The news of the death of Martin
Holdt came unexpectedly. A week earlier (on Christmas day 2011, to be precise) he had sent me an
e-mail wishing me for my birthday on the 27th December. The words were written in German – his mother tongue.
He was due to
be our speaker at our annual prayer week of our church at the end of January 2012. This was
however not to be. The Lord took
him in the midst of his labours.
I first met Martin Holdt in my first
year as a student at the Baptist
Theological Seminary in Cape Town (1986). He was then known in Baptist circles as a “Reformed Baptist pastor
“. His theological position was held by very few South African Baptist ministers in those
days. We can only marvel to think how
much this has changed. At a recent
Spurgeon fraternal, Peter Sammons of the Germiston Baptist Church indicated
that there were now more than
80 pastors on the list
who would identify with the "Reformed
Baptist position".
Martin's influence was mostly felt
in his
brand of preaching and in the Reformed books which he freely distributed.
He was keenly interested in young men who were interested in
Reformed Theology. I know ! I was one of them.
 |
| Martin Holdt with Andre Bay ( missionary) in Germany |
In
1990 I was called to be the
pastor of my home church, the Eastside Baptist
Church in Windhoek, Namibia, and Martin immediately took an
interest in me, knowing that I had
developed a keen interest in the
theology of the Reformers. He asked me to write an article about my conversion
and call to the ministry in a magazine
called “Reformation Africa South “ which was published under the auspices of the Reformed Baptist Association in South Africa. This article was read by
Erroll Hulse of the UK who is
well known for encouraging Reformed Baptist work, world wide.
Erroll Hulse came to visit me in
Namibia to encourage me in the ministry. Both, Martin and Erroll had
simple advice for young pastors
like me who were eager to get their ministries ‘reformed’: Preach
the Word! Preach it expositorially ! Preach with passion ! Prepare prayerfully !
Martin exhorted me in the
words of Baptist pastor W.A Criswell “to keep your mornings for God.”
He continuously exhorted young men to read.
He believed that the
ministry depended on spending
time in the counsel of the wise, particularly the
ministry of a bygone era.
With this in mind, he exhorted us to
read the writings of the Reformers and
the Puritans.
Martin started a number of ministries to encourage
pastors. Two stand out in my own mind.
The annual Grace Minister’s conference and
the Spurgeon fraternal. Both have been tremendous means of blessing to many, and
particularly to me.
Allow me to tell you how the
Spurgeon fraternal was started.
1997 was a particularly challenging year for me in the ministry. I had experienced many trials accompanied by a loneliness in the ministry for a sustained period and I was
longing to have something more than a conference. I needed a forum where I
and ministerial colleagues could share our burdens and where
we could encourage each other and
pray for one another. I shared this burden
with Martin. There may have been others
who had the same burden,
but it was Martin Holdt who got the Spurgeon fraternal going. The fraternal is
going strong today and it is ever increasing
in numbers and influence. One could argue that SOLA 5 ( An Association of God centered Evangelicals in Southern Africa) was stated as a result of this fraternal.
Martin visited us at Eastside
Baptist Church on a number of occasions between 1990 and 2011. I well remember the time when he
spoke at an Easter Conference after
his first wife, Beryl, had died.
He spoke at various “Prayer
weeks” which we usually have at the beginning of a new year . He was actually due to come to our prayer week in January 2012, and he
was looking very much forward to it. He
loved Namibia for he had some happy
childhood memories of this place. His
parents had lived here for
sometime.
But it was not to be ! The
Lord deemed his work to be done! I am happy for him for I know that he is with Christ,
enjoying his well deserved eternal
Sabbath rest.
I
do however have a sense of
great loss at his departure from us. Roland Eskinazi commented that Martin
Holdt in a sense brought to an end an era of great Baptist pastors, preachers and spiritual leaders in South Africa.
I leave it to you to judge
whether this is so.
1 comments:
Well, Joachim, it looks like your pulpit was to be the next that Martin was going to preach in outside South Africa after he preached at ours last November. Tired he was, yes, but it was still Martin at his best. We shall sorely miss him.
I wrote a blog post on Martin but did not highlight the Spurgeon's Fraternal and the Grace Ministers' Conference. I am glad that you have done that because both of them were very close to Martin's heart. The story of his life would be incomplete without highlighting those two annual meetings.
Martin's death may have "brought to an end an era of great Baptist pastors, preachers, and spiritual leaders in South Africa", but that plant that was buried a few weeks ago left behind much fruit--at least 80 in RSA, including Peter, Roland and yourself!
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