About Andy Luke

I was born on 7 March 1947 into a keen Evangelical Christian home. My parents were very involved in mission work, running MAF in South Africa for many years. My father made films for S.A.G.M. missionaries.

I gave my heart to the Lord age 7 at a meeting at the Johannesburg Bible Institute, and remember it as if it were yesterday. I re-committed my life at my sister’s baptism when I was 12, and was really set on fire for the Lord. I desperately wanted to be baptized, but my parents asked me to wait till I was 13. I did this, but was sad because my Grandmother died in the interim, and never saw my baptism. As a result, I have always been sensitive to the spiritual desires of children.

I attained a BA degree in English and Biblical Studies and a Teacher’s Higher Diploma, and taught high school for three years, during which time I was very involved in running the Students’ Christian Association, and ran leadership camps and children’s’ missions for Scripture Union. As a result, SU invited me to work for them among high schools in what was then called the Transvaal for five years, which I did.

Then, after another five years in teaching, my church (Rosebank Union) invited me to enter the ministry as assistant pastor. Emotionally, I did not want to accept this. I can still remember walking into the entrance of the church on that first day and saying, “This is the worst mistake I’ve ever made”! But the leading from the Lord was so clear, that I would have been disobedient not to have accepted. It was quite a long time before I became inwardly convinced that I was indeed called to the ministry.

I served at RUC for six years, during which time I attained a Diploma in Theology from the Baptist Theological College of Southern Africa, and was ordained to the ministry. I then became Pastor of Waterkloof Baptist Church. While I was there, I studied Psychology up to Honours level, because I was starting to do a lot of counselling.

Also, around this time, I experienced a mid-life struggle. My Christian life became quite dry, and I was seriously depressed. I was greatly helped by a period of counselling and by a fresh experience of the Holy Spirit, which has left me more open to charismatic things. We also visited the Church of the Saviour in Washington D.C.  It was here that I first became confident that I was indeed called into the ministry. My calling came with the words, “To help people find their Inward and Outward Journeys in the context of true Community.” That sentence shaped the rest of my ministry.

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