Yesterday afternoon, Glenn received news that his friend Pastor Ken Hutcherson had passed away at the age of 61 after battling cancer for more than a decade.
His church, Antioch Bible Church in Redmond, Washington, announced: “Antioch Bible Church sadly announces that shortly before noon today our Senior Pastor Dr. Ken Hutcherson was ushered in the [presence] of the Lord. Please pray for comfort and peace for the family. The family asked that you give them some privacy at this time. Please no phone calls or [visits].”
On radio this morning, Glenn reflected on the life of his friend and the impact Hutch had on Glenn’s life and the lives of all those who met him.
We lost Ken Hutcherson yesterday. And it's really strange because while I was on stage yesterday – We were doing a big corporate meeting and we had 300 people here and then we had the internal broadcast for all of our staff around the country – and halfway through I started talking about Hutch and talking about how you can go bitter inside or you can change your thinking and experience a miracle. And nobody told me [when] I got off stage. I had to go do the TV show. And as soon as I finished the TV show, I saw the staff walk in and everybody kind of had their head down. And they said, "Glenn, some people are waiting for you in the green room." And I'm like, "Is it the NSA? Are they here for me?" And I said, "What's going on?" And they told me who was waiting, and I knew. And I stopped and I said, "He died, didn't he?" They said yes. And they said, ironically, the best we can tell, he died at almost precisely the time you deviated from your prepared notes and started talking about him and how wonderful he was.
And Hutch and I have just had this connection, and we both believed that we knew each other before we were born and that we were strangely connected. I talked to Pat [his wife] and she said, you know, he was worried about us. You know, it's a man thing. And that's why I really wanted to get out before he died just to tell him: Don't worry. Your family is going to be fine. Your family's going to be taken care of, and your family's going to be fine. But I didn't get a chance to see him. But he was a remarkable man.
And if you missed our special on Hutch, you can see it. There are I think four or five episodes that we did. Strangely, I knew that we weren't going to have another shot. I hoped. I was in denial. I hoped that we had more time, but I knew that would be the last episode we cut of Hutch. That last episode I made everybody go back up to Seattle. We had already filmed that last episode, and I saw it and I said, “That's not right. Go back up and do it again.” And they went up and he could barely talk and barely move, and I'm glad we did because when I talked to Pat, she said, “I can't thank you enough for having your team come up and have him talk about fatherhood and his daughters and everything else.”
And if you want to know about a miracle, here it is. I thought, I really thought that Hutch could be the next Martin Luther King. And I really thought that he had so much stuff that was important for Americans to hear and that's why we began to make that special series. And he does have things to say that you need to hear, you need to watch. He was one of the most remarkable men I've ever met. But at that last episode, I realized, we're missing the mark here. And when I told them go back up and get him to talk about the family, what does he want to say to his daughter, what does he want to say to his wife.
And last night when I found out, I thought, you know, Lord, you are so great. You are so personal to each of us. You don't really care about, quite honestly, about business or how much things cost or how much time is spent or whatever… I think I met Hutch not for any other reason other than he was such a good and faithful servant that had been so loyal to the Lord, and He knew, God did, that his family was going to need comfort and to remember him and remember the good times. And so He knew that our company would be loyal enough just to go up and film him. And I think that was a gift from God for his family. Not for anybody else. But it's still worth you watching. Hutch, available on demand now at TheBlaze.com/TV.
61 years old, Ken Hutcherson, a remarkable, remarkable man.
