members of the church, His bride, they are perfect in His sight, the focus of His love, and the purpose of creation. One of the first influencers in a return to the early practice of meeting in homes, above all, Gene’s ministry was given to restoration of the church to an organic, first-century expression.

Gene held a Master of Divinity in Biblical and Theological Studies from Southwestern Theological Seminary, graduating in 1954 at the age of twenty-one. That same year he married Helen Rogers. They had an uncommon romance of seventy-four years, including a nationally televised wedding followed by sixty-eight years of marriage. Their youngest daughter commented on their romance: “I have taken joy and pride in their routine in the twilight years of their love: sitting hand-in-hand every night while reading aloud the Elizabethan and Romantic poets.” As partner in Gene’s ministry and his primary editor for the past seven decades, still in remarkable health, Helen will continue editing manuscripts he left behind and act as steward of his ministry. In later years, members of the board, their daughter Cindy and others will continue working to disseminate the large body of Gene’s writings and recordings. They will also act as custodians of his ministry until, as Gene hoped, one day another young Christian in the 21st-century will share the same calling, integrity, commitment, and burning passion that Gene embodied.

Gene is survived by his wife Helen, his daughters Lynda Saylor and Cindy Edwards, his grandson Nathaniel Saylor (Kellie), his great-grandsons Jackson and Hudson as well as his brothers, Wayne Edwards and Bobby-Joe Edwards. Those who knew him best will remember Gene for his steadfast love of Jesus, his mentoring others in the centrality of Christ in their lives and in a spontaneous experience of church life according to the manner of first-century believers . . . as well as his singular love for Helen.