I found out today about the passing of George Patterson from George Robinson via Twitter. Though I have been unable to locate an obituary, family members shared information on social media and condolences are increasing on FB.
Another giant in the Kingdom has finished the race.
If you are older than 40 and have walked in the church planting world, then you are likely familiar with Dr. Patterson. If you do not fall into the former category, but do in the latter, then know that a great deal of your missiology and practice has likely been influenced by him. He served in Honduras with the Conservative Baptist Home Mission Society and later as professor at Western Conservative Baptist Seminary (now Western Theological Seminary) in Oregon.
Bob Logan pointed me to him. Then Neil Cole spoke highly of him. I think I first came across Patterson’s works through his collaboration with Dick Scoggins on The Church Multiplication Guide and a chapter (“The Spontaneous Multiplication of Churches”) in Perspectives. Later, I discovered Reproducible Pastoral Training. I resonated with much of his theology and missiology as he had clearly been influenced by the New Testament, Roland Allen, and Donald McGavran.
I was amazed at how innovative and creative he was in the ministry. He developed a theological education-by-extension program in Honduras defined as “obedience-oriented education.” Seeing significant limitations of the traditional residence-based Bible institute, Patterson took training to the villages, mountains and the cities. Students remained in their contexts and were discipled with high levels of accountability.
I was amazingly shocked when (in 2002?) I discovered the man had developed a choose-your-own-adventure CD-ROM video game for training church planters: Come Let Us Disciple the Nations! Was that even possible? Who does that? I mean, it is one thing to have cartoons of birds and people in your books, but this was light years from where the Church is even today! Trainees would select their level of training, earn points for making wise decisions in the game, and even be attacked by the devil and lose points! I think there were four levels to master in this game. . . . I never completed level one. It was too difficult.
I was blessed to connect with Dr. Patterson only a few times over the years by email and phone. I did not know him well. He was an acquaintance. However, he was so gracious and kind. I heard of his unique approach to teaching church planting at Western and contacted him for some pedagogical guidance. When he heard I was a church planting professor at Southern Seminary, he shared resources with me, answered questions, and provided encouragement. Before publishing Discovering Church Planting in 2009, I contacted Dr. Patterson asking if he would consider providing an endorsement to this newbie in the field. He responded with one of the most gracious endorsements I have received. This seasoned leader wrote, “My only criticism of Payne’s Discovering Church Planting is that it should have been published 50 years ago.” My publisher included that statement on the back cover where it remains to this day. Such is not so much a credit to my book; rather, it is a credit to the kindness and generosity of Dr. Patterson.
He retuned the request, asking for an endorsement for his 2012 work Come Quickly Dawn: A Training Novel. With the publication of this book, he became one of the first individuals to pioneer what I refer to as the genre of Mission Fiction.
May we take a moment to give thanks for this brother and his extensive ministry. Let us pray for his wife and other family members. May the God of all comfort be present during this time of loss. May His peace pass all understanding. While we mourn, we take comfort in our Savior knowing that “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints” (Ps 116:15).