Edward Kimball

Edward Kimball (July 29, 1823 – June 5, 1901) was an American Sunday School teacher known for converting 19th-century evangelist Dwight L. Moody to Christianity. Kimball also assisted churches across the United States in eliminating significant financial debts. His class was filled with teenage boys, including Dwight L. Moody. During one of Moody's first classes, Kimball asked the attendees to turn to a specific Bible chapter in the book of John. Moody, unfamiliar with the books of the Bible or the location of John, turned instead to the front of the Bible. Classmates laughed at Moody not knowing the books of the Bible. Kimball, however, handed Moody his own Bible open to the correct passage and asked Moody to read it. Moody was greatly impressed by Kimball's kindness and continued to attend Sunday School. In 1855, after nearly a year of lessons, Kimball visited Moody at his place of employment, Holton Shoe Store, a business owned by one of Moody's uncles, and during conversation between the two in the store's stockroom, Moody was converted to Christianity.

In 1868, Kimball and his family left Boston and moved to New York to work in a wholesale hardware business.

Kimball's method of reducing debt was simple, according to one news report.

During the twenty-four years Kimball assisted churches, he raised $15 million to eliminate church debts. Churches included First Congregational Church of Oakland (CA) for $45,000, New York Presbyterian Church for $110,000, Union Park Congregational Church of Chicago for $30,000 and at least twenty others.

Legacy Kimball's conversion of Moody to Christianity has been used as an example of the influence that one "ordinary" individual can have in spreading Christianity through evangelism. Religious scholars have noted the "direct chain" and growth in the number of Christian believers from Kimball's conversion of Moody to the conversion of evangelist Billy Graham. One scholar noted Moody preached in England at the church of F. B. Meyer and "revolutionized" Meyer's ministry. J. Wilbur Chapman, who later heard Meyer preach, was inspired to evangelize. Chapman was also associated with the YMCA, where he met former National League baseball outfielder Billy Sunday, who later converted to Christianity and worked with Chapman for two years on his Christian crusades. At one of Billy Sunday's own crusades, Mordecai Ham was asked to preach. One sixteen-year-old boy was in the audience and was converted to Christianity by Ham. This boy, Billy Graham, later also became an evangelist.