On July 19, 2025, Greg Livingstone entered the presence of our Heavenly Father. Above all, Greg was a passionate follower of Jesus with an unwavering heart to share the Good News with those who had never heard. As World Outreach Executive Director, Gabriel de Guia, put it:
For more than six decades, Greg championed the cause of bringing the gospel to unreached peoples, and his influence on global missions—and on the EPC in particular—has been immeasurable. Through his teaching, personal mentoring, and strategic partnership with EPC World Outreach, Greg helped ignite within our denomination a deep burden for the nations and a passion to send workers where the Church is not yet present.
In EPC World Outreach’s infancy, the denomination consulted Ralph D. Winter, the renowned American missiologist, on the direction the new denominational mission agency should take. He advised, “You should go to the Muslim world; all the easy places are taken!” World Outreach followed that counsel and early on committed itself to Muslim peoples.
Greg had long felt an unshakable call to the Muslim world, and he and his wife Sally were drawn to World Outreach for this reason. In the early 1980s—around the time Greg founded Frontiers—they joined EPC World Outreach as global workers. For nearly two decades, they served stateside, building Frontiers, mobilizing churches, and ministering faithfully in the EPC, before moving to pioneer ministry in East Asia in the early 2000s.
Among Greg’s many roles in World Outreach was serving as Coordinator of Engage 2025. Launched in 2010, the Engage 2025 initiative called every EPC presbytery to adopt an unreached Muslim people group by the year 2025. By God’s grace, all 16 presbyteries are participants in what is now simply called “Engage.” We have reached 2025, and the work continues in large part because of Greg’s leadership.
One World Outreach field worker, who launched in 2004, observed the dramatic impact Engage 2025 had on him and his team. Before Engage 2025, he felt lonely, isolated, and forgotten by the denomination. However, he said, “When the Engage 2025 initiative was launched, Greg saw an opportunity for a presbytery to adopt us and the people we serve as their Engage 2025 field instead of going through the process of raising up a team on their own. It was a ‘win, win, win’ solution for everyone: us, the presbytery, and more importantly, the denomination.”
World Outreach’s early focus on unreached Muslim people groups was unusual among denominational mission agencies. One worker recalled, “In the early years, this rallied many of the churches coming into the EPC who were not used to a missions focus and involvement. So many churches were inspired, joined in, sent mission workers to Muslim people groups, and supported World Outreach in this unique focus.” Engage 2025 multiplied and intensified that energy.
Greg’s love for Jesus, Muslim people, and the EPC converged in his work with World Outreach. He longed to see the Church fully engaged in Christ’s command to make disciples. EPC World Outreach worker and longtime friend Shawn Stewart commented, “What I hope the whole EPC and World Outreach community will remember is how Greg stuck with the Church and this denomination. . . . He stayed in the arena, calling us higher, praying with us, challenging us with that daredevil, youth-worker like heart of his.”
The EPC community continues to feel the ripple effects of Greg’s ministry. EPC Stated Clerk Dean Weaver shared, “Greg challenged, sharpened, and encouraged me as a leader. He was passionate about the Gospel and laser focused on the largest and most difficult group of people on the planet to reach. We are forever indebted to him for his vision and leadership, and each of us are the grateful inheritors of his legacy.”
Tim Harris, EPC World Outreach worker and author of Loving Your Muslim Neighbor, recalled texting Greg a few weeks before his passing, thanking Greg for how he loved Jesus, his family, and the lost. Greg responded, “It will be worth it all when we see Jesus.” Amen.
Jesus said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt. 22:37-39). Greg embodied these words. He ran his race with endurance and now knows the fullness of joy in the presence of our Savior. May we follow in his steps, loving God and neighbor.
Celebration of Life
Greg’s celebration of life will take place at Lake Avenue Church in Pasadena, CA, on November 15 at 11 am. You are invited to join in worship and remembrance, and can RSVP here by October 30th, so that planners can prepare for catering. While this is a public event, it will not be livestreamed to protect the identity of some who will contribute during the service.
If you would like to provide your tribute or condolences, please post them here: Kudoboard (password Greg2025). These messages will be collected and printed as a book for the Livingstone family.
Greg Livingstone Award
We are pleased to announce the Greg Livingstone Award! Through his teaching, personal mentoring, and strategic partnership with EPC World Outreach, Greg helped ignite within our denomination a deep burden for the nations and a passion to send workers where the Church is not yet present.
In his honor, at the 46th General Assembly, EPC WO plans to give The Greg Livingstone Award to recognize an EPC church doing exceptional work serving and living out the mission of God and His heart for the nations. Would you like to nominate a church? Nominations are due by December 31, 2025.
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