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A Tribute to the Life of Randy Newman
(1956-2024)
Dear CSLI Family and Friends,
It is with a heavy heart that we share the news that our dear friend, C.S. Lewis Institute colleague, and brother in Christ, Dr. Randy Newman, entered Glory last Thursday, May 23, 2024, at the age of 68.
Randy was born in Brooklyn, NY and grew up on Long Island, in his parents’ Marty and Rhoda Newman’s loving Jewish home along with his two brothers, Barry and Brian. As Randy used to share so winsomely, in his teens he began to yearn for a deeper relationship with God. He tried following the Torah and obeying all of the rules, yet he never seemed to be able to get it right and it didn’t satisfy the longings of his heart.
In the coming years, high school and college friends invited him to church youth group, and campus ministry events and shared their faith in Jesus Christ with him. Randy also began looking for answers and his intellect and imagination were touched by the reading of C.S. Lewis’s classic, Mere Christianity, and the New Testament, which much to his surprise, was very Jewish in style and substance.
While at Temple University, he eventually committed his life to being a disciple of Yeshua as Messiah. This changed the course trajectory of his life. He also met his lovely wife, Pam, at Temple, whom he would share the rest of his life with in Christian ministry through a number of different groups including Campus Crusade for Christ (Cru) and Connection Points.
Over the past decade, Randy served at the C.S. Lewis Institute as our Senior Fellow for Apologetics and Evangelism. The impact of Randy’s life, speaking and writing upon the ministry of the C.S. Lewis Institute cannot be overestimated. He was the editor of our teaching journal, “Knowing & Doing,” he spoke at C.S. Lewis Institutes in the United States, Canada, and Northern Ireland, was the host of the podcast, “Questions that Matter,” and he wrote countless articles.
However, Randy’s greatest contribution to CSLI may have been his approach to evangelism training which is now taught throughout our programs. Realizing that the culture in the West was changing, and that older evangelistic methods were less effective, Randy went back to the example of Jesus, the Jewish rabbi. Jesus often answered a question with a question, and engaged the minds and hearts of people through a kind of questioning discourse.
Randy’s seminal book, Questioning Evangelism: Engaging People’s Hearts the Way Jesus Did, published in 2003 is now in its 3rd edition and over 20 years later, is still being used by CSLI and countless other ministries to equip followers of Jesus Christ to winsomely share their faith.
Randy’s teaching was so well received because he was so approachable and admitted that he was like most in the church. He was scared to do evangelism and he didn’t have an evangelistic gift. Yet, he knew that he was commanded by Jesus to share the Gospel and knew theologically that the Holy Spirit would be working in and through him. He just needed to be obedient and learn from the Master, Jesus.
And God blessed Randy’s obedience as a number of people among his family and friends, including both of his parents came to trust Jesus as their Lord and Savior as Randy sought to live and share his faith.
Randy was also gifted with a sense of humor which infused nearly everything he did. Laughter was a common element in any conversation or interaction with Randy. And he was able to engage with adults and children alike.
Randy went on to write a number of other books including Bringing the Gospel Home; Mere Evangelism: 10 Insights from C.S. Lewis to Help You Share Your Faith; Engaging with Jewish People: Understanding Their World, Sharing Good News; Unlikely Converts, and his most recent Questioning Faith: Indirect Journeys of Belief Through Terrains of Doubt.
In the days to come, please keep his wife, Pam, his three sons and three daughters-in-law, his grandchildren, his mother and two brothers in your prayers as we ask the Lord to bring them His comfort, peace, and presence during this season of mourning.
Randy had such a wonderful sense of humor, a passion for truth, a love for the lost, and a desire to share the joy of knowing Yeshua, Our Messiah. We are grateful for the many occasions in which Randy was able to spend time with people throughout the C.S. Lewis Institute and share his gifts in service to the Lord with people around the world.
Randy will be greatly missed.
Grieving as ones who have hope in Jesus,
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