 |
| James Kolb Stauffer 1/8/20-11/13/24 |
Jim was not only an esteemed brother and colleague in ministry, but was like a father and mentor to me, in his own quiet, gentle way reminding me of the apostle Paul’s words in his first letter to the Corinthian house church, “you may have ten thousand mentors in Christ, but few fathers. I gave birth to you in Christ Jesus through the gospel, so I encourage you to follow my example.”
As a missionary and pastor, he was engaged in birthing and nurturing believers abroad and continued to work in a father-like pastoral role with churches here in the states, including providing some pastoral leadership to the Vietnamese congregation in the DC area. Jim was too modest a person to ever want to draw attention to himself or to his work, but it’s hard to imagine anyone who so consistently demonstrated Christ-likeness and the good fruit of the Spirit—love joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self-control. He would be the last person in the world to claim perfection, but it’s just really hard to find fault with this man. I can’t recall a single unkind word coming out of his mouth or a single act that was anything but an expression of I Corinthians 13, the agape love chapter, a lived out version which could read like this:
“James was patient and kind, never jealous or boastful, arrogant or rude. James never sought his own advantage, was never irritable, or kept a record of wrongs, was never on the side of injustice but always an advocate for truth, ever persevering, always trusting, always hoping, always enduring.”
And like the committed Anabaptist he was, he was a consistent advocate for peace and justice, a generous giver to all kinds of good causes, someone who lived simply and frugally, someone who gave hours and weeks of volunteer time in his retirement using his carpentry and drywalling skills with Mennonite Disaster Service and other opportunities, not unlike another James, the late James Earl “Jimmy”Carter. Each could have said, as did missionary Paul, “Follow me as I follow Christ.” And Jim exemplified what yet another James, the author of the New Testament letter by that name, wrote, “I’ll show you my faith by putting it to practice in faithful action.”
But he would be too modest and unassuming to say that. But that was the Jim we grew to love and appreciate.
In one of my visits with Ruth after Jim’s passing we were each lamenting his loss. She expressed gratitude for his companionship and for his consistently good character. And she said, repeatedly, “I want to be like him.” “I want to be like him.”
We echo that desire, that prayer, today.
A wise rabbi once said, “Each of us dies twice, “Once when we breathe our last breath, a second time when no one any longer speaks our name.” We will continue to speak his name for as long as we live, but the best way for us to memorialize him is to follow his example, to learn from him, as he learned from his Master and Lord, Jesus, how to live life to the fullest. Quoting Jimmy Carter, to “do whatever I can, wherever I am, whenever I can, with whatever I have, to try to make a difference.”
Well done, good and faithful servant. Welcome home to the everlasting and grace-filled joy of the Lord!
Amen.
