Member Spotlight: Jim and Elizabeth McGarvey, The Church for Life

In 2003 Pastor Jim McGarvey sensed the Lord changing the focus of his ministry. So, he resigned from 10 years in the pastorate in southeast Florida, certain the Lord wanted him to leave, but uncertain of what he was to do. The Lord took that faithful beginning, refined him through adversity, and gave him a voice on the sanctity of life and the atrocity of abortion.

In January of 2006, while Jim was seeking the Lord on a three-day fast, a worker from Hope Women’s Centers, his county’s pregnancy resource center, urged him to apply as Hope’s new development director. His words, “I can see you as a pastor to pastors,” resonated in Jim, who had already preached several sermons on abortion while in the pastorate.

At the interview, Hope’s executive director told Jim, “You’re not at all what we are looking for, but you are exactly what we need.” Serving at Hope Women’s Centers broadened Jim’s speaking platform. His task was to engage the Church, not just individual donors, in the abortion problem, by presenting the work of Hope Women’s Centers.

Jim spoke from a pastor’s heart on behalf of the preborn, the women at risk from abortion, and those living with post-abortive trauma, desiring to awaken the Church to the life-changing power of applying the Gospel to these heart-rending situations. The task was huge. He prayed and fasted, crying out to God, “Lord, birth in my heart Your message for the Church on abortion.” It was a simple prayer he prayed over and over.

Out of that prayer, the Lord built a message that centered on exposing the spiritual forces behind abortion. He brought Jim into contact with the writings and research of others who opened his understanding of the Scripture concerning the sanctity of life. Jim’s realization of who was really “driving abortion” fueled his conviction that abortion is a spiritual crisis, an attack of the devil “to steal and kill and destroy” (John 10:10a) and “the center of Satan’s agenda.”

As he understood that abortion is chiefly a matter of Scriptural authority, not just a political or social issue, Jim became convinced that “abortion is the Church’s problem, and we should be solving it.” From then on, his messages focused on the spiritual responsibility of the Body of Christ, the Church, “as the only institution equipped to engage the spiritual forces behind abortion.”

Jim began reminding the Church of a principle throughout history, that “when the Gospel saturates a culture, the devaluation of the human life is reversed … and the transcendent truth of the sanctity of life is embraced.” He called the Church to fully engage in the battle and saturate society with the Gospel. When the Church is negligent, the devaluation of human life continues.

As he preached, Jim discovered that most Christians, though pro-life in name, did nothing beyond writing a political letter or participating in a prayer time. He grieved that “the vast majority of those claiming to be pro-life live as though abortion was not ravaging our nation.”

The more Jim studied, the more conscious he became of the staggering accumulative effect of abortion. According to Jim, over 1.72 billion babies have been murdered since the 1973 Roe v Wade ruling, 56 million of those in the United States. That means that between 40 to 50 million lives are lost worldwide annually. And one abortion does not end only one life. Abortion eliminates every potential descendant from that life, extinguishing future generations. Additionally, Jim says that “every year, more loss of life means more residual problems in the post-abortive. The tentacles of abortion reach out into so many segments of our society. It’s related to everything from child abuse to violence in the inner city.” He recognized that “the Gospel has not failed abortion. The Church has failed to apply the Gospel to abortion.”

The Church has also failed to apply the Gospel within the Church and must repent of her collusion with abortion. A crisis pregnancy worker told of a pastor who brought his daughter to their clinic thinking it was an abortion clinic. Sadly, this case is not isolated. Too often, Christians have chosen the sin of abortion as a covering to hide their sin, instead of godly repentance and forgiveness. Jim quotes a statistic from Focus on the Family’s heartlink.org that a quarter of a million women in evangelical churches abort their children each year and says that 20 to 40 percent of women in churches are post-abortive. When a local body meets in worship, Jim knows that it is highly probable that at least one man or woman there has been touched by abortion. To them, he says, “While you cannot escape the truth about your abortion, nor the consequences of your abortion, there is forgiveness, there is healing, there is restoration in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

The Gospel message of calling the Church to repentance and to “engage the spiritual forces behind abortion” has had personal consequences for the McGarveys. The director at Hope had warned Jim that battling abortion carries with it a heightened spiritual warfare that would touch every area of his life. Jim was familiar with spiritual battle, having been raised in Japan with the occult influence of ancestor worship, and knowing of blood sacrifices now practiced in southeast Florida by those involved in witchcraft.

But life soon intensified for the McGarveys beyond anything they had known. Jim experienced the greatest ministry he had ever had, but his worst family and personal problems. Among them, his wife Elizabeth’s chronic illness intensified greatly and their oldest daughter, Sarah, began dating an unsaved man. Jim says, “It was like I was riding two rails of a track—opposite, but connected because of spiritual battle. And I don’t believe it was a coincidence.”

Sarah became pregnant out-of-wedlock, and the McGarvey family walked out the truth Jim had been preaching: The Gospel wraps us in the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and heals and restores us. For several months, Sarah lived with the young man and gave birth to their son. Four months later, Sarah returned home, repented, and was born again. She and her son, Adrian, lived with her parents for the next four years, filling Jim with the joy of providing godly male influence in his grandson’s life, and reminding them all that life is God’s gift.

In November 2008, Jim’s life was shaken when the economic downturn forced Hope Women’s Centers to let him go. Weeks later, he was diagnosed with glaucoma, had a root canal and crown, and was diagnosed with prostate cancer. He spent most of 2009 researching treatment options and choosing his treatment plan, but continued speaking as he could. In spring 2010 the entire family was involved in a car accident that killed the driver of the other car, who had pulled out in front of them. Their 17-year-old son Chris, a trained life guard, was driving. He dragged his mother, Elizabeth, from the car and resuscitated her before the EMTs arrived. This accident was “a huge blow, an unwanted tragedy, but it had redeeming effects pouring from it.”

Through these trials, Jim’s relationship with the Lord reached “a totally different level.” He says, “In that sense, I have rejoiced and welcomed the trials and the difficulties and setbacks, because they have been used of the Lord to change my life. I am so grateful for that.”

After losing his job with Hope Women’s Centers, Jim went on a three-day fast to seek the Lord for future direction. Should he return to the pastorate? On the third day, he read about a man who left a prestigious job to start a ministry. The Lord spoke to his heart, “OK, you’ve been fasting and praying on and off for three years. You’ve been giving this message that I’ve given you, the one you asked Me to give to you. What has changed?”

What had changed? Jim listed the loss of the platform of a well-established ministry and his paycheck, but other than that … “You’re right, Lord,” he responded, “because nothing has changed. You’ve given me the message. I’ll stay on the issue.”

Stay on the issue he has, through his speaking and teaching ministry, The Church for Life. Jim’s desire to serve the Body of Christ in “understanding abortion from God’s perspective, so that the Church is empowered to do what God expects His people to do,” has led him to speak in several venues: Christian college chapels, university classrooms, a pregnancy resource center conference, a fund-raising banquet, a pro-life rally, and special events for pastors and church groups. He trains crisis pregnancy center workers and continues to preach in churches.

The name of this ministry, The Church for Life, reflects his heart to minister truth and grace to the Church, and his focus on the Biblical stance of the abortion issue within the larger pro-life movement. Jim’s ministry through The Church for Life helps the Church formulate a Gospel response to America’s abortion crisis.

But some Christians have yet to realize that the abortion crisis is a spiritual crisis in the Church. A pastor of a large church said, “I don’t address this subject in my pulpit. It’s too political.” Jim McGarvey points out that this thinking is “overlooking the whole Biblical basis for life.”

Although he understands it’s an uncomfortable topic, Jim also understands that it’s crucial for pastors to present clear Biblical teaching about the Church’s responsibility to live out and speak out the Gospel within our culture. If the Church does not speak out in our abortion-saturated country, who will? Where else will people hear truth?

“I’d love to sit across a table with him for 30 minutes,” Jim says, “and serve him by sharing a different perspective and help him understand all the reasons he can’t afford to NOT talk about abortion, wrapping it in the Gospel, and bringing healing and salvation to these men and women.”

Whenever Pastor McGarvey speaks, his message is “birthed in prayer and fasting.” That’s the way the Lord has taught him, and that’s how he ministers. “It’s a necessity,” Jim says. “It’s not an option anymore.”

Wherever Jim speaks, he researches local pregnancy resource centers so that he knows who to recommend and can introduce pro-life workers to the audience. New audiences who will listen to the message that “abortion is a Gospel issue” are a high prayer priority for him.

For Christians who still think of abortion through this world’s perspective, Jim points out that the key political issue with abortion “is not women’s rights, but human rights—denying life to a child” who also happens to be a citizen of the United States. The scientific debate over when life begins “ended years ago with the discovery that the first cell of human development contains its full complement of DNA,” Jim argues.

Biblically, the sanctity of human life begins even before creation, as indicated by Scriptures that say God planned for us before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4, 1 Peter 1:20, Revelation 13:8, 17:8). One of Jim’s favorite Biblical illustrations for the sanctity of life is that of Mary’s visit to Elizabeth as recorded in Luke 1:39-45. He points out that John the Baptist “leaped for joy in his mother’s womb when he came into the presence of Jesus Christ, God incarnate, Who was but days old in the womb of His mother Mary.” This truth is so amazing to Jim, that he has given it a special name: “intra-uterine worship.”

In the end, the battle over abortion is a battle of worldviews. The Church can stand in the Biblical worldview—that life is sacred and of eternal significance—or succumb to the secular notion that life is a matter of the survival of the fittest, making self the god who can choose the life or death of a child.

In all Jim’s messages he says, “The Biblical evidence is very clear. The unborn are created by God and for God. They are created in His image and likeness and are recognized by God as distinct and unique persons from the moment of conception. Understanding this truth is critical in forming a Biblical worldview that shapes the Church’s response to the shedding of innocent blood.”

Jim’s pastor’s heart and convictions have definitely spilled over onto his family. His wife, Elizabeth, is a clinical professor in nursing at a local college, and volunteers as a client advocate at Hope Women’s Centers. Their daughter Ashley is the current executive director at Choices Pregnancy Resource Center in Chattanooga.

Yet Jim is aware that most of “the Church in America is struggling with how to respond to America’s abortion crisis.” He believes that most evangelical pastors are pro-life, but still so few churches directly work with or support helping those at risk of abortion or the post-abortive.

“We’ve been in this battle for so long,” Jim says. “There has been progress, but abortion is still legal, and the loss of life is huge. Biblically, when a society allows the shedding of innocent blood in the land, it’s like stoking a fire. We are fueling killing. If we understood this, we as God’s people would know how to respond to abortion. The politicians and the courts won’t end it. The Church is going to end this.

“Ultimately, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the solution to America’s abortion crisis. The shedding of innocent blood has polluted our land and profaned the Name of the Lord. But there is a greater blood shed at Mount Calvary that can transform the heart of a mother so she will choose life for her child; that blood can cleanse the guilty, forgive, heal, and restore those involved in abortion. What America needs to hear is God’s truth about abortion wrapped in the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Pastor Jim McGarvey is committed to speaking that truth.