A tribute to the richest man I know
10 things I loved about, and learned, from Stacy Cline.
Stacy Cline was first my college professor, then my grief counselor, eventually my boss (for my years as Dean of women at Elim Bible Institute), and through it all a dear friend.
So many tributes are being written about this amazing man of God right now and the stories warm my heart, tear me up and bring an ache in my heart that physically hurts... I'm happy for him though, like all those who know him, that he is out of pain and with his "sweetheart" once again. I'm happy he is with his Lord and no doubt hearing the words we all long for, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant". (Danielle and Michelle, you are in our hearts and our prayers. May God comfort us all as we are suffering this loss.*)
#1 - He was my first real coach. Stacy rarely told anyone what to do, he most often listened, cared, asked questions, prayed, and helped you work through options till a good choice was made.
#2 - He had an open-door policy. As many students have mentioned in their tributes, a lot of his ministry happened on the fly after the "Got a minute?" question. That's the same way he trained me as well. At first, I went in mostly with questions and concerns and eventually just shared FYIs with him to keep him in the loop.
#3 He always had more to share. My freshman first semester at Elim he taught OT survey. We spent a fair amount of time in Genesis as we should have. Then 2nd semester I had another class with him called "Genesis". He started out saying he would have spent more time on other topics the first semester had he known we were going to have a whole semester on Genesis, but no matter, he had plenty of material to keep us learning through an entire semester. I think most of his teaching barely scratched the surface of what he could have shared.
#4 He was not one of the most, but the absolute most eclectic person I know. If you frequented his office you never knew what kind of music he might be listening to - like literally, it could be hundreds of years old or from last week, it could be acapella or heavy metal, and a hundred other options.
He always had 5 books going too, likely from a wider variety of viewpoints than most of us could handle, but he loved hearing from everyone and deciding for himself.
Like his music and his books, he loved all types of people as well and made us all feel loved and welcomed. He was way ahead of his time in advocating not just for equality but for true welcoming love for all people groups. He championed women in ministry early on.
#5 He was fun and valued community. Once Jennie Mauer, our Deans Dept admin, and I decided to have an "Office" day for Connie, his wife who also worked in the Deans office. Connie loved the show by the same name so we did as many Office inspired pranks that we could think of: we put her stapler in jello, we put out candy on the counter so kids would like us more, we put an alarm clock in the ceiling, we even faxed her from her future self, but the crowning moment of the day was when Stacy called the whole deans dept together for a meeting and with a straight face (Michael Scott style) announced to us all that we would no longer be calling the female students young women. He said it was old-fashioned and he preferred to be culturally relevant and said we would now be calling them "chicks". He went on for quite a while and we all knew, except Connie. Best office prank ever!
#6 He was humble. He was honest about his addiction years and wanted to help others by sharing his journey.
"If He's not Lord of all, He's not Lord at all." one of my favorite Stacy quotes.
#7 His heart was SO big. His hugs were all-encompassing and safe. He had a security you wanted to be a part of. I think that is why God designed him to be XL - to hold his heart and to hold ours.
#8 He made time. We had moved on after our first time being students and I hadn't talked to Stacy in years. We had just suffered an incredible loss as our intern, and heir apparent, for our ministry died suddenly a week before Christmas leaving behind a young widow. At that time I emailed with a specific request, Eric and I were just former students among the crowd of many who took his classes. I knew he had lost Renee and the baby a year or two earlier and was wondering if he had a good book he could recommend on grief. He phoned me back instead of just emailing and said he had read over 90 - NINETY - books on grief and had a good recommendation for me. How deep. How kind.
That was one of the rare times he told me what to do. I mentioned to him on that call that someday Eric and I wanted to come back and serve at the school and we were wondering what we should do to prepare. I wanted him to tell us that we should pursue higher ed degrees and get back to him in a few years. Instead, he said we should send in our resumes because they had a couple of positions open that he could see us filling. I didn't see that coming at all, but Stacy knew in his heart ahead.
#9 He was devoted. His honor of Elim was remarkable. He served 6 of the 7 presidents. He resigned out of deference each time there was a transition and every time he was retained!
#10 He weathered storms. So. Many. Storms. Personal storms. Student storms. School storms. Storms in the world. And yet - He remained faithful to God and he journeyed on.
We can weather this storm. He taught us how.
Here's to you my friend, my mentor, my coach. We love you Stacy and we were well-loved by you. The world is better because you were here and the kingdom ripples you initiated will go out through us all.
Thank you for being you. You are the richest man I know because you invested the most! A man who is truly rich has friends, you, my dear friend, are truly rich.
*Br. Stacy's book Suffering Loss is available on Amazon, he walks with us even as we mourn losing him.