I am sure many men and women will praise God and remember Jay Adams as a man of tenacious character, uncompromised convictions, and strong biblical teaching. The Lord used each of these God-given characteristics of Jay in my life and the lives of the members of Faith Church in Lafayette, IN. We are forever grateful and indebted.
However, in God’s sovereign plan, I also had the privilege of seeing another side of Jay behind the scenes. My predecessor, Pastor Bill Goode, encouraged the NANC/ACBC Board of Trustees to add me to their ranks over twenty-five years ago, while I was still a fairly young man. That allowed me to spend hundreds of hours with Jay in board meetings and traveling to various conferences and other speaking events. What I often observed during those moments was that Jay possessed a joy that was absolutely infectious. It was the kind of happy delight that only our great Savior could produce.
I saw this first in our board meetings. “Old-timers” will remember how the early board members possessed and practiced what could best be described as “NANC humor.” It was a special blend of corny, often endless joking that would make you laugh until your side hurt. I am convinced that our board meetings would have been far shorter if they were devoid of the endless teasing and back-and-forth banter. Men like Lloyd Jonas, John McConaughy, Bob Smith, Randy Patten, Wayne Mack, George Scipione, Ron Allchin, and Bill Goode were enormously funny people. I would sit back at our meetings and marvel at the way such a theologically diverse group could discuss the weighty issues facing the young biblical counseling movement, yet do it with a kind of genuine love for one another that manifested itself in spontaneous laughter.
This was also true when we traveled together. In the early days, it was challenging to find a group of people who understood enough about biblical counseling to desire systematic training. So we would schedule Jay and a small group of us to offer a series of One-Day Symposiums to “break up the ground” as Jay would say. We borrowed a small motor home from one of our church members and traveled to several different cities on subsequent days where Jay would give 3 plenary sessions and then some of our medical doctors and pastors would offer various workshops. Some of these symposiums were quite tense because the initial guests were antagonistic to the idea of the sufficiency of Scripture and biblical progressive sanctification. I learned fairly early on that breaking up the ground can be difficult and controversial work.
Yes, it was serious work. But it was the Lord’s work, so the humans involved did not have to take themselves too seriously. Click To TweetBut then we would load up in the motor-home and head to the next city to prepare to teach the following day. Dan Wickert, a physician from our church who often participated in those early trips, and I have often wished we had tape-recorded those times in the motor home. Dan and I would be up in the front seats driving and navigating while Jay, Bob Smith, and Bill Goode were in the back around the little kitchen table telling jokes and having a good time. Yes, it was serious work. But it was the Lord’s work, so the humans involved did not have to take themselves too seriously. Since Jay was a Presbyterian and Goode and Smith were Baptists, that subject had a way of weaving itself into many conversations. I can’t tell you how many times I heard Bill Goode tell Jay that his publisher sent too many of his books on baptism. To which Jay would say on cue, “How many did they send?” Goode’s stock response in that southern drawl of his was, “One.” Then they would crack up like junior high boys as if it was the first time they had ever told that one. Dan and I would just shake our heads at the budding comedians riding in the back.
He received it at the hand of his Savior, and it marvelously adorned the doctrine he taught. Click To TweetCareful students can also find this characteristic in Jay’s teaching. If the sum total of your knowledge of Jay comes through his writing ministry, I would encourage you to secure the recordings of some of Jay’s sessions. At one of the first NANC conferences I ever attended Jay was speaking on his list of “Fifty Failure Factors.” He was discussing mistakes we as counselors sometimes make that we should consider if a case was not going well. You would think that a presentation of fifty anything, and certainly fifty failure factors, would be as dull and depressing as the evening news. Not if Jay was making the presentation. I still am not sure how he did it, but he had us rolling in the aisles while we were contemplating our own failures. It was classic Jay Adams.
So yes, we should be thankful for Jay’s strong biblical convictions and many other serious character qualities. But along with that, I am going to miss Jay’s wonderful joy. He received it at the hand of his Savior, and it marvelously adorned the doctrine he taught.