[2] In 1905, he enrolled at the University of Kansas with plans to study medicine, but he instead found a calling to ministry, partly as a result of his role as a student minister in the nearby town of Perry.
Drake University was founded in principles historically affiliated with the Christian Church, and allowed him to pursue studies in preparation for ministry.
[citation needed] He resigned from the church in Atchison in 1917, which was at the time adding a member each day, when the USA entered World War I, to become a YMCA secretary with the armed forces.
[citation needed] Coinciding with the beginning of this ministry, he drafted a proposal for a five-year evangelistic program, titled 'Win a Million', for the International Convention of Disciples of Christ, the national assembly of Christian Churches in the USA and Canada at that time.
[citation needed] According to his writings, Bader had developed a passion for the centrality and prioritization of evangelism in the ministry of the church, saying in a well-known quote, 'What the Lord made primary, we have no right to make secondary.
'[citation needed] In 1920, Bader became Superintendent of Evangelism in the newly established United Christian Missionary Society, a position he held for the next twelve years.
[citation needed] While Bader was working with the UCMS, his interest was growing in the Christian World Communion that he belonged to the 'Stone-Campbell family'.
[full citation needed] Bader attended the meeting of the Baptist World Alliance in 1925, and, according to his writings, began to consider how this concept might develop for his Stone-Campbell family.
[citation needed] He canvassed suggestions amongst leaders in several countries, including Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, receiving strong support.
Up to 10,000 people attended, and the program featured an afternoon tea at the White House hosted by President Herbert Hoover and the First Lady.
[citation needed] In 1932, Bader moved from his denominational position to become Associate Executive Secretary of the Department of Evangelism for the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America.
He was, however, quick to see the future possibilities in the united program that the Council could develop as an official agency of cooperating churches" (Herald of the Evangel, page 18).
Likely due to Bader's influence, local cooperation among churches grew significantly through this time, in contrast with earlier more competitive denominationalism.
Visitation evangelism stressed the idea that all Christians should spread their faith to those who did not follow it, and it provided a method to achieve this mass conversion.
Although Bader and other evangelists recognized that large revival meetings were not the most effective form of outreach, they nevertheless received his support.
During 1956, two years after his retirement on December 31, 1953, Bader wrote his first and only book - Evangelism in a Changing America (The Bethany Press, 1957).
In the introduction, David S. McNelly wrote, "He has outthought, outworked, and outloved his contemporaries, to turn the tide of religion in America towards a great revival.
His passion for evangelism, his zeal for ecumenicity, his compassion for the misguided, and his love on behalf of the unlovely, as well as his concern for the unconcerned, has excelled in every circle on the American scene.
Dr Bader has moved across America and many kindred nations in the last quarter of a century, breathing the evangelistic spirit of life into the church, making bold the Great Commission of Jesus Christ.
Following his official retirement at the end of 1953, Bader became the full-time General Secretary for the World Convention of Churches of Christ, what he called a "spare time" activity of his since 1930.