Harold Kurtz
May 19, 1924 -- December 18, 2009

THE GOSPEL IS OUT OF CONTROL!” Everyone who knew Harold Kurtz has heard those words before. His life was committed to seeing that people groups of the world might experience the reality of the gospel and that Presbyterians in the US were aware of what God is doing in the world and would take part in it. Harold discovered last May that he had a brain tumor, and he went to be with his Lord on December 18, 2009. His memorial service will be at the Westminster Presbyterian Church in Portland, OR, at 7 pm January 9, 2010.

Harold Kurtz was born in March 1924 in Idaho in a community that had no church. Harold and his brothers grew up working the sparse land. Although there was no church in the community, Harold’s mother and some of the other women in the community organized a home Sunday School for the children. Harold made a decision to follow Jesus when he was ten years old, and gave credit to his mother as the one who led him to Christ at a young age.

These experiences marked Harold’s life and ministry: his determined perseverance, his commitment to the role of women in the church, and his concern for those on the margins of life, above all for those without the gospel.

After three years as a pastor in Portland, OR, Harold and Polly Kurtz took their three daughters to Ethiopia to follow God’s call. Four more children (one died in Ethiopia) and twenty-two years later God had done a wonderful work in the lives of the Kurtz family and, through them, in Ethiopia. Harold’s own change in perspective of how to work alongside God in seeing a church develop that was faithful to the local culture was then reflected in the complete overhaul of the way the Presbyterian mission was working. When they were forced to leave in a communist governmental takeover, God built on that new foundation in a mighty way, leading to a church that is today two and half times the size of the PCUSA and still growing.

But God wasn’t through with Harold, who had returned to Oregon as a pastor. Ralph Winter came to him and, as Harold said, “Pinned me to the wall.” Ralph told Harold he should take on the role of Executive Director of the new Presbyterian Frontier Fellowship. In 1983 Harold did that, serving in that role through 2000. Harold expressed the purpose of PFF as being to stimulate PCUSA cross-cultural evangelism among the unreached peoples of the world who do not have a viable church within their culture and who do not now have a witness of the Good News of Jesus Christ. Through his leadership of PFF and in the PCUSA, Presbyterians dramatically increased their support for frontier mission work. A former Director of the Worldwide Ministries Division told Harold, “There are not many people of whom it can be said that they changed the direction of a denomination. You are one of the few. You have changed the missional direction of the PCUSA.”

Harold’s vision lives on today in the continuing work of Presbyterian Frontier Fellowship’s ministry and in many local congregations, as well as in the PCUSA denominational structures. May God continue to bless and multiply that vision.

Memorials for Harold may be sent to PFF at 7132 Portland Ave Suite 136, Richfield, MN 55423. They will be placed in a special fund to be used for frontier mission work, to be decided in consultation with his family.

This article can be found on the home page of the Presyterian Frontier Fellowship at http://www.pff.net/

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