[3]: 8 It was in 1917 (aged 19), on his way home to Maidenhead by train, that Nash "finally faced and responded to the claims of Christ upon his life.
"[4]: 33 Yet it was not until a few years later, whilst having tea in D H Evans in Oxford Street that he fully acknowledged Christ as Master and Lord and, "handed over to him the keys of every room in the house of his life.
"[3]: 85 In 1922, encouraged by the then Bishop of London, Arthur Winnington-Ingram, and supported by grants made available to him, Nash went to Trinity College, Cambridge and then Ridley Hall.
"[7] Unobtrusive, yet highly strategic, the enterprise involved simple Bible teaching accompanied by personal friendship and pastoral care.
"[4]: 69 The talks, morning and evening, "were a wonderfully clear, biblically faithful and winsome presentation of the Christian gospel of salvation.
[11]: 15 His approach was shaped by methods common to Evangelical circles in North America, including an expectation of definite decisions for Christ, inquiries into people's spiritual state, a "lack of interest in social issues" and "a large dose of self-denying otherworldliness.
[11]: 16 Nash emphasised the need for a personal encounter with Jesus, and this "upset one of the ruling assumptions of places like Rugby - that Christianity was the cultural birthright of any Englishman baptised and confirmed in the Church of England.
John Stott reports: "His letters to me often contained a rebuke, for I was a wayward young Christian and needed to be disciplined.
In fact, so frequent were his admonitions at one period, that whenever I saw his familiar writing on an envelope, I needed to pray and prepare myself for half an hour before I felt ready to open it.
Between 1935 and 1939 "all CICCU's presidents were "Bash" campers, and the union was marked by his methods: a very simple evangelical gospel; meticulous preparation; a wariness of emotions or intellect and assiduous “personal work” before and after conversion.
[17]: 31 Chapman notes: "He was an unassuming yet eccentric figure who avoided tomato pips, took a bewildering array of medications, and enjoyed juvenile humour.
"[18] Nash considered R. A. Torrey to be his theological mentor,[19] and valued the Keswick Convention, encouraging his leaders to attend.
[17]: 83–84 On hearing one leader expressing himself in a way characteristic of the renewal, he said "will officers please not pray such emotional prayers," something David Watson records as a disappointment: "although slight in itself, [it] seemed to oppose all the new found joy and freedom in worship that had become so important to me.
[22] David Fletcher remembers "Bash was told that his work would never succeed because it is hard for the rich to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but Jesus went on to say that with God all things are possible.
It does not give a place to the process of argument, consultation and independent thought which are essential to any genuine co-operation, inside the church or outside it.
[24]: 56–57 Bishop David Sheppard remarked that Nash could be "single-minded to the point of ruthlessness" and "courageous in challenging people about their actions or priorities," but that this could become "over-direction"; some even needed to make a complete break in order to be free of his influence.
[14]: 23 Even if some cast doubt on his "rigid focus" and his hope for a national "trickle-down effect"[10] in 2005 John Stott, his most famous protégé, was ranked among the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine.
[3]: 8 His executors were unable to trace a single living member of his family yet, according to John Eddison, the crowd at his memorial service was full of those who regarded themselves as his spiritual children.
"[23] Rob Warner says: "Alpha can therefore be summed up as Bash camp rationalistic conservatism combined with Wimberist charismatic expressivism... this is a highly unusual, even paradoxical hybrid.