Fifth in a series on long ministry

Brad Evans grew up in western Pennsylvania in a family that attended church only at Christmas and Easter. At age 16, Evans professed faith in Christ after hearing John 6:37 at a summer youth retreat: “Whoever comes to me I will never cast out.”

Editor’s Note: As Joel Belz recovers from a broken femur, we’re reprinting this column, a version of which originally published on Jan. 15, 2000.

The order for a classified ad in this issue of WORLD arrived promptly the morning of Jan. 1. It read:

WILL SELL AT LOSS: Semi-automatic pistol, attractive “fish” logo. Also 500 rounds 99 mm expanding point ammo. After April 1, 2000.

They will know we are Christians by our love,” sang 40 gray-haired members of Blue Ridge Community Church in Happy Jack on a brisk Sunday morning. The refrain could be the motto of the church, but it wasn’t always so.

Happy Jack, an unincorporated area in rural northern Arizona, is home to about 900 year-round residents (mostly retirees or semi-retirees), not including the hunters, campers, and snowbirds.

In the 34 years since we published the first issue of WORLD Magazine, perhaps half a dozen names leap off the pages as truly memorable one-on-one interviews I was privileged to pursue with notable people. And of those half-dozen interviewees, none ranks higher than the British-born theologian J.I. Packer, who died on July 17.

Which makes it more embarrassing to tell you of my carelessness with that interview. 

J.I. Packer, one of the most influential theologians of the 20th century, died on Friday, July 17. He was 93.

Packer authored hundreds of Christian books and articles over more than half a century, but he’s perhaps best known for his 1973 work Knowing God. Publishers have sold more than 1.5 million copies since the book’s release and have translated it into more than a dozen languages. 

DISCLAIMER: I was the café server at the seminary where the man who wrote the book I am about to critique was a Bible professor. There is no reason why you should pay attention to what a turkey wrap maker has to say except that the Bible itself is the great leveler of credentials: God reveals to children what He keeps from the wise and learned. Be good Bereans and judge for yourself.

Fourth in a series on long ministry

Fresh out of seminary, Maynard Schoen arrived with his wife, Joan, in Jonesville, Mich., in 1961 to pastor a small church there. The church had 40 people and no bathroom—only an outhouse. Maynard devoted himself to his new role and made friends among the congregation, but he wasn’t destined to stay: After a few years, another church asked him to become its pastor.