My sincere condolences 

Many broadcasters were very influenced by Phil on how to use the media especially radio to integrate ministry to listeners with the local church. I met Phil at Several house in the 80s with Rupert Neves Christian Broadcast Training. I was impressed by his humility knowledge of media and humanity. His passion for the gospel made a deep impression on me.

Sincerely condolences to his family and friends. We are indebted to his vision and creativity.

Gerry O'CONNELL 

I had only been at Seattle's Union Gospel Mission for a couple of years, but my dream of building out city gospel networks in the greater Seattle area had become an unmistakable vision and calling on my life. I had met with hundreds of pastors and non-profit leaders, many business and civic folks as well, and now I just needed to figure out WHAT to do with all of these relationships. 

My friend Allen Belton invited me to a one day VisionSynergy event at Seattle Pres. I couldn't believe that there was a group of people who had actually thought through the exact type of problem I was trying to solve. I took so many notes. I could probably reproduce the whole training!

I had to chat with the brains behind all of this and was introduced to Phill. To my surprise, he did what I would have done... he invited me over to his office in Edmonds! He talked with me for a couple of hours, and helped me think about the actual work of building networks. A skill I didn't know could be developed. A subject that I hadn't realized had experts. 

Phill was unbelievably helpful to me, and the meetings continued. He would ask me what I hoped to accomplish, how I thought it would happen, what were the measurable, and how to identify the best "LAO." He would pray with me, he would encourage me, and he would always model a humorous and humble excellence in his work. 

I am now working with networks all over North America. I have been told I have great insights. I have heard that I bring value to the table. I have felt the joy of helping a city network thrive! How could a dozen or so meetings with Phill have prepared me so well in this work? I have to conclude something in the supernatural. Phill was given a gift, and he did not squander it, he multiplied it! 

I've handed out all my copies of his book, and I knew that Phill's health was waning. So I gave him a call... he answered. He was in CA now, but he wanted to hear all about what was happening in Seattle. He gave me another round of encouragement and wisdom... and today I found out that he had passed. 

Thank you for your investment in me Phill! I am beyond grateful, and will miss your unbelievably sharp and unorthodox mind almost as much as your presence and friendship. 

Your student,

Chris Gough

Our former Executive Director (ED), Marissa E, had previously invited me to accompany her to Chiang Mai for the Vision Summit, where I had the pleasure of meeting Phill Butler. It was my first encounter with him, and I found him to be an exceptionally dedicated mentor who invests time in his mentees, particularly in matters concerning collaboration within God's Kingdom, a cause he holds dear to his heart. His contributions and insights left a profound impression on me. Phill's ability to inspire and influence numerous individuals to follow in his footsteps is truly remarkable.

We express our heartfelt gratitude to you, Phill, for the impact you have made through your life. May we strive to emulate your unwavering devotion to the Lord and your commitment to reaching out to those who have yet to be reached.

Thank you for the excellent memorial for Phill Butler!

I have always been a networker. Then I met Phill who adds flesh and reality to networking. Phill Butler significantly impacted my life. With others, Phill formed a formal consortium of church planting, development, and mission agencies to work in Mongolia. I had the privilege to move to Mongolia and serve as the first Executive Director of JCS International (Joint Christian Services). That experience convinced me that forfeiting name identity and working together in a formal consortium is the way forward for mission work in the twenty-first century. The world needs pioneers like Phill Butler!

Phill remained my mentor and friend whom I greatly admire.

David Andrianoff

I just finished reading email from SRG regarding Phill's death and their tribute to Phill Butler and his wonderful work with global collaboration and training,

I remember fondly when and where I first met Phill. Paul Schultheis and Gary Edmonds had him come and speak to folks interested in missions at Mariners Church in Newport Beach, CA.  I had been at Mariners at that time for over 10 years but had just joined the pastoral staff. Paul invited us out on his boat and we enjoyed a harbor cruise and great conversation around global missions, let by Phill.

Phill and others, including Paul Eshleman, expanded my awareness of global collaboration and UUPG's and set me a a journey that would take me to Ukraine, Saddleback Church, Northern Nigeria, Finishing the Task, Nepal and working with Operation Snap Dragon in India and Indonesia in conjunction with JESUS Film to provide Jesus' story to the unreached.

Several times in that journey I had the opportunity to see Phill and later Karin, at network meetings, trainings and conferences. The wisdom and learning's from those times were priceless to my journey

Just last month, in a conversation with Doug Cobb, Phill's name came up as one of the 'Fathers' of the miraculous collaboration we are seeing globally around UUPG's and the Great Commission. So many have recognized and appreciated his tremendous contribution.

Phill was one of the  'heroes' of my spiritual and vocational journey and while I mourn his passing with all of you, I rejoice that Phill is with our savior Jesus for this Holy Week.

Meeting up in Edmund, WA

Thank you for all the updates on Phill, keeping us informed on his declining health, grateful that he finally made the huge decision to move to Pasadena after several of us helping with his many moves here in Edmonds.

In the beginning of our relationship we were included in his fabulous 70th birthday celebration. I created a special wallpaper card that featured a sea theme and wrote out an acrostic of P H I L with Deuteronomy 28 blessings on it.  He was so impressed he sent me a thank you note that I still have!  I repeated it and added one more "L" on his 80th (or so) birthday to highlight the Lord's blessings over his life.

He had an eye for beauty in designing the Bell home, in the special art pieces he collected, in the music he chose, and of course, the classy car he drove - always a class act! His gratefulness is his trademark and an inspiration to us.  His intellect was captured through scripture and released to many around the world to bring God's Kingdom to earth as it is in heaven.

We celebrated Thanksgivings, Easters and Fourth of Julys with Phill & Sybil.  Easter 2019 was the last dinner he was able to attend in our home.  And of course there were many coffee visits! How special that he went to be with Jesus on Palm Sunday.  There must have been quite a welcoming celebration when he arrived at the heavenly welcome center:) No more debilitating pain and watching him in such anguish.

Love Hugs and prayers for you Karin and your family.

Sandi & Ray Oram

Phill was my mom's half brother making me his niece. I can't say when I first met him - but one ofmy fondest memories was when he took me to an event at Grossmont High School! I think I was about 12 = and loved all the people he introduced me to that day. He was faithful in keeping in touch with me til right near the end! Give my mom & Dad hugs

Memories of Phill

I cannot tell you when I first “met” Phill. After all, I was a newborn and he was the older brother. Two years and a few months older.

My earliest memories are of him trying to manipulate a slide trombone that was almost taller than he was. I was probably about six and was getting quite familiar with the piano and so nothing else would do except learn a few hymns that we could play as duets. He continued with his music all the way through high school, even marched with that band at least twice in the Pasadena Rose Parade.

It would be difficult, if not impossible to find any two siblings more different than Phill and I. Our parents put a great deal (understatement) of emphasis on intellectual achievement. We were both reading fluently long before we ever started kindergarten. His amazing giftedness to absorb tiny details about his friends, to form the most comprehensive world view of anyone I have ever known, along with his understanding of God’s unrelenting desire to reach the unreached are being mentioned in many of the memories you all are sharing.

I found my place in the world on the piano bench. I was always flattered when he asked me to play for him.

Of course I knew and loved Jeannie, and Sybil. And Karin and Shelly. We have never lived close. I married Roy when I was only sixteen, had three sons and stayed married for sixty-one years. Roy passed away in 2016. I am now living in Huntsville, Alabama where our middle son lives. So physical distance added to the challenge of keeping up with each other’s lives (plus Phill’s international travel). I went to Pasadena for Thanksgiving in 2022 and that was the last time we were together.

I am profoundly grateful for Phill’s influence in my life. In reading many of your posts, I find myself nodding and whispering “Yes, that would be just like him.”

I must say “Thank You” to all who have taken the time to write condolences. They are exceptionally meaningful to the entire family.

Phill Butler,

A role model, mentor and a lifetime friend.

Phill taught me to see life in big picture increments and the world as a whole, rather than broken up into fragmented segments.

Mostly, he's encouraged me to approach life as a quest, an ongoing journey towards the kingdom.

I miss him very much.

Scott Dickson 

Alex Araujo, 1st International Coordinator of IPA:

It was October 1999. Phill Butler and his wife Sybil sat across from Katy and me for a morning coffee on the patio of a resort hotel on the Brazilian side of Iguazu Falls. We were all participants in a WEA Missions Commission consultation.

Phill was already known worldwide as the one who brought Kingdom collaboration to the consciousness of the global missions movement. In Interdev he gathered a unique team of like-minded people to help expand and further develop the practical application of the partnering principles he had been growing and sharpening for decades. Phill was a skilled fund-raiser who freed his team to focus on the task, by world regions, of facilitating, training and showing the way to Kingdom collaboration among denominations, agencies and local churches. That history is best described elsewhere, and I want to highlight only the impact Phill had on what became International Partnering Associates.

As we sipped coffee in the tropical garden patio across the lane from the magnificent waterfalls, he asked me to consider joining the Interdev team, which I agreed to do. In January of 2000 I met the entire Interdev international team. It became clear to me that Phill’s vision, commitment and resourcing skills had enabled and freed an outstanding group of people to serve the growing global missions movement.

Russ Simons, 2nd International Coordinator of IPA:

In 1998, Phill and Sybil and Ramona and I shared coffee together in a cafe along Manila Bay. He made an audacious offer, asking me to serve in Interdev as the Southeast Asia Advisor. I began as a novice in the missions partnering movement in early 2000 after participating in a 2 week-long training in Singapore [led by Ernie Addicott, Steve Bennet, Ian Smith and John Rogers].

Though Interdev closed its doors in 2003, what Phill had begun and continued to promote remained a much-needed and effective service to the global Christian missions community. Interdev’s regional directors and support team (we were 14 at the time) were faced with disbanding and finding separate avenues for service. We met and decided we would do all we could to preserve Phill’s vision through an informal fellowship of partnering promoters, committed to supporting each other as best we could, and keeping the partnering vision alive. We called ourselves International Partnering Associates (IPA), and began meeting annually to renew fellowship and encourage one another.

I served as International Coordinator for IPA from 2007-2013. Phil and I met annually during those years at his favorite breakfast eatery in Edmonds, Washington, discussing the relations between IPA and his newest partnering creation, VisionSynergy, which culminated in an enduring relationship when Kärin Primuth, his daughter, became CEO of VisionSynergy.

José de Dios, 3rd International Coordinator of IPA:

I met Phill through our mutual friend Hugo Morales. Hugo and I were preparing a workshop for the Third COMIBAM Congress in Granada, Spain (2006). Phill brought so much wisdom and insight into our conversations, and helped us prepare for the workshop with genuine humility and excitement. He accompanied us for some of the sessions, and was not-so-amused that we used “Felipe Facilitador” as our moniker for the role of partnership facilitators. One thing I appreciated about Phill from the onset was that he always asked good questions, offering his insight and advise only when we asked. He was genuinely interested in what we were learning. I’m forever indebted to him for mentoring us and for his support and friendship. I’m also grateful for all he taught me about identifying and enjoying good wine. Phill will be missed dearly, but his legacy will go on for generations.

IPA grew out of what Phill Butler planted, nurtured and propagated for the service of God’s Kingdom globally. It remains an enduring expression of Phill Butler’s vision and fruit of his work and we are humbled for the opportunity to carry the baton forward in our time.

With thankfulness,

International Coordinators of IPA

Alex Araujo (2003-2007)

Russ Simons (2007-2013)

José de Dios (2013-1019)

Timo Elo (2019-)

My condolences - I remember Phil as a man full of passion and grace.

Phil helped us organise our network. He was passionate how things should develop and yet he had the grace to step back and let the network leaders find their way. I still smile when he showed me a picture of his old car, a white convertible that I liked immediately. Phil was the age of my dad, but he never gave me the impression that he had to teach me how to do the things - he came alongside like a friend, asking questions and sharing ideas. I wish I could have had a dad like him, sharing life and following Christ together.

I thank God for allowing me to get to know Phil and learn from him. His legacy lives on.

A cup and a deep question to ponder

Phill became a close friend during the last six years. We lived near each other and met once or twice a week, some weeks more. One of his delights was to stop at a coffee shop for a cup. He always had a question to ask and was a gracious and patient listener. He wanted to explore the practical meaning of his walk with God. He was eager to discern what else God had for him to do as his strength waned and his discomfort increased. I had no answer, of course, and am glad he has now heard it from his divine Father directly.  So long, good friend!

I was so blessed to have met Phil through the Visionsynergy & Synergy common and after so many years, finally, meet someone who was doing what I was trying my best to do in Mauritius & Africa (which is developing Kingdom Collaboration by caring for, encouraging & linking Christians) and I was so blessed to be mentored by him for several years and being in touch with him as he was writing an email to me personally every month despite his health. I am sad to have never met him soul to soul but I know we gonna meet and hug one another when we will meet in Heaven! See you soon dear big brother and mentor! Thanks to all those who made him who he was!

My husband Alex Ganta and I met Phil in Nagpur, India at a Partnership Meeting several years ago. We were filming there and met him over chai and we had an amazing conversation about missions. I later met him at Lausanne meetings. I am so grateful for his life and the immense wisdom and direction he left us with to continue the work he has started in uniting all of us for the cause of the kingdom. So blessed with Karin and Vision Synergy team, they stood with me and helped me through my journey in learning about global network leadership.

Phill was intrepid in his pursuit of partnership, whether amongst unreached tribal peoples in Asia or international students in North America or wherever in the world God was taking him. He was unwavering in his belief that God's work requires God's people working together. Phill's example was an inspiration in the early days of ChinaSource -- giving hope that, yes, God will honor our efforts to promote collaboration among those serving in China. The wisdom he imparted over the years through his teaching, training, and counsel continues to inform our work today. 

Today, there is a Phill Butler shaped whole in my heart.  I've known Phill for forty years as a mentor, a friend, the most interesting erudite, and a delightful traveling companion.  Knowing Phill, deepened my walk with Christ. He was a blessing to the world and a historical figure whose influence will be felt for generations to come.  For me, he was a best friend and I miss him.

Rob Martin

Phill and I both lived in Seattle, but first met in Durban, South Africa, in 1973 when we were both there for the first-ever integrated church conference & Billy Graham rally. After we returned to the US, he took me on as his assistant at Intercristo. Over those years he became more like a friend than an employer. In recent years I had lost touch, & was surprised and saddened to hear of his death. Certainly all who cared for him are feeling the loss, but also know the joy he is experiencing in the presence of the Lord he served so well. Thank God for Phill, and that I had the privilege of knowing him.

Phill was always bold to call people to live up to their best selves and most noble purposes. From my freshman year at college, and still today in my role as a graduate professor of community development, he has been a role model and an inspiration.

Phill's friendship has been of a personal nature, rather than professional. I first met him when I was in 7th or 8th grade when he and Jeanie came to have supper with my parents. His stories of racing were captivating to a young auto enthusiast, I couldn't get enough of them. I was in touch with him through high school and college, but then lost contact until we reunited about 15 years ago at a mutual friends birthday party. Since then we would meet a couple of times a month for coffee as our schedules permitted, usually sitting on the benches at the Edmonds Marina, admiring the view. Our discussions were mostly about cars, auto racing, and his beloved Porsche's, boring to most of our other friends and family. I helped with a couple of his moves, and we always got distracted when packing his various mementos from his racing days in Southern California. Usually required opening a bottle of wine to lubricate the memories. Packing up one last time to send him off to Pasadena was a bittersweet time, knowing our coffee chats would be a thing of the past. I was pleased for him, and the opportunity to be close to Karin, and knowing he would be getting the care he needed. A short visit to Pasadena last year confirmed the correctness of his decision, he seemed to thrive in his new home. I'll continue to visit the Edmonds Marina with a cup of coffee, admire the view, and remember all the great chat's we shared.