Dave Owen Eulogy

The following post is the Eulogy I gave at Dave Owen’s memorial service at Gold Country Baptist Church in Shingle Springs CA on  April 6, 2019.

David Lee Owen

Feb 5, 1956 (Tulsa OK)— March 29, 2019  (El Dorado CA)

Both in the Old Testament and in the New we find the admonition that if we are to boast we are to boast in the Lord. Dave was one who wanted to be remembered as someone who boasted in the Lord, rather than one who drew attention to himself. He wanted to be remembered by the biblical phrase: “I will boast in the Lord.”

At the center of his heart was a love for our God who has revealed himself to be Love. This was his core passion in life, a passion that he lived to communicate.

As he ministered in Micronesia he found that too often the Christians perceived God to be a harsh judge who was angry with them because even as Christians they still sinned.  As a response, his Life message to the Micronesians became:

God is not mad at you: HE LOVES YOU

To say that Dave has had a profound impact in Micronesia is an understatement. He was a missionary, a church planter, a pastor, a college and seminary professor, and a scholar, as well as serving as President of Pacific Islands University, a position that he never desired, but willingly filled because of the need of the University.

Another aspect of Dave’s personality and character was courage coupled with a passion for the truth as well as justice. If he saw a wrong that screamed to be addressed, he did not pray that the Lord would raise someone to take care of it: he took the responsibility upon himself.

Friendship

Unfortunately, I cannot claim to be one of Dave’s lifelong friends. We first met about 9 years ago shortly after I had started teaching at Pacific Islands Evangelical Seminary—but during the past 9 years we became best friends and confidants.

I started teaching Theology at PIES when the seminary was founded 10 years  ago—at the time Dave & Joyce were on furlough. The following year when I came, they became my hosts, and for the next seven years I stayed with them twice a year for 2-4 weeks at a time. I very quickly realized how much we had in common, not the least of which was our educational history. We both attended Biola College (University) where we met our respective wives and after graduation attended Dallas Seminary. Dave was several years younger than me so our paths never crossed either at Biola or at Dallas, but our histories gave us common bond. (In talking with Dave’s children Mike and Missy,this past week, I discovered that during their time in Dallas they lived about a block from where we had lived for 4 years.)

For the first few years of our friendship there was in the background the appearance of the novel The Shack, which became a runaway bestseller as well the center of controversy within conservative evangelicalism. I read the book and scratched my head, and said “What is all the controversy about? The underlying theology reflects the church’s historic understanding of the Trinity.”

I recommended the book to Dave. He got it, digested it—and loved it. He delved further into a deep study of the reality of the Trinity: the reality of God as eternal dynamic love and relationship. His interpretive lenses looking at the scriptures became Trinitarian lenses. For a couple of years, the Trinity and the implications of the reality that God, in himself, is relational love dominated our conversations.

He delved into the question “How do we relate to God: transactionally or relationally. Do the Father, Son & Spirit love us if. . .we do the right thing, if we do not sin ?  Or are we loved unconditionally?

The profound reality is that the gospel proclaims an unconditional loving relationship with our heavenly Father, the Son and Spirit, as opposed to a conditional love based on our performance or belief structure.

While knowing that the message would be controversial and that there would be push-back, Dave wanted to emphasize this message in Guam. Contemporary Trinitarian theologian Baxter Kruger & I had become close friends—Dave wondered if it would be possible to have Baxter come out to Guam for the University’s annual Equipping Conference. We pursued the possibility and in October 2015 Baxter came to speak—the University hosted  over 100 people who came face to face with the reality that God is love, and relational as opposed to being a distant angry “hanging judge.”

On a lighter note,:

Dave was an avid sports fan, football and especially, basketball and he was a fierce and passionate competitor. He for many years coached the PIU basketball team. I had only one opportunity to go to a game that he coached. He threw himself into the game challenging the referees, yelling at the players to play their positions and cheering them on. This was a side of his personality I had never experienced. In fact, during the last couple of weeks of his life as Dave lay on his bed March Madness was on in the background.

On a more personal note:

One of the images that stands out in my memory, was waking up couple of hours after sunrise, walking out of my bedroom, and seeing Dave at his computer with his Hebrew Bible open. As a night person I could not fathom how he could be awake and functional  before 6.AM. But this was his daily routine. He was committed to the Lord and to the scriptures—in fact he read the entire Bible through each year in the original Hebrew and Greek texts.

Dave was a learner who loved to be challenged. He believed that God’s truth was bigger than whatever tradition we have inherited. He was always reading commentaries and theological works, many from theologians and commentators outside his comfort zone. For years he shared daily on Facebook profound thoughts and truths from his reading that touched or challenged him.

While Dave was profoundly committed to building up the churches of Micronesia this aspect of his ministry extended his influence around the world.

I treasure our friendship– & miss him profoundly. But he is home, with our beloved Father, Son & Spirit and the family members that have preceded him to our eternal home.