Derek was a Baptist minister for 64 years, which included 3 pastoral charges,
25 years as a Hospice Chaplain, 15 of them full time,
46 years continuous teaching in the Scottish Baptist College 5 of them full time,
40+ years of leadership in the Scottish Baptist History Project.
And much more.
Derek was an understanding and thoughtful preacher, a warm-hearted and faithful pastor, a teacher who taught the right questions to ask and never to settle for poor answers, in Church History a scholar of faithful enthusiasm for the story and an amazing memory and careful accuracy for the detail, a theologian generous and broadly evangelical, progressive and biblically oriented, pastoral and spiritual.
He was also and always one of the most enjoyable conversationalists drawing on a mind like a fully stocked supermarket of stories, facts and ideas.
Derek was my teacher in College, a good and supporting friend ever since - he embodied the title of a book we discussed more than once - the love of learning and the desire for God.
The first hymn in the Thanksgiving Service was chosen by Derek, a hymn we sang with gratitude to God as a description of a man we loved as companion on the road:
Brother, Sister, let me serve you,
Let me be as Christ to you,
Pray that I may the gift to
let you be my servant too.
Well done thou good and faithful servant; enter the rest prepared for you. May you rest in peace and rise in glory. Amen.
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