Dr James Houston, founding principal of Regent College in Vancouver, was called home to the Lord on March 15. He was 103 years old.

According to a tribute posted on Regent College’s website, Dr Houston – or Jim, as he is better known – founded the graduate school on the University of British Colombia campus in 1970, driven by a passion for “equipping and empowering Christian laypeople for their ministry, not just within the Church but in all of life”.

“Jim’s great hope was that Regent would be a place where students would be thoughtful and competent in their faith and at the same time, their characters would be being reshaped, so that the ultimate result was not their qualification of expertise, but the transformation of their person,” the tribute read. 

A friend of God

Over the decades, many Singaporean Christians have passed through Regent College’s doors, returning with sharpened minds and transformed hearts.

David Leong, who has a Master of Christian Studies degree from Regent College, said he was privileged to study under the feet of Dr Houston from 1991 to 1993.

“Although he was the founding principal and an eminent professor, he was the most humble and gentle servant of God and lecturer I have ever come across in my life,” said David, a local preacher and an itinerant Children and Families Educator at Grace Methodist Church Singapore.

“What impacted me the most is how he could simply stand behind the rostrum for two hours in a night class and teach with such great ease and spiritual insights on the subject of prayer being friendship with God.

“His face would have that special pinkish glow as he smiled along during his teaching. Such was God’s anointing upon Dr Houston that has made him so well-loved, greatly respected and deeply impactful in both Regent College and all over the world.

“Farewell, Dr Houston, your dearest wife must be so happy to be reunited with you now. I can almost hear her quip, ‘Jim, what has taken you so long to be here!'”

Kua Wee Seng, who studied at Regent College from 1987 to 1989, shared with Salt&Light that in his time there, he got to know Dr Houston not just as a learned scholar but also a deeply spiritual and godly man.

“His teaching on prayer and his subsequent book The Transforming Friendship: A Guide to Prayer transformed my understanding of prayer and impacted my prayer life,” said the former director of United Bible Societies China ministry.

“Dr James Houston embodied what he has taught and written: A lifelong intimate friendship with God! And now he is with the Lord, his best friend in life and in eternity.”

Rev Dr David Wong, General Secretary of the Bible-Presbyterian Church in Singapore, remembers taking a course on prayer with Dr Houston during his time at Regent College during the spring term of 1990.

In his book The Owl and the Fellowship of the Wise, Rev Dr Wong wrote: “He walked in, stood before us and shocked us with his opening line, ‘If you want to learn to pray, attending a course on prayer is the worst way to do it.’

“So it was, a point he repeated during the course. Prayer is not about techniques, the how of praying. If we focus on that, we have lost it. Prayer is about relationship. The most memorable line I took away from the course was, ‘The purpose of prayer is not to pray, but to know God.'”

Rev Dr Wong noted that many of Dr Houston’s students took away the call to friendship with God, as well as the enjoyment of spiritual friendships among likeminded individuals. “Again, Houston practised what he taught, modelling friendship as he took walks with his students and made breakfast for them.”

Rev Dr Wong also recounted how words of wisdom from Dr Houston had helped him to discern that it was the right time to step down as Senior Pastor of his church.

“Houston cautioned against leaders hogging a position and he practised what he preached. He started as the Principal, but stepped aside after 10 years to allow Carl Armerding to serve in his place. His successor then handed the position after another 10 years to Walter Wright,” he wrote.

“When I was there in 1990, all three of them were serving at the College in different roles, a beautiful picture of leaders who did not weave their ministries around themselves and their own insecurity.”

A spiritual god-grandfather

Throughout his life, Dr Houston also authored, co-authored and edited more than 30 books, many of which have deeply impacted and formed the faith of Christians in Singapore.

Pastor Rick Toh, Senior Pastor of Yio Chu Kang Chapel, remembers how he came across one of Dr Houston’s books, The Heart’s Desire: Satisfying the Hunger of the Soul, during his days at the National University of Singapore.

The book’s cover, which showed a girl with a heart-shaped hole in her chest, struck him immediately. “I felt as if it was describing what I was experiencing within,” he told Salt&Light.

At that point, though he had been a Christian for many years and was actively serving in church, he had felt a sense of emptiness within that he could not understand or explain.

“As I read, it spoke deeply about the longings of the human heart – how our desires can often be misplaced, and how true fulfilment can only be found in God. Page after page, it felt like God was gently uncovering what was going on inside me,” said Pastor Rick.

“Through that experience, I came to know God in a fresh and personal way. It wasn’t just head knowledge or outward service anymore – it became something real within me. Looking back, that moment marked a deeper inner turning point in my faith journey.”

He soon began reading more of Dr Houston’s books and enjoyed “the reflective and profound thoughts he had on spirituality”.

In particular, The Transforming Power of Prayer: Deepening Your Friendship with God was instrumental in helping him know how to relate with God authentically and personally as His child.

Said Pastor Rick: “I regarded him as my spiritual god-grandfather, as he has been such a mentor through his writings to me!”

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