NOT MANY FATHERS

“For even if you had ten thousand others to teach you about Christ, you have only one spiritual father. I became your father in Christ Jesus when I preached the Good News to you. So I urge you to imitate me” (1 Corinthians 4:15-16, NLT).

I have just returned from Jacksonville, Florida, where I participated in a memorial service for a dear friend, Paul Goodwin. Paul was a mentor to me and he was one of a very small group of men whom I consider to be my “spiritual fathers.”

I first met Paul and his family many years ago when he was pastor of Calvary Temple in Jacksonville. Carol and I were travelling doing advance work for a David Wilkerson crusade in Jacksonville and spent several weeks there in early 1968. Paul and I got acquainted at that time and our friendship grew over the next six years, as I was back in Jacksonville several times.

In late 1974 our family moved to Los Angeles where I became Vice President of World Literature Crusade (now known as Every Home for Christ). As I was getting familiar with the people who worked there, I noticed that a Paul Goodwin was on the list of men who represented the ministry throughout the U.S. and Canada. Indeed, it was the same man I had met a few years earlier. I immediately made contact with Paul and over the next couple of years our friendship deepened.

Paul was a mentor/father to me. He was a very loving, godly, Spirit-filled man who genuinely radiated more of the love of God than any man I have ever met.

Paul often stayed in our home when he was in Los Angeles and we loved to have him visit. One day our daughters came to me and said, “Dad, Paul is like an uncle—but he’s not—and he’s like a grandfather—but he’s not. So we wondered if we could just call him Grumple.” I told them it was fine with me but they should talk to Paul about it. Paul laughingly agreed and to this day our daughters refer to him as their beloved Grumple.

For many years I talked to Paul at least once a week on the phone and sometimes every day. He was always ready to encourage, pray with, counsel or occasionally even chastise me. Paul was always encouraging to me, both by example and by word. He walked with us through some extremely difficult times as the ministry we were in transitioned from what it was then to what it is today. President John Kennedy used to say, “Without change there can be no progress.” That’s a true statement but what he didn’t say was how painful change can be or how resistant human nature is to change.

One day the ministry was going through a particularly difficult period and the stress and tension felt overwhelming. I went into my office, closed the door and called Paul. I just wanted to hear a friendly voice and talk with someone who would encourage me, pat me on the head, and assure me that everything would be okay! Paul listened to my pathetic tale of woe and the moment I finished I got ready to be encouraged. Instead, Paul quoted a Scripture to me. If you read this blog regularly, you know how much I love the Word of God, but there are times when I don’t want somebody to “smack me upside the head” with it. The verse Paul quoted to me that day was Proverbs 24:10: “If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small.”

For just a moment there was dead silence as Paul finished quoting the verse and then we both began to laugh. My first reaction had been a flash of anger and then I realized that Paul had done the right thing. I needed to hear that word right at that time. I needed to be told to get up off my butt and start acting like an adult and I knew this man loved me enough to tell me the truth—and he did. A true friend will tell you what you need to hear and not what you want to hear.

This blog began with the Apostle Paul’s words to the Corinthian church regarding his being their father in the Lord (v. 15). The next verse says, “Therefore I urge you, imitate me.” The apostle Paul was a good father to the Corinthian church and knew they wouldn’t go wrong if they followed his example (see also 1 Corinthians 11:1).

The apostle was so comfortable with the way he had identified with Christ that he was able to say to the Corinthians, “If you can’t do it any other way, then follow/imitate me as I follow Christ.” So it was with my friend Paul Goodwin. Paul displayed for me how to live as a Spirit-filled believer. In Jacksonville, Paul was known to many as the “Bishop of the Renewal Movement” and was loved by many of the renewal leaders in the region.

Early in his life, Paul and his wife Dee were missionaries to Jamaica where they built a great church and assisted in starting a Bible school. While in Jamaica Paul wrote a chorus entitled Sweet Jesus that will be familiar to many of you. Here are the lyrics to the chorus.

Sweet Jesus, sweet Jesus,
What a wonder you are;
You’re brighter than the morning star.
You’re fairer, much fairer
Than the lily that grows by the wayside;
Precious, more precious than gold.
You’re like the Rose of Sharon,
The fairest of the fair.
You’re all my heart could ’er desire.
Sweet Jesus, sweet Jesus,
What a wonder you are;
You’re precious, more precious than gold.

Rest in peace, my dear friend. We’ll all be there to celebrate soon!