“Dream big, Kingdom dreams.” These were words of encouragement to all believers shared by Steven Loots in one of his final interviews. A simple phrase that perfectly encapsulates the life and legacy of a man who answered God’s call with unwavering faith and vision.
Steven was born in 1960 in Johannesburg, South Africa. In 1976, at the age of 16, a beloved teacher at his high school led him to Jesus. Two of his classmates were instructed to disciple him, and the first thing they told Steven to do was to tell his parents about his salvation. Everything these friends asked him to do, he did, and Steven grew in his faith. This early equipping stuck in Steven’s mind. He realised the importance of activating new believers immediately into discipleship, not asking them to simply “sit and wait a while” in churches picking up bad Christian habits. A few weeks later on Christmas Eve – not yet even in a church – young Steven was reading a Christian book and felt the strong call of God to ministry.
In 1978 he met his beloved wife Hannalie, whom he later described as “God’s gift to me.” The couple went on to marry and have two beloved sons, Stefan and Marcel, and four wonderful grandchildren.
After school, Steven studied at Rand Afrikaans University and got involved in evangelical ministry, sharing the Gospel on the streets of South Africa. After university, he was conscripted to the army. Around 1988, he began pastoring his first church in Ladysmith, Natal, where he remained for 8 years. In 1992, he went on a life-changing mission trip abroad for the first time, to Russia.
During this period of his life, Steven developed a passion for evangelism and mission, and a growing disturbance about the lethargy he saw in churches.
By 1994, he returned to Gauteng and it was during this time that the Lord began to shape what became Harvesters Ministries. “He shaped it out of experience I had with different mission agencies,” Steven said. Along the way, he learned strategy and logistics. He also witnessed a lot of cracks in the system. He grew concerned about “hit and run” evangelism, and seeing the same rural people seek salvation over and over again by every mission organisation that came to town.
By 1998, Steven knew something needed to be done. He had a pivotal conversation with local leaders about the options available to solve the problems he was seeing. And Harvesters’ Hub Church Model began to take shape.
As Steven said, “the greatest need in Africa is assurance of salvation.” He had witnessed repeatedly that the same people were being saved over and over by every missionary crusade that came through. Without a church in their remote village to disciple these converts, they were not growing – and ultimately returned to their old lives. There was a need to feed and develop these baby Christians. Sadly, most churches were in towns and cities.
One day, flying low over Malawi in a small Cessna, Steven looked down at the network of dirt roads turning into bicycle paths turning into walking trails. And at the end of each footpath was a tiny, hidden, forgotten village. “How do we get a local church to these people?” he wondered. As he flew, he prayed: “Lord, give us that village. And that village. And that one…”
He soon realised, if he began planting churches, they would need pastors. So, the Model he developed involved starting with an established partnership with a local Hub Church that had an evangelical heart and a high regard for scripture, which could commit to planting 10 new churches. For each of those, a pastor would be trained at the Hub Church, and a requirement to pass their training would be that they must plant at least three new churches – and train pastors for those churches. Thus, the multiplication was built in.
Through divine connections in the USA, Steven’s dream was funded, and by 2000, the first churches were planted in Malawi and Zambia. And God blessed it!
As Harvesters grew, new problems needed to be addressed. Firstly, it became clear to Steven that he would need to produce his own materials for the programme. So, around 2008 Steven started writing what became the four-year Phase A-G curriculum for training pastors. Secondly, it was impossible to disciple people who didn’t have copies of God’s Word. So, the Bibles for Believers department was created in 2004 to place God’s Word in the hands of pastors in training. In 2022 the Lord expanded this through a partnership project with Biblica that aimed to put a Bible in the hands of every family in discipleship with Harvesters.
Soon, Steven found himself travelling to 18+ countries twice a year, and he knew that staff and leadership were needed. Harvesters began to appoint Regional Directors to oversee the training in different regions, taking the ministry to new levels. During one fateful trip to Mozambique, Steven met Francois Rauch, who was to become his successor. “He is my right-hand man. When Francois came on board it was another jump in terms of our ability to serve the field,” said Steven of this relationship.
In late 2024, Steven was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. The succession plan that was already planned was accelerated. Steven made what he described as “the hardest phone call” of his life to Francois with the news, saying, “I’m about to blow up your life because that plan we had for then, is now.”
Steven prayed for time to hand over the ministry properly, and God was gracious. Steven continued to defy the odds against him and was able to hand over the ministry fully. Francois officially became CEO of Harvesters in August 2025.
Throughout his sickness, Steven’s faith in his beloved Saviour remained strong until the end. He recorded his cancer journey in video diaries which were shared widely to encourage others walking the same path, many doing so without Jesus. He also wrote a book of devotionals for patients and caregivers entitled ‘Echoes of Eternity’, providing a biblical perspective on death and dying.
“Death is transition for the believer. It doesn’t hold fear for us. It holds promise,” he said. “And it doesn’t mean when you have faith that you stop fighting. It means that you stop fighting in fear and you start fighting with faith and peace in your heart.”
He refused to allow statistics to determine his outlook. “There’s statistics and then there’s God,” he said. “I will be here as long as God wants me. I will not die a day early or a day late.”
But more than simply wanting to live, Steven wanted to finish well. He wanted his life, including its final chapter, to point people to Jesus.
“I hope that I can end well. This is important for me, ending well. Many people live well, but they don’t end well. I want to end well. If anybody remembers me, I hope that they remember that I ended well. I hope that my wife and my children remember that. And I hope I have a legacy of faithfulness and of generosity. Those are the two things that have been important to me.”
A verse that Steven said affected him deeply is 1 John 2:6. “Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.”
Steven Loots, husband to Hannalie, father to Stefan and Marcel, grandfather to Evan, Daniel, Matthew and Ariel, and Founder of Harvesters Ministries, went to be with his Saviour on 6 September 2026. He passed peacefully in his home. At the time of his promotion to glory, Harvesters is active in more than half the world’s countries, training pastors in more than 80 languages. Through Steven’s life of faithful obedience, the Kingdom of God was expanded here on earth.
