Interests

Personal

Spouse: Jackie
Children: Peter, Sawyer

I served in the US Army for three years (1970-73)

My Understanding of Why I Do What I Do

A seminary does not embody every human calling, so what students learn here is, to some extent, exemplary—a kind of modeling that is to be extended into the other domains of life. As a faculty, we not only teach a vision of the Kingdom of God that is as broad as life itself, but we also seek to set out examples of worship and spiritual devotion, friendship and hospitality, and collegiality and respect among one another and students that demonstrates something of the reach of the gospel and the claims of the coming Kingdom. In our teaching of Scripture, speaking to the issues of our world and times and our personal modeling, we seek to inculcate in our students a passion for social justice and peace, a concern about the environment, the necessities of good citizenship, and a personal investment in the societies in which the people of God are called to live.

One of the greatest blessings for me as a teacher is encouraging students to grasp the amazing scope of the gospel and God’s lordship over their lives and this world. Most of my teaching takes place in introductory courses, which means that I engage students just as they begin their seminary experiences. This can be both frustrating and an incredible blessing as it is my calling to introduce students to the world of the Bible—a world that confronts and challenges many of the opinions and commitments (even Christian commitments) that students bring with them.

Many of our students come to us having been carefully nurtured and discipled in the biblical story and have already begun to lay hold of the breadth of it. Many others, however, come only with the story of the larger culture or that of popular Christian culture or with stories that invite them to see the Christian faith as being about and relevant to only their private lives—a spiritual existence that is always to be distinguished from the life of the body, the material world, and the work-a-day world of human social existence. Students are often more than a bit surprised to hear an understanding of the gospel and the Christian life that embraces the entirety of their lives, indeed, the whole of God’s creation.

Putting the issue in the most explicit terms, the scope of God’s redemption in Christ is as big as the scope of God’s creative work. The God who sent his Son to die for me is the God who created all things in the first place, and His redemptive goal is nothing less than to push sin out of every inch and aspect of His creation. I have been redeemed in Christ for a purpose: to be a redemptive agent in the reclamation of “all things.” We should not miss what is at stake here. God is jealous for his works. He surrenders nothing to the forces of sin and death. If the Kingdom of God stands for the realization of God’s good will in the world (an affirmation and living out of the way things ought to be) then the loving grace of God lays claim to all things, destroying the Devil’s work and returning every bit of God’s world—every aspect, place, and thought—to its rightful Lord. As the redemptive work of Christ is God’s answer to human sin and all its effects, living as a renewed image-bearer of God calls us to be agents of that redemption in all that we do and in all of our relationships.