George Whitman (1925 -2012): A Life Well Lived

In our last entry, “Stewardship of “God’s Economy”, we emphasized that good stewardship requires a disposition of reverent discernment necessary to learn and exercise our individual responsibility toward God, our neighbor, and God’s creation.   An event that occurred this week allows us to “put some skin on” this stewardship quality.  On April 9, a gentleman who demonstrated reverence, discernment, and responsibility; and, who actually bore the title “Reverend” as a pastor and friend of our family, went home to heaven. 

Whitman's celebrating George's 80th Birthday, in 2005.

The Rev. George P. Whitman (1925-2012) devoted 53 years of his life to the pastoral ministry in New York State.   George and his wife Jean, his faithful partner of 64 years, have shepherded five different churches during the past five decades.  During this time Pastor Whitman and Jean nurtured four sons and three daughters who have extended the Whitman family and their heritage of Christian faith through 23 grandchildren and 44 great-grandchildren and nieces and nephews.

This week, we are remembering the life of George Whitman and keeping Jean and the family in our prayers.   We honor this man as one who exercised stewardship through his God-given responsibilities as a loving husband, father, and pastor.  Pastor Whitman understood the importance of God’s truth as applied to the heart and mind of each child in a godly home through loving parents, reinforced in the classroom, and supported by the fabric of the local church and community which are the life blood of our nation.

George’s own testimony in a Christmas letter, in 2008, echoes the values that he held dear:

I attended eight grades in a One Room Public Country School (Honeywell's Corners) R. D. 1, Broadalbin, NY. (Fulton County) beginning in 1930 when the Pledge of Allegiance was a daily requirement, listening to the reading of a Psalm, and would you believe it, with the One teacher having all 24 of us quote “The Lord's Prayer” which he taught to his disciples.  The Bible and Websters Dictionary had their place on a shelf available for our use, and believe us‑-Noah Webster was "no dumb bunny".  Many of us are still hanging around (by God's Grace) after, at least, a productive life of serving the Lord and seeking to be a blessing to others, raising our families to be honorable citizens in their communities, in our country, and out as well.

Pastor Whitman was also an American patriot and cherished the opportunities he was given on several occasions to deliver the opening session prayer for the New York State Legislature in Albany.  He wrote:

While praying for America, we still say "God Bless America" and are very thankful for the great heritage handed down to us by our founders and leaders. May we never forget it, or them.  

George’s ministry at LBBC was extended through his weekly radio broadcasts called "Echoes of Faith" on radio station WLFH in Little Falls, N.Y. and "Moments With Your Bible" on WHAZ in Troy, N.Y.  Fittingly, one of his son’s, Fred,  with his wife Rachel, have ministered faithfully with Baptist Mid Missions using a radio ministry in Italy.

Pastor Whitman’s fifth church was Latham Bible Baptist Church (LBBC), in Latham, NY, where he established the Latham Christian Academy in 1979.   It was during this pastorate, in 1992, that our family was privileged to make the acquaintance of George and Jean.   That Spring, our son Brad, had been accepted by Rensselear Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in nearby Troy, NY for graduate studies and we were assisting him to in locating off-campus housing.  We called several churches including LBBC to enlist their prayers and any leads they might have concerning apartments for rent.

We received no leads.  But God’s people did pray and the answer came through the willingness of George and Jean Whitman to open their home to Brad.  They treated him as one of their own sons during the months to follow.  They also involved Brad in the ministry of LBBC and Latham Christian Academy where he was able to teach a course in computers and assist Pastor Whitman in clearing the parking lots after each upstate New York snow.  Brad wrote home many times to share accounts of the special informal times he had spent with Pastor Whitman whose vibrant, unassuming love of Jesus Christ and His creation was contagious.

George & Jean Whitman, with friends, at LBBC & LCA, 199

In 1999, the Whitman’s retired and spent winters at Sleepy Hollow Mobile Estates,  Zephyrhills, Florida.   There, George served as Chaplain and he and Jean continued to bring a sweet aroma of Christ to the local residents for over another decade.  Of course they still migrated north to beloved upstate New York during the warm seasons.

As his obituary in the Oneonta Daily Star states:  

A life dedicated in service to his Lord and Savior, he counseled many people to know Christ as their Savior.  He will be lovingly remembered and missed by his beloved family, cherished friends and those whom he pastored. 

Perhaps our son Brad’s recent tribute to Pastor Whitman is a fitting affirmation of what it means to be a faithful steward of providential opportunities to love and serve God, neighbor, community, and creation: 

 

I went to New York as a young man and was taken in (and fed well) by two of the most wonderful human beings I have ever had the privilege of knowing. I am forever changed by their influence in my life...and forever challenged by their example. Thank you, Pastor and Mrs. Whitman.

This week Heaven decided it was time to bring Pastor George P Whitman home (personally, I feel like things were getting a bit boring up there....).  Truly, truly....our loss is heaven's gain. Thank you, Pastor, for being a true man of faith.  Thank you.

Stewardship of Righteousness -- Part Two

In the previous Oikonomia entry, we considered the trend in which increasing numbers of evangelicals are responding to calls to care for God’s creation, or to the poor and powerless by taking a stand for “social justice.” Recently, creation care and social justice ministries have begun to merge into a more broadly integrated “environmental- social justice” movement in efforts to address issues formerly considered quite separate– climate change, affordable housing, immigration, and accessible health care.

We emphasized that Christian environmentalism and other forms of social activism need not be at odds with biblical evangelism. Indeed, Christian environmental stewardship can foster a biblical foundation on which to build a life and a home to be salt and light in a world that has lost its moorings and is adrift on the waves of moral relativism, economic materialism, and scientific naturalism. Yet, we need wisdom to “balance” between maintaining our individual spiritual disciplines while using our gifts and abilities to exercise influence at the community and institutional levels.

If we are to nurture a growing love and obedience to God, extend charity toward our neighbor, and exercise stewardship of God’s creation, I believe we need to adopt a “stewardship of righteousness” (see Oikonomia, June 30, 2010). Individually, we must work to keep the “spiritual fire of our hearts” burning if we are to be good followers and leaders in a corporate or social sense. With great humility and recognition of my own need of grace, I will note that we are not without examples of respected evangelical, environmental leaders who have ended up in moral and/or ethical bankruptcy.

So, how can I judge the intensity of the “spiritual fire within my heart?” Church attendance and service? Prayer life? “Amount of time spent reading the Bible? What others say about me? All of these may be expressions of righteousness, but let’s hear the psalmist speak from the fire of his love, devotion, and felt need of God:

As the deer pants for the water brooks,
So my soul pants for You, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God;
When shall I come and appear before God? – Psalm 42: 1-2

His “spiritual fire” is expressed not by his desire to “do the things of God; or for God” but by his desperate need for the presence God Himself. Elsewhere, we read the psalmists expression of his desire for God’s temple and the opportunity to worship:

How lovely are Your dwelling places, O LORD of hosts!
My soul longed and even yearned for the courts of the LORD;
My heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God. – Psalm 84: 1-2

Then I will go to the altar of God,
To God my exceeding joy;
And upon the lyre I shall praise You, O God, my God. – Psalm 43:4

My “stewardship of righteousness,” requires that I regularly “kindle afresh” (2 Timothy 1:6) the fire of the Spirit within me through the spiritual disciplines of prayer, Scripture reading, and meditation in Scripture. As a result, the life of the Spirit within me stirs a yearning for God, for fellowship with His people, and for worship. These words from the psalmist are indeed inspired (“Spirit-breathed”) because they speak of the very desire of God in the person of His Spirit within us to be in communion with God.

Interestingly, as the psalmist expresses his longing for and need of God, he also notices that God’s welcome of him extends to His other creatures as well. Our Creator not only welcomes fellowship and intimacy with us, but His presence is also a place of welcome and safety for the sparrow of which God is mindful.

The bird also has found a house,
And the swallow a nest for herself,
where she may lay her young,
Even Your altars, O LORD of hosts,
My King and my God. – Psalm 84:3

Could it be that when we practice the disciplines above to keep the “spiritual fire” of our heart burning for a growing desire and felt need of God in our daily lives that we gain an additional benefit? Might we also begin to see the creation, our families, our neighbor, the environmental and social needs around us as God sees them?

Prayer: Heavenly Father, help me to reflect on the above thoughts myself so that this inspiration may provide for me and for readers of Oikonomia the wisdom to be stewards of our gift of righteousness in Christ our Savior. Help us then to express this stewardship in our daily walk and service so that it will resemble more and more the walk of Christ as we see the world through His eyes. Amen.

Creation Care and Stewardship of Righteousness

Forty years ago this past April, I joined one of the first Earth Day gatherings and experienced the growing wave of interest in the “environmental movement” of the 1970's. Attention was focused on “pollution”, pesticides, population growth, and the politics of Vietnam and the cold war era. Many would agree that the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) born in that era has had a positive role in reducing pollution and pesticides. The decades of the 1980's brought increased prosperity and an end to “the cold war.”

As the “walls came down” between East and West in Europe, and the economy began to ride the wave of computers and the internet, there was less concern about “the environment.” That is until scientists and politicians in the late 1980's began to turn our attention to what appeared to be a series of steadily increasing global temperatures. During the same period, Lynn White’s “Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis” gained traction among some evangelicals because of his charge that Christianity was responsible for a growing “arrogance toward nature.” Some evangelical leaders and biblically literate scientists joined in significant discussions and wrote influential books and papers that emphasized the Christian’s responsibility to steward the Earth.

The growing visibility of the church in discussions of “the environment” in the 1990's caught the attention of astute politicians who recognized that their acknowledgment of Christian teachings could provide a powerful link to the value systems, and hence, the political will of the electorate. The seeds, not all bad, of the most recent “green movement” were planted and have since been warmed and watered by growing concerns about “climate change” and the growing disparity between the rich and the poor. Unlike the environmental movement of the 1960's and 70's, today’s movement has a large following in Protestant and Catholic churches who are aware of Christian responsibility toward God’s creation and toward the poor among us.

So, as we enter the second decade of the 2000's, and read of “global energy cap and trade” legislation, oil spewing in the gulf, and global economic woes, how are you doing as a “steward of the environment and in your exercise of “creation care?” Do you recycle? Is your church into recycling? Got your reusable cloth grocery bags? Drive a hybrid? Do you see connections between growth in Christian character and the discipline of rejecting materialism? Have you become more aware of the plight of the poor and the disenfranchised, and been able to turn greater compassion into appropriate action?

Today, it is not uncommon to meet sincere Christians who are learning to apply biblical teachings of “creation care” to their decision making in regard to lifestyle, community actions, economics, and political persuasion. Many of the principles that influence our attitudes and actions have been discussed here in this blog. Indeed, as this writer and other more prominent writers have emphasized (see resources below), Christian environmentalism and evangelism need not be at odds. I believe Christian environmental stewardship can provide a solid biblical foundation on which to build a life and a home that can be salt and light in a world that has lost its moorings and is adrift on the waves of moral relativism, economic materialism, and scientific naturalism.

However, our exercise of environmental stewardship can easily be hijacked by those who, for one reason or another, do not have a commitment to biblical stewardship. The quality of our corporate efforts depends upon biblically committed leadership. If I am serving in a leadership role, I must first exercise stewardship of my individual relationship with God and my accountability to Him above all. That is, I must sanctify Christ as Lord in my heart (I Peter 3:15a) each day. In the words of Oswald Chambers (My Utmost for His Highest, December 23), I must “Get alone with Jesus and either tell Him that [I] do not want sin to die out in [me]; or else tell Him that at all costs [I] want to be identified with His death.” When we surrender to God’s Spirit in the quietness of the morning, He sometimes lets us see “what we would be like if it were not for Himself; it is a justification of what He said - Without Me ye can do nothing." Here, in the morning with our Creator and Redeemer, we can evaluate our motives and our lifestyles – why we recycle, conserve energy, care about those who are poor both materially and spiritually. Then, we are ready to enter the new day and into the wider circles in relationships with our family, church, community, and government. With God’s help, we are ready to give an answer to everyone who asks [us] to give an account for the hope that is in [us], yet with gentleness and reverence (I Peter 3:15b).

The Gospel of the cross that saved us individually is the same Gospel that can keep us accountable before God in a “stewardship of righteousness” that we received under the blood of Christ’s cross. If we are to exercise lifestyle and leadership in “biblical environmental stewardship” amid the highly politicized winds and waves of “climate change,” “cap and trade”, and “environmental-social justice,” we must begin each day at the feet of the One Who created us and the Earth; and then, allowed us, in our sin, to drive the rusty, refined ore from the Earth through His hands and feet.

Lord of Heaven, and Creator of Earth, remind us daily that any righteousness (right-ness) that we possess is not our own but has been bought with a great price, the blood of Christ. Help us to exercise “stewardship of Your righteousness.” May we not speak pridefully as the Pharisee, who prayed thus to himself, God I thank You that I am not like other people [like the tax collector]. Let us rather pray like the tax collector: God be merciful to me, a sinner. May our lives in private and in the public arena be seen by You and others as covered in the righteousness of Christ. May there be an obvious and evident link between Your righteousness in us and the lifestyle and leadership we exercise before others. Help us to walk with You daily; and then, discern what is right living and use of the material, time, and opportunity that you entrust to us. Then, may we relate biblically with others and their strong passions for justice and right-ness toward the Earth and the “less fortunate” in a manner that reflects our Lord’s concern when He said, "Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves.” Amen.

Related Resources:
Creation Care and Christian Character
Creation Care– Doing It Our Way?