Dick Phillips - Prophet, Teacher, Brother

Our friend Dick Phillips has gone on to be with the Lord. While we rejoice in the Lord that He is in heaven, our hearts grieve his loss.

Dick was a big gruff man with a bushy moustache that often made his face look like he was frowning in disapproval.  However, the glint in his eyes gave away who he really was.

Like many of us from the baby-boomer generation he grew up with a disconnect between what he was experiencing in church and the vibrant Christianity he  found in the pages of the New Testament.

Also like many of us, when he came across the teachings of John Wimber he found someone who was giving expression to what we believed. Wimber said what we were thinking, only he said it better.

Dick bought into it hook, line and sinker and those teachings of the here and the not yet of the kingdom, doin' the stuff and everyone gets to play. As a result he trained thousands of people on how to pray for the sick, how to usher in the presence of the Holy Spirit (Come Holy Spirit) and how to be naturally supernatural in the administration and use of the gifts.

He modeled for us what is was to walk and minister in the Spirit.

It was just brought to my attention that Dick passed away 14 years to the day after Wimber went to be with the Lord.

Dick made his living as a mechanic and he was a genius at knowing how to tweak a drag race engine. He invented a flow-bench which he never was able to mass produce. To this day, people would call him from all over the US and Canada to mine his expertise. In fact, he was being brought to Orlando next month to present at a conference.

Dick was at his best in small groups where he would take out his Bible and he would start teaching in such a way that everyone was hanging on his every word. The thing is he wouldn't just teach, he would then model what he was teaching and instruct others to it themselves.

In his later years he had become quite heavy and his knees were bone on bone to where it was painful for him to walk any distance. On top of that he had diabetes and when you added it all up it had severely limited his ability to do any physical work. As much as he loved Florida and felt comfortable with all his friends here, he ultimately had to make the decision to return to Texas where he and MaryAnn lived in a trailer they were restoring on his Dad's property.

Even then, living out in the middle of nowhere they found a small church and it wasn't long before the two of them were teaching and ministering in the Spirit.

I have to confess, I didn't always appreciate Dick. When he was one of my elders when I was a pastor, I didn't quite have him figured out. I guess he saw more in me than I saw in myself and so he was constantly poking and prodding me. I guess that fed into one of my father issues where no matter what I did was never good enough and so I resisted him and closed myself off. Eventually, he got tired of hitting his head against a brick wall and he stepped down as an elder. In spite of that, he always let me know that despite his frustration with me, he loved me and was always there for me.

Through his friendship, I felt the Lord's love and through his prodding I was able to get to the point where I was finally able to acknowledge my sin, confess it and start a restoration process with another trusted friend and elder of my current church.

Dick became that friend that you didn't have to talk to everyday to know that if you picked up the phone, in an instant you picked up where you left off.

I owe him a lot. I loved him deeply and I will miss him

I know that I am not alone in this. To many, he was "Papa Dick".

Dick, say hi to the Lord and John Wimber for me. I'm sure you are on a first name basis with all of them.

Well done, good and faithful servant.

Ps 84:10 Better is one day in your courts

than a thousand elsewhere;

A special thanks to Tim Hall and Chris Cahall for letting me know about the "coincidence" of Dick passing on the same day as John Wimber.