A Lion Leaves the Field of Battle
August 27, 2007
I do not know the subjects of many of the stories we report on a daily basis. That is not the case, however, of a story I reported on today's edition of The 700 Club. I have known Dr. D. James Kennedy for a number of years. So it was with sadness that I informed our audience that Dr. Kennedy had made the decision to retire.
The 76-year-old pastor and broadcaster suffered a heart attack three days after Christmas and has never fully recovered. The heart attack left his brain without oxygen for several minutes. As a result, he's lost some of his short-term memory.
Dr. Kennedy's daughter, Jennifer Kennedy Cassidy, announced his retirement Sunday during a joint worship service at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, the church her father founded 48 years ago.
Frank Wright, head of the National Religious Broadcasters, said, "One of the great lions of our faith is leaving the field of battle." Wright is a long-time Kennedy friend. In fact, he credits Dr. Kennedy with leading him to faith in Christ. Later, Wright worked closely with Dr. Kennedy as head of Coral Ridge Ministry's Christian statesmanship office in Washington, DC.
My connection to Dr. Kennedy is not as deep, but meaningful to me just the same. By God's good providence our paths have crossed several times over the years and I am indebted to him for his kindness.
I grew up in Pompano Beach, Florida, almost within the shadows of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church. After my wife and I married and moved away from the area, we enjoyed listening to Dr. Kennedy's radio program. I can remember commenting to my wife that the messages Dr. Kennedy preached weren't anything like what we were hearing from the pulpit of our church. As a result, we became convinced that the Gospel wasn't being preached in our church. So, in the summer of 1989, we made the decision to leave that church as well as the denomination and began a search for a new place to worship.
Not long afterward, I ran into Dr. Kennedy's wife, Anne. She was a faithful friend and customer of my mother, who, for many years, owned a ladies clothing store in Pompano Beach. When I told Anne that we had been frustrated in our search for a new church, she promised to send us a list of churches connected to the Presbyterian Church in America, the denomination Coral Ridge has been a part of since 1978.
Anne was true to her word and that next Sunday, we visited the church at the top of the list. Our long search for a church home was over. Through the ministry of Christ Church , Jacksonville, Florida, as well as Dr. Kennedy's broadcast ministry, I not only developed a new understanding of God's amazing grace, I began to realize the importance of taking a Christian worldview into my job as a news anchor for a local network affiliate.
That worldview didn't always sit well with my bosses and colleagues. In 1993, I gave a speech to a group of politically active Christians, accusing the so-called mainstream media of being biased against conservative Christians. Station management suspended me without pay for three days and, one year later, refused to renew my contract. That touched off a firestorm of protest against the station; viewers accusing station management of exercising the kind of bias I had identified in my speech. This is where my path providentially crossed again with Dr. Kennedy and Coral Ridge Ministries. My story was profiled on his weekly national television program, The Coral Ridge Hour, in 1994. Dr. Kennedy was also gracious to offer me the opportunity to work with him directly on some later broadcasts before I came to work here at CBN the next year. I appreciated his eye for detail and his desire for excellence in every broadcast. I consider it a great privilege to have worked with him.
Dr. Kennedy also has a passion for evangelism. Some years ago, a friend of mine told me of seeing Dr. Kennedy getting his shoes shined during a break at our denomination's general assembly. My friend confided that he thought it a bit pretentious that this well-known preacher was spending money for such a thing. But my friend's attitude quickly changed as he drew closer and overheard Dr. Kennedy sharing the Gospel with the shoe shine man. I've also heard that Dr. Kennedy never gets on an airplane without sharing the Gospel with the person sitting next to him. So it's fitting that perhaps one of his greatest legacies is Evangelism Explosion, the ministry that has taught thousands of of Christians around the world how to share their faith in Christ.
Some of the folks who have come to faith in Christ as a direct or indirect result of Dr. Kennedy's evangelism have gone into full-time ministry themselves. And Knox Theological Seminary, which Dr. Kennedy founded, has provided them and many others with the theological tools and wisdom to preach the Gospel to a lost and hurting world. In May 2005, I had the privilege of delivering the seminary's commencement address held in the beautiful Coral Ridge sanctuary.
I am grateful to Dr. Kennedy for his friendship over the years. I'm also grateful for his faithfulness to God and the impact he's had on our nation and the Kingdom!
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