1. My Dad showed me what living for Jesus looks like
My own testimony doesn’t contain a lightning strike, just a gradual dawning. I don’t have a clear sense of moving from darkness to light. In fact I spent many years wondering if I had a testimony at all. Living for Jesus was the air we breathed. It was the water in which we little fish learned to swim. I knew nothing else. But as I’ve got older I’ve realised that the grace which trickles down through the generations is just as amazing as the grace which arrests people on their own Damascus Rd.
2. My Dad extended to me the privilege of growing up in India
I am a missionary kid. I grew up as a guest in someone else’s country. I love all that this has brought into my life, not the least being the reality that ‘the one who has lived in many villages is unlikely to remain a prisoner to his own village’ (Newbigin). John Stott rightly affirms that all Christians should be ‘committed internationalists’. This comes so naturally to me because Dad took me to India.
3. My Dad demonstrated to me how calling comes before gifting
God does not so much call us to what we are gifted for – he calls us first and then gifts us in a way which enables an obedience to that call. If Dad had allowed his gifts to determine his calling – he might have remained a concert pianist or become a rugby legend or a cardio-thoracic surgeon or a mission executive or a college principal… The story of his life is a story of dramatic turns away from that for which he had proven an outstanding gifting. To the human eye it has been a wasted life. Professional suicides and vocational harekares one after the other… But there is no waste in the divine economy. That economy – within that sovereignty – works best when it works with open-hearted anywhere-goes obedience. He may have counted the cost of obedience, but he quickly forgot the numbers. I admire my Dad so much for these decisions and I consider that admiration to be the decisive human factor in my lingering desire to follow Jesus all the days of my life.
4. My Dad showed me how to lead with a servant-heart and without ambition
I know that JO Sanders wrote about ‘God-sanctioned ambition’ but I didn’t see this in Dad. He seemed to have no grand plans regarding himself, happy as he is to be led by God here and there. He seems to have little ambition beyond the ‘trust and obey, for there is no other way’ life. And he loved to serve and to help. One of the stand-out features of his missionary career in post-colonial India was the quality of his friendship with national leaders. I like to think I get a little reluctance in leadership, a preference for leading from behind, and a discomfort with the limelight from my Dad. While these features do not fit everyone’s model of leadership I am at peace with them basically because they mean I might be like my Dad.
5. My Dad taught me to invest in surrogate parenting
He has a remarkable capacity to hold in his heart the children of friends and colleagues. His parental heart enlarges to incorporate so many of them – particularly those who are not following Jesus. He is “Uncle Ray” to so very many people. When staying in peoples’ homes he took time to engage a spouse in conversation and then walk away with the names of the children in his prayers.
But there is more to it than this… With boarding school and other separations from Dad being a part of my story, my life is all the richer for numerous surrogate dads who stepped into the gap left vacant temporarily by my own Dad. While this was not always easy, I do find in my heart a deep gratitude to these men as well.
6. My Dad showed me how influential character can be
Over the decade of my time as Principal of Carey Baptist College I have preached in Baptist churches all around New Zealand – maybe 80 or more. You are not going to believe this – but it is true. I have yet to visit a church where someone (usually more elderly) doesn’t come up alongside me and question me about my pedigree and then shows such delight when they discover I am ‘Ray’s son’ – and sometimes also ‘Gwennie’s boy’. Admittedly many of the Otago women look a little flushed and might even admit to once having a crush on the handsome university lad … but far more often it is some little story that is still imprinted on their lives decades later, related to his character and commitment to Jesus … and that is when I realise that his life has not been wasted.
Being known as the “son of …” might curdle the emotions of many in my generation – but I love it.
Sure – my Dad will have his failings and shortcomings but that is not the purpose of this post!
May I also say that this post was also sparked by reading a review by Os Guinness (entitled “Fathers and Sons”) of this dreadful book by Frank Schaeffer (Crazy for God) where he is so ‘cruel’ towards his parents, Francis and Edith Schaeffer. It is worth reading.
http://www.christianitytoday.com/bc/2008/002/1.32.html
nice chatting
Paul Windsor
About Me

the art of unpacking
After a childhood in India, a theological training in the USA and a pastoral ministry in Southland (New Zealand), I spent twenty years in theological education in New Zealand — first at Laidlaw College and then at Carey Baptist College, where I served as principal. In 2009 I began working with Langham Partnership and since 2013 I have been the Programme Director (Langham Preaching). Through it all I've cherished the experience of the 'gracious hand of God upon me' and I've relished the opportunity to 'unpack', or exegete, all that I encounter in my walk through life with Jesus.
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Thanks for sharing this Paul. Brilliant. Moving. Funny. Insightful. Whimsical. Challenging. Honest. Encouraging. Your Dad must be very proud of you.
Paul, you made me cry! What a wonderful birthday present (and is this the first birthday your Dad has shared with Easter Sunday? It’s my Mum’s bday too).
I’m looking forward to hearing about your Mum next.
Thalia
Yes, Thalia – I am working on the words for my mum. She is a saint. She was born on the morning of the Napier Earthquake in 1931 …
At the celebration today we were told that the last time Easter Sunday fell on March 23 was 95 years ago … and the next time is 280 years away. Sounds slightly unbelievable to me – but “that is what the internet says”. If it is true is a remarkable alignment for this my Dad’s 80th birthday
Hi Paul
You have a rich Christian Heritage which is something to cherish. The Apostle Paul in 2 Timothy 1 says these words to Timothy:
2To Timothy, my dear son:
Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
Encouragement to Be Faithful
3I thank God, whom I serve, as my forefathers did, with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers. 4Recalling your tears, I long to see you, so that I may be filled with joy. 5I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also. 6For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. 7For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.
8So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God, 9who has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, 10but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. 11And of this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher.
There is a resonance in these words to Timothy than can be applied to Yourself. I agree that having a call comes first and v9 reinforces that it is not us but rather God out of his purpose and grace who has called us to a holy life. V6 calls upon us to fan into flame the gift that is in us, and I know that you are doing this, keep on working out your salvation with fear and trembling, as I know that the seed sowing you are doing through theological education and sharing the gospel is hitting fertile ground, as we are faithful to our God, he is faithful to give the increase.
Regards
Mark
Paul
What a privilege to share in these thoughts – thanks for affirming that which is greatly important and often denegrated today: Godly Parenting!
You’ve provoked me to pray: for your dad’s continuing ministry in frailty and old age that his heritage among the saints will continue to amplify the riches of God’s grace among his people (Eph 1.18ff); for myself – that I would be a man of sacrifice and service, rather than ambition and advancement and for my children – that they will be patient with me in my failings and confident with me in the Lord Jesus.
Thanks for ministering grace from the depths of your blog.
Thank you for your thoughtful blog posts, Paul. I check back often to see new posts.
What you’ve written about your Dad is wonderful. What a great example of quiet Christian servanthood.
Michael