A Balanced Life Well Lived

A Tribute to Steve Chilcraft

 

I’ve run hard right to the finish, believed all the way.
All that’s left now is the shouting – God’s applause! Depend on it….
2 Timothy 4:7,8 Message

After the Global Committee meeting in June 2019 Steve and three similarly aged friends, including me, took a five-day road trip through the beautiful Alberta-BC mountains to the coastal cities of Vancouver and Victoria.  Long stretches of lightly traveled road left us dusting off old stories of what may (or may not) have happened and fighting for control of the cellphone in order to demonstrate the superiority of our top Spotify playlists. To no one’s surprise, historian-theologian-world class stamp collector-political analyst-avid support of everything and anything Milton Keyes Steve Chilcraft had the largest selection of “hit” songs, all of which he knew by heart. His knowledge of pop culture was not a surprise because Steve had demonstrated to us long ago how to thrive in our culture as a committed follower of Christ and not be overwhelmed by it. He modeled for us a balanced life fully devoted to God and fully engaged with the issues and achievements, complexities and concerns of a 21st century secularizing culture. Furthermore, we were not surprised by his prodigious memory or his eclectic taste, although both left us shaking our heads now and then. What surprised us was that he could sing along in key and on pitch, which is more than we could say for some of the singers he chose.

This criticism of the artists does not extend to Paul Simon whose Slip Sliding Away (1977) struck me as a kind of contrarian testimony to Steve’s life. In Simon’s lyrics three people with three different passions each allowed their dreams to slip slide away as life’s trials overwhelmed them. While there were certainly challenges in Steve’s life, one can say emphatically that he pursued his passions wholeheartedly to the end. There was no slipping and sliding. Taken together Steve’s remarkable interests were a wonder to behold. Who owns a stamp collection that takes a room to store?

Steve’s remarkable balance was not about suppressing God-given interests and abilities. His love of stamps was pursued with abandonment, but it was balanced by a superb theological library, which in turn vied for attention with a wonderful collection of videos, trophies from around the world, and a lovely backyard with bird feeders and enviable landscaping. Steve’s life was lived in vivid colour and its balance was derived by his orienting focus on Christ who reigned as Lord over all his loves and actions.

We learned from Steve that balance in the Christian is not about suppressing the wonderful qualities and fascinating interests God gives us in favour of perceived piety. Rather, piety and Christ-likeness come as we celebrate the gifts God gives, grounding their motivations and expressions in the truths of God’s Word.
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1. The Early Years with Janz Team Ministries (pre 2009)

One of Europe’s truly beautiful cities, Minsk, is where many of Janz Team’s leaders first met Steve. The year was 2005, and we have Mr Nigel Spencer, our UK director in those days, to thank because it was he who brought Steve into our community. While Nigel was Steve’s initial credibility, Steve quickly distinguished himself as knowledgeable about mission agencies and their contribution to Kingdom work. His Biblical training and inclination to view the world through an historical-theological lens clarified our thinking about our mission’s processes and purposes while his friendly, gracious congeniality made him a natural fit in our multinational organization. He loved people of all cultures and backgrounds and was loved by them. It seemed to us that Steve was a TeachBeyonder in heart and mind before he was one in role and duty. No one in the little group gathered on the steppingstone footbridge in Minsk 15 years ago (cf., PowerPoint) realized that within five years Janz Team’s mission would be replaced with a new vision under a new banner known today as “TeachBeyond.” Furthermore, no one, including Steve, could have imagined that this transition would draw extensively on his character qualities, spiritual gifts, and life experiences.

2. Janz Team becomes TeachBeyond (2009-2015)

By 2012 all the various branches of the old Janz Team organization, except Switzerland, had come together under a new educational mandate and new name, and Steve was key to facilitating this transition. Why? First, and most importantly, because he was dispositionally and vocationally prepared to see how God could use equipping and discipleship in mission. In other words, Steve was himself an educator by gift and calling. Over the next decade as leader of the UK board and TeachBeyond’s Global Committee (the board equivalent at the international level), Steve never had to be pressed to shoulder the work. When I recommended that he be appointed chair of the Global Committee, his colleagues unanimously concurred because they trusted his judgment, valued his wide experience, respected his commitment to the historic values and core mission of Janz Team-TeachBeyond, and appreciated his commitment to the Great Commission and the church.

These were the reasons we verbalized.

However, we all knew that there was another aspect that was at least as important as these other qualities: Steve’s personality. The members chose him to chair because of who he was, not just because of what he had done or believed. In retrospect, it was a God-ordained, pivotal decision.

Sometimes greatness is measured by what did not happen rather than what did. Looked at this way, we can say that we have been united in purpose across the continents; harmony and dedication have characterized our work; joy and peace have been present even in trying circumstances. Over the last decade of dramatic upheaval, we do not remember a harsh word from Steve or an unkind expression, a failure to follow due process, or a stubborn, bitter spirit. Rather there was grace, kindness, patience, deferment to others, honour, and respect. These were the qualities God knew our chair would require given the stresses that lay ahead.

When he assumed his position none of us realized he would be exactly the right person and right personality to work with us on the development of our Constitution and a host of policies and procedures. A flashy, mercurial leader would not have tolerated the tedious work that needed doing. Between 2010 and 2015 we literally created a bookshelf full of massive notebooks and Steve helped the Global Committee work through it all to create the foundational documents and organizational structure we enjoy today.

Steve’s wonderful contribution in this area was not all about perseverance in the face of tedious boredom. Yes, he probably donated a year’s worth of work just reading and planning in his role as chair, but there were also times of real fun as Steve defined fun. This is because Steve was a person who deeply valued friendship and companionship, both of which became surprising correlates of this detailed work. In order to ensure our meetings ran smoothly Steve and I met many times in London where we prayed together for the meetings and thought about what was needed to further the work. We each commuted an hour to our meeting – he from his beloved Milton Keynes and me from Horsham – and we rendezvoused, most appropriately, at the Quaker’s “Friends House” across the street from Euston Station. Those meetings are some of the happiest memories I have of the decade 2009-2019. We always agreed to add about 2 hours to our meeting so that I could ask him questions about history, theology, politics, and culture. Seriously. Steve was a flesh and blood Google Assistant who, like Google Assistant knew just about everything and who like Google Assistant never became mad, bored, defensive, critical or hurt by anything I said or asked. However, unlike Google Assistant he would get a gleam in his eye when he talked, and pedestrian facts became brilliant stories. This was especially true of British social mores which Steve could explain in clever ways that graciously enlightened me as to why the British way was better than other ways. Add a cup of tea and a biscuit and there really was not anything more fun on the planet. This may seem amusing or even irrelevant but thinking of what didn’t happen brings its significance into focus: there was never tension between the chair and the leadership. Rather, trust, respect, good-humour, and affection undergirded all our interaction, whether we were disagreeing or celebrating.

How do we even measure what an amazing contribution this was to our years of transition?

3. TeachBeyond global services (2015-2019)

Steve’s curiosity and sense of adventure probably increased his enthusiasm for one of the best strategies the Global Committee developed to create organizational solidarity. This is the effort the Global Committee makes every year to hold an extended meeting in an area where TeachBeyond is working. Steve was a key advocate of this strategy because he recognized the threat geographic separation and cultural differences represent to our collective work. The generosity of many Global Committee members and other contributors made it possible to meet in these areas without burdening our team members or their projects with the cost.

Logically Brazil was at the top of the list to visit as it was the oldest and most mature work. Here, in 2016, under Steve’s leadership the board went through every policy in its manual. The agenda was highly ambitious, but the work was completed on time and a day set aside to see Christ the Redeemer. My wife Beverley and I had been privileged to visit Steve, Ruth, Andrew and Rachel in their home but for almost everyone else our visit to the great figure overseeing Rio was the first time they met Ruth. Wow! She was amazing. People loved her. If Steve had dignity, Ruth had exuberance, if Steve created calmness and rationalized the irrational, Ruth inspired. Together they were a shot in our organizational arm.

In the following year (2017) Steve led the Global Committee to South East Asia where our work had grown dramatically in the space of a few years. On more than one occasion Steve was called upon to meet dignitaries and address guests, which he did with dignity, grace and excellence. Articulate, comfortable in front of small and large groups, possessed with a gift to find an appropriate word, he was a board chair of whom we could be proud. Although he himself aligned theologically with historic evangelical Christianity and generally conservative in his personal preferences and decorum, he was no narrow-minded radical who would offend on principle or use a pulpit to close down discussion. He may have been 68 on this trip but his mind and attitudes were that of a thirty-year-old – a fact he recognized and attributed to his children. We needed a spokesperson in these sensitive countries who was conservative morally but, in his spirit, warm and welcoming. We needed someone who had learned humility, who could listen and nod politely even when he knew more and better than his host. In Steve’s case, that happened frequently so we are grateful we had such a qualified spokesperson representing us.

By 2017 we were traveling a lot and his great love for adventure and natural curiosity about everything exceeded his body’s capacity to keep up. One injury, for example in Manilla, laid him low for several months but he was an intrepid explorer fascinated by people and the worlds they created. In another era he would have joined Clive in south Asia or Livingstone in central Africa. Instead, he settled for trips with us lesser mortals as his trip to western Canada last year illustrates.

4. The Final Transition (2019-20)

One year before his death, almost to the day, Steve was in Canada performing his last major act for TeachBeyond: leading the Global Committee in its appointment of Mr David Durance as the next president of TeachBeyond and Dr Eivor Oborn as Steve’s successor in the role of Global chair. He had run the last lap of his TeachBeyond race and, like me, he was looking for one more lap which we thought we would do together. More specifically, we envisioned writing and teaching out of the CATE Centre, which he was helping to establish as a thinktank for TeachBeyond. He had agreed to come on as a research Fellow who would explore themes in transformational education from an historic theological perspective.

When I asked if any of the Global Committee would like to remain in Canada following the meeting last year in order to join me on a short tour of the Canadian Rockies and west coast, Steve was first to raise his hand. Mr Wolfgang Zschämisch and Mr Alan McIlhenny joined us to make a motley, but self-congratulating quartet. Even our eccentricities amused us, including Steve’s modest sense of fashion. These included his hallmarks: a white hat, untucked cotton shirts, and disheveled hair. We put these down to British symbols of genius, and I think we were only half joking.

When he wasn’t singing, Steve regaled us for hours with history we should have known. There was plenty of ice cream to refresh us, which was always a favorite and only appropriate given that he, along with Wolfgang and me, had sampled ice cream from Rio to Manila over the years. No one enjoyed the trip more than Steve, not just because of the scenery and sense of adventure, but because of the companionship we shared. He treasured his friends and I think this was especially so after Ruth’s sudden passing. This deeply saddening event left a cavernous hole in his heart which we all tried to fill, but in some basic way it was not enough. New horizons were opening, and our hope was that over time there would be healing, but God had another way.

During his wonderfully fruitful years with TeachBeyond he was like the apostle who ran hard to the finish and held to the faith. All at TeachBeyond are beneficiaries of his work which is a legacy that will guide and support us for years to come.

Farewell, good friend. We are so glad you are with our Lord, so glad you are healed, and so glad you are re-united with the one you loved so exuberantly.

You have run hard right to the finish, believed all the way.
All that’s left now is the shouting – God’s applause!

I hope you hear us applauding, too, for you remain much admired and much loved.

George M. Durance
Silverton, Oregon
01 July 2020
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