My Friend and Mentor: Jim Evans

I first met Professor Jim Evans my freshman year in college. That was in the fall of 1969 and he was the faculty sponsor for our class. Jim and Ellen welcomed our class into their home on multiple occasions over the next four years and to simply say they were a blessing to our class would fail to describe the godly, Christ-like way Jim and Ellen treated the Class of 1973 at Atlanta Christian College.

I really got to know Professor Evans in my junior and senior years when I took two years of Greek under his oversight. He was a demanding professor in whose classroom you knew to come prepared. My Greek II term paper on Colossians 1:15-20 (which he saved a copy and gave to me 40 years later) was no doubt the best thing I did as an undergraduate student. He taught me more about interpreting Scripture than any single person I could name. Students in my classrooms who think Huxford knows something about how to interpret Scripture should really think “Jim Evan taught him well.”

When I went to graduate school and took an advanced Greek grammar class my first semester, I quickly realized what a blessing all the hard work Jim Evans demanded of his students really was. No one in my class – from a variety a different Christian colleges – came close to knowing what I knew about Greek grammar. It was because of Jim that I became the graduate assistant to Dr. Lewis Foster for the next two and one-half years in graduate school. 

When I eventually came back to Atlanta Christian College as an instructor, no one made me feel more welcomed than Jim Evans. When he left ACC to become the preacher at Westside Christian Church, I became the Greek teacher at ACC. Following in Jim’s huge footsteps would become a pattern for me. I was never the Greek teacher Jim was, but if learning principal parts of verbs was important for Jim, it became important for me and students had to learn the same kind of material in my class that I learned in his!

Like Jim, I eventually left “full-time status” at ACC and became a preacher! By now Jim was executive director for the European Evangelistic Society and he and Ellen occasionally visited First Christian Church. No one made me more nervous by simply being in the audience than Jim Evans, and no one made me feel better about myself as a preacher than Jim Evans as he spoke to me after the service. 

Jim would finally decide that he needed to retire from the daily grind of working for EES and I emailed him and asked him if he thought I might be a good fit. He immediately responded that I would be a good fit and no doubt I was hired to do that job – again following in Jim’s footsteps – because of his influence. As was always true in every context, no one was more encouraging to me than Jim and Ellen. I hope they are in charge of the gates of heaven when I get there!

While working for EES, Vick and I were members at Southwest Christian Church, where Jim Donovan – the neighbor of the Evans, and like me, a student blessed by Jim’s teaching – was the preacher. One Sunday I was asked to preach for Jim Donovan. I will never forget what Jim Evans said going out the door that Sunday morning: “That was a real expository sermon.” Having been the preacher for the same church for 20 years and having preached many, many sermons, I can’t remember a compliment that meant more to me than that. My Greek teacher thought I preached a biblical sermon!

One day Jim asked me to stop by his house and of course I did. Lunch with Jim and Ellen was always a treat. (Best chicken salad ever!) After lunch, Jim took me to his office and gave me a stack of books. He said that he wanted me to have these books and reminded me of what a gift that was by saying, “Books are like your children, you don’t just let anybody have them!” I will die with those books on my shelf.

Late this afternoon I learned that Jim left this world for the one for which he lived his entire life. Ellen, Celeste, Lisa, and Eric and their families have suffered a great loss. So have countless former students whose lives were shaped in kingdom ways by the teaching of Jim Evans. It is not trite to say that our loss is heaven’s gain.

One of the classrooms in the new academic center at Point University is named the “Jim and Ellen Evans Classroom.” I was privileged to help raise the money to name that room in their honor. During that process I received countless letters – with contributions – from former students who said something like “Jim was the one who taught me to study Scripture well.” As I said the day the room was dedicated in their honor – I hope, from the bottom of my heart, that Jim and Ellen know the impact they have had on so many students who were privileged to sit in Jim’s classroom and visit in their home.

May God raise up more people like Jim and Ellen Evans. We need them.

Dr. Gil Sale

What would be the best word to describe my former dentist, Dr. Gil Sale, who died a few weeks ago? Not only was he our family’s dentist, from 1976 until his retirement not quite two years ago, but he was also a friend. Even though he grew up Methodist and remained a Methodist, he and his wife, Margaret, often attended First Christian Church when I was the preacher, and after I left, when Billy Rowe was the preacher. They were generous to First Christian, and Dr. Sale often did things that enabled Billy and me to help out families in great need – especially at Christmas. 

Though the word Southern gets batted around in a pejorative fashion a lot these days, those who think “backwards, simpleton, and not 'with it'” when they hear “Southern” evidently never met Gil Sale. When I think about his life, I think Southern is one of the right words. Kind and courteous, Dr. Sale was a gentleman to the core. You never sat in his dental chairs without first answering questions about yourself, your family, and common friends. That curiosity was rooted in authentic concern for others. So, yes, Gil Sale was certainly a Southern gentleman.

But to say the name Dr. Gil Sale and not say the word generous would be to completely ignore reality. I know personally of his generosity to me and my family – and to some of my best friends in ministry. I know about students from Atlanta Christian College/Point University for whom he generously provided dental care. I know about families whose children had Christmas gifts because of Dr. Sale’s generosity. My guess is that we would find the number of people blessed in this life by his generosity stunning.

I’m not sure how anyone else reading this feels about going to the dentist, but for me, I can think of a dozen other things I’d prefer to do. That’s why, when I think of Dr. Sale as a dentist, among the first words that come to mind is calming. He just had a way of making you feel comfortable enough to be calm – no matter what procedure he was performing. You knew he would keep checking – “Still okay?” And you knew he would do everything possible to a) not hurt you and b) fix whatever the problem was. Dentist and calming may not be partner words in many contexts – but they were in Dr. Sale’s office.

For me, it is hard to think of Dr. Sale without saying “Gil and Margaret.” Most often, when I went to an appointment with Dr. Sale, my first encounter was with Margaret, his wife and a dental hygienist. I have no idea how many times she cleaned my teeth, and often complimented me on my flossing! Together, they created an atmosphere in that office that was comforting from the time you walked in the door until you left.

One more word – ultimately the most important one: when I think of Dr. Sale, I think Christian. Dr. Sale wasn’t one of those pompous, self-righteous people who like to beat you over the head with the Bible. He didn’t try to model some sort of fake spirituality that you could see through from a mile away. But he did model, in so many ways, what a life looks like when the Jesus story has transformed it. When I think about some of the people I know who were patients of Dr. Sale, I think of one in particular who may have been the most contrary, difficult person I’ve ever known. He was that way at church, at work, among “friends.” Contrary is actually a polite word. I can only assume his core character came out when he was sitting in Dr. Sale’s chair. But it wasn’t unusual for Dr. Sale to ask, “How’s . . .?” and express great concern as serious illness began to impact our mutual “friend’s” life. To me, that speaks to the way Dr. Sale discovered what it means to say “I follow Jesus.” 

I once told Dr. Sale that I was pretty sure there would be no cavities in heaven – and God has a plan to make teeth more lasting in eternity. He laughed and said something like “Good, that means I won’t have to work when I get there.” For a guy who worked as a dentist well beyond when most of his colleagues retired, I’m not sure what Dr. Sale plans to do in heaven. But I’m pretty sure that, when I get to the proverbial “pearly gates,” if I stop and listen, I’ll likely hear a deep, rich baritone voice laughing in the joy of whatever it is he’s doing up there!

Thank God for the Dr. Sale kinds of people with whom we cross paths in this life. I will – along with countless others – miss that great voice and even greater person.