These are (Tony Stephens) reflections on Bruce’s life, to which I say a hearty Amen!

I had the joy of spending most of an hour over the weekend on the phone with PCA Pastor Tony Stephens, who is planting Stillwaters Presbyterian Church in Kennett Square, PA. Tony will preside and preach at Bruce Howe’s Memorial service on Monday (11:00AM at Evangelical PC in Newark, DE. These are his reflections on Bruce’s life, to which I say a hearty Amen!

Tony had been asked to preach at the Memorial Service by Bruce’s family, and they were passing along Bruce’s own request. When I asked Tony why Bruce picked him, his immediate response was “a complete lack of judgment!”

Seriously, Tony and Bruce became friends not long after Tony was ordained by Heritage Presbytery 10 years ago and went on staff at Cornerstone Church in Kemblesville, PA (just over the border from Delaware and thus in Heritage Presbytery). Cornerstone’s pastor had planted the church and Tony soon found himself on the Church Planting Committee of the Presbytery.

An additional connection between the two was the fact that Tony’s wife had taught both of Bruce’s sons while they attended Wilmington Christian School.

Tony believed Heritage Presbytery need a stronger commitment to Church Planting and discussed the issue with the Stated Clerk, Bruce Howes. Bruce, being a student (and presumed expert) in many areas advised Tony to ‘follow McDonalds and WalMart!’ This soon became the mantra of the committee and the formation of a friendship between two ministers from very different backgrounds.

Tony had an independent charismatic background with an on-line degree from RTS; Bruce was a buttoned-down Westminster Seminary grad who was known as ‘Fort Knox’ for his role as guardian of the Reformed Faith. But the two became friends, and for the last decade of his life, Bruce turned his passion into church planting. And ‘passion’ is the element of Bruce’s personality that Tony intends to focus on during his Memorial Service sermon.

Tony plans to preach from 2 Timothy 4, focusing on verses 6-8 in which he sees a clear outline of Bruce’s constant love for life – the primary thing that his widow, Pat, and especially his boys Kenneth and David will always remember about their dad.

Those who knew Bruce even a little understood that anything that got Bruce’s attention fit the ‘poured out drink offering’ description. Bruce would put all he had in an activity or a cause he believed in.

Without a doubt, Bruce ‘fought the good fight’, but with Bruce the emphasis was on the ‘good.’ Bruce loved everything in God’s creation and sought to find the good even in things others might discard. One only had to get in a discussion of musical styles and genre’ to understand that one.

Bruce has now finished the race, but, as Tony put it, it wasn’t only the finish that was important; it was how he ran it that mattered to Bruce. All Christians finish; but not all Christians run it as faithfully as others. That was really important to Bruce. Not that his run was perfect. Tony makes the point that it was in Bruce’s foibles that he could see Christ – Christ working in Bruce.

Certainly, Bruce kept the faith – after all, they didn’t call him Fort Knox for nothing!

So, the crown is now Bruce’s. Happily, the final episode of his long battle with cancer was a short one, which was truly God’s grace to Bruce and his family. It came up very suddenly and lasted just 24 hours. During the final minutes, when the breath was coming in short spurts, suddenly and unexpectedly, Bruce quieted for a moment, opened his eyes, turned his head to look at Pat sitting at his side, and smiled. Just that big grin that all of us who knew him would immediately recognize. And then he closed his eyes and went to receive his crown!

Through all of this, Tony saw Bruce as one who lived through the power of a distant shore. In his sermon Monday morning (and he gave me permission to tell this even ahead of time for those who could not be there) Tony will share a wonderful story of a young woman attempting to swim from Catalina to the California mainland. (Bruce would probably break in here and rehearse the lyrics from the Four Preps song back in 1958 that went ’26 miles across the sea; Santa Catalina is awaitin for me’; me, I’ve got the song up playing on YouTube while I’m writing.)

The young woman did all she could to complete the swim (Tony will give the details) but had to quit. Once she was on the chase boat, the fog lifted and they could see they were only ½ mile from the shore, and she said “Momma, I could have made it if I had seen the shore!”

Tony’s point is this: Bruce lived by the power of the distant shore. Paul closes his appeal in 2 Timothy 4 to us with his reminder that we have to keep our minds on the distant shore of heaven – and the crown that awaits us there.

P.S. Tony told that story that Bruce would always spell Tony’s last name as ‘Stevens’, with a ‘v’. The correct spelling is ‘Stephens’ with a ‘ph’. I mentioned to Tony that before I called him I could not find his listing in the PCA Directory. After the phone call I went back to the book, and sure enough, the PCA Directory – following the spelling that the Stated Clerk surely sent to Atlanta – has it spelled ‘Stevens’. Tony – maybe you want to leave it that way as a legacy to Bruce? Well, no, Bruce probably wouldn’t like that. Roy Taylor, could you make that change in Bruce’s honor please??