Joy in the Journey: Finding Abundance in the Shadow of Death

by Steve Hayner; Sharol Hayner

Publisher:

IVP

, 2015

Overview

Hearts Minds Bookstore’s Best Books of 2015, Memoir

Steve Hayner was serving as president of Columbia Seminary and was healthy and fit when he found out he had terminal pancreatic cancer. He and his wife Sharol embarked on a journey together with their children that soon included tens of thousands of visits from friends and acquaintances via the CaringBridge website. The overwhelming response to their posts on this website attested to the surprising and engaging way that they chose to live in the face of death.

As a result they uncovered the remarkable truth that God, our good Shepherd, provides a feast for us when we are in the valley of the shadow of death as well as in the green pastures.

Steve was always known for signing letters and emails, “joyfully.” These pages, including reflections from some of those closest to Steve and Sharol, offer us a hope-filled glimpse into what it means to walk with God in honesty, with joy, even through great pain.

Contents

• Foreword by Mark Labberton
• Foreword by Alex Gee
• Daily Reflections
• Epilogue: Journeying to Final Joy
• God with Us: A Confession of Faith

Praise for the Print Edition

Steve and Sharol Hayner spent their lives teaching everyone who knew them just what it means to truly live for Christ. Then during Steve’s final months of life, they taught us how to truly die in Christ. They shared their experience with us through a series of remarkable journals chronicling how they found deep joy in Christ in the midst of acute suffering, dying and death. I had hoped that these beautiful and inspiring journals would be published so they could bless others who might be walking through their own valleys. This small book will now help countless others to find the still, small voice of God in the midst of their own tempest. He is risen indeed!

—Richard Stearns, president, World Vision US, author of Unfinished and The Hole in Our Gospel

Steve Hayner has been first a hero and then a friend since I met him many years ago. He was a people magnet and an idea machine and an energy force. To follow the journey that he and Sharol traveled together through the valley of the shadow of death was a privilege and a heartbreak and an education in hope. I'm grateful their searing, aching, honest, inspiring words are now permanently available. I cannot imagine a human being who would not benefit from it.

—John Ortberg, senior pastor of Menlo Park Presbyterian Church, author of Soul Keeping

I first came to know Steve as a teacher when he was called to serve as professor of evangelism at Columbia Theological Seminary. . . . This book is an example of Steve as a teacher. It is real, honest and truthful. Like Steve, it inspires, challenges, encourages and changes us all as faithful followers of Jesus Christ. What Steve and Sharol Hayner both teach us through their amazing writing is how to trust, be vulnerable, grieve and, yes, be joyful even as one is dying. They teach us through their abiding faith, humility, sadness, frustration and candor.

—Rodger Y. Nishioka, Benton Family Associate Professor of Christian Education, Columbia Theological Seminary

Product Details

• Title: Joy in the Journey: Finding Abundance in the Shadow of Death
• Authors: Steve Hayner, Sharol Hayner
• Publisher: IVP
• Print Publication Date: 2015
• Logos Release Date: 2020
• Pages: 161
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subjects: Hayner, Stephen A; Pancreas › Cancer--Patients--Religious life; Pancreas › Cancer--Treatment; Death › Religious aspects--Christianity
• ISBNs: 9780830899661, 9780830844470, 0830899669, 0830844473
• Resource ID: LLS:JYJRNYFNSHDWDTH
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T01:00:25Z

About the Authors

Steve Hayner (1948–2015) was the president emeritus of Columbia Theological Seminary and an ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), as well as a professor, author and the former president of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. Known by many throughout the world with love, affection and gratitude, Steve’s passion was to prepare women and men to lead congregations toward the fulfillment of God’s call to be churches who are biblically faithful and growing steadily in their love for God, their love for each other and their love for Christ’s work in the world.

Sharol Hayner has been serving in ministry for over forty years with her husband, Steve. She served as children’s music director at University Presbyterian Church in Seattle and as children’s music director and worship coordinator at Christ Presbyterian Church in Madison, Wisconsin. At age forty-eight, she began seminary and ultimately graduated from Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia. Ordained in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), she served as associate pastor for discipleship at Peachtree Presbyterian Church and now serves as parish associate at Kairos Church, both in Atlanta. Sharol and Steve have three children and five grandchildren, all of whom live in the South.

Sample Pages from Joy in the Journey: Finding Abundance in the Shadow of Death