Francis August Schaeffer died twice. He died once May 15, 1984 at the age of 73. But he had died once before that, back in 1930. He was a senior in high school and he had just read through the entire Bible from Genesis to Revelation. At that time, he was an agnostic and was thinking about throwing out the Bible permanently. But after he read through the Bible, he was struck by the truth of the Scriptures and his life was never the same. The day he submitted his life to the Truth, he died.
That first death shaped everything for Francis. His college career bent quickly toward ministry, specifically pastoral work. Even when his parents insisted on a more practical career, Francis knew that God had called him to ministry. Francis threw himself into studies and his work. He sought out those in need and ministered to them. One of his tactics was to catch up with students who had been drinking Saturday evening and help them get home and as part of his help, he got them to agree to come to church with him the next day. This would become a signature part of his ministry: befriend the needy who are close at hand.
Francis studied at Hampden-Sydney college and then later he went to Westminster Theological Seminary. He met his wife, Edith, when they both attended a talk given by a Unitarian who was arguing that “Jesus is not the Son of God”. Francis stood up and argued against the speaker’s erroneous position. Edith also stood up, agreeing with Francis. She quoted Dr. Gresham Machen in her response (Francis Schaeffer, by Colin Duriez, p. 30-31). This intrigued Francis. They met up later and began a friendship. The work of publicly defending the Christian faith defined their lives together. This was the beginning of many opportunities for both of them to work together and defend the truth.
When Francis was done with seminary work, he went on to pastor a few churches. One in Grove City PA, another in Chester PA, and then a third in St. Louis. During this time, he and Edith worked on ministry to young people. They created a Summer Bible School to minister to children which eventually developed into Children for Christ (p 59). Because of this work, the Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions in 1947 asked Francis to tour Europe for three months and make a detailed report on thirteen countries. This was his first work in France and Switzerland. Francis and Edith were then asked by the Board to be missionaries in Europe. They were commissioned to work with the World Council of Churches. It was in Amsterdam where Francis first met Hans Rookmaker and an enduring friendship formed that lasted throughout their lives. One evening, Hans met up with Francis and they began talking about Jazz music, which Hans was very interested in. This sparked an extensive conversation and, as Edith reported, they spent the night wandering the streets, discussing Christianity and culture (p 77).
In the early 1950s, Francis went through something of a spiritual crisis which caused him to re-examine all of his beliefs about Christianity. He proceeded to work through these things in great detail over the next few months. Through this struggle, he became more thoroughly convinced of the truth of Christianity and how it answered what he called “the problem of reality.” His later book True Spirituality contains much of the ideas and philosophical problems that he wrestled with during that time. Through this spiritual struggle new fruit developed and Francis renewed his ministry to people in Europe and the seeds for L’Abri were planted.
At this time, he was ministering to people in Switzerland, but because of his work in a region that was heavily Roman Catholic he was asked to leave because he was proselytizing. They were kicked out Feb 14, 1955 (p 127). Even though they were forced out of one portion of Switzerland, they were granted permission to go to another part. He resigned from the missionary board in June of that same year and he and Edith decided to go to the tiny village of Huemoz and purchase Chalet les Melezes. They needed a down payment of one thousand dollars in order to make the purchase and they received a letter in the mail with that exact amount (p 131).
The work of L’Abri began and guests began to visit. Many of the first visitors were friends of the Schaeffer children who were now in high school and college. This work blossomed into more and more people coming. The ministry of the home was to invite all people who were interested in questions about reality and Francis would dialogue with anyone. This work brought many people from all around.
The work became so famous that a journalist from Time magazine made a visit in November 30, 1959. January 11, 1960 the article was published entitled “Mission to Intellectuals” (p 150). The ministry expanded into a tape ministry and a book ministry and eventually included two movies: How Should We Then live? and Whatever Happened to the Human Race? The book How Should We Then Live? is still an important read, forty years later. Other works include Escape from Reason and The God Who Is There.
Later at the end of his life, when someone asked Francis what the reason is for being a Christian, he responded by saying, “There’s one reason and only one reason to be a Christian, which is that you’re convinced it is the truth of the universe” (p 109). In 1978, he found out that he had cancer. Treatment for it was able to push it into remission and he continued his work for another six years.
His daughter records that at the end of his life, when Francis was on his deathbed, she visited with him. She says that he was going in and out of consciousness and “there were several occasions when he was much more lucid, and once I said, “Is it true?”–what a thing to say to a dying person–and he said, “It is absolutely true, absolutely sure” (p 204).
That scene captures the ministry of Schaeffer: a dying man who takes the time to answer the questions of another. And that question is the one that Schaeffer knew to be the most important one.
