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For those who knew the Rev. Dr. Bob Walters, his untimely death July 31 from a massive heart attack while riding his bicycle was both ironic and appropriate.
Friends and supporters of Dr. Walters and his ministry, Friendly Planet Missiology, were stunned to learn of his death via a Facebook post from his daughter, the Rev. Taylor Walters Denyer, a clergy member of the North Katanga Annual Conference where her father served.
"My father, Bob Walters had a massive heart attack while on his bike earlier today. He did not survive it," Rev. Denyer wrote. She and her family returned to Indiana from Algeria, where her husband Stuart Denyer is currently stationed with the U.S. foreign service.
"Bob was such a physically fit individual, and it was by bicycle that he traveled countless miles," said the Rev. Charlie Wilfong, senior pastor with Plainfield United Methodist Church, in an interview with RTV Channel 6, an ABC affiliate in Indiana.
The Rev. Dr. Bob Walters' funeral service was scheduled for 2 p.m. Central Time Saturday, Aug. 5, at Plainfield UMC in Plainfield, Ind. The church planned to live-stream the service on its Facebook page. His full obituary is available here. Memorial gifts may be made to Friendly Planet Missiology.
A veteran Marine helicopter pilot who became a United Methodist clergyman, Dr. Walters served churches in southern Indiana before a 1991 visit to DR Congo (then Zaire) that changed his life. From that visit he spent the rest of his ministry working to build connections between United Methodists in Indiana and Congo.
"In 1997, at the request of Bishop Ntambo Nkulu, he became director of the theological seminary in Likasi, via The UMC’s General Board of Global Ministries. Together with his Congolese church colleagues, Bob led the way in developing a new model for mission in the Katanga province. He was forced to evacuate from the Congo due to war, but would return numerous times," said his obituary.
Photo Courtesy of Joseph Mulongo
Bob and Joseph
The Rev. Bob Walters with Bishop Ntambo Nkulu.
In 2009 Dr. Walters founded Friendly Planet Missiology along with his daughter and the Rev. Joseph Mulongo. The ministry puts into practice his ideas on mutual, co-equal missions and helps to support the work of his colleagues in the North Katanga and Tanganyika annual conferences.
He was the author of a book about his experiences, "The Last Missionary." At the time of his death he was working on a sequel, which his family and friends hope to complete.
Most of all, Dr. Walters sought to change the fundamental idea of Christian mission from one of Westerners "improving" life for Africans to a concept of mutual, co-equal ministry among Christians no matter where they lived or worked. His doctor of ministry in practical theology dissertation, "Scripture as a Tool of Community Development," focused on his work with church leaders in the Congo, according to his obituary.
Along with others, Dr. Walters' work influenced Global Ministries to develop a sweeping revision of its longtime U.S.-centric mission-sending theology into a global vision of "from everywhere to everywhere." With his "maverick" reputation and his passion for social justice, Bob Walters influenced and inspired other United Methodist ministries, including United Methodist Insight, to see so-called "underdogs" not as inferiors to be helped or scorned, but as partners and teachers in the lessons of faith and life.
Cynthia B. Astle serves as Editor of United Methodist Insight, which she founded in 2011.