Ben Haden

Who was Ben Haden?

Ben Haden was an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church in America. He became internationally known through the religious broadcast, Changed Lives. Originating from the services of the First Presbyterian Church in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Haden's pulpit approach was sometimes described as arguing a case before a jury. With his background in the CIA and as CEO for a daily newspaper, Haden was also the speaker on the Radio Bible Study Hour, succeeding Donald Grey Barnhouse of Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. Haden was an atheist until he became a Christian in 1954.

Haden was born in Fincastle, Virginia, in 1925. He received his law degree from Washington and Lee College in 1949 and became a member of the Virginia bar. He also studied at the University of Texas at Austin and Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia. Haden pastored Key Biscayne Presbyterian Church in Miami, Florida before moving to become the 11th pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Chattanooga, Tennessee in 1968. Haden followed James L. Fowle, and was succeeded in that pastorate by Michael A. Milton in 2001. Haden served the church in Chattanooga for 31 years before resigning in 1998 to pursue Changed Lives.org, an internet streaming video and audio on-demand ministry. This ministry produces "conversations", talks lasting from five to fifteen minutes and done in a conversational tone. He emphasizes that these productions are not sermons, but are simple conversations. This supports one of aims of Changed Lives, which is to reach the many Americans who claim to be Christians yet do not have a home church.