MARYVILLE, Ill. (ABP) — A fellow pastor and former church member hailed slain Baptist preacher Fred Winters as a "hero and a martyr" at a memorial service at First Baptist Church of Maryville, Ill., March 13.
"I believe with all my heart Pastor Fred died as a hero and a martyr," Tim Cowin, pastor of the The Rock Church in nearby St. Louis, said of his friend of more than 20 years, who was struck down by a gunman's bullet while preaching from the same pulpit March 8.
Without going into detail Cowin said, "Because Fred acted last Sunday, many lives were spared."
"A martyr is a person who is killed for his faith," Cowin said, adding that Winters "died the way he lived his life, in the midst of service to his King Jesus."
Cowin said a martyr is also someone whose death is a witness to the Christian faith.
Cowin said he does not know why God would allow his friend to die, but that already God was using the tragedy to "raise people to a higher level" of Christian witness.
Winters' widow, Cindy, said she met her future husband when she was 14. "We grew older together, but he never grew up," she said of the fun-loving pastor, husband and father.
She said Winters used to leave chocolate for her in her purse and at night would snuggle with her and ask how he could pray for her.
"He loved being a pastor," she told a packed sanctuary. "He had a pastor's heart. When you hurt, he hurt. When you were happy, he was happy."
"I never heard him once get sick of it," she said. "He loved you guys, and he would be proud of you."
She said Winters would be angry if people put too much attention on him. "The best way we can honor him is by honoring God," she said.
"Fred and I have been talking a lot about how God is on the verge of doing incredible things through this congregation," she said. "Satan knew it, too, but nothing's changed."
"I refuse to let Satan win," she said. "He's not going to steal my joy. He's not going to steal my passion. I'm not going to hate, and I want to carry out the mission of this church."
"I'm not going to survive this thing," she said. "I'm going to become a better person because of this thing."
Fred Winters was born Dec. 4, 1963, in Kansas City, Mo., and felt the call to ministry while in high school. He and Cindy Lee Jackson were married in 1987. They have two daughters, Alysia, 13, and Cassidy, 11.
He graduated from Southwest Baptist University in 1985 and earned a master's degree from Wheaton Graduate School in 1987. He earned a master of divinity degree from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1991 and went on to receive a doctor of ministry degree from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Winters came to First Baptist Church in Maryville when the church consisted of just a few families. Today membership has grown to 1,400 and a weekly average 1,200 people attend worship services. In 2007 Fred and Cindy Winters celebrated both 20 years of marriage and 20 years of service at First Baptist Church.
Adam Cruise, a former staff member at First Baptist Church in Maryville who now leads a church of his own, told mourners that his mentor would not want his death to result in discouragement or defeat. Rather he borrowed an illustration from a World War II story — something that Winters often did — to challenge the church to carry on its mission.
"Let the future generation of First Baptist Church Maryville look back on this generation and this moment and say this was our finest hour," he said.
Terry Sedlacek, the 27-year-old gunman charged with murder and aggravated battery in Winters' death, was released March 12 from the hospital where he was treated for self-inflicted stab wounds. When they searched his home in nearby Troy, Ill., police seized a planning calendar with March 8 marked "death day."
Cindy Winters read a message from her daughters at the memorial service saying "it was not death day for my daddy" but rather "the best day of his life."
"On Sunday my husband did not die," Winters said. "He just simply got a promotion."
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Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.
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