Professor Donald C. Frisk celebrates his 99th birthday today. I was reminded of that when I received this picture of him yesterday with his three grandchildren and five great-grandchildren, taken where he now lives at The Holmstad, a Covenant Retirement Community in Batavia, Illinois.Few individuals in the 125 year history of the Covenant Church have influenced our common life and thought more than he has through life-long preaching, teaching, and writing. His earlier New Life in Christ was especially helpful among the many that could be mentioned. And hie book on Covenant Affirmations amplifying earlier tract and booklet publications on the same themes is a classic exposition of Covenant life and thought.
Clarity of mind and precision in language have always marked his work. So has his disciplined focus on the things that remain in the classic Christian tradition our forebears received from the Protestant Reformation, the later advent of Pietism, and the revival movements that swept them up together in the joys of believing and belonging.
Thirty-eight entrees are listed under his name in Glad Hearts, coming either from his pen alone or in cooperative ventures deeply influenced by him. “There is only one ministry,” he used to tell us in seminary, “and that is the ministry of Jesus Christ." The implications for us were clear. Ours is simply given to enter into Christ's ministry, no matter how or where we serve.” I invite you to re-visit today whatever you may have of his writing. It will both challenge you to think theologically and inspire in you Christ's call to personal, communal, and missional action.
Listen, in tribute, to but one entry addressing church life today and the often neglected power of the Holy Spirit available to us:
Often one hears the complaint that the Christian church lacks power. But in the Holy Spirit unlimited power is available–power which is released through prayer and through action. Power, however, is a precious gift which God does not bestow indiscriminately. He gives as much as is needed for a specific task. Too often we lack power because we do not accept tasks and responsibilities big enough to merit such strengthening from above. The mediocre lives which multitudes of Christians love do not require great strengthening and hence there is little evidence of its presence, but let a Christian seriously attempt the demands of the Lord in the church and community and strength would be given in proportion to the task. What world-shaking things the church could accomplish if we prayerfully accepted the full responsibilities that now confront us!
What Christians Believe (1951), pp. 19,20.
Happy Birthday, Don! Pray for us that we may remain as faithful to Christ and each other as you have proven yourself to be--a companion, like your forebears, of all those who fear God and love his appearing.
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