MESSAGES, TRIBUTES AND COMMENTS

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John Tolsma, Roslyn, PA
It was the year 1959. I was a graphic designer working for an advertising agency in North Jersey. Our church was in need of pulpit supplies as our pastor had suffered a stroke and was no longer able to preach. Westminster Seminary was recommended as a good source for pulpit supplies. Indeed it was. Among the number that answered our need was a young professor, Rev. Dr. Edmund P. Clowney.

We, as many others, appreciated Ed’s preaching. At that time, Ed also was a member of the Committee on Christian Education of The Orthodox Presbytrian Church, a denomination seriously thinking of publishing Sunday School curriculum. At one point Ed asked if I could design a few tracts for the Committee. It turned out that he, having many gifts, had been writing, designing and doing the necessary art work.

The subject of my discussions with Ed often centered on art and art production. By 1960, the Committee on Christian Education had grown and could now support a designer part time. Ed asked if I would consider moving to the Philadelphia area to join the effort. I accepted this offer, first working from home in NJ and then moving to PA in 1961. I am very thankful for the forty years I was able to do the Lord’s work at what became Great Commission Publications.

What a blessing to have known Dr. Edmund P. Clowney and to have my life turned so that my gifts could be used to God’s glory— not for just a moment, but for my entire life. That was my experience.

I know the Lord has used Ed Clowney in changing the hearts and lives of many. What a blessing to be included in that number. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Ed.

Peg Crawford, Murrieta, CA
Ed's life reflected the love of Christ to me. He was willing to share his life with us in common daily living. I loved his great sense of humor - even in hard situations! Jean, I thank the Lord so much for you and Ed. I will pray for God's comfort.

Thomas R. Patete, Great Commission Publications, Atlanta
My first encounter with Dr. Clowney was at the 1964 Pensacola Theological Institute, and ever since, his teaching has greatly shaped my approach to Scripture and manner of communicating biblical truth. Thanks be to God for a focus that has kept so many on message!

At Great Commission Publications, we speak of Dr. Clowney as one of the “architects” of our curriculum. He single-handedly wrote and illustrated the original VBS materials (first published by the OPC in the early ’50s). Beyond that, he was influential toward this ministry being built around a redemptive-historical perspective that still is our underpinning today. He helped frame the OPC/PCA publishing partnership in 1975 and served on the first Board of Trustees. When I came to GCP, Dr. Clowney was an encouraging “father in the Lord” to me, and as Willow Grove neighbors, he and Jean aided our family in acclimating to an unfamiliar new locale.

It is striking how God uses those marked by humility to bring about momentous kingdom fruit. No surprise, for the Bible is full of such examples. That is the story of Ed Clowney. Small in stature, quiet of voice, a servant heart...yet uncommonly gifted at understanding, articulating and proclaiming God’s Word with compelling force. As the testimonies on this website bear out, the fruit of Dr. Clowney’s life and ministry is in the lives and ministries of unnumbered saints around the world.


Wayne and Irene Smith, Bonham, Texas
We consider it a real blessing to have known Dr. Clowney and his lovely wife Jean while worshiping at New Life PCA in Escondido, CA. What a treasure to have him teach us in Sunday School. Imagine! He always had us on the edge of our seats with his brilliance as he unfolded the mysteries of God’s Word. We especially remember how he would chuckle when emphasizing a point he was making. It was as if he was discovering God’s amazing message right along with us! Above all , we remember Dr. Clowney as a man who truly represented what it is to be a Christian. Despite his incredible background, he remained always a man of genuine humility. A gentle man, yet one sensed and immediately understood the strength and wisdom that made him the man he was. Now he is home, and how happy and full of delight he must be. Well done, true and faithful servant and child of God.
Wayne & Irene Smith, Bonham, TX


Andrew Nicholls, Kingston upon Thames, near London, England
I remember Ed's wonderful teaching on the Cornhill Training Course in 1993-4, I think it was. What a privilege to hear someone combining deep godliness and deep learning. I thank God for Ed's life and for the salvation in Christ he is now enjoying even more than he obviously did here on earth!

Arthur and Charlotte Kuschke, Dresher, PA
Our memories of you all go back a long time. For Arthur it began at Wheaton. My memories began perhaps some fifteen years later when Ed came to teach at WTS and the family came to the Glenside OPC and Philmont (Christian Academy). There are "standouts": I think of Jean and the wonderful music at Philmont and Glenside and our singing together. I think of Ed's teaching, his leadership at WTS, his prodigious literary output. I think of David's senior poem that is now sung as Philmont's official hymn. I think of Becky, on her own initiative, memorizing a Schumann "Fantasie Stuck" so that Philmont could have an entrant in the MACSA competition - and she won! I think of Paul's stirring declamation of Luther's "Here I stand - I can do none other." And I stand absolutely in awe of Debby's financial expertise. I take off all my hats to Anne, who homsechools her children. What gifts of patience and wisdom she possesses.
The Christian world owes much to Ed's labors over his life span. Truly his influence for God's glory is strong and widespread and will live on in the books he has written. But he will also be sorely missed by those of us who knew and loved him. May the Lord bless and comfort you all. "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints." Ps. 116:15. How He must be delighting in Ed's presence in glory. With much love in Christ, Arthur and Charlotte Kuschke.

D Clair Davis, Decatur GA
I honor and am full of joy and gratitude for the life and ministry of Ed Clowney throughout the global church and in my own heart. I think of his great strengths and then how slow God's people were to respond to them. I see his greatest legacies to be in the years to come.
1) He knew the Bible so well. He was as much a walking concordance as the most illiterate pastor in the developing world who knows only the One Book. But after hearing him use that gift, so many were discouraged, since they could never preach like that! Instead, we need and are all called to master the Book as he did.
2) He was truly biblically ecumenical. As the PCA was emerging, he led the churches into thinking of a broader context for reaching the world. He led NAPARC and his OPC into broader ways. But within the OPC he failed totally 19 years ago, in 1986, as the OPC rejected his call. But very soon a global Reformed church is bound to come, as his vision will be grasped in the Lord's big world.
3) He was truly a visionary as leader of Westminster Seminary. But when theological conflict erupted there, over the most crucial issue of all, grasping the totality of Christ's grace and responding to it in radical obedience (election and covenant), he was interested in much more than efficient, crowd-pleasing uniformity. Instead he was patient, very patient, with all views, convinced of the power of the Word to bring unity. He failed, and the Reformed community is today probably more divided than ever over the connect of grace and obedience. But the model of his kind patience is after all the way of the Gospel, and Christ's church is closer than ever before to understanding its heart, in theology and life.
4) All that is the public man, the visionary and leader. But he was more; he was a man of God, kind friend, exemplary man of and for God's people. That will never be easy to quantify or identify, but in the Last Day will be clearer than all the rest.

Jean Clowney for the Clowney family, Charlottesville, VA
My family and I would like to express our praise to God for Ed's life of service to His kingdom and for his love to our family. We appreciate all your kind words and prayers of consolation. Ed surely would shun all these accolades. He is now in the presence of his Lord, where all praise goes to Christ.

His going was difficult for us, but the medical personnel was most kind and caring about comfort for him. Our children and friends gathered around his bed often in the last three weeks of his life to sing him hymns (from the Trinity Hymnal). The last half-hour before he went to be with his Savior was one of tears of sorrow and of joy, as our children and grandchildren prayed, holding his hand and thanking the Lord for Ed's life and love.

Blessed be the name of the Lord!

Benjamin Homan (President, Food for the Hungry), Phoenix, Arizona
After an exuberant, "rock-the-house" worship session, Dr. Clowney ascended the stairs of the platform and stood face-to-face with ensemble of musicians. Long-haired, 20-somethings. Dred locks. Blue jeans and flanned clad. They had just poured themselves into 40 minutes of cutting edge, sweaty worship -- filled with brokenness and joy. And there stood Dr. Clowney in a coat and tie -- the keynote speaker! I probably was not the only one of the gathered assembly to wonder how this encounter on the stage would result. But what transpired across the next few seconds imprinted in my mind a powerful illustration of God's love. The intelligent and thoughtful statesman and the emotional post-moderns met in a genuine physical embrace. It was clear that Dr. Clowney had not planned on hugging the band members at that moment in front of the whole assembly, yet his affection and love for a rising generation was also clear. Visible also was the esteem and respect of the band for a man whose zest for God's grace rendered to them an observable hope. That physical display of affection for Dr. Clowney by the band has encouraged my heart repeatedly for it reinforces all the more how timeless is God's work of redemption, a work for which I give thanks to God for His equipping of Dr. Clowney to serve so well. Dr. Clowney began his message that day with a smile and laughter, acknowledging the humor of the previous encounter and also basking in yet another surprising discovery of grace and joy.

Tim Hall, Chattanooga, TN
I visited Westminster West in 1996. While I never became a student there, I remember Dr. Clowney's friendliness, advice, and helpfulness during my visit.