May 1, 1948 - August 15, 2013
Rev. Paul Bartz, age 65, of Richfield. Paul went home to be with his Savior on August 15th, 2013. He is survived by his wife of 42 years, Bonnie; daughter, Rebekah; sisters, Lynn (Ian) Gardiner, Jan (Mark) Wilczynski and Lee (Jake) Tafoya; nieces; nephews; and many loving and supportive friends. Paul graduated from Concordia Theological Seminary, Ft. Wayne, Indiana, in 1977 with a Master of Divinity Degree. He served churches in Minnesota. He preached, lectured, and taught throughout his career. Paul was a prolific author, writing over 1600 scripts for the Creation Moments radio programs. Paul was an example of faith, hope, patience, and graciousness during his struggle with cancer. He is dearly missed, but we rejoice that he is now at peace.
Memorials preferred.
From my blog:
Paul Bartz was born on May 1, 1948. The Lord called him home to glory on August 15, 2013 after an extended battle with cancer of the tongue and jaw.
I met Paul while I was a student at Concordia College in St. Paul Minnesota. I can no longer recall if it was my first year or my second year there. There are too many memories and it was too long ago, back in 1969, I believe. We met because his dormitory roommate at the time was struck by how our senses of humor were so alike. We were introduced at the campus coffee shop’s informal “Laugh-In” evening of improvisational humor. We went on to make quite a hit of our improvised skits and jokes. We were fast friends ever after, discovering that we shared the same love for theology as well. I met Paul the day after he had met the woman who became the love of his life, and eventually his wife, Bonnie Bruhn. I was always a third wheel for that first year.
Paul loved Luther. He was the first person I knew who subscribed to the Luther’s Works subscription program, buying every volume of the American Edition as soon as it came out. His other great interest was the Creation/Evolution debate. When it came time to write his Master’s Thesis, it included those two interests. It was entitled, “Luther on Evolution”. It was great stuff.
This is not an authorized obituary, but a remembrance of a friend. We saw each other through very difficult times. He was my friend when my first wife chose another man and divorced me. I was his friend, and hopefully of some comfort, when he was driven out of his parish in Garrison, Minnesota, by the sort of unjustified abuse and unconscionable attacks that have become all too common in the Lutheran Church today.
We were there for one another in good times too. He was best man when I married my second (and still) wife, some twenty-seven years ago, and he is God-father to my first-born son. I was his close friend when the Lord surprised Paul and Bonnie with a daughter in their mid-forties, and he honored me by asking my wife and me to be god-parents for their only child, a daughter, now 17 years old.
Paul was an amazing man in so many ways. He was the editor of the Bible Science Newsletter for many years. He created the one minute radio spots called “Creation Moments” that continue yet today. He spoke widely on Creation and the issues surrounding the debate in our society, and not just in Lutheran circles. It is little known that Paul was, briefly, an independent publisher, co-founder of Onesimus Publishing, which published several tracks and pamphlets and one good book. Paul served faithfully as a pastor in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, a vacancy pastor for different congregations, and did pulpit supply after he left the parish ministry many years ago. He was a member of the ministerium of the LC-MS to the day of his death. He was also a sinner, one that rejoiced in the forgiveness Christ poured out on Him in Word and Sacrament. That, too, was part of what marked Paul as special.
One character trait that struck me as marking Paul was consistency. He was a faithful Christian. He was a consistent and thorough theologian. He was a meticulous researcher and and excellent teacher. When Paul settled on something, he did not change. For example, I knew Paul before he had a mustache. I always liked to grow a beard every winter and cut it off in the spring. Paul asked me about it and I suggested that he should try it. He did. He grew a beard and then he wore it for it for years. Eventually he shaved the beard, but after that day, I never saw Paul without his mustache.
Mostly, to me he was a good and faithful friend. In our final conversation just a couple of weeks before his passing, he reaffirmed his friendship, confessed his faith, and joked about having Martin Luther pour a beer for me, too, to be ready for the day I would be joining him at the heavenly table for that meeting with brother Martin we have been waiting for anxiously for so long. His sense of humor was the primary impetus in our meeting, and it was still active in our final conversation, during which we spoke of death. I said it was weird for me to be talking to him about his death as such an immanent thing, and he said, “Yeah, it’s kind of weird for me, too.”
Now He has finished the race, passed through that dread door, and is with the Lord he served for most of his life. I thank God for Paul. My life would have been much poorer, and certainly a great deal different without Bartz in it. It is at times precisely like this that the message of Christ and the salvation He has wrought for us is so precious. I shall see him again, because of Jesus Christ and His great grace. I take comfort there, and pray for Paul’s family, that God will strengthen and comfort them through the Gospel. Meanwhile, the tears are appropriate. Paul Bartz is man to be missed.
To Paul’s Family,
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God the Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
I am truly saddened by Paul’s death, and yet, you and I can rejoice in the faith that God has given Paul to believe in Christ and the life that is his, now.
So, why am I writing to you? You don’t even know me. Well…. When you are an impressionable 1st grader, you look up to the older kids. Paul was a 5th grader at St. Martin Lutheran School, Clintonville, WI, when I entered 1st grade. Though he didn’t know it, I looked up to him. He was just a neat kid. I never really got to know him since he was “so much older” :). However, later in life, I was able to exchange emails with him thanks to God’s gift called CAT41. Though we really didn’t know each other, we were able to reminisce about the good sermons we had heard as children.
Paul has been in our prayers at Holy Cross – Peoria, IL since he was diagnosed with cancer. Our prayers have been answered. The cancer can no longer trouble Paul. I await the day when I will see him again.
A few months ago, I officiated the funeral of a friend and member of my congregation. I am thankful to call Paul my friend and have adapted the concluding remarks from my sermon:
He was alive. He is alive! He is Life! Death could not hold Him.
Then along comes the skeptic to say, “Well. A lot of good that did Paul. He is dead. There is the body.”
“For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”
Today is a day for such foolishness… “the foolishness of God”!
Say what you want. See what you wish. Nothing you can say nor see changes what God says and what God sees: “My son Paul is asleep. His body can now rest from his labors and his soul is with Me. I made him the first time and I will put him back together, body and soul, on the day I return and call him from the grave. I did it Myself that first Easter and I promised Paul I would do this for him because I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.”
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen!
Bonnie,
I want to express my sincere sympathy to you on the passing of your dear husband. It was such a joy to work with him when he was our vacancy pastor at TLO and I was organist. His bible classes were so informative and his expertise on creation and evolution was an eyeopener! I always enjoyed visiting with you and remember our time together fondly.
Paul is Home and we rejoice that he is with Christ his Savior, but know that he will be greatly missed and mourned by us still here on earth.
May the Lord keep you and Rebekah in his loving arms and comfort you with the realization that you will one day be together again.
Ruth
Dera Mrs. Bartz,
Please accept our condolences on the loss of your dear husband, Rev. Bartz. We rejoice in the sure and certain hope of a joyous reunion with our loved ones in heaven, but here in this vale of tears it still hurts to say goodbye. The older we get, the more often we must do so.
I never had the pleasure of meeting Rev. Bartz, but it was through his ministry that my wife and I were called to the Creation ministry in our local LCMS congregation (St. Paul’s Glen Burnie, MD). When I first heard Creation Moments on Christian radio, I knew I was “home,” for I heard truths that I hadn’t heard since a child at Lutheran schools. “Why are the pulpits silent?” I wondered. Here are the magnificent truths of God’s miraculous creation and redemption! We became subscribers to Bible Science Newsletter, engaged in correspondence with Greg Hull, read hundreds of Creation Moments daily devotionals, bought and read dozens and dozens of books on Creation, devoured them all, and led classes at St. Paul’s/Glen Burnie for many years. We are both retired now, but still write a popular column for the parish newsletter under the Creation Miistry rubric. No doubt there are others whom Rev. Bartz influenced in such a way, and we may never met until that glorious day when we are all gathered together on glory. Grace and peace to you. May our dear Lord and Savior speak to your hearts with words of consolation and joy. In Christ, Dick & Cheryl Rothermel
Dear Beloved Wife, Bonnie, and Daughter, Rebecca,
Greetings in Christ Jesus.
Please accept my deepest sympathies on the death of your husband and father, respectively, Paul.
Though I do not believe we ever met face to face on this side of eternity, we conversed a few different times on the telephone over the years as well as in email and USPS communications. I remember conversing with Paul to be open to considering a Divine Call in Minnesota. Over the years we also spoke on various concerns in the LCMS as well as in various areas of creation and evolution. Especially did we converse on the latter; he gave me permission to use his Creation Moment devotional books for our monthly Large Print Time With Jesus publication. Though he will certainly be missed by confessing Christians on this side of eternity, we rejoice in the fact that he is with our Creator-Redeemer-Sanctifier Lord God in heaven. What joy is his!
May the Lord bless and preserve you in the one, true, and saving faith of Christ Jesus as found solely in Scripture alone. You continue to remain in our prayers that He will comfort you with the peace of His enduring presence here and the promise of everlasting life in heaven with all the saints upon this journey’s conclusion. Remember this fact especially as you partake of Holy Communion, rejoicing with the angels and archangels and all the company of heaven, including Saint Paul Bartz.
“Then I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, ‘Write: “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.”‘ ‘Yes,’ says the Spirit, ‘that they may rest from their labors, and their works follow them.'” (Revelation 14:13).
God be with you.
In Christ,
Rev. Karl J. Heck
Saint Timothy Evangelical Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, Iowa
gotoheck@commspeed.net
Saint Timothy is a Member Congregation of the ACLC
Association of Confessional Lutheran Churches – http://TheACLC.org
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths” (Proverbs 3:5–6).
Bonnie, Marge and I have often remembered Pastor and I’ve often thought about him and you. It was his guidance that saved our marriage and brought me back to the Savior. We will never forget him or you and those social gatherings at the parsonage in town. His class on Revelations and Creation has stuck with me to this day. Braham and St. Stephens will miss him dearly. Unfortunately we will be out of town on the 7th so we won’t be able to attend the memorial service. God be with you, Rebekah and the rest of your family. You are in our thoughts and prayers.
Steve & Marge Baker
Bonnie and Rebekah–Sue Kelly called us the day Paul died. Our plans were already mailed, so I will not be able to attend his funeral–I’m now living in Fairbanks so that I can help with the grandchildren. Curt is still serving 2 parishes in Southern Wisconsin. Know that I will be thinking of you and with you in prayer.
Blessings, Darlene