John & Reta Hutchinson celebrate 50 years of ministry
- by Tim Callaway

Rewind to the Miles Ahead Youth Crusade that rocked the standing-room only Saddledome in October 2001. Onstage, the Christian rock band Jake is doing its best to ensure that hearing-aid companies will have plenty of customers for years to come.

Waiting in the wings backstage for its opportunity to play for 15,000 plus teenagers is the popular band Audio Adrenalin, its members having formed a circle and dropped to their knees in prayer.

Kneeling amidst the dyed hair, the eyebrow studs and the skater pants is a silver-haired couple with faces and hands raised to the heavens, calling out to God above the din of the onstage festivities.

John and Reta Hutchinson are at it again, doing what they’ve been doing for half a century — pointing young people to Jesus.

John and Reta Hutchinson

"Reta and I met at a young peoples’ function, spent the early part of our ministry serving with Youth For Christ International (YFCI) and currently attend University Church which is largely made up of young students," chuckled John when reminded of the Saddledome event. "So, yes, young people have always had a special place in our hearts." Some might say such a role has been a natural fit for John who was born into the home of the principal of Calgary’s Prophetic Bible Institute, graduating twenty years later from Berean Bible College, a school founded by his father. Reta, however, came from a significantly different background. "I came to Calgary to paint the town red," declared the native of Nelson, BC. "But before I even had a chance to paint it pink, God got hold of the paintbrush."

Responding to an invitation from a girlfriend to attend services at Bethel Baptist by saying, "I’ll come if they have parties," Reta eventually met John at a skating party.

The couple was married May 20, 1953, after Reta took a year of study at Berean, and immediately moved to Longview to pastor a small church.

During the Hutchinsons’ second year there, a former fellow student at Berean, John Tiebe, visited en route to India with YFCI.

"We’d been involved in YFC in Calgary," John recalled, "but didn’t know the ministry was active overseas. God began working in my heart about going to India so I selected the lunch hour of a particular day to sit down and share my thoughts with Reta. Unknown to me, God had been similarly working in her heart and she was planning to share her burden for India with me that very same day."

In 1955 the Hutchinsons and their two young daughters began what would be ten years with YFC in Kerala State and Bombay, India, conducting youth rallies and forming high school Bible clubs. Two sons were born to the couple in India.

"When we made it known in 1966 that we were not returning to the mission field," Reta related, "the attitudes of many of our Christian friends back here were quite critical. Thankfully, God had used the ministry of an Irish Presbyterian minister during our last two years in India to give us a fresh touch of the Holy Spirit, something that not only changed our marriage but gave us a new, agape love even for our critics."

After serving with YFC Canada for five years following their time in India, God made it clear to John and Reta He wanted them to use the solid Bible training they’d received at Berean and Bethel Baptist in a teaching ministry among charismatic Christians.

In 1970 the Hutchinsons began working with the Jesus People in Calgary and later established a group called "Melos" (Greek for part of the body) as an extension of their outreach in the city.

The couple also served for eight years at Acts Leadership Training School at Calgary’s Christian Centre.

Throughout the last decade of the twentieth century they spearheaded several successful prayer initiatives designed to promote unity in the Christian church in Calgary.

Today, the Hutchinsons live on the grounds of Entheos Retreat Centre where they serve as chaplains to the centre’s staff.

"God continues to give us a burden for fervent intercessory prayer on behalf of revival in the church," John said softly.

"We long for the unity of the Body because we’ve learned it is one of God’s top priorities. We long for an ongoing openness to God’s Spirit," he concluded. "The more of that sweet presence we get, the more we want."

Editor’s note — City Light News salutes John and Reta Hutchinson on a half-century of marriage and for 50 years of pointing people to Jesus. You two were instrumental in shaping our spiritual lives. When we were street-people, newly born again, you reached out to us and taught us how to walk with Jesus. We love you and thank God for you! — Peter & John