Award-winning engineer with a heart for Christ
John H. Adams, Posted Monday, Mar 26, 2001
Shortly after his election in 1992 as moderator of the Presbyterian Church (USA), the Rev. John Fife accepted an invitation to speak in San Francisco at a meeting of the directors of the Presbyterian Lay Committee.
Fife was a nationally known social activist whose resume included a felony conviction for harboring illegal immigrants. His candidacy for moderator had been endorsed by people who favored abortion, homosexual rights and liberation theology.
True to his activism even at a meeting of the evangelical Presbyterian Lay Committee, Fife called for a boycott of Ford Motor Co., more political engagement on behalf of social issues and safe houses for illegal immigrants.
The directors listened politely until Fife finished his remarks.
John H. Jenks, then-chairman of the Presbyterian Lay Committee, responded: “John, all of these problems you are talking about ultimately can be traced back to one issue, abandonment and setting aside the Word of God. The Church has been uniquely given the privilege and responsibility of doing the only thing that you can meaningfully do in a society – that is, change people’s hearts. Only through a relationship with Jesus flow Biblical and God-given answers to the problems in society.”
John Fife and John Jenks represent the dividing line that continues today in the Presbyterian Church (USA).
While emphasizing social activism, especially since 1960, the Presbyterian Church (USA) has experienced a membership loss of more than 40 percent, from 4.2 million to 2.5 million.
Meanwhile, many evangelical congregations, such as Menlo Park Presbyterian Church, where Jenks has been a member and leader for 48 years, have increased their membership while emphasizing the divinity of Jesus and the authority of Scripture. Menlo Park has grown from 1,400 members in the 1950s to nearly 5,000 today.
It would continue to grow, Jenks says, but the congregation is landlocked and not willing to add any more buildings. Its priority is to spend millions of dollars annually on missions, including the operation of an orphanage in Kiev, Ukraine.
Jenks, who has been a director of the Presbyterian Lay Committee since 1967, has played a key lay role in that growth. Since 1946, he has served as a member – and several times as chairman – of various Menlo Park pastor nominating committees. The first questions asked every candidate, he says, are: 1) What do you think about Jesus? and 2) Tell us your view of Scripture.
Candidates who fail to answer those questions with clarity and conviction don’t stay around for many more questions.
Because of the screening process, Jenks says, “We have a group of pastors who all believe the same thing …. ‘Complete my joy by being of the same mind. …’”
That’s John Jenks – Scripture in the middle of a thought or sentence. He says Scripture memorization is an “addiction” acquired through InterVarsity Christian Fellowship while he was an engineering student at Stanford University, where he received three engineering degrees.
“Memorizing Scripture led to a deep conviction that the Bible is as it claims to be, the authoritative Word of God and the only infallible rule of faith and practice,” he said.
Today, Jenks is senior consultant of Kennedy/Jenks Consultants, one of the largest and most highly respected engineering companies in the nation. He personally has won three national design awards for water reclamation projects that increased supply for agricultural purposes and improved the environment.
He is an environmentalist with a Biblical perspective. “It’s clear that we’ve been given the responsibility to be stewards of that which God has created,” he said. “It is also clear that the earth is there for the benefit of mankind and mankind is superior to the natural environment.”
Jenks is a third-generation Presbyterian elder and a second-generation engineer. His late father taught engineering and, in 1948, father and son began working together in their own consulting company.
“Both my mother and father were very committed Christians,” Jenks said. “I have a clear recollection of seeing my father on his knees praying for God’s guidance in his life. I remember his preaching on Layman Sunday in First Presbyterian Church in Sacramento.”
Jenks earned his bachelor’s degree in engineering in 1941 and had begun work on a master’s degree when World War II interrupted his studies. He enlisted in the Navy and became the executive officer of a P.T. boat in the Philippines. He says the only “action” he saw was boating around the Philippines announcing the good news: The war was over.
After the war, he returned to Stanford to complete work on his master’s and a third engineering degree that was midway between a master’s and a Ph.D. He finished school in 1948.
During his final student years, Jenks heard Dr. Robert Boyd Munger, author of the Christian classic, My Heart, Christ’s Home, speak at Mount Hermon Conference Center. Three long-term relationships developed out of that visit to the center:
- With Dr. Munger, who introduced Jenks to a deeper walk with Christ. “I was one of those people who could say that no one would be able to shake my understanding and intellectual assent to the Gospel. But I discovered that intellectual assent was one step short of a heart conviction.”
- With a young lady named Laurie, an independent Baptist. After their first date, Jenks said he told a friend, “Bill, remember this – that Laurie is the girl God intends for me.” And so she was. They were married 49 years ago in a Baptist church (her former denomination) that had a neon sign proclaiming, “Jesus Saves.” In deference to Jenks’ Presbyterian tradition, Laurie had draperies set up to hide the sanctuary’s baptistry.
- With Mount Hermon Conference Center itself. Jenks served on the conference center board for 28 years and now is a lifelong trustee.
Jenks’ wedding ring is inscribed with Heb. 10.24 to remind him of a verse that he says has been the cornerstone of their 49 years of marriage, raising four children and now enjoying five grandchildren. Jenks prefers the Living Bible version: “In view of what God has done for us, let us outdo one another in being helpful, being kind and doing good.”