People joked about his name, but there
was nothing cold about Jack Frost. Though his fans loved his teachings,
what they remember most about him was his warm hug.
Whenever the popular charismatic Bible teacher would
finish his
lengthy sermons he always invited people to the altar to receive what
he called “a baptism of the Father’s love.” He and other members of his
ministry team would face the audience, and seekers would form lines to
receive a lengthy embrace.
Worshippers would linger in the church for hours to “soak”
in God’s presence after listening to Jack’s message.
Men
hugged men and women hugged women while a worship team played soft
music in the background. There was nothing sexual about these moments.
It was as if the love of God became tangible. Sometimes grown men in
their 60s would sob like babies while Jack wrapped his burly arms
around them.
I am glad I was one of the people who got a hug from Jack
before
he died prematurely this week at the age of 54—after a tough battle
with cancer. He leaves behind a rich spiritual legacy, recorded in his
books and deposited in the many people he trained at Shiloh Place, his
ministry base in South Carolina.
“Everywhere he preached, the altars were full of people
who didn’t
get the love they needed growing up,” says Houston Miles, founder of
Evangel Fellowship International, a network of congregations based in
Spartanburg, S.C. Jack served on the pastoral staff of Miles’ church
before launching his own traveling ministry in 1993.
“He was like a son to me,” Miles told me just hours before
preaching at Jack’s funeral in Conway, S.C. “He accomplished more in 10
years than most people accomplish in a lifetime.”
Jack’s message was as simple as it was profound. He used
his own
life experiences—including his failures and weaknesses—to show people
that God’s unconditional love can heal the effects of neglect, abuse,
abandonment, shame and rejection. As a practical theologian and as a
counselor, he understood the human heart and its deepest need for
acceptance and approval.
Guys found it easy to relate to Jack, a rugged man’s man
who spent
years of his life sailing boats off the Southeast U.S. coast (and
earning the title of Top Hook). He openly talked about his
dysfunctional relationship with his own performance-oriented father—and
how that struggle caused him to view God as distant, strict and
legalistic.
Jack’s passion was to help Christians renounce distorted
views of
God so they could know His intimacy and affection. In his first book, Experiencing
the Father’s Embrace,
he even used scientific research to prove that human beings need love
in order to thrive. “Scientists have actually proven that humans are
four to seven times more likely to succumb to sickness if they do not
have a normal dose of nurturing love,” he wrote.
Jack decided in 1993 that he would begin dispensing that
divine
love in megadoses. He did this in conferences and training seminars for
more than 15 years before he lapsed into a coma on March 4. He created
Shiloh Place as a haven for burned-out ministers and anyone else who
needed emotional healing.
In the summer of 2001 I traveled with Jack to Toronto on a
ministry trip—mainly to help him outline his first book. After
listening to him for five days, his teachings on the Father’s love
saturated my soul and became a part of my own life message. In fact,
there have been times when I have modeled my own ministry after Jack’s
and have asked people to come to the altar for a healing
embrace—especially men who never knew the approval of their own dads.
Just last week I held a young Chinese man in my arms at
the altar
of a church in Singapore. After I asked the Holy Spirit to reveal the
depth of God’s love to him, I pulled back and realized that the whole
right side of my shirt was wet with tears.
I thought of Jack Frost and how he taught me that the love
of God
is not just a doctrine or a philosophy. It is a tangible commodity that
flows from the Holy Spirit through His people to those who are starving
to know they have worth and value.
