Testament Spring 2017

Non-Profit Org.U.S. Postage

PAIDGrand Rapids, MIPermit No. 657“One generation will commend

your works to another; they will tell of your mighty acts.”

– Psalm 145:4

Legacy of Commitment

“I now stand in a special, specific relation to you.

This tie will be drawn ever tighter in a communion of true faith;

henceforth I hope to work at your training and development;

to point out to you your needs according to the requirements of the times,

to warn you of dangerous shoals upon which you could easily be shipwrecked,

to teach you and to pray with and for you –

this is the task that awaits us.”

–Rev. Geert Egberts Boer, March 15, 1876

At the end of his installation as the first ever Professor for the new theological school that we now know of as Calvin Theological Seminary, Rev. Geert Egberts Boer spoke the words printed above to make a commitment to the five students that were at this special service.

These words were read by me at the 2016 Calvin Seminary Convocation

continued inside

continued from page 1

3233 Burton SEGrand Rapids, MI 49546

Welcome to the Spring 2017 Issue of Testament!

We could not do the work that we do now without a supportive community of faith.

to note that we are continuing this legacy of commitment that Rev. Boer first made. Calvin Seminary was and is dedicated to the training and development of church leaders who navigate the times while holding onto true faith.

Rev. Boer was laying out a challenge to the students present and those who “overheard” this inaugural address. Rev. Boer knew that the journey is not only marked by good beginnings, but also by continued walking with and praying with and for students.

As a supporter of Calvin Theological Seminary, you are vital to this journey of commitment. We want to thank you for your prayers, your support, and encouragement. We could not do the work that we do now without a supportive community of faith.

Thank you again for being a person who not only makes but also keeps commitments so that the legacy of training leaders for the Church continues—day by day—at Calvin Theological Seminary.

Jul Medenblik President of Calvin Theological Seminary

President Jul Medenblik

In his thought-provoking book, Money Enough: Everyday Practices for Living Faithfully in the Global Economy, author Douglas Hicks explores how Christians can apply their faith in their spending, saving, and giving while living in a world that encourages unbridled consumerism. The book is built around nine topics that help readers connect their faith with their Monday through Saturday lives and wrestle with questions such as:

1. How should I respond in an economic downturn?2. How do I show that I value life and people more than things?3. How do I discern between desire and need?4. How do I reconcile God’s providence with a billion starving people?5. Is my attitude towards work in line with God’s heart?6. What am I doing to enjoy God’s gift of daily life and recreation?7. Who is my “neighbor” today?8. What can I do to promote a just economic system?9. How do I connect my abundance with the needs of others?

Packed with ideas for meeting the everyday pressures, questions, and anxieties of economic life, Money Enough provides level-headed counsel to believers who want to honor God with their practices as consumers, investors, and earners.

Money Enough: Everyday Practices for Living Faithfully in the Global Economy is available at www.christianbook.com

Money Enough: Everyday Practices for Living Faithfully in the Global Economy

By Douglas A. Hicks

CTSNewsletter042017 R3.indd 1 4/19/17 12:47 PM

www.calvinseminary.edu

A Double Legacy for Calvin Seminary by John W. Cooper

It’s hard to believe that it’s been five years since I wrote about the meaning of Testament, defining it in terms of God’s covenant and relating it to our personal and financial legacies. Our legacies are testimonies (testaments) about God’s covenant

faithfulness. When I retire in June, I hope to leave two legacies for Calvin Seminary. They are s trategically interconnected.

One is the intention that my wife, Sylvia, and I have to support the Seminary financially. The other is the legacy of my teaching and scholarship for more than 30 years. I have tried with conviction and enthusiasm to pass on the spiritual and academic legacy given to me—the best of the Christian tradition’s appropriation of biblical truth focused by the best of the Reformed faith and worldview. This heritage of biblical wisdom is essential for the hearts, minds, and hands of those preparing for ministry in God’s church and kingdom. It is what Calvin Seminary has always stood for.

But this legacy faces serious challenges. In our culture, the high cost of education, sagging academic achievement, and the superficiality of the information age undermine sound theological education. Within the CRCNA, Calvin Seminary no longer has the special status that it once did. It must compete for students with other seminaries, many of which do not share our Reformed perspective or academic standards. Sufficient funding will not eliminate these challenges, but with God’s blessing it will allow the Seminary to meet them.

I pray that the financial legacies of faithful supporters will enable Calvin Seminary to flourish and perpetuate the legacy of biblical Reformed e ducation for ministry to which I devoted my teaching career. These legacies are strategically interconnected. May the Lord bless CTS and the whole worldwide church.

“This revealing analysis

of Calvin’s vision offers

timely guidance for

Christians seeking a mode

of faithful, respectful public

engagement in democratic,

pluralistic communities

today.” (Amazon.com)

Understanding the Christian Life as a Gospel-centered Lifeby Matthew Tuininga

I am deeply grateful for the privilege of teaching at Calvin Theological Seminary. Indeed, in many ways I feel as if my entire life was designed to prepare me for this calling. The son and grandson of Christian Reformed pastors, I have lived in all four corners of North America (which helps explain why I am a diehard fan of the Edmonton Oilers but identify the south as my home). Although I spent a portion of my childhood in the Christian Reformed Church (CRC), I have also spent many years in other Reformed and Presbyterian denominations. This enables me to maintain an ecumenical and evangelical vision even as I appreciate the distinct beauty of the CRC’s steadfast witness to the gospel. With the rich resources of our tradition, including the many sisters and brothers who have found grace and life worshiping and ministering in our diverse churches, I believe we have a tremendous opportunity to witness to the power of the gospel in a troubled and confused world. I am especially appreciative of our commitment to holding unity in Christ and faithfulness to the gospel together in an age when Christians so often feel forced to choose between these two.

My own training has focused on Christian social and political engagement. I am especially interested in the question of how the church can faithfully witness to the kingdom of God and its righteousness in a post-Christian, pluralistic context. This was the motivation for my book on John Calvin, Calvin’s Political Theology and the Public Engagement of the Church: Christ’s Two Kingdoms (Cambridge University Press, 2017). I’m also deeply concerned with how to understand the Christian life (including Christian ethics) as a gospel-centered life. I aspire to teach and preach a vision of conformity to Christ through the power of the gospel of Christ.

I am profoundly grateful to have been able to learn from friends, teachers, and colleagues at three excellent schools: Covenant College (B.A., history), Westminster Seminary California (M.Div.), and Emory University (Ph.D., Religion, Ethics and Society). I also learned much from working as a congressional aide in Washington, D.C., and as a counterterrorism intelligence analyst for the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the tumultuous years after 9/11. Most of all, I appreciate my beautiful wife, Elizabeth, and the three precious children God has given us: Joel (7), Katherine (6), and Sarah (3). Together we look forward to serving Calvin Seminary and the Christian Reformed Church for many years to come. If you are interested, you can follow my work at www.matthewtuininga.wordpress.com.

My name is Geoff Vandermolen. I have been a follower of Jesus for more than 35 years. I am married to Kristin, whom God has gifted and called to be a therapist. Together we parent two teenage kids, Gillian and Simon, who will want me to mention our family dog, Gordie.

After graduating from Calvin Seminary in 1996, Kristin and

I moved to London, Ontario. There I served First Christian Reformed Church as an Associate Pastor.

In 2000, we were called to serve as church planters in Calgary, Alberta. This began a 10-year leadership adventure. Over the course of a decade we learned to contextualize the gospel, build an organization, and both love and be loved through the incredible people we met.

During that time, I began to learn about leadership formation as it relates to God’s mission. Some of this

Passionate About Leadership

Hands-OnLearningExperience

My name is Derek Ellens. When I was applying to Universities for religious studies and psychology programs, I was secretly envious of all my business friends who were looking for schools with good co-op programs. I thought to myself, “Why can’t my education include hands-on experience?” This was a big factor in my decision to attend Calvin Theological Seminary after I graduated from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.

A catalyst to my call to ministry was the Calvin Seminary program, Facing Your Future. So really, my search for a seminary began at Calvin Seminary. During my visit, my wife (then fiancé) and I were told an overwhelming amount of wonderful things about the Seminary, but what

Formation. I arrived at this position deeply aware of God’s investment in me and eager to contribute to the formation of emerging leaders for God’s Mission. In fact, the Vocational Formation Office is poised to launch a redesigned formation process in the fall of 2017. This initiative focuses on combining excellence in academic learning with real-time contextual learning, mentoring, l eadership skills development, and leadership formation.

I love Jesus and following Him. I am passionate about leading in His Kingdom. Developing skilled and well-formed leaders for God’s mission matters deeply to me, and I am committed to hearing from leaders God has developed for every context—including the marketplace, home, politics, and everything in between. If you are passionate about this as well, I invite you to contact me at 616-957-6045.

learning was painful, some was “just in time,” and a huge chunk was gifted to me by godly mentors investing their wisdom and experience. I also participated in a leadership development program called Arrow Leadership. All of these experiences were then blended with studies in leadership formation/succession as I earned a Doctorate in Ministry at Acadia University.

In 2010, God called us to a new adventure at ClearView Church in Oakville, Ontario. This six-year calling focused on learning about teams, vision, organizational leadership, mentoring and being mentored, and, again, about loving people well.

This brings my story to the present and new challenge of serving at Calvin Seminary. In July 2016, I was appointed to a new role as Director of Vocational

really stuck out was the shift toward a hands-on learning experience.

Fast forward to my first day at Calvin Seminary. Geoff Vandermolen, Director of Vocational Formation, appeared before my class and offered a paid internship to coincide with classes during the entire school year. Of course I jumped at the opportunity!

By God’s grace, I was assigned to Fuller Avenue Christian Reformed Church, and my time working there has been positively formative. My job involves a little bit of everything in ministry— doing outreach, being a disciple of the lead pastor, making pastoral care visits on my own and with someone else, taking part in planning worship, and leading children’s ministries.

The job has given context to things discussed in class by giving me “real world experiences” to enrich my learning. For example, I hadn’t yet taken a pastoral care course when I had the privilege of visiting someone who was suffering from dementia. During the visit, I felt very lost as a pastor and participated in broken conversation with the gentleman. Now in a pastoral care class, I can bring this experience in to discuss this feeling of being lost and how to better approach such situations.

These opportunities make me thankful to be at Calvin Seminary!

CTSNewsletter042017 R3.indd 2 4/19/17 12:47 PM