Exemplar, Mentor, Soul Brother, Friend
Dr. John T. Willis, ACU class of ’55, died on August 21, 2023. Dr. Willis taught at ACU for over forty years, and he served as an elder at the Highland Church of Christ for almost fifty. In this piece, Dr. David Wray reflects on Dr. Willis’s life, ministry, and friendship. Note: this piece also appeared in the monthly newsletter of the Common Grounds Unity ministry.
Today’s frenetic culture often creates significant barriers to developing deep and long-term friendships. However, reading Proverbs’ wisdom reminds us that a friend sticks closer than a brother and is of immeasurable value. Divine exemplars, Godly mentors, soul brothers, and friends are the Almighty’s instruments which spiritually form us into Christlike disciples, and their holy living inspires our growth and maturity as servant-leaders. Holy living is often difficult to describe but is unmistakable when we observe it in our midst. John Willis’ holy living, spiritual mentoring, intentional pastoring, and substantial friendship transformed my life.
John and I met fifty years ago. At that time, he was a world-class scholar and university professor. I served as a staff member at the congregation John and his family attended, and I remember my amazement that in addition to his professorial responsibilities, he voluntarily coordinated the church’s university ministry and was a respected elder. The ten-year difference in our age and his lofty professional credentials created no barriers to our relationship, and we quickly became steadfast, lifelong friends.
After our friendship developed over several years, I transitioned from congregational ministry to teaching at the university where John taught Old Testament and theology. During his career he authored more than 30 books, wrote scores of scholarly articles, taught thousands of students and received countless pedagogical awards. When I became a university colleague, his prolific scholarly accomplishments motivated my scholarship, and his deliberate pastoral care of young adults and his entire faith community inspired my pastoring.
Along with his wife, Evelyn, they weekly hosted meals in their home. College students numbering in the thousands were blessed by their extravagant hospitality during his sixty-year teaching career. For two decades John and Evelyn hosted and funded weekly meals for large numbers of international students. John’s integration of scholarship and pastoral care has been legendary. During his forty-eight-years as an elder, he pastored and transformed innumerable lives on campus and in our faith community. For many years, God graced me with ministering alongside John as a fellow shepherd. Together we pastorally counseled, wept and mourned with brothers and sisters, celebrated new life in families, and prayed together. A highlight of my journey with this beloved brother included participating in a long-term prayer group.
Our weekly campus prayer group met for twenty-five-years and included several professors. We gathered to engage in spiritual practices, to share life’s challenges and transitions, to discuss theological questions, and to pray together. All of us grew in love for God and love for each other, and because of the prayer group, we all became better disciples of Jesus. John often encouraged us, instructed us, challenged us, pastored us, and prayed over us.
A poignant moment with John is indelible in my memory. This incident personifies his influence on my life and those of us who served with him as elders. After our son-in-law exhausted years of medications to alleviate seizures, brain surgery was scheduled. When our daughter, our son-in-law, my wife, and I drove into a Dallas hospital parking lot at 5:00 am, who do you suppose was standing there? John Willis accompanied our family into the hospital, prayed over us, and spent the remainder of the day pastoring us before driving two hundred miles back to his home.
John’s early-morning ministry those many years ago has influenced his fellow elders to pastor and pray with members arriving at a hospital for surgery. The ministry is simply called “parking lot pastoring.” In the intervening years I frequently confessed to ministry students that until John’s significant shepherding of my family on that difficult day, I had little awareness of the importance of “parking lot pastoring.”
Recently John’s ninety-year walk with the Lord concluded with his funeral, which reminded us of his devotion to God, his self-sacrificing life, and his joyful existence on earth. At that service, participants worshipped God, grieved, declared hope, and celebrated his lifelong commitment of giving God glory in all things.
Funeral speakers conveyed that John was uncomfortable talking about himself. He constantly avoided the spotlight. Instead, he enthusiastically listened with his heart to family, students, church members, friends, and colleagues. Not once did I observe him drawing attention to himself. Numerous funeral speakers testified to his scholarship, pastoring, teaching, mentoring, and holy living. “Inspirational” was the most often heard word to describe his funeral service.
Few relations influence us more than the long-term inspiration of soul brothers. As iron sharpens iron, these relationships expand our love for God and love for our neighbors as we love ourselves. Our soul brothers, mentors, counselors, guides, and wise companions demonstrate Christ’s virtues and practices and create a desire to imitate our brothers as they imitate Christ.
Throughout our long “faith friendship,” I towered physically, more than a foot above my brother, my soul brother John, and during those years I often proclaimed, “When I grow up, I want to be John Willis.”
