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Millard Fuller will always be remembered

By Chaplain Johnny Phillips | The News Herald

Published: May 1, 2009

His was one of the lankiest, gawkiest looking people I have ever known, and by his appearance, one would think him to more likely a computer nerd than charismatic speaker, but Millard Fuller will always be remembered, along with his wife Linda, as the co-founder of Habitat for Humanity International who has helped over 300,000 families worldwide to own their own homes, and, as former President Bill Clinton once said, single handedly "changed the face of philanthropy." Fuller died on Feb. 3 of this year.
I had met this man in 1995 when he arrived for a secret meeting in New Bern where Sue and I served a local congregation.
The fledgling local Habitat affiliate wanted to meet and make plans for the Fullers to come and speak at a later date.
I offered our church's fellowship hall. Having been active with HHI for sometime, I already had framed on the wall of my office his own words which have come to be known as "The Theology of the Hammer": "We may disagree on all sorts of things — baptism, communion, what night to have prayer meeting, and how the preacher should dress. But thank God we can agree on a nail and the use of a hammer as an instrument to manifest God's love."
During a break in the planning session, I asked him to come into my office and to sign the Theology of the Hammer.
As I was taking it out of the frame for that purpose, Millard stared at my collection of hammers (For more than 35 years I have enjoyed the hobby of collecting antique hammers and now posses over 400 of them.).
When he had finished autographing the saying, he looked up to me, glanced at all the hammers, and said, "Johnny, if anyone in this world should have a copy of my book The Theology of the Hammer, you should. I'm going to mail you a copy." Today his book is in my personal library, and his autographed plaque is in my office.
But 1996 was HHI's 20th anniversary and almost a hundred volunteers, of whom I was one, were celebrating the occassion by 'marching' the distance from its international headquarters to the Carter Center in Atlanta.
Linda and Millard were among us. You get to know a lot about some one walking 118 miles with them.
For all the accomplishments and fame of Habitat, most people are not aware that the Fullers first were missionaries of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo).
It was in Zaire in 1973 that they first applied their theory of housing and reasoned that if it could be successful there, then "why not the rest of the world?" Many people can retell the Fullers' story of how they were millionaires at the early age of twenty-nine yet their marriage was falling apart despite their material success.
Their testimony goes on about how they chose to refocus their marriage and family life by giving away their possessions and taking up this Christian cause.
But as another celebrity, Paul Harvey, whom we also lost that same month would say, "And now for the rest of the story…"
Years later and quite by accident, I met a Zairian native who had known the Fullers long before they became world famous. "Millard's biggest problem," the man told me, "was the jealousy that others had for his charisma. He was disarming in that at first appearance, people only saw a gangly geek never suspecting his ability to motivate others. But once he was given a chance at a microphone, he would move armies and outshine those who wanted to contain his enthusiasm. He received constant criticism and reprimands from his supervisors for his lack of control over his desire to help others achieve homes. When others raised a thousand dollars, Millard raised a 100,000 Wherever he went, he made friends by the thousands but enemies in the bureaucracies."
I studied his speaking techniques and his mannerisms, but nothing gave evidence to the secret of his success.
He was funny to look at, all lanky limbs seeming to hang over the podium like a coat some teenager had thrown off carelessly at the front door.
His diction was pure Alabamaese with long i's, and his accent a Southern drawl that insulted the King's English (This I know as I have spent years trying to overcome the same). But two minutes into his spiel, you paid his flinging arms and his nasal accent no attention.
Finally, I came to understand the man's secret to moving others to house over three hundred thousand families.
He believed in what he was doing. His faith was so sincere he never tired of working in the field or in the office, so real he aid no attention to his critics, and so deep he never tired of sharing it with others. Would that we all believed so.