Articles
Remembering My Friend Tom Butterfield
Tom D. Butterfield, 1940-2024
Published by Mark Mason, LCOC on December 5th, 2024
This week I must tell you about my friend. I say he was my friend because he was, but also because he was truly a friend to all he met. He liked collecting friends like some people collect trading cards, or automobiles, or any other kind of collectible. Tom made friends, cherished friends, connected friends, and built friendships.
I speak of my friend and mentor in local church ministry, Tom D. Butterfield, who passed away last Saturday at the age of 84 in West Virginia. Tom, along with his late father Tom W., and brother Bill, and uncle George, constitute over 100 years of continuous faithful Gospel preaching by Butterfields in the Ohio Valley region. With Tom’s passing, this important era has come to an end.
Tom was a bridge-builder above all. He built bridges, not walls. His favorite definition of evangelism was “I build a bridge from my heart to yours and let Jesus walk across.” His favorite definition of preaching was “God’s Word does surgery upon my heart and I let you look over my shoulder and watch me bleed.” Indeed, Tom built bridges, and bled, faithfully, for Jesus, for over 60 years.
My relationship with Tom began when he agreed to let me do a ministry internship with him at the great and growing 36th Street church of Christ in Vienna, West Virginia, in the early 1990’s. I was a Bible student who knew a lot of Bible, and Bible-related subjects, but knew next to nothing about how to work with people, how to serve a local church, and how to love others well. Those things I largely learned from walking beside Tom for nearly 20 years. I wish every young preacher could have the experience I did of being training in local ministry by a master practitioner like Tom Butterfield.
I learned how to build bridges, how to let people watch me bleed, and how to share Jesus’ love from my friend. Many others did too, but I reflect this week on what Tom helped me see and understand. I hope the churches and individuals I have served have benefited from the things I learned from one of the great ministers of our time, my friend and yours.
Rest well, friend. See you soon on glory's shore.
