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Acquisition: The Papers of the Rev. Dr. Donald J. MacNair were
received as direct donations from Dr. MacNair himself, delivered to the
PCA Historical Center over a period from 1997 - 1999.
Processing: Some processing was completed by Jerry Kornegay prior
to his leaving the PCA Historical Center in 1998. The bulk of the processing
was completed by Wayne Sparkman in 2001, soon after the Center had moved
into its new facility in the renovated Buswell Library. All HTML formatting
was done by Mr. Sparkman.
Biographical Sketch: The following account was written by Jean Shaw,
a close friend of the MacNair family. Originally drafted for a tribute
dinner held in Dr. MacNair's honor on July 10, 1999, Mrs. Shaw was later
asked to recraft the work to serve as a memorial upon his death:
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Sitting in the audience of teen-agers
while evangelist Phil Saint drew three large crosses against a dark
sky, was a 14-year-old boy from Ridgefield, New Jersey. He had
been challenged earlier by his brother to accept Christ as his Savior,
but he had hesitated. Why didn't Christ come down from the cross
and display his power to those who mocked him? He lay awake that
night, haunted by the picture. Later, assurance came-Christ had
to die in my place! And Donald MacNair, first born in 1922, was
born again.
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| After graduation from Dwight Morrow
High School in Englewood, New Jersey, Don enrolled at Rutgers University,
intending to be a mechanical engineer. Unable to join military service
because of serious childhood illnesses, he took an accelerated program,
graduating in three years. SKF Ball Bearing Industries offered immediate
employment. |
| Adopting the principle, "Do what
you can in the Lord's work wherever you are," he took private voice
lessons at the Metropolitan Opera Company. Another singer, named George
Beverly Shea, introduced him to his teacher. Don was soon sharing
his talent all over the eastern coast, usually at missionary conferences
for the Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions, in Philadelphia.
At a Gideon banquet in Hackensack, where Percy Crawford was the featured
speaker, the tenor in the official quartette had a heart attack, and
Don was asked to fill in. It was there he sensed the Lord's call
to the ministry. |
| Coinciding with this
life-changing call was his marriage in 1944 to his child hood sweetheart,
Evelyn. They had known each other all their lives, attended the same
Reformed Church and had fun in youth group. Evelyn thought she had
married an engineer, but riding home on the train from the Gideon
banquet, they realized simultaneously that she had married a minister
instead! |
| Perhaps she suspected
something when she sat in the audience at a rescue mission during
their honeymoon and watched a fly soar into and out of Don's opened
mouth during a solo. Don never missed a note! |
| The ministry meant seminary,
but the MacNairs had no money saved for such a venture. While riding
on a trolley with missionary candidate John Crane, Don learned of
Faith Seminary in Wilmington, Delaware. It didn't charge tuition.
Evelyn found a job for $32 a week as the president's secretary, and
for two years that was their income. "You always keep a box of pancake
mix on hand." |
| Don's ecclesiastical
pilgrimage had taken him from the Reformed Church in America to the
Bible Presbyterian Church led by Carl McIntyre. While a student at
Faith Don took on the pastorate of the Bible Presbyterian Church in
Coatsville, Pa, with its 33 members who met in a Masonic Hall, and
a record of having nine pastors in 10 years. After many ups and downs,
membership grew to 100. When the need for a church building became
imperative, Don personally drafted plans and hired contractors. He
was graduated from Faith in 1949 with a B. S. in Divinity and continued
pastoring in Coatsville. |
| The reputation of the
gifted minister came to the attention of the session of the First
Bible Presbyterian Church in St. Louis, and after an initial refusal,
Donald reconsidered and accepted the call in 1953 following the ministry
of Francis Schaeffer. The MacNairs, who now numbered four with the
birth of Bruce in 1947, and Miriam in 1951, moved to a parsonage not
far from the church at Union and Enright Sts. near Soldan High School.
The congregation of 88 people rejoiced. |
| First BP changed its
location, building a new sanctuary in Town and Country and adopting
a new name, Covenant Presbyterian, where Don served from 1953 to 1964.
During that time the congregation grew to over 400 and the building
grew to include a large addition. Don regards his teamwork with the
officers at Covenant as the most pleasurable years of his ministry. |
| In 1955 Don and five
other men formed the Board of Directors for a new college and a new
seminary, both, called Covenant. (And both regarded outside the denomination
as impossible ventures doomed to failure.). For $160,000, 23 ½ acres
were purchased from the Roman Catholic Church, which had been operating
a retreat center in Creve Coeur. For many years, Covenant Church
served as an extension of the campus. |
| Covenant Church and the
MacNair home served as centers for the denominations as well, as the
synod met there more than once. While 30 commissioners slept in the
MacNair basement on one occasion, Donald stepped over the bodies to
take Evelyn to the hospital for the delivery of their third child
Greg, born in 1955. Daughter Marji, born in 1957, came under more
normal circumstances! |
| Elected to the National
Presbyterian Missions Committee of the Bible Presbyterian Church,
General Synod, Don became president, and in 1962, after much prayer,
left his beloved pastorate and accepted the position of General Director.
"It was the hardest decision I ever had to make." For 19 years he
traveled across the United States and Canada, starting and strengthening
churches. |
| Don held a firm belief
that denominations of like doctrine should merge, and was a leader
in the formation of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical
Synod and in 1982 the merger of the RPCES with the Presbyterian Church
in America. It was this commitment to principle that led to his yielding
his position at NPM to a choice of the PCA, the larger body. |
| The MacNairs moved to
Ballwin where Don organized Churches Vitalized, Inc, a consulting
firm, in 1982. Now under the presidency of Charles Pettijohn, Don
served as chairman of the board and continued to offer counsel to
pastors and churches all over the United States. In 1982 Geneva
College, during the presidency of Kenneth Smith, awarded Don an honorary
doctorate for his "ability to combine a behavioral engineering approach
with the ministry." |
| He authored seven books,
and was on hand for the first sales of his newest book, "Practices
of a Healthy Church," (Published by Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing
Company) at the 1999 General Assembly in Louisville, Kentucky. He
continued to teach courses in practical theology at Covenant Seminary,
where his life experiences and wisdom prepared students for the realities
of the pastorate. |
| In 1974 Don was asked
to serve on the Board of Directors for Life Care Retirement Facilities.
He also served on the boards of Friendship Villages, West and South
until his death. He and Evelyn chose to live in an apartment in Friendship
Village, West. |
| Asked to give a key
principle for starting a church, Don replied, "The organizing pastor
has to comprehend the Biblical concept of a healthy church and be
absolutely committed to it. He will take every possible contact as
a potential for a great breakthrough in numbers and spiritual growth.
And then, once the church is organized, he will leave the organizing
pastor position, because an organizing pastor does "everything" and
the pastor in an established church does not!" |
| What is a healthy church?
Don cited Ephesians 4:15,16: ".speaking the truth in love, we will
in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is Christ. From
him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament,
grows and builds itself in love, as each part does its work." |
| We in the body of Christ
keep on growing and building in love, doing our work. Christ's church
remains strong, in part because Donald MacNair committed himself to
the development of, faithful leaders and spiritually mature congregations.
He also served as a model, both as a pastor and a member of a congregation.
He was a pillar of the church in the truest sense of the word, and
with his passing the church will, for a short time, lean a little. |
| Now he enjoys in full
that "mystic sweet communion with those whose rest is won." What
a wonderful time he is having! And when the heavenly choir sings
its praises to the Lord, Donald MacNair's strong tenor voice makes
it sound even better than it was before. |
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