A True Servant

One of the Presbyterian Church’s oldest, and perhaps most revered, members passed away on Aug. 25 in Toronto. Rev. Dr. Kenneth McMillan, a member of the Order of Canada and past moderator of the PCC, died at the age of 97.

McMillan spoke with the Record in April at his home in Toronto. What follows are his thoughts and reflections on his life and the church, taken mostly from that conversation.

From 1942 to 1957, McMillan served congregations in Burgoyne, Niagara Falls and Guelph, Ont. But at age 40, he left pastoral ministry to work for the Canadian Bible Society.

“People said, ‘you’re ruining your career.’ Well I wasn’t worried about my career. You see when I was a youth I surrendered my life to Christ. And God has carried me all these years, that’s the simple fact. I was a farm boy with no particular gifts if I can say so. But if you’re available to God—well, you see, it’s not your ability but your availability. I wanted to do God’s will and that’s what happened.”

With two little girls at home, McMillan’s wife, Isobel wasn’t too excited about him switching jobs. The presbytery didn’t want him to go either, but McMillan felt God’s call.

“I took the job and it was hard going. The first five years were rough; things were bad at the Canadian Bible Society. But gradually it got better. I was there 26 years. And we had a marvelous ministry together.”

After he retired from CBS he approached the head of World Vision. “I told him I was available and he hired me in 15 minutes. And I was there 27 years. I had a wonderful time at World Vision. I admired the leaders; they were all so dedicated.”

As McMillan spoke, he returned to a common refrain: “Everything seems to me just one blessing after another,” he said, ending each of his stories with, “I’m just so blessed.”

At seminary, he learned from one of the greats. “When I was at Knox College we had three or four professors and hardly any staff. When I was there the great man was Dr. [Walter] Bryden. He was the one who molded us. We’d come out of a lecture never having taken a note, it was so tense. He had a tremendous influence on us all.”

McMillan was recently awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for his “distinguished service.” This came after receiving the Queen’s Gold Jubilee Medal in 2002, and being appointed to the Order of Canada in 1984.

Still, he remained humble about his accomplishments. In his autobiography, All Things Are Possible he argues he has lived “the life of a very ordinary person, with limited gifts, who managed to have a very good life.”

“My attitude is more important than my ability, my friends, my education, or what happens to me,” he continues in his book. “Knowing, truly believing, that God loves us changes everything. It is the basis of my real self-worth.”

When he spoke with the Record, he was in excellent spirits, and was working on editing a variety of books. He said he was very healthy—his only medication “an aspirin a day.” Every day he rose at six a.m., exercised half an hour, ate a banana and two oranges, then read four devotions.

He went on to say, “The minister’s spiritual life is very important. People aren’t interested in what you know, they’re interested in who you are. A minister’s life speaks.

“A minister is a servant; that’s the primary thing. If you’re not prepared to be a servant and identify with the people, you shouldn’t be a minister. You’re not above them, you’re with them.”

This idea of community, of connection, of love and servanthood, seemed to be of particular importance to McMillan. In a letter sent a day after the interview, he wrote:
“Religion is about rules. Christianity is about relationships—our relationship to God and our relationship to people. The church of the future will have an absence of religion. It will focus on God’s love for the world, and let the love of God flow through it into the lives of people.”