When God Moves, You Move
A Tribute to Greg Livingstone
My spiritual dad went home just a few weeks ago. His passing was not unexpected, but the loss is real. My life and my wife’s life were forever changed by him.
Unless you are involved in world missions, particularly among Muslim people, you may not know the name Greg Livingstone. As with many of God’s choice servants, Greg was an unlikely candidate for transforming ministry in “closed” Muslim countries.
Greg’s birth was an “accident” between a Gentile showgirl and a Jewish intellectual. Greg never knew his dad, who died in the Korean conflict, and his father’s family refused to acknowledge his existence. His mother eventually married a man whose last name Greg bore, but she tired of raising Greg and turned him over to foster parents.
It was clear God had a plan for this “unwanted” young man. Greg came to faith in Messiah Jesus in high school. A believing family in Colorado took Greg under their wing, brought him to the First Baptist Church (FBC) of Aspen, oversaw his discipleship, and encouraged Greg to attend a Christian college. Greg attended Wheaton College determined to become a lawyer. But God had other plans.
A classmate invited him to an all-night prayer meeting focused on reaching the world with Messiah’s Good News. The prayer meeting was at Moody Bible Institute, led by a Moody student, George Verwer. Students were already praying when Greg walked in. George looked up and gave him his assignment: “You’ve got Libya.” This one sentence changed the trajectory of Greg’s life. From then on, Greg was focused on world missions.
After graduating, Greg married Sarah (Sally) Colton, who had been studying at Wheaton to become a doctor on the mission field. Selling all their wedding gifts, the newlyweds joined George Verwer to help launch Operation Mobilization, a Christian sending agency that has mobilized young people to live out and share the gospel since 1963). For the next 16 years they traveled the world, wherever they were needed. Each of their three boys was born on a different continent.
After years of field ministry, Greg and Sally felt an increasing conviction that God wanted them to return to the U.S. to pursue training in counseling. Greg saw a need for providing better support for “front line” ministry workers. After much prayer and counsel, Greg, Sally and the children moved to California where Greg had already applied to graduate school. To their shock, Greg’s application was rejected and that door slammed shut!
Unbeknownst to Greg, his home church (First Baptist of Aspen) needed a pastor. When the church’s deacons heard about this unexpected door closing, they reached out to invite Greg to serve as their pastor. After much prayer, Greg accepted the call; in faith, the Livingstones moved to Aspen in 1974. It is here that our stories intersect.
Downhill skiing always fascinated me, despite having grown up in a Jewish home in Manhattan in a non-skiing family. In the fall of 1973 I moved to Colorado. Aspen was “heaven on earth” and I decided it would be my permanent home. You know the old expression, “Man plans, God laughs.”
At the start of my second year in Aspen, I met a beautiful young woman from Kansas City whom God used to explain Messiah’s Good News to me. Cynthia was bold and tenacious in her witness. Every Sunday, she invited me to attend FBC where Greg was pastor. I refused.
I first met Greg at Cynthia’s apartment. She invited Greg, Sally, and their kids for dinner in the hopes that Greg could get some “traction” with me. Although I was hostile and obnoxious the entire evening, God’s plan for me was in motion.
After witnessing to me for a year, Cynthia invited me to attend a potluck and worship dinner hosted by a church family. By this time, I had secretly started reading the Bible (Old Covenant only of course) and talking to God about my relationship with Him. At that potluck, Greg had a profound impact on my spiritual journey.
As I sat alone on the fireplace hearth watching the people in the room, I couldn’t help but think, “I’m the only Jewish person in the room and all these people want to convert me.”
Just then, Greg sat down next to me. “Man, I’m tired. I need a break!” he said. A minute later, he got up and was engrossed in another conversation.
In Greg’s defense, he did not remember this encounter and perhaps did not recognize me. Yet, God used his honesty to touch me deeply that evening. Here was the spiritual leader of the community willing to acknowledge that life is still challenging, even with Jesus in your life.
This meant a lot to me. I was highly skeptical of “easy believism,” that by trusting Jesus life is always “great!” The next day I professed faith in Messiah Jesus, in part, as a result of Greg’s honesty.
I started attending FBC Aspen on Sunday mornings and Wednesday evenings. Sitting under Greg’s exegetically sound preaching with down-to-earth applications shaped my identity as a follower of Messiah. Greg challenged the congregation to consider: if the gospel is true and Jesus is who He claimed to be, how can we not live radically changed lives? He taught me what it means to be a “both/and” Christian, to see the gospel preached “both in Jerusalem, and Judea, and Samaria, and the remotest parts of the earth.”
FBC Aspen intentionally did not have a baptistry in the building so that immersions could be done publicly or in the community. In the Colorado winters, immersions were performed in pools and hot tubs at people’s homes. As Greg prepared to immerse Cynthia and me in a friend’s hot tub, he quipped, “I’ve always wanted to know a little Hebrew…now I know Danny Strull.”
Corny, yes, but it captured something else Greg taught me: “God we should take seriously; ourselves, not so much!”
About a year and half after I came to faith, Greg presided over Cynthia’s and my wedding. At the time I was a ski instructor, and Cynthia was FBC Aspen’s first-ever church secretary, serving with Greg. He instilled in us a desire to make our lives count for Jesus, and we were eager to do so in Aspen as a newly-married couple. In fact, God miraculously enabled us to purchase a modular home next to the Roaring Fork River, just a few minutes from Aspen. Man plans…God had another plan, and Greg was the catalyst.
Greg’s passion for Muslim evangelism had not waned during his time serving as a pastor. So, when the leadership of North Africa Mission (NAM) approached Greg about taking the reigns as NAM’s U.S. Director headquartered near Philadelphia, he and Sally saw the Lord’s hand in it. The church community was crestfallen at losing Greg and Sally’s leadership but rejoiced in the opportunity for them to pursue their passion.
One afternoon shortly after their departure announcement, I stopped by the church office. Greg walked into Cynthia’s office and casually asked a question that forever changed our lives. “Why don’t you guys come with us to serve at the North Africa Mission?”
Cynthia and I laughed out loud! We thought, Are you serious? We just got married and moved into our new house. How could we leave Aspen, especially our beloved community at FBC? Give up skiing? The mountains? Move to Upper Darby, Pennsylvania?
But Greg was serious. By the time I left the office, Cynthia and I had committed to praying about Greg’s invitation. A week later we accepted the offer, listed our home, started packing and began preparing ourselves for the unknown.
Cynthia and I wept as we drove away from Aspen four months later. We loved Aspen, our church, our home, and precious friends. But Greg’s teaching about Jesus’ worthiness, and how that impacts our lives, and his and Sally’s example kept us moving forward.
We served as home-staff at NAM’s headquarters for three years. God blessed us with a ringside seat to watch Greg exercise his gifts. His call to be “unstoppable” in asking God to establish 25 indigenous house churches where there were currently none reenergized a venerable but flagging work. Greg’s passion fueled a resurgence of young candidates instilled with a fresh vision to reach the Muslim world.
After three years at NAM the Lord opened a door for me to attend a missions-minded Bible college in Columbia, South Carolina. Beloved friends encouraged us to go and committed to covering our books and tuition as the Lord enabled them. Accepting Greg’s “crazy” invitation to leave Aspen taught us a lot about God’s faithfulness. So, trusting Him for the rest of our finances seemed an obvious choice. The Lord proved His faithfulness again and again.
Since God’s heart for missions had been poured into us by Greg, following graduation we followed the Lord’s leading to serve with Jews for Jesus in Skokie, Illinois. Once again, the Lord taught us much about His faithfulness and sufficiency. After three and a half years serving as a front-line evangelist, it was clear my strongest gifts lay in teaching and discipleship. So, with Greg’s teaching ringing in our ears, we stepped out in faith and took a leave of absence from our beloved mission, trusting the Lord for guidance and provision.
Several weeks later, the elders of Olive Tree Congregation (OTC), the Messianic Jewish congregation we had been attending, invited me to provide pulpit supply while they searched for a congregational leader. A month later, I was invited to candidate to serve as pastor. By God’s grace, OTC remained our ministry home for the next 35 years.
Even in Messianic Jewish ministry, Greg’s imprint was evident on my tenure – I sought to provide exegetical preaching with common sense application, with a commitment to supporting missions both to the Jewish people AND the world. By God’s grace OTC supports an active missions program, and continues nurturing and sending people into ministries around the world.
The short version of Cynthia’s and my story is that Greg Livingstone’s love for Jesus, his passion for reaching Muslims, and his audacity to invite an untested young Jewish believer and his wife to join him in service is the reason we ended up in Jewish ministry!
Now retired, Cynthia and I are no longer serving the Lord in a full-time vocational ministry. But Greg’s invitation continues to shape our lives. His recent homegoing reminded us of his goal in life. Greg often said that when he finally gets to meet the Jesus face to face, his heart’s desire is to hear Him say, “Well done, well done! I have been able to accomplish everything that I desired through your life. Welcome home.”
Because of Greg’s influence, we too are seeking to faithfully complete the race. May we all finish our days with the same clarity and conviction that characterized the life of God’s faithful servant and our brother, Greg Livingstone.
Written by Dan, Life in Messiah board member
(1) What “crazy adventures” and moves has the Lord led you on?
(2) If you were to go home today, what do you think God would say to you?
(3) Dan’s full testimony is available to watch: They Broke All the Rules: A Jewish-Christian Love Story ❤️.
To learn more about Greg’s life and his transformative impact on missions to Muslims we recommend these links:
https://www.frontiers.org.uk/blog/greg-livingstone-founder-of-frontiers-dies-at-85