How God Crossed Our Paths
On March 6th, 2016, I crossed paths with a man who would become a very important friend. At the time, I was serving as an associate pastor at a church in Minnesota. It was our custom before the service to pray in the back hallway. As we prayed, three visitors (a husband, wife, and sister) walked by us who had accidentally come in the wrong entrance, and we greeted each other as they went into the sanctuary. On this particular Sunday, I was preaching on “Daniel’s Seventy Weeks” from Daniel 9:24-27. After I preached the sermon, the gentleman who came in the wrong entrance came up to meet me near the pulpit. We had a long conversation where he told me he appreciated my message. I was greatly encouraged by his words. The man who came up to share these kind words was John Styrbicki.
Little did I know that over the next ten years, this man would be one of my greatest encouragers in ministry. One week ago, this bright shining light in my life and the lives of many others was unexpectedly taken home to be with the Lord.
The Building of a Discerning Christian
John spent the first few decades of his life as an unbeliever. He came to faith in Christ through a Bible study on the End Times that his wife, Sue, brought home. In the middle years of his life, He spent hours, day after day, on this study that the Lord used to bring him to trust in Christ as Lord and Savior. His zealousness for the Lord from this point forward never stopped. Early on in his walk, the Lord gave John the gift of discernment (Hebrews 5:14). He recounted to me that right out of the gate, he started to listen to Christian preaching. He heard several preachers, and by the Lord’s grace, he could already tell which ones were error-filled voices and which ones were the voice of the Chief Shepherd (John 10:27). The preacher he was most drawn to was the great John Macarthur. It was Macarthur’s preaching that caused John to grow in his early years of faith. As he grew, he was able to discern truth from error better than many pastors.
A Soldier for The Truth
During his church life, he was unafraid to hold pastors accountable. He knew what the Word of God taught, and he could smell compromise when it came. He was once troubled by a prominent pastor hosting a problematic teacher at his pastor’s conference. John read a book that showed the error of this man’s teaching. One day, he approached this prominent pastor, expressing his concerns, and gave him a copy of the book. He did not care how well-known this pastor was; he was not intimidated. John knew this famous pastor was wrong to have a problematic teacher at his conference, and he had the conviction to communicate this clearly and boldly.
John was also unafraid to confront small-church shepherds who had compromised. He was particularly troubled when a pastor would quote an unqualified pastor that if others heard the names of these questionable men, they would think they were credible and be in danger of being led astray. As he corrected pastors, he did it with grace, but he always held the line on “the faith once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3). John was well aware of the great compromise taking place in the American evangelical church, and he did his part to shine the light of the truth of God’s Word on it. John, a layman, was an inspiration for pastors to boldly stand on the truth of God’s Word.
I once shared my admiration for John with an influential shepherd who has written many books faithful to Scripture. This is what this pastor wrote in response: “I am happy to see that there are still men who are willing to call someone to repentance without nuancing it to death. This John Styrbicki is not afraid. He’s also a truth lover because he’s willing to look at the actual evidence and weigh it with just scales. I thank God for him.” Truly, compromised shepherds would inevitably run into problems with John, but true shepherds viewed John as what a layman should be. They long for a multitude of soldiers just like him in their church and the broader Christian community. How much better the church would be if every Christian cared about God’s truth as much as John did.
An Encouraging Friend
While John was a lover of God’s truth, he was also a lover of people. His love for the Lord was regularly shown in his acts of kindness toward others. As I mentioned above, he was one of my greatest encouragers. When I moved on from the church in Minnesota where he and his wife became members, I started pastoring in Wisconsin in early 2017. Even though I was no longer his pastor and we no longer saw each other regularly, our friendship blossomed further. We had regular one-hour-plus phone conversations. He attended my Ordination Service, spending the entire day with my family and me. When I invited him to an event, barring a serious conflict, he was there.
When I sent him an article that I wrote or a podcast I did, he always wrote back a lengthy, encouraging note. When I took some stands and wondered what friends I might have left, he was a friend who never left my side, but was always there to call me to press on. The encouragement that he was to me, he was also to the radio host of The Christian Worldview, David Wheaton. John was a dear friend to David and faithfully served on their board for many years, while his wife, Sue, faithfully volunteered. Like Barnabas, John was a “son of encouragement” (Acts 4:36). He exercised this gift of the Spirit bountifully in my life and the lives of many others. As we journey through the life of faith, we need encouragers, and what an encourager John was.
A Legacy Worth Reflection
John was not a pastor, professor, missionary, or Christian internet influencer; he was a layman, an ordinary believer, but not so ordinary that the Lord used to encourage the faithful and to challenge the wayward. If one was out of line, he was a no-nonsense kind of man, unafraid to stand on the truth of God’s Word, and if he discerned another was faithful, there was no greater supporter than John. Last week, a faithful husband, father, grandfather, and friend left this world. I am enormously blessed that he was my friend. As long as I live, I will never forget him. One day, I look forward to reuniting in glory with him, along with numerous other believers who loved him. John left a Christian legacy that is worth reflection. May everyone reading this follow John’s example as he followed the example of Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1).
