Called then into his Heavenly Father’s business, he began preparing to lead and disciple in ministry. Dick and Liz attended Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia and finished their degrees at Westminster Seminary in Escondido, California where they moved along with their three children to establish and pastor New Life Presbyterian church.

On February 18, 2023, Reverend Dr. Richard P. Kaufmann (March 14, 1946 – February 18, 2023) aka Poppie went home to be with his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Because his life was built on the victory of Jesus’s death and resurrection on that day he entered heaven to the words “Well done my good and faithful servant”!

Richard’s (Dick’s) life was all about his family and ministry and in his younger years his horse and football.
He was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey to Marie and Joseph Kaufmann and raised in Egg Harbor City along with his sister Susan. He graduated from Oakcrest High School Class of Alpha 64, where he was a leader on the field and in the classroom but most importantly where he met his high school sweetheart and love of his life Elizabeth “Liz” Elmer.
Dick went on to attend Bucknell University and graduated with honors in 1968. While at Bucknell he excelled in football and wrestling including being captain of both teams. He was later inducted into both the Bucknell Football Hall of Fame and the Wrestling Hall of Fame.
Dick and Liz were married June 24, 1967. In preparation for his call into the family businesses, he worked for Arthur Andersen accounting firm and earned his CPA. He received his MBA from Harvard Business School and graduated with honors in 1972.
Called then into his Heavenly Father’s business, he began preparing to lead and disciple in ministry. Dick and Liz attended Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia and finished their degrees at Westminster Seminary in Escondido, California where they moved along with their three children to establish and pastor New Life Presbyterian church.
He would go onto receive his Doctorate of Ministry from Fuller Theological Seminary in 1994. Dick and Liz then moved to New York City where he was Executive Pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church alongside Tim and Kathy Keller. The Kaufmanns remained there for five years until God called them to church planting in downtown San Diego.
Out of that grew the Harbor movement where Dick and Liz mentored church planters and their wives to start churches throughout the San Diego and Tijuana area.
Over the years Dick also traveled and taught in several colleges and seminaries including in the Doctor of Ministry program at Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, Florida.
Dick always had a love for the beach that was fostered by his mother and countless summers spent at the lake and beach including being an Ocean City Beach Patrol lifeguard. As a result, many of his favorite memories and relaxing times were spent with Liz and their family at beaches on both coasts.
The last four years his family has grown to include the loving and caring staff at Sunrise Senior Living in Henderson.
His love will live on through his beautiful wife, Elizabeth; his sister, Susan and her husband Dave Mullen; sister, Darlene Gilly; brother, Victor Petrilli and his wife Dianna; and his father’s wife, Doris Kaufmann.
His legacy will be carried on by his children: Kristi and her husband Scott McGihon; Kim and her husband Dave Merrill; Mike and his wife Liz Kaufmann; and eight grandchildren: Cameron and his wife Kendal Merrill, Courtney Merrill, Carson and his wife Ali Ann Merrill, Chase McGihon, Moses Kaufmann, Caden Merrill, Blake McGihon and Atlas Kaufmann; along with many nieces and nephews and countless spiritual sons and daughters he taught, mentored and loved.
A celebration of life and reception will be held this Saturday, February 25, 2023 at 1pm at Palm Boulder Highway Mortuary, 800 South Boulder Highway, Henderson, Nevada.
In lieu of flowers, gifts to Harbor City Church can be made at harborcity.church
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I share Cole’s desire that we live with eager expectation, longing for our resurrection into the age to come in the new heaven and the new earth (Rev 21:1). But Cole’s pervasive language of ‘heaven’ often confused me. Although he acknowledges our ultimate future is resurrected bodies in a new creation (13–14), he usually refers to that future state as ‘heaven’. He seems unaware of people like NT Wright emphasising that the Christian eschatological hope is not ‘going to heaven when you die’, but resurrection to real physical life when Christ returns.

Why is my generation of Christians often spiritually tepid and languid? Why can we be indistinguishable from the secular people around us? Cameron Cole has the answer—we are too earthly minded, with little or no yearning for heaven. We need to shift our paradigm. In his words, ‘most Christians live with very little awareness of their eternal trajectory’, and as a consequence our service to Christ feels ‘routine and obligatory’, ‘blah or meh’ (2).
He is not the first to make such a diagnosis. I remember as a young adult hearing Don Carson remark that western Christianity lacks clear and substantial hope—we live in and for the present age. And I live in a location on this spinning globe where it feels like heaven on earth is within touching distance, often to our loss.
Cole admits that he was deeply infected by this same disease until the accidental death of his 3-year-old son. This tragic event prompted a deep and ongoing reflection on the reality and significance of heaven, not just for his son, but for his own life and faith. This gives Heavenward a strong personal tone as Cole shares his own pain and growing hope.
Christ-Centred Heaven
I resonate with Cole’s diagnosis of the malaise that infects our Christianity. I too perceive that myself and my western co-heirs with Christ often have minimal day-to-day hope in life eternal, but are heavily earth-focussed. It needs to change. As an added point, we would do well to imitate our brothers and sisters in other parts of the world whose longing for Christ’s return is palpable.
His vision of heaven is Christ-centred. Heaven is wonderful because of the presence of Jesus, reigning in glory. Cole does mention other aspects of the future, but these are rightly overshadowed by the prospect of knowing Christ, even as we are already known.
He grounds his encouragement to be heavenly minded in rich biblical theology, drawn mainly from the Apostle Paul. The central section of the book (chapters 3–7) track Paul’s teaching on the present experience of heavenly realities brought about by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Bravo! These hopes are not an exaggeration or speculative fantasy.
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Anyone who’s experienced being enslaved by a life-dominating sin knows how easy it is to let that struggle become the lens through which you see all of life. You know how deadly the sin is. You know the power it possesses, and how powerless you feel to resist it.
Many people wrestling with addiction see their entire moral responsibility resting on a single prohibition: Thou shalt not..
They start to measure the strength of their relationship with God based on whether they looked at pornography that day. It doesn’t matter what else happened, good or bad—refraining from sexual sin becomes the sole gauge of spiritual health.
Living with Blinders
There are two pitfalls with this type of thinking. First, you become uninterested in any other area of sanctification in your life. Lying, stealing, idolatry, and unrighteous anger don’t even register as areas of needed growth because sexual sin has given you tunnel vision to any other problems. Your day may have been filled with selfish and self-indulgent pursuits, but, in your mind, it was a great day because you didn’t look at porn.
The second pitfall is just as soul-damaging. Letting your entire day rest upon your ability to perfectly resist sexual temptation also blinds you to the good work God may be doing in your life in other areas. Sexual sin is usually the fruition of many other, deeper heart issues that God is slowly and surgically redeeming. There may be much groundwork being done in your life even while you continue to lose many battles against temptation. Blindness to this good work that God is doing can co-opt a trajectory of growth through discouragement and despair.
Take off the Blinders
It’s time to take off the blinders. It’s time to embrace the full panorama of God’s redemptive purposes for your life. On the day of judgment, God is not only interested in what sins you refrained from. He’s equally interested in what good fruit your life produced. This is why theologians have developed two categories for sin: sins of commission and sins of omission. Sins of commission are the sins we commit. We lust, we steal, we lie, we covet. We focus most of our repentant energy on sins of commission. And that’s understandable. The Ten Commandments are largely addressing sins we commit. That is why eight out of the ten are stated in the negative: Thou shalt not. . .
But it was paradigm-shifting for me to read the Westminster Larger Catechism and realize that with every prohibitive commandment is an implied command to do its opposite instead. Not taking the Lord’s name in vain implies the command to revere his name in honor. Not killing implies the command to actively preserve and promote life in others. Not lying implies the command to speak the truth in love to build up your neighbor. Failure to do the opposite of these prohibitions is also sin. Sins of omission are the failure to do the good which God commands. Sin is not just what we have done, but also what we have left undone.