Tony Baker reflects on several decades of friendship with J.I. Packer
The first time I heard Dr Jim Packer must have been at midweek talks he gave to the CU in Oxford (OICCU) in the 1950s.
As a young Christian, I found his rigorous Bible teaching and application just right. Then in 1958, IVP published a series of ‘Pocket Books’, including Stott’s Basic ‘Fundamentalism’ Christianity and Packer’s and the Word of God. I devoured both, and these authors remained at the top of my Christian reading list.
I again encountered Jim’s teaching when at Clifton Theological College. Numbers of us crossed the Bristol Downs for his doctrine lectures at Tyndale, which even then we assumed would form the basis of his systematic theology (it never appeared!). It is fair to say that at this stage the already great Dr Packer seemed just a little austere – which, I later realised, was really shyness.
After Bristol, I returned to Oxford as a curate at St Ebbe’s and an unusual non-encounter followed! Jim was to take an 8.00 am Communion, where I would assist him. However, 8.00am came, but JIP didn’t! Those in first year CofE orders (‘deacons’) aren’t meant to take a Communion Service. To evangelicals, this is simply a matter of due (if dubious) order, but to the Catholic wing, to take it is very naughty! But the congregation said ‘Go on, take it’, so I did. I never felt led to disturb the Bishop of Oxford by telling him! Jim had just written ‘8.00am HC’ in his diary; he tried two churches, but they didn’t want him, so he went home for breakfast!
In the later 1960s, I was Minister of Bishop Ridley Church, Welling and was trying to do some work on the Puritans as pastoral counsellors. With the presumption of youth, I sent a paper I had written to JIP to see what he thought. I cannot now imagine how I had the nerve, yet God was in it. He (that is Jim!) seemed to approve. Two totally unexpected things followed. First, an invitation to give a paper at the Puritan Conference at Westminster Chapel, which he and Geoff Cox, then Vicar of Gorsley, had founded. This never happened because of the sad divide between Dr Lloyd-Jones and those who followed his lead that evangelicals should leave ‘mixed’ denominations, and those (led by Stott and Packer) who disagreed.
But, second, there came an invitation to consider the appointment to be Vicar of Redland, Bristol, and with it a part-time appointment as Director of Ministry and Mission at a revamped Tyndale Hall, one of three Anglican training colleges in Bristol – Tyndale and Dalton House for women being under the suzerainty of BCMS (Crosslinks). The vision of Jim Packer and Alec Motyer was to develop a college that was rigorous and vigorous theologically, but really sought to prepare men and women more effectively for local church ministry, with a mix of lecturers inside and outside the college.
Soon came pressing calls to unite the three colleges. Discussions were protracted. Eventually Trinity College emerged. I continued at Trinity until 1977, but then decided, with Redland growing, that two jobs were one too many.
My sister, Angela, was at Trinity in the 1970s. Not only did she love Jim Packer’s lectures but his droll humour. He met her on the stairs one day, and withdrew into a corner for her to pass, remarking: ‘A handy siding’ (Jim’s father worked for the Great Western Railway, and Jim never lost his love of railways). Angela has often quoted his remark to her: ‘If the cap fits, throw it away!’ Likewise, I recall his wearing an outrageous tie one day at college lunch. When he gave some notices, every eye was on the tie. ‘You’re looking for a word to describe it’ he said, ‘The word is “buxom”’.
JIP was much more at ease with himself at this stage. However, it was quite a surprise when he said to me one day (I have no idea when) in a slightly old-fashioned but rather delightful way ‘let’s be friends’. No doubt he had very many other particular friends in the UK and then in North America, and it occurred to me later that perhaps the Great Ones (for such he was) do need some ordinary friends as a sort of counter-balance. After all, we serve the same Lord and we all have to fight the good fight.
In about 1978, Jim stood for General Synod. He was not elected, and (from what he indicated) this seemed to strengthen his awareness that his ministry would be more useful in North America than in the UK. Dr Jim Houston’s invitation to the fledgling Regent College, Vancouver, was just right. It gave him an academic base, but also the freedom to write and to travel.
And the books and the articles flowed, the books mainly aimed at ‘ordinary Christians’ who were ready to read and to take their faith seriously. Interestingly, he didn’t write many actual books at the academic level, nor did he produce the History of the Puritans for the Paternoster Church History series (though his Puritan Conference papers were published together). ‘How is your history of the Puritans coming on?’ he was asked by a passing student at Trinity. ‘Chapter One is just about a week away’, he said brightly. Afterwards, he added with a sigh to those nearby ‘the trouble is Chapter One is always about a week away!’ He once said in conversation ‘I find I can write at three levels: the academic, the Daily Telegraph level, and the popular level’. But he probably wrote the books mostly at the Telegraph level (don’t take that politically!) For his immensely able, more academic writing, see the four volumes of his Collected Shorter Writings.
Although in Canada from 1979, he was fairly frequently in the UK: for us, as no doubt for others, it was a happy privilege to give him hospitality. He was an early-to-bed, early-to-rise man: he liked a bath most evenings and took a tray for his (very) early cup of tea. He was in fine form at breakfast, although it could be a bit of an effort talking theology at that hour! He was very generous in his readiness to preach or lecture, as occasion opened up. With his extremely well-stocked mind, and now his easy manner, he adapted readily (I imagine) to wherever he was staying. He was an omnivorous general reader – from Dostoyevsky to A.A. Milne. I lent him the sequel to the Winnie-the-Pooh books by David Benedictus: we agreed it was good, but not as good! He loved detective fiction. Always humble and helpful, he recommended three very appropriate churches (one Independent, one Baptist and one Episcopal) for the time we spent in the USA during a sabbatical.
We had some particularly happy and lighter moments. My wife Margaret and I and Michael Wilcock took Jim to Bateman’s (Rudyard Kipling’s home). He enjoyed the day, but the weather was drizzly and he pulled out an enormous Pakamac, which kept him dry but was not elegant! A photo shows Michael and myself chatting in the grounds to a cheerful tramp-like figure! On one occasion, he was due to go on to Stephen Dray’s, to preach at Steve’s Baptist church, but Steve was planning to take Jim on the Bluebell Railway first! I was bound to secrecy, but as we drew nearer, and Jim heard the whistle and got a whiff of steam, he was like a horse pawing the ground!
I was a bit nervous chauffeuring him initially (it seemed like having the Crown Jewels in the car), but by the time we drove to Heathrow on one occasion, he was quite a familiar passenger. He commented en route that a sign displaying date, time and temperature had got the date wrong. When he booked in he discovered (you’ve guessed it!) that his ticket was for the following day. The receptionist, realising she had an elderly professorial character before her, was all charm and patience, and rebooked Jim on alternative flights. He wrote chirpily afterwards that he had arrived home several hours earlier than expected!
A pre-Christmas highlight was the arrival of the Packers’ circular letter. Jim wrote it, but (until recent years) under the guise of one of the dogs! The letters were delightful; but they failed to arrive the last two Christmases. We realised the years were passing and age was mounting.
Like his great contemporaries, Billy Graham and John Stott, Jim wrote a book on Christians facing old age, Finishing Our Course with Joy. He encourages zeal in service, yet with realism about declining powers, until ‘in heaven … we shall see and be at home with Jesus our Lord in a way that while we inhabit our present bodies is not possible’. Dr Jim Packer ran his race, he kept the faith and served the church of Christ with very great distinction. He is now with that Lord he loved so much and served so zealously.
As we give thanks for this humble, prayerful, and outstandingly gifted servant, we must remember to pray for Kit and their family in the days ahead.
