Dan Wallace has written some great thoughts about Dr Joe Aldrich who has Parkinson’s Disease and is “slipping fast”. Joe was the President of Multnomah when i was a student there. Once he pulled alongside me in his car as i walked back from chapel and asked me if i wanted a ride. I was really impressed that he was not above hanging out with students. We chatted for about 3 minutes and then we were back at the College. I thanked him for his great book “Life Style Evangelism” and encouraged him on his upcoming book that would later be called “Gentle Persuasion”. At the time, I thought the second book was a little wimpy and should have been tougher. But I had just come from 2 years of intensive overseas work with Operation Mobilization, and had been a street preacher for 3 years before that so I leaned towards the more confrontational side of things.
Looking back, Joe was right and his book was a fantastic gift to the church. – It really is about relationships, loving people, eating meals and spending time and being there to make the good news known when the time is right.
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I’m at the seminary at Multnomah. This has been a prayer request of professors for awhile. Doesn’t seem like things are getting better.
I was there for two years right at the turn of the century (sounds funny to say that), and had Joe for the Spiritual Life class. I loved that class, and felt like it was way more important than the school seemed to let on. I had his brother, of course, for other classes as well. I’ll be praying for Joe!
I read Lifestyle Evangelism back in the 80’s — great book that really confirmed a lot of things for me!
Joe spoke at a Billy Graham-sponsored training evening in Hamilton ON about 20 years ago, and our youth group (100+) all crammed up onto the platform around Joe’s feet while he spoke (the church was over-packed already). Joe loved having the students sitting around him on the platform. We saw a side of him in that moment that was very warming.
Very sad to hear this news.
I had the privilege of attending a Prayer Summit in the 90’s where Dr. Joe had been invited. At one point (between prayers), they asked him if he had anything on his heart he’d like to share. I’ll tell you — he spent the next 30 or 40 minutes sharing the most extraodinary, powerful, insights. It was like a riveting sermon, but it was all off the top of his head (and heart!) I was scribbling notes as fast as I could. I honestly felt like I was listening to the Apostle John. What an awesome servant of God!