Popular evangelist dies at 56
VANCOUVER–Terry Winter was remembered as loyal, generous, encouraging and characteristically Canadian by those who paid tribute to the evangelist at a memorial service December 18.
"His heart and focus was Canada," said long-time friend Brian Stiller, president of Tyndale College and Seminary. "He had no interest in kingdom-building. His life was Kingdom-seeking."
Winter died suddenly December 10 after suffering a brain hemorrhage at his Vancouver office. He was 56.
"His death is a major loss–to his friends and family, and to Canadian Christianity," said British evangelist Michael Green, a frequent guest on Winter's television program, who preached at the memorial service held at Broadway Church and attended by about 2,000 people.
Winter was best known across Canada for his weekly television broadcast, The Terry Winter Show, which featured interviews with guests who articulated the Christian faith. The program was broadcast on 28 major stations to one million people. Winter was also a popular speaker at outreach banquets, and had recently decided to return to city-wide crusade evangelism (CW, Dec1/98).
Discovered a gift
Born in New Westminster and raised in Nanaimo, B.C., Winter became a Christian after attending an evangelistic crusade when he was 17. A zoology major in university, he hoped to be a doctor. But when he began speaking on a gospel team when he was just 19, he discovered he had a gift for explaining the Christian faith. He changed his career plans, and was among the first class to receive a doctorate in systematic theology and communication from Fuller Theological Seminary.
In 1969 he launched into fulltime evangelism, and a few years later was conducting crusades in cities across Canada, which he kept doing until 1986. In 1972 evangelist Luis Palau gave him the idea to produce a 30-minute television film. The film brought in a flood of mail, and two years later Winter launched his own program.
His style tended to be low-key rather than preachy. He believed the gospel should be "announced joyfully and clearly and lovingly," he once said in an interview. He also had respect for his viewers. "They may not be informed but they're intelligent," he said.
Expressions of sorrow
Christian leaders from throughout North America expressed sadness at Winter's death. "Genuine sorrow has swept across the evangelical movement at the news of Terry Winter's passing," says Gary Walsh, president of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada. "Christians everywhere identified with his authentic witness and ministry."
Charles Colson, chair of Prison Fellowship International and a guest on Winter's program, called Winter "one of the great leaders of our faith in North America." Colson says Winter "had a tremendous mind. Of all the people who interviewed me," he adds, "I enjoyed Terry most."
"He was able to present the message in a winsome, warm, non-threatening manner," says theologian Ward Gasque, who had known Winter since student days at Fuller.
Though Winter remained unknown in the U.S., "Canada was his parish, and there can be few Protestant Christians who did not know Terry Winter," comments Gasque. "And there has probably not been any other Canadian in the past three decades who has introduced more people to the Lord Jesus."
Theologian J.I. Packer, also a former guest on Winter's program, described Winter as "endlessly interested in the spreading of the gospel of our Lord and the building up of the Church."
"One mark of an evangelist," Packer said at the memorial service, "is that the excitement of the grace of God...never leaves." Winter "was wonderful in the way that he showed and shared that excitement in his own heart."
Winter is survived by his wife, Joan, and four adult children.
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