Electrons and faith alike to Lay Committee director By John H. Adams The Layman Volume 34, Number 6 Posted October 5, 2001 James “Jim” Henry Logan’s father was a preacher and his mother was a gospel worker, so the son became an electrical engineer. Why? “I guess the fact that it’s true,” he said of the unseen flow of electrons. “You have to conceptualize it. If you have the wrong concept, it doesn’t matter what you believe, it won’t work.” James 'Jim' Logan That statement summarizes his professional choice. But it also is a metaphor for his faith. “That is exactly the approach I take to my salvation,” says Logan, a Presbyterian elder and a director of the Presbyterian Lay Committee. “What I believe about God, if it doesn’t square with the Scriptures, it’s worthless.” Logan is “sort of” retired with his wife Euolinda, in the mountains of McHenry, Md., a popular gathering place for a large family, comprised of five grown children and 11 grandchildren. He was one of nine children of a hard-working, straight-shooting Church of God preacher and his wife, a gospel worker. The Rev. and Mrs. John Wesley Logan made up for their lack of education with gritty commitment to serve the church and raise their family in the Christian faith on a farm in Hopewell, Ohio. Logan’s father was, first, a coal miner and, later, a foundry worker who was noted for his grimy Bible because he always carried it to work with him. He worked outside the church for one reason: to make it possible to be a pastor of a small, poor congregation. “He was plainspoken, no guile,” Logan says of his father. “He was probably a little shorter than I am, probably 50 pounds heavier. His countenance was pretty formidable.” Mom was what they called a gospel worker, teaching Sunday school, praying for people when they answered altar calls and smoothing ruffled feathers after preacher Logan got too blunt with a sinner. “Neither one of my parents was highly educated,” Logan said. “Their emphasis was on knowing the Word. They didn’t read much of the world’s stuff.” Logan was a good student and curious about electricity. After high school, he got a job in a garage. He and Euolinda, daughter of another Church of God preacher, also did something their families didn’t approve of – after they learned about it. Having known each other since they were about eight years old, they eloped four months after graduating from high school. That was 46 years ago. The young couple started out with little more than their devotion to God and each other, but Logan was ambitious and hard working. During their first year of marriage in 1955, Logan took a correspondence course in electronics, which led to a job in a television shop. The business decided to send him to college. He took courses when he could squeeze them in between his work and family obligations, and received his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering in 1972. Logan has received a number of patents for his design of television deflection coils, the component that draws the electrons on the television screen. Before Logan received his degree, General Electric employed him to work in television design, using what he describes as the “cut and try” approach. Later, he played a key role in television design by developing computer models to eliminate the guesswork. Logan also worked in General Electric’s aerospace division on sophisticated radar systems for the F-111 fighter-jet. His work moved him about from New York to Virginia. In Baldwinsville, N.Y., the Logans began attending the Presbyterian Church because it appealed to their children. Logan says he was slow to consider himself a Presbyterian. It was only after he was elected a trustee of the Baldwin church that he did so, he says. Today, the Logans mostly attend churches near where they live – but their membership is in a Presbyterian congregation served by one of their sons, the Rev. Dr. James H. Logan Jr., pastor of Bread of Life Church in Charlotte. The younger Logan is considered one of the most dynamic preachers in the Presbyterian Church (USA), and there is no bigger fan than his father. Logan said that when he was invited to consider becoming a director of the Lay Committee, he wasn’t sure what he was getting into. He says he certainly wasn’t wealthy and able to make large contributions like many boards require. He made that clear, he says, and wrote a straightforward (like his father and his son) statement about his faith. Logan was elected a director in 1998. He is committed to renewal in the denomination and excited about the Confessing Church Movement. He strongly disagrees with Presbyterians who would deny Biblical truths to support their own agendas. “The gospel of Jesus Christ is extremely important,” he says. “It is not to be trifled with. I have a very strong feeling that the truth is so important that there can be no compromise.”

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