Kingdom Faith founder Colin Urquhart is a great loss to the Christian world, but he will surely gain heaven’s reward with the Saviour’s words, “Well done, good and faithful servant!” (Matt 25:21)
Colin has inspired many disciples to take their calling seriously, and I am certainly among them. The first time I heard of him was when a dear friend at All Souls, Langham Place – the central London church where I was nurtured in the faith – handed me his book, When the Spirit Comes, which she insisted I read.
I wasn’t a great reader in those far-off days 40-plus years ago, but I couldn’t put it down and was thoroughly inspired by his testimony of the remarkable transformation both in his personal walk and in his (Anglican) church in Luton.
It was around that time that I was baptised in the Holy Spirit at a Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship meeting in Sheffield shortly after moving to Yorkshire – I was actually covering the event for the local paper, the Morning Telegraph.
I’ve no doubt Colin’s story had significantly contributed to my decision that I needed more power and boldness in my Christian witness.
I’ve no doubt Colin’s story had significantly contributed to my decision that I needed more power and boldness in my Christian witness.
His influence was long-term and so when, in 1987, I managed to persuade my pastor of the need for a big tent outreach in our West Yorkshire town, I suggested Colin as the evangelist and was given the task of inviting him.
He duly came for two of the four days (Pentecostal preacher John Shelbourne being the other speaker), and the event was a memorable success. Some were certainly saved and seeds were also sown that only eternity will ultimately reveal.
Colin spawned a Bible college, an annual Bible conference and much else in his concern to extend God’s kingdom, and is succeeded at the head of the Kingdom Faith movement by his son Clive, who is also helping the church re-connect with her Jewish roots – a policy surely guaranteed success (Gen 12:3). Thank you for putting your faith to work, Colin!
Charles Gardner
A man of faith & holiness
I was truly saddened to hear of the death of Colin Urquhart.
In particular, Colin was a significant influence to a whole generation of charismatic believers in the 70s and 80s. In the house-group connected to the Elim Pentecostal church that I attended in the early 1980s, we went through a series of Colin’s teaching (via cassette tape) on the kingdom of God week-by-week for many months. His tender, pastoral voice became very familiar to us, and we hung on every word he shared.
These were the latter days of the charismatic renewal and I recall there was a real hunger among many to grow in the things of God. I remember buying as many of Colin’s teaching books as I could afford at the time – I gathered a little stack of them over time, and eagerly devoured them; 'When the Spirit Comes' (published 1976), ‘Anything You Ask’ (1978), ‘In Christ Jesus’ (1981) and my personal favourite, ‘Holy Fire’ (1984).
These were no pie-in-the-sky theoretical musings, but practical, down-to-earth teachings we could readily apply to our lives. The evidence of this was wonderfully apparent in Colin’s own ministry, for during several occasions over the years, his church experienced touches of genuine, localised revival. One such season began in May 1981 and followed a period of deep-rooted repentance and confession of sin, and a collective seeking of the holiness of God.
Colin describes the movement’s beginnings in ‘Faith for the Future’ (1982). Over the course of several evenings, “it seems that Jesus walks into the room. Immediately, people start falling on their knees. Next they are lying prostrate … one person after another is crying out to the Lord for His mercy … in those brief hours the Lord had shown more to us about our hearts than all our weeks of searching had revealed”.
The intensity and awesomeness of the experience was so overwhelming that Colin said he would never be the same again.
A few evenings later, “there was open repentance, leading to a great sense of the Lord’s peace and worship before His throne. But then the unexpected happened. The room was not only filled with the holiness of God, but with His glory! …. Now no words can be found to describe what followed. People were no longer on their faces; everyone was standing, arms extended to heaven, exalting God with loud voices, shouting praises to Him. And He was there in majesty, in glory, in honour”.
The intensity and awesomeness of the experience was so overwhelming that Colin said he would never be the same again.
Sensitivity to the Spirit of God was a hallmark of Colin’s ministry, and was notably evidenced in the fellowship’s public worship. I well recall the live Kingdom Faith worship CDs that appeared in the 1990s. They never achieved anything like the popular recognition of events like Spring Harvest, Stoneleigh and Soul Survivor, yet there was a unique adorational beauty contained in these ponderous, cross-centred songs of inspiration, some of which were purely spontaneous. These in-house expressions of intimate worship carried an almost palpable sense of God’s presence – a quality almost impossible to capture on recorded output. I listened to them over and over again, freely entering into the worship experience.
I never met Colin, but a good friend of mine did – indeed she has never been allowed to forget the occasion! She was on duty as a sixteen-year-old at one of the entrances to the Big Top at a Christian convention, and as part of the security arrangements was under strict instructions to only allow people in who showed a badge. Colin was the main speaker that evening, but unfortunately he hadn’t put his badge on. When he arrived at the convention, my friend, who had never met him before and didn’t recognise him, dutifully refused him entry! It was only following the intervention of one of the senior stewards that Colin was eventually granted admission to his own speaking engagement!
A faithful and humble servant, a man of great faith and an inspiration to so many, Colin Urquhart will be greatly missed.
Tom Lennie
