Professor Vita: Lon Gregg

Lon J. Gregg, Professor, Course 403

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Lon J. Gregg, Spiritual Director

Denver Rescue Mission
Denver, Colorado

Read Dr. Gregg's article on The Benefits of City Vision College Internships.

Education 

BA, English, Dartmouth College, 1974 (cum laude)

ThM, Hebrew Literature, Dallas Theological Seminary, 1979.

Rescue Mission Experience 

1969-1972 Pacific Garden Mission, Chicago, USA; After trusting Jesus Christ as Savior at the Mission served in administrative and counselor roles in the Mission and in its Servicemen’s Center.

1989-Present Denver Rescue Mission, Denver, CO, USA. Served 1989-1994 as program director at men’s mission; 1994-present as Director of Chaplains; 1995-present as Spiritual Director. In my current role, I oversee the spiritual thrust and life of the Mission, and supervise the chaplaincy staff.

Personal Information 

• Married thirty-six years to Janet
• Daughters Elizabeth Gregg Mars and Joanna Flemons
• Grandchildren Cameron Mars and Haley Flemons

Thoughts on Rescue Mission Ministry 

My delight in rescue ministry is the showcase it provides for the gospel. Here, our privilege every day is simply to hold forth the naked good news of God’s grace in Jesus Christ. We of all Christians in our culture are privileged to see the bare message of the gift of eternal life transform guilty and hostage humanity. Stripped of all complications which might make it inaccessible to the people of the street, this power of God makes men and women and children new, and we are witness.

And when "Jesus Saves" in the midst of misery, through practical demonstration of the love of God (in food, shelter, clothing, rehabilitation services, and the growing arsenal of ministry tools found in many missions), we have a message in "stereo." Rescue ministry is so identified with compassion that our culture cannot fail to be struck with the validity of a message so tied to real love for the unlovely.

I believe in Christian rehabilitation in rescue missions, and have written a booklet about it (distributed by AGRM) entitled Developing a Phased Rehabilitation Program. I believe in the training of Rescue; I have personally supervised a number of City Vision College students, and I oversee ministry internships in Denver, including numerous RC interns over the years. I believe in the spiritual life, and have edited Day By Day with the Denver Rescue Mission, a daily devotional book with emphasis on a rescue mission spirituality. I have been a member of the Association of Gospel Rescue Missions since 1990, attended numerous conventions and district meetings, have led several seminars, and contributed to the RESCUE magazine. I believe in the work of Rescue Chaplaincy, and co-founded the Chaplains Track of the AGRM, and chaired the Track for four years after its inception.

I was commended to the Christian ministry in 1980 at Fellowship Bible Chapel (Plymouth Brethren). I am a member of the Grace Evangelical Society. My wife and I attend church in Arvada, Colorado (Denver suburb).

Testimony 

Although I attended church and Sunday school sporadically while growing up, it took the crisis of dealing with drug abuse, meaninglessness, and the oppression of sin to bring me to faith in Christ. While wandering around the country in search of meaning in 1969, I chanced on the Pacific Garden Mission in Chicago, where it took a man with a 5^th-grade education about 10 minutes in the gospel of John to convince me that the promise of life in Jesus Christ could be trusted. My Ivy League studies had not prepared me as well for the future as had this humble gentleman! After returning to complete college studies, I prepared for ministry at Dallas Seminary, and now with Janet have the joy of seeing both our daughters going on with Christ.

I love the opportunity to lead younger men and women in this way of serving the Lord, because of its many satisfactions and rewards (in spite of its deep challenges). I am honored to serve as an instructor in City Vision College, and I hope to be an agent of personal and spiritual growth in the lives of the students, as well as helping them attain the academic excellence increasingly required of those who would serve Christ along this path.

 

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