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. 

Christian apologist and prolific author and broadcaster Ravi Zacharias died Tuesday, his family announced. He was 74. 

In early May, his family announced Zacharias would suspend treatment for metastatic cancer—sarcoma—on his spine. Doctors discovered the cancer in March.

Third in a series on long ministry

Atheist Tom Sharkey became a Christian in college and was surprised when people urged him to become a pastor. “I kept hearing the word preach,” he says. “I just kept trying to push that out of my mind.” When a campus ministry asked him to preach for its service, he said no. But the group insisted, and afterward he received positive feedback. 

Professional engineer Jeff Morrish can’t engineer the weather—no matter what fellow members of his Susanville, Calif., church say. But after several drought years, in 2015 he started a group praying for rain, even though others said prayer would do no good at all. 

Rain or shine, Morrish and others in the Pray for Rain group at Susanville Church of the Nazarene, known as SuzNaz, kept meeting on Monday evenings. Sometimes a few attended, sometimes as many as 25.