Some Memories of Jim Durkin
by David Funnell
"How shall they preach unless they be sent?"
Jim was excited about the majesty and holiness of God - he had a revelation like Peter's of who Jesus is - desiring as well as transmitting the same intensity of excitement for others to enjoy (and submit to, as effectively as he himself had done).
Reminiscent of what Jesus told Philip, "Have I been so long with you, and you have not known me?" Jim realistically objectified the love of God by letting the Holy Spirit bring the evidence of faith to what he shared, simply and with brotherly love. Taking the form of our servant though in truth having the freedom that came from being a friend of God's and knowing what His sovereign plans will entail for us, Jim trusted very simply in the Lord.
This simplicity was what came of the revelation he so frequently imparted to his hearers, and dictated the extraordinary depth of character in a man who had discovered a genuine key to letting the Scripture interpret his life for him - and not the other way 'round. He practiced the Word in his spirit, by training his soul. (Ps. 62.5)
Therefore when Jim was worked up about something it was something to get worked up about, and we usually all did. I
remember my first exposure to his preaching, which came on a tape of his sending out a ministry team to Los Angeles. In a very loud and penetrating voice, he began his sermon with the astonishing statement, "Satan has been working on the Church!" When my surprise abated, I was able to understand very easily the history he was tracing, of the loss of some the Church's most precious treasures through deception, divisions and selfish complacency.
In particular he was calling for the restoration of the Offices of Ephesians 4:12, but as a starter for me this tape was a refreshing antidote to the traditionalized Christian messages I had grown up hearing, and still hear nearly as often as I turn on the radio or read a Christian magazine. Jim was doing what Jesus was famous for - he had teaching with power.
Surely Jim Durkin was a most unusual leader among the crowd of famous ministers, and his grasp of the power of God's Word certain and precise. I heard that "restoration" sermon when I was very young in the Lord, but the subsequent twenty years have proved the authority that Jim walked in, both in Scripture and in the Church around me. And it is indeed through the real restoration message that I can gladly claim with understanding, that I refer to the Church as a whole and not to a sectarian view of just Gospel Outreach, to declare that the restoration of those treasures has begun - we are receiving the power to be made like Christ, to dwell together in unity with the brethren, and to preach the Gospel to the ends of the earth. "For a witness, and then shall the end come!"
Jim would be the first to deny that he possessed unique powers, and obviously a great and growing number of large and widespread fellowships are led by men of a vision as broad as his was. This is what he preached: "that we all come to the unity of the faith". Faith, and the communion of its confession are the effect of revelation by God. Jim's alert, sober approach to the topics of obedience and submission to spiritual authority always rested soundly and peacefully on this foundation; he pursued the "multitude of counsel" with expectant diligence, placing the honor of God at the top of every agenda and looking for it in every heart.
I believe the Lord has revealed to me the peace available to us in receiving a prophet in the name of a prophet. Knowing Jim Durkin as my brother convinced me that he knew God had given him to me. As we look back on his testimony of how he came to develop his understanding of God's ways - how he let God change him - it should inspire us to listen again for the wisdom, the profit, and the power God gave to us through him.
David Funnell
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