Remembering Mike Ovey

Mike Ovey was the Principal of Oak Hill Theological College until his early death in January 2017. In this blog post, we remember some of what made him such a great teacher, and why we at IVP were so privileged to work with him on a number of projects, including his recent NSBT, published posthumously.

In his contribution to The Goldilocks Zone: Collected writings of Michael J. Ovey, Mark D. Thompson writes 

"Mike Ovey’s commitment to God as the creator of all carried with it the conviction that the truth about God and how all things relate to him was not a private matter but had relevance for all of God’s creatures. His earliest published theological writing was in the Cambridge Papers. He was part of a group of writers from various denominations and academic disciplines who ‘shared the conviction that if Jesus is Lord, he is Lord of all creation. Every sphere of knowledge and every human activity should be considered in the light of God’s communication to us in the Scriptures.’ His contributions to Themelios were, likewise, reflections on current trends and events from a biblical and theological perspective. One of the things which marked out Mike’s contributions in this area was the breadth of perspective that was shaped by the Bible but informed by wide reading in classical and contemporary thought. Mike’s analysis was profound but it was directed towards understanding and responding appropriately to what is happening in the world around us."

Yet Mike was not 'just' a theologian. His friend and former colleague Chris Green wrote:

"Mike was undeniably complex. Kind with time and ideas, he could be in angry knots over deception and disloyalty. Loving truth, he deeply hated lies. Loving clarity, he loathed British ambiguity. A graduate of both Oxford and Cambridge, he always felt an outsider in the class system, a grammar-school boy, ‘a Cornish Jew – a very small minority’.

In the collection that follows, Mike the intellectual, theologian and educator emerges, but Mike the good friend does not. So to introduce him to those who did not know him, and to provoke memories among his friends, let me take you through my imaginary photo album, each picture clear in my mind."

As you read this, you may have had the privilege of knowing Mike personally, sat under his teaching, or read something he's written. Regardless, can we encourage you to take a moment out of your day to pray for his family and friends, still grieving, and to pray for the ongoing outworking of his vision for minsitry training at Oak Hill and elsewhere. Dan Strange quoted Mike's vision for theological training at the end of The Goldilocks Zone, and it gives a beautiful sense of the man and his priorities:

"I suspect many of us feel that the kind of theological training we’re going to outline here is very costly. Very costly financially, very costly relationally as you leave other
ministries and perhaps geographically distant from friends. Fair comment. Absolutely. It is costly. But I must tell you it is too costly not to. Not having Word ministers who are Christ’s best possible gift means what? It means God’s people are more unsafe from false teaching, un-serving of each other and the world and un-united under Christ’s headship but under some substitute. My fear is that what I have seen in the UK over my Christian life are churches which are more and more unsafe, un-serving and un-united. Please do not short-change the people you will minister to by not training properly to be Christ’s best gift.

Costly? Too costly not to."

You can find out more about Mike's writing below.