Whether your source is Greek historian Herodotus in ‘History’ (c. 445 B.C.) who wrote “Whom the gods love dies young; Best go first;” or William Wordsworth’s ‘The Excursion’ and the lines, ‘The good die first,/ And they whose hearts are dry as summer dust burn/ Burn to the socket;’ or Billy Joel’s lyrics to ‘Only The Good Die Young,’ it frequently strikes us to be true when a younger friend proceeds you to heaven

Such is the case of my friend from many years ago (and I wish more recently), PCA Teaching Elder Edward Bradley. Here is the brief note I just received from his Executive Assistant, April Wise, at Oakseed Ministries, where Ed has served as President since 1982.

Dear Friends,
With great sadness I tell you that our dear friend Edward Bradley passed away at 11:30am this morning. He went to be with our Lord immediately after the breathing apparatus was removed. We grieve with Donna and the Bradley family for the loss of this wonderful father, husband, and man of God. This world will truly feel the loss of him. We can rejoice and find comfort that he is with his dear Savior, free of pain and the burdens of this world.
I will be in touch with all information on funeral plans. Thank you for your prayers!

Selection from the Heidelberg Catechism

Question 1: What is thy only comfort in life and death?
That I with body and soul, both in life and death, am not my own, but belong unto my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ; who, with his precious blood, has fully satisfied for all my sins, and delivered me from all the power of the devil; and so preserves me that without the will of my heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from my head; yea, that all things must be subservient to my salvation, and therefore, by his Holy Spirit, He also assures me of eternal life, and makes me sincerely willing and ready, henceforth, to live unto him.

On Thursday doctors found 26 melanomas on his brain and determined they were inoperable and he was placed on life support. Life expectancy was determined to be counted in days; the neurosurgeon told them there was nothing they could do, so once all family arrived they would remove the breathing apparatus. That occurred Friday morning.

I first met Ed in 1983 when I moved to Newport, Rhode Island as a Navy Chaplain and transferred my DMin studies from San Francisco Theological Seminary to Gordon Conwell. Ed was working on his MDiv at the time. Just as I had done a dozen years earlier, he had left his first career to enter seminary in his mid-30’s. We were also both Michiganders by birth (although he was an official Yooper (native of the Upper Peninsula), and I was a Detroiter. Ed had been a very successful stock broker in Maine and an Elder in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. People were frankly shocked when he walked away from that career to study for the ministry, and I knew that same feeling all too well.

During those years, I served as the Chairman of the Candidates and Credentials Committee of the PCA’s Northeast Presbytery, so became the ‘de facto’ PCA go-to guy for GCTS students. We licensed Ed to preach there in the fall of 1984. As Ed approached graduation in 1985 and was looking for a call, I told him about a group I thought had a lot of potential that he might be interested in. It was folks that I suspected he would get along with well, sociologically and theologically, who were then travelling nearly an hour to attend the PCA church in Charlottesville, VA that Skip Ryan had planted in the late 70’s. They were commuting regularly from the Shenandoah Valley over the spine of the Blue Ridge Mountains to Trinity in Charlottesville. And they wanted to start a church in the Valley.

Ed talked to the leaders of the core group and to some of my friends in James River Presbytery (where I had just left to move to Newport) and, in God’s providence he was called as the church planter for what is now Covenant Presbyterian Church of Harrisonburg. (My bet is that 95% of the folks in the PCA think Phil Smuland planted the church, and he certainly did see it grow and prosper, but it was Ed who was the organizing pastor.)

The next year, due to several causes, including Ed’s recognition that his gifts could be better used in a different aspect of God’s kingdom, he moved to Northern Virginia (becoming a member of Potomac Presbytery) where he served on the staff of the Christian Legal Society for three years, and then moved into missions. From 1989 to 1992 he helped start Global Partners for Development, an agency begun to help deal with the deep poverty of East Africa, especailly Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania. He was the founding Vice President.

Three years later (1992) Ed wanted to focus more on the needy in big cities, especially children and saw that local Christian ministries with boots on the ground could get the job done best but needed outside financial support. He founded Oakseed Ministries International, whose purpose (according to their website) is to “assist local ministries that serve abandoned children and the poor living in the megacities of the Third World by bringing the good news of Jesus in word and deed. The organization supports 24 ministries and is called to serve the church.”

Ed had turned 64 just last fall. He is survived by his wife of 41 years, Donna, and four children: Jonelle, Benjamin, Derek, and Tiffany.

UPDATED INFO:
Tuesday, January 17th @ 6:00pm – 8:00pm: Visitation hours at Murphy’s Funeral House in Falls Church (1102 West Broad Street, Falls Church, VA 22046)

Wednesday, January 18th @ 7:00pm: Memorial Service at McLean Presbyterian Church (1020 Balls Hill Road, McLean, VA 22101) There will be a reception with the Bradley Family at McLean Presbyterian Church immediately following the memorial service.

The Bradley family has requested that in lieu of flowers or other gifts, donations be made to his Memorial Fund through Oakseed Ministries International. A check mailed to: Oakseed Ministries International, PO Box 607, Dunn Loring, VA 22027. Please designate “Memorial Fund”.