Alumni Spotlight: H. Henry Williams ’80

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. —Colossians 3:16-17 (ESV)

Henry has been faithfully serving Christ through pastoral ministry for 36 years: he served as an associate pastor for eight years in Wichita, Kansas before he accepted the lead pastor role at Five Oaks Church in Woodbury, Minnesota. Henry understands the power of church ministry because God used it to change his life. At the young age of eight, he attended VBS with his believing neighborhood friend who took the risk and invited Henry to join him. Henry fell in love with Jesus that week and his life hasn’t been the same since. Three years later, his non-practicing, single mother finally accepted his invitation to join him on Mother’s Day Sunday, and not long after, she, too, committed her life to Christ. God’s work in Henry’s life was just getting started.

He spent many summers in Minnesota with his aunt, uncle, and cousin who had a home on Lake Minnetonka, and when he reached the age where future plans needed to be made, he chose to attend University of Northwestern – St. Paul (back then, it was known as Northwestern College) after having been recruited by Mel Boehland, the football coach at that time.

He played football for one year, and during the rest of his time as student, he served his peers as a resident advisor, pouring into other young men who lived in his hall. Henry attended Northwestern from 1976-1980, graduated with a B.A. in Ministries and married his wife, Lois, (whom he met at Northwestern) one week after he graduated.  He knew that he wanted to be in full-time ministry, and three years later, he received his seminary degree at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Massachusetts. Several years later, he received his Doctorate of Ministry at Boston University.

Henry has been pastoring ever since; he’s been at Five Oaks for 28 years, and a culture of connection has been built—something that has always been important to him and is a top priority at Five Oaks. Relationships are fostered through small groups and service outreach (and in Henry’s personal life) by following the B.L.E.S.S. practices, adopted from Dave Ferguson (daveferguson.org): Begin with prayer, Listen with care, Eat (fellowship with others), Serve, and Share your story. Another top priority at Five Oaks is to teach the Bible and equip people to study it on their own.

But in Henry Williams’ research, through a simple ten-question survey that his congregation filled out, he found that only about a third of them had a solid understanding of the Bible, even though he teaches it weekly. What this showed him was that if most of his congregation was lacking a firm grasp of God’s letter to us, many others were as well. Henry’s deep desire for people to understand the Bible, see it as approachable, and connect with God through it led him to write a book to help others develop a framework for this 66 chapter storybook.

In 2012, Williams’ book, The Story Of God: A 40-Day Guided Journey Through the Bible, was published. This forty-day guide serves as a brilliant way to help people understand the Bible, cover to cover, providing its readers with a mental model of how the Bible fits together. He sets the stage by encouraging his readers to see the Bible in two acts (and many scenes): The Old Testament (Act 1) is journeyed through in four weeks; the New Testament (Act 2), in the subsequent four weeks, with five days of readings and reflections every week to guide the reader in better understanding. Those who choose to use this as their guide are strongly encouraged to use a physical Bible (as opposed to an app) so they can see how many of its pages are synthesized by Williams to provide a general framework. Henry’s desire is for his readers to go back and immerse themselves in the pages of Scripture after they have completed this curriculum and have a better understanding of the Bible so that they can better digest the story, wherever they are inside its pages.

An updated version of this book, which includes small group questions and lecture topics, will be available to purchase in the fall. Since it’s a workbook, Henry recommends using the book format; however, if you would like a PDF version for an iPad app, like Notability, he will happily share it with you and has given us permission to include his email address: hwilliams87@mac.com.

Excerpt from the Northwestern Pilot.