Family, friends, and colleagues will gather at the chapel at Lincoln Christian University today to remember and celebrate the life of Dr. Robert Lowery. The service is scheduled at 1:00 PM and classes have been canceled from 1:00-2:50.
The school has posted an obituary for Dr. Lowery, available here.
Becky Boggs, administrative assistant in the Seminary, sent this message to the campus today:
The family has finalized the arrangements for Dr. Lowery. Visitation will be at Jefferson Street Christian Church In Lincoln, IL, on Sunday, May 1st from 2-4 p.m. and again from 6-9 p.m.
The funeral will be held in the Lincoln Christian University chapel on Monday, May 2nd at 1 p.m.
Again, the family is extremely appreciative of all your thoughts and prayers.
Dr. Paul Boatman sent the following message to the campus at 7:25 this evening:
Dr. Lowery quietly and peacefully passed from this life about an hour ago. Marilyn said that he squeezed her hand tightly, then quit breathing.
Visitation and funeral arrangements will be announced as soon as they are firmed up.
Marilyn and the children greatly appreciate the support that so many have provided during this vigil. They will look forward to visiting with friends at the visitation and funeral.
Dr. Paul Boatman, Dr. Lowery’s long-time colleague and co-dean of the Seminary, sent this announcement via campus email shortly after 8:00 AM today:
Bob Lowery spent a peaceful night in his hospital room with his family nearby. His breathing is halting and labored, but he does not seem to be in pain. His departure appears to be imminent, but his strong heart keeps pumping for now. We join family in praying for his peaceful passage.
While visitation with Bob is not appropriate at this time, the family in the waiting area would be receptive to a few visits.
NOTE: Dr. Lowery is at Abraham Lincoln Memorial Hospital in Lincoln, IL.
Dr. Lowery’s daughter-in-law, Sarah, posted this note on Facebook today:
Brian wanted me to pass along a word of thanks for all the love and prayers. They are making Bob as comfortable as possible, and the family is able to spend some meaningful time with him. Please keep them in prayer, and especially pray for peace and comfort for Bob. Much love to you all.
As regular readers will know, Dr. Lowery has not written a post for this site in several months. His health has taken a turn for the worse in the last several weeks and he has been moved into hospice care at the local hospital. My wife and I visited with him briefly this morning to say “thank you” for being our teacher, mentor, and friend. Gary Hall, Bob’s friend and colleague from the Seminary, was also there to read Bob a few psalms and a passage from Revelation (which, Gary quipped, Bob probably could have recited from memory).
More details on Bob’s condition will be posted as they come. Until then, here’s a portion of the text that Gary read to Bob today (Revelation 19.5-9, NIV).
Then a voice came from the throne, saying:
“Praise our God,
all you his servants,
you who fear him,
both great and small!”Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting:
“Hallelujah!
For our Lord God Almighty reigns.
Let us rejoice and be glad
and give him glory!
For the wedding of the Lamb has come,
and his bride has made herself ready.
Fine linen, bright and clean,
was given her to wear.”(Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God’s holy people.)
Then the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!” And he added, “These are the true words of God.”
Some of you might be wondering why Dr. Lowery hasn’t updated his blog recently. During the second week of September, Dr. Lowery had a motor scooter accident that resulted in a broken collarbone as well as a broken leg. The collarbone is healing nicely. The broken leg has proven to be a longer process. After the accident, the doctors waited two weeks for swelling to go down and then did surgery to set the leg. After surgery, Dr. Lowery spent several weeks in a local nursing facility to begin physical therapy.
Dr. Lowery is currently at home, resting and on the road to recovery. He continues physical therapy on his leg. He sees the surgeon again on November 2nd to determine whether he can begin to bear some weight on the leg. The doctor has told him they are anticipating another month of limited mobility before he can get back to school. He has some times of discouragement because the process is slow, but overall he is doing well.
The other very good news is that his cancer has remained stable now for 7 months. All the current tests show no new growth and no growth of the tumors that already exist. They have assured him that the bone break had nothing to do with his cancer, either.
Please continue to pray for Bob and his family. For now he has requested limited visitors and phone calls since the doctor really wants him to rest. If you would like to drop him a note you can send it to the school at:
Dr. Bob Lowery
Lincoln Christian University
100 Campus View Drive
Lincoln, IL 62656
His mail is being delivered to him on a regular basis.
On August 1 I began my thirty-sixth year of teaching in the Seminary of Lincoln Christian University. I am blessed! The title of this posting describes how I have felt over the years. Of course, there have been ups and downs, but that is to be expected in ministry, isn’t it? But again, I am blessed!
I wish I could write that whenever I stepped into the classroom or whenever I met with students one-on-one or in a small group around a lunch table, I always did my best. That has not always been the case, but my students have been, for the most part, forgiving. Sometime ago I commented about a student who has either taken for credit or audited every class I have ever taught, “She has been to more of my classes than I have!” I confess that sometimes I showed up or phoned in a session. But I hope that has not happened often. The point is that after teaching all these years, each August I am re-energized to begin once again, and this year is not different.
But I begin this new school year with a request. The requst is awkward for me to raise, but here goes. As most of you know I have been an Adjunct Professor for TCM International Institute, a ministry committed to equipping Europeans and people living in Central Asia for ministry. I began my ministry with this outstanding organization in 1993 and have returned each summer to teach. I am blessed! Some of the finest students, faculty, administrators, and support personnel I have ever met are a part of TCMI.
Over the years I have tried to be a disciple-maker, both in the States and throughout Eastern Europe. My passion is to be a practioner-scholar and to help make more and better disciples of Jesus. I learned this from my mother and from my home church in Indianapolis, Indiana (Fairfax Christian Church), and numerous other Christians, from preachers to professors to students to friends to colleagues. In April of this year I found out that the TCM Board of Directors’ Meeting unanimously adopted a resolution to create the Dr. Robert Lowery Faculty Chair Endowment Fund. This endowment will be used to recognize and select a faculty member by supporting his or her base salary, teaching, and research activities that will directly relate for further development of international disciple makers throughout Europe and Central Europe. I was and remain humbled by this recognition. May I say again, I am blessed.
So here is my request. Should you or a congregation you know be looking for an opportunity to support one of the finest para-church ministries I know of, would you personally give or encourage others or other congregations to give? It is not like me to make such a request, and this is the first time I have ever done so on this site. Should you choose to give, it is not to honor me. Far from it, it is to honor God.
Please contact David Wright at TCM International Institute, Inc., 6337 Hollister Drive, Indianapolis, IN 46224 or call him at 1:317-299-0333. His e-mail address is david@tcmi.org.
May we be grateful to God that each of us can write: I am blessed.
News of the upcoming festschrift for Dr. Lowery (first announced here) was recently featured in the Springfield, Illinois, Journal-Register. You’ll find the piece here:
Dr. Lowery is taking some time this month for vacation and a brief writing sabbatical. Look for new posts at the beginning of August.