Tom Lopac (Courtesy Photo)
By Daniel Bobinski
Editor’s note: The author of this column deviated from his usual emphasis for this issue in order to write about a friend who passed away recently – a friend who was a committed and respected member of the Christian community.
The Word of God says that faith without works is dead. If that’s the case, Tom Lopac was very much alive. That is, until the first week of June, when God took him home. One of Tom’s closest friends was Matt Stanley. “What struck me most about Tom was his profound generosity,” says Stanley. “Tom would give you the shirt off his back even it was 20 degrees outside. If Tom saw a need, he would reach out to meet it.”
Regular readers of my column know that for the past 18 months I’ve been devoting this space to exploring parables and symbolism in Scripture. This installment is different because people who didn’t know Tom need to know about Tom.
I know the world has no shortage of strong, solid believers going home to be with the Lord, but when my friend, Tom Lopac, passed recently – and extremely suddenly – I decided I could not let it go without acknowledging the impact Tom made on so many people’s lives.
Matt Stanley rapidly agrees about the impact Tom made. “Words are great,” he says, “but love leads with action, and Tom was an action man. People respond when you love people with your actions – when you’re meeting people’s needs in a practical way. Tom did that. He lived life with people. He loved them the way Christ did. And it gave him a platform for sharing Christ because he modeled it, first.
“Tom would buy people a meal if they needed it. He would stop and listen to people’s problems. He would cry with them. If they needed work, he would hire them to work for his company. He would let people stay at his house until they got their feet under them. He sincerely cared about people.
“Tom Lopac was the most like Jesus out of everyone I’ve ever known.”
Always Doing, Always Praying
As someone who met Tom while attending a small fellowship, I will back up everything Matt Stanley is saying. Tom was always helping people. For example, Tom recently learned a friend’s daughter needed money to go on a mission trip. What did Tom do? He held a garage sale, raised over $1,400, and gave all the money to his friend’s daughter.
When he learned that people needed help around their house, he would often loan them the tools they needed or even come over and devote his own time to helping them.
When Tom learned someone had an illness, he was eager to pray for that person – and often saw people get healed on the spot. He also had a knack for finding new believers who needed discipling and helping them develop accountability for getting into the Word of God.
Living the Gospel
Originally from the Milwaukee area, Tom Lopac came to the Treasure Valley as a children’s minister for an Assemblies of God church. He did that for six years in the 1990s, then took a pastorate in Minnesota; but several years later he moved back to Boise, where his wife was raised. Then, after several years of working as a window washer, Tom started his own business, opening Picture Perfect Window Cleaning in 2007.
Yet Tom’s passion for sharing the gospel never wavered. He regularly hosted Bible studies in his home and the first Thursday of each month Tom was down at the Boise Rescue Mission, sharing the gospel and praying with people.
Matt Stanley was in his early 20s when God worked in his life to soften his heart toward people in need. But then he met Tom. “It was transformational,” Stanley says. “Tom was like, ‘We are going, and we expect God to move. We’re available.’” And God did move. “When Tom taught at the Rescue Mission, there were words of knowledge given and people got healed.
“I remember the first time Tom asked me to cover for him. Multiple guys were asking, ‘Where is that Tom guy? When is he coming back to the chapel?’”
Stanley says it was amazing. “When Tom was there, he exercised authority. It was like night and day from other times I had been there. Tom brought a tangible difference. He had the fire of the Holy Spirit. There was LIFE!”
What was different? “It was Tom,” Stanley says. “He brought a vibrancy. It was Tom’s faith. And that carried over into everything Tom did.”
Leaving the Fingerprint of God
With Tom’s sudden passing at age 60 due to a heart attack, his Facebook page is filling with stories of how he touched people’s lives. Stories about mission trips. Stories about canning fruit in his backyard, or hosting cookouts. Stories of hosting worship events. Stories of how he touched people’s lives as a children’s minister. Stories about the puppet shows that he and his wife gave (Tom’s wife, Marie, passed several years ago after a long bout with cancer). Stories about how Tom helped people in their times of need.
One comment, from Aundrea Friedley, said, “Tom and Marie were two people that poured into so many people. I think most of us have no idea.”
I agree. Tom Lopac was a man who poured himself out for Jesus, and Jesus kept refilling him so that he could keep pouring. I will miss my friend. And I pray that with his passing, Tom’s example will serve as motivation for everyone – me included – to give more of ourselves for the cause of Christ.
As Matt Stanley says, “People will do nice things for people once in a while. Tom did them all the time. What really stuck out was his consistency. Every opportunity Tom could find to serve people, he would do it. He was always encouraging people. He did it all the time.”
On Earth, Tom Lopac lived from 1963 to 2024. But he left the fingerprints of God in many places – and those fingerprints will last forever.
Daniel Bobinski, Th.D., is an award-winning and best-selling author and a popular speaker at conferences and retreats. Reach him at [email protected] or (208) 375-7606.
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