Brother Stair
| Ralph Gordon Stair | |
|---|---|
| Born |
May 3, 1933 Bethlehem, Pennsylvania |
| Residence | Walterboro, South Carolina |
| Nationality | American |
| Other names | "Brother R.G. Stair" "Brother Stair" |
| Occupation | Radio Evangelist |
| Employer | Faith Cathedral Fellowship, Inc. "Overcomer Ministry" |
| Website | http://www.overcomerministry.org |
Ralph Gordon Stair (born May 3, 1933), also known as Brother R. G. Stair, or simply Brother Stair, is an American Radio Evangelist based in Walterboro, South Carolina.
Stair was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He was ordained as a Methodist minister, but left organized religion, stating "I just call myself a Christian." He moved to the South in the 1950s, saying that God had told him to move there because it would be "the safest place for Christians in the end time."
Stair leads Overcomer Ministry, a conservative Pentecostal Christian organization that runs a widely heard radio-based ministry. Stair purchased a motel in Walterboro, South Carolina in 1978, and encouraged followers to move to the community, sell all their possessions, take a vow of poverty, and donate all that they owned to Overcomer Ministry. The community of about 70 strives for self-sufficiency and simplicity, growing their own food and making their own clothes. Community members live in mobile homes and handmade houses, eating communal meals and gathering for Saturday worship in the Tabernacle. They dress conservatively; women wear long skirts and men wear long pants and shirts with collars. Typically, work is divided along traditional gender lines, with men performing farm/manual labor and women doing domestic chores. Members primarily rely on bicycles for transportation within the community.
Stair broadcasts from a solar-powered radio studio based in the community, often for hours at a time. As of 2014, Stair leases airtime globally on five Free-to-air satellites (Galaxy 19, Hot Bird 8, Optus D2, Thaicom 5, and ) and on seven international shortwave radio stations (WHRI, WWRB, WTWW, WWCR, WBCQ, WRMI, and ) to convey his message to listeners in the United States as well as locations as far-flung as South America, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Israel, Russia, India, and Asia. In addition to international satellite and shortwave, Stair also broadcasts worldwide via internet streaming from his ministry's web site and leases time on terrestrial AM and FM radio stations throughout the United States, some of which are large-coverage stations. In the 1990s, Brother Stair was heard on 120 such stations, though by 2007 and continuing through 2014, that total had been reduced to approximately 25. In 2016, however, the broadcast was dramatically increased due to a large contribution which allowed Brother Stair to purchase hundreds of hours per day of broadcasting time to create one of the most extensive shortwave broadcasts in history. Broadcast expenditures of about $1.5 million are funded by donations from listeners. In 1993 and 1994 Stair and his ministry were partners in a failed ship-based radio project due to authorities raiding and confiscating both the ship and its equipment before it could set sail to international waters .
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