Mennonite Weekly Review

LANCASTER, Pa. — Lindsey Robinson met Jesus in a life-changing way at a Tom Skinner rally in the late 1960s. His journey of faith led him to the Mennonite church, where he blended deep love for God with concern for peace and social justice.

Robinson, a pastor and leader in Lancaster Mennonite Conference and the New Testament Fellowship of Anabaptist/Mennonite Churches, died Feb. 4. He was 59.

When Robinson took his first Lancaster Conference pastorate in 1982, “I never imagined the blessing he’d be to our district and conference, as well as the worldwide Mennonite church,” said John Kraybill, former bishop of Lancaster’s Harrisburg District, at a memorial service at Mellinger Mennonite Church on April 26.

Robinson preached a sermon at the Mennonite World Conference assembly in Zimbabwe in 2003.

He served with Eastern Mennonite Missions and in various roles with Lancaster Conference from 1982 to 2004.

Richard Showalter, president of EMM, called Robinson “a radical disciple of Jesus” — a modern-day Celtic-Waldensian-Anabaptist-Moravian-Pentecostal Mennonite.

Robinson’s diverse religious experience began with a nominal Methodist childhood in Chicago. It continued through Roman Catholicism, student activism at DePaul University and then in the Pentecostal church, the faith community of his wife, Myra.

In Pentecostalism, Robinson missed the “gospel of social righteousness.” After reading Anabaptist history and meeting Mennonites while teaching in Philadelphia public schools, he asked Myra, “Why don’t we move to the Mennonites?”

Robinson became a Mennonite pastor, serving at Hamilton Street and Locust Lane Mennonite churches in Harrisburg. He joined EMM as associate director of home ministries, serving from 1982 to 1992. He served as conference minister of Lancaster Conference for seven years before becoming general secretary of the New Testament Fellowship of Anabaptist/Mennonite Churches in 2004.

Keith Weaver, Lancaster Conference moderator, said Robinson “was always passionate about raising up leaders and had a heart for evangelism.”