No ordinary hero

Last October over 200 people filled St. James’s Church, Ryde, on the Isle of Wight, for a service of thanksgiving for the life of Roy Leafe, the church’s assistant minister for six years.

Roy lived the last two years of his life with the diagnosis of bowel cancer, a condition he bore with courage and without complaint.

He was one of the Kingdom’s foot soldiers, not one of its captains, or commandos. As a result he never got attention for his work, and certainly never sought it. But the thanksgiving at that service came from very full hearts. Roy looked like an ‘ordinary’ man. Truth is, he excelled in giving back to his Master all that he was entrusted with, and many, many were enriched by him.

Plugging away

The church is full of unsung heroes, who quietly plug away at what the Lord has given them to do. I knew Roy for 13 years, half of them spent in close partnership as I pastored Gunnersbury Baptist Church in West London with Roy as an elder. His dedication to Christ shaped many of my own convictions. Uppermost among them is the belief that we don’t need more eye-catching preachers; we need many more Roys, men convinced of their own ‘ordinariness’, but whose commitment to the Lord and his work mark them out as giants.

Roy’s 35-year career in education was mostly in Maths teaching, but he also supported new teachers, worked as an advisor helping schools with their finances and was Deputy Headteacher at the secondary school where he served for many years. He strongly believed in workplace callings, and gave heart and mind to the job, in spite of the pressure and stress. He took advantage of early retirement in order to give himself more fully to his eldership responsibilities, and was able to develop his preaching gifts through the Cornhill Training Course. While there, he went on mission to St. James’s Church and, a few years later, he and Kathy responded to an invitation for Roy to serve at St. James’s.

What were Roy’s qualities? Here are a few:

A loyal servant

While in his 20s, Roy was approached to join the eldership at Gunnersbury, serving alongside Pastor John Caiger. He was still serving as an elder over 30 years later. Throughout that time he was loved and respected by the whole church for his hard work. When he moved to serve alongside James Leggett at St. James’s Church, Isle of Wight, he threw himself into ministry there, and he and Kathy shared their home and their lives with all.

Roy led as an elder, then as a co-pastor, with a willing heart. He didn’t seek attention, or need to have a platform for his views. He was more than content to do backroom tasks, and excelled in doing apparently small jobs which others didn’t want to do, but which were essential to the life of the church. He did these best with his beloved Kathy. No one could organise like Team Leafe! They were masters of admin and arranging. Short of mending the roof, Roy must have done every conceivable job there is in the local church.

He was incredibly loyal to me as a fellow elder. He was always so ready to take tasks off me, to lighten my load, even when that meant real inconvenience to himself. Roy was an excellent friend. I was in his prayers, I suspect, every day, all through the Gunnersbury years, and he and Kathy continued to pray so faithfully for us once they moved away.

The move to the Island was a huge one for them, especially because it meant leaving people they had loved in the gospel for over three decades. And in no other marriage have I ever seen the depths of contentment and delight which Roy and Kathy found in each other.

Loving the Word

He loved good preaching; preaching that came clearly from the Word, and feeds God’s people. This was always the focus of his own preaching. He was a great student of the Word, and a disciplined reader of it. He loved Christian conferences, and nothing gave him a buzz like learning from the Bible along with others. When he wasn’t preaching on Sundays, Roy would sit with rapt attention, Bible and notebook spread out, searching preacher and God’s Word together.

Perseverance

He was wisely mistrustful of the spectacular and the eye-catching in the Christian world. A Derbyshire man, he was far too full of sanctified common sense to be won over by mere appearances. Roy served at Gunnersbury for over 35 years. He was Mr. Standfast, and did such an important job in guarding the gospel and entrusting it to the church’s new generation. With the other elders, he guided the church through an interregnum of over five-and-a-half years. The strain was at times immense. Others in his role might have crumbled or made their excuses and left. But, through his sticking to the task, the church’s work was maintained, the members grew closer together, there were a number of conversions.

Generous encourager

Roy excelled at being able to encourage the older folk in their Christian walk, as well as to spur on younger people. He moved naturally between the generations in the congregations of Gunnersbury and St. James’s, because his genuine desire was to see all built up and focused on Christ. Roy was a shy man, but his efforts to help others in the Christian life made him overcome his shyness. And he was so generous! From our first meal together we knew that Roy and Kathy had a real gift for hospitality, and a transparent kindness. Over the years following, we received numerous presents, offers, kind acts and the occasional cheque to go towards treats or holidays. Roy and Kathy were wise stewards of their money as well as their time, and so many were enriched through their almost proverbial generosity.

Looking back on the day of Roy’s thanksgiving service, I often ask myself, why were so many there to give God thanks for Roy? My answer is, because we saw and met Jesus Christ in Roy Leafe. ‘I am among you as one who serves’, said the Lord Jesus Christ (Luke 22.7). Roy deeply loved the Master, served him, and grew, slowly, quietly, into a towering giant of a Christian, a man well worthy of our consideration and imitation.

Lewis Allen is pastor of Hope Church, Huddersfield.

Lewis Allen reflects on the life of Roy Leafe, 1944-2010

Plugging away

A loyal servant

Loving the Word

Perseverance

Generous encourager

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