Spare Change

Remembering John Weber

Posted by Bryan

John Weber, a friend and fellow minister, was laid to rest yesterday at First Baptist Church Euless. As I had mentioned in an earlier post, John was the long-time chaplain for the Dallas Cowboys.

Yesterday was one of the more significant events in my recent life. John's funeral was so impacting on many levels, but foremost because it was incredibly glorifying to the Lord, Jesus.

John's son and four daughters spoke of their dad, honoring him and their mom for their consistent faith walk and family leadership. Each adult child spoke of John as a dad who carved out time out of his busy schedule, gave them individual, contextualized attention, and genuine love and affection.

Jon's children's remembrances were followed by kind words from Dallas Theological Seminary leaders Howard Hendricks and Mark Bailey. They both communicated the deep respect and high admiration they (and so many others) have for John as a serious-minded, deeply loyal disciple of Christ.

Following these gentlemen, former and current FBC Euless pastors Jimmy Draper and John Meador offered biblical encouragement. Both shared exceptional messages of hope and insight, and in doing so revealed that John was as consistent befriending his pastors as he was in befriending others.

Finally, current Cowboy Greg Ellis and former broadcaster Pat Summerall closed the services. Ellis shared how John's dedicated service had impacted so many of the Cowboys and many other professional athletes. Summerall concluded the sermon with a reading of a personal poem that John kept on the front of his journal.

Beyond the details of John's funeral, here's the personal impact. John exemplified the Christian walk in such a way that whether you met him once or had known him for years, you knew there was something different and special about him. And here's the thing...

What made him different and special was his ability to have you feel like you were special and by his knowing you, he was a better man.

Invariably, that made you feel better.

And I think that this is incredibly Christ-like.

I know that the Bible declares that God loves me. People like John Weber help me understand just how and how much God loves me. To have my need for God's love whetted by a person like John causes me to be even more thankful and amazed at the depth and breadth of God's even more attentive and interested love.

Now, the temptation may be in reading this is to assess it as incredibly selfish. And confessionally, there is an element of gracious appreciation for the friendship that John freely offered. However, what you have to understand (and can easily agree if you have experienced it yourself) is that when you receive the blessing of friendship like the sort that John offered, God consistently uses it to compel you to want to reproduce that in your own relationships with others.

I hear John's children speak of him in such glowing, adoring terms and I think, I want to be that type of man that will lead my children to speak of me that way.

I hear of John's friends, colleagues, and disciples thank God for the gift of John in their lives, and I pray, Lord, help me be a man of God who will love sacrificially, be pleasant in all ways, and to reflect the joy I have in you to all I meet.

John Weber is the sort of man that I aspire to be, and by God's grace, I may one day be.

John taught by his own life's example that such aspirations are noble and are ultimately attainable.

After the service, I thanked my friend Alan Smith for introducing me to John Weber because I am better for having known him and God used him in my life in ways that will only be fully measured on the other side of life.

Here is some of what others are saying about John:

Cowboys writer Mickey Spagnola

Cowboys writer Nick Eatman

Another from Nick Eatman.

David Burchett, a blogger and Athletes in Action colleague

Mark Bailey, DTS president

Royal Farris, a blogger and friend of John's.

The Star-Telegram report of his funeral.

November 7, 2007 12:58 PM | TrackBack