John Blanchard – a humble servant

With John Blanchard

I’ve spent the last week trying to get back to some form of normality.  I’ve been out visiting parishioners, including the bereaved (two funerals next week), and writing my first sermon in 3 weeks.  I’ve resigned from the FT Steering Group—I’ve been involved for five years (plus the couple of years it took us to get it set up)—so I’m now out of the loop.  Journalists, please note—like Manuel, I know nothing!

The great thing that happened last week was that we got to play host to John Blanchard, the evangelist and writer.  John has been the most influential British evangelist of his generation.  Not just through his extensive travelling, but more so through his writings.  Booklets like “Ultimate Questions” have been translated into several different languages and have been instrumental in bringing thousands to faith.  John’s magnum opus is “Does God believe in atheists” which is an incredible journey through every conceivable philosophy and belief-system, including secular humanism and evolution, in an attempt to show that believing in God, and accepting Christ Jesus as Lord, is the most sensible thing anyone can do. 

John is on a Scottish tour at the moment and asked if he could come to Kirkmuirhill.  He conducted a very fruitful mission here in the early 1980s and hasn’t been back since.  I was delighted to welcome him here. 

He’s now 77 and though there is an inevitable slowing down, there is no sign of any loss of sparkle or passion.  He is a voracious reader.  If we were not talking or eating he was reading. 

I only spent a few hours in his company, so I’m far from qualified to give a definitive opinion.  So let me say one thing.  What impressed me the most was the guy’s humility.  Two examples.  First, he was reading a book in order to answer someone’s questions about it.  Not only did he ask my opinion, he noted down what I said and told me that I’d helped him!  Second, before the meeting he was sitting at a table stuffing leaflets.  I can think of men, preachers and ministers, who just wouldn’t do that (“I’ve got an assistant to do that”).  But “the great” John Blanchard was just as happy doing the donkey work as he was standing in the lime-light. 

Our Lord Jesus often spoke about humility (Mt.18, Lk.22:24-28; John 13).  It seems to me that we are most Christ-like when we take the servant’s part.