Archives for August 2021

This is a big week for Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary—not only because of our annual conference from Thursday to Saturday—but also because we are having our first class in our Doctor of Ministry program—a DMin in Homiletics (that is, a degree that focuses on preaching for those who are already preachers). Above you can see a picture of this first DMin class being taught by Dr. Adriaan Neele. The picture below is of us with one of the new DMin students, Sungwon Jahng (a Korean pastor from Los Angeles) who came to Michigan early so that he could attend our church last Lord’s Day, so we invited him over for dinner and had a delightful time of fellowship. Our DMin degree in Homiletics was fully accredited by the Association of Theological Schools in June of this year. Please pray that God will bless this degree to hundreds, perhaps thousands, of preachers in coming years and decades, if the Lord tarries.

We are humbled to report that PRTS now offers the full spectrum of theological degrees (MA, MDiv, ThM, DMin, and PhD), all of which are fully accredited. We’re grateful to reach this landmark shortly after having celebrated our 25th year anniversary. Your prayers for the seminary’s worldwide ministry are coveted!

This afternoon I had the privilege of lecturing to approximately 200 theological students attending the José Manoel da Conceição Presbyterian Seminary in São Paulo, Brazil over Zoom from my study.

The first hour I lectured on Reformed Experiential Preaching, and the second hour I responded to excellent questions about the lecture from the professors and students. It was a joy to be with these brethren.

I want to thank Rev. André Silvério who was the professor who invited me and moderated the session, Rev. Danilo Santos for his excellent translation, and Dr. Ageu Magalhaes who is president of the seminary. You can find the lecture and discussion at the link below (you can skip the first three or four minutes as we were getting set up then). Pray that God would add His blessing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C92G_rl_2u4&t=264s

Over the weekend, my special Mary and I commemorated our 32nd anniversary. She told me if I posted something, that I should tone it down. So, what shall I say? I’ll honor her request and keep it succinct: I love my Queen with all my heart and—with the exception of spiritual life in the Triune God—she is the greatest and most beautiful gift God has ever given me. I am truly unworthy of her but my heart swells with gratitude for her, and I do hope and pray that we may share together many more fruitful Christ-centered years—and then eternity—yes, eternity praising Christ together for who He is and for His amazing grace!

P.S. Thanks so much, Mary, for who you are in Christ, by God’s grace—for packing our weeks, months, years, and decades with love, kindness, understanding, and joy. Thanks for your prayers and care, for your unflagging support and undying loyalty. Thanks for catching my vision and passion for local and worldwide ministry for the promotion of biblical, Reformed, Puritan, experiential Christianity. Thanks for putting up with my busyness and idiosyncrasies, without ever showing me anything but the deepest love. Thanks for supporting me through thick and thin, for being my sunshine in winter’s cold blasts, and for still wanting to hear me preach after 32 years. Thanks for supporting me in family worship, and for being a wonderful mother and grandmother. Thanks for talking, walking, and biking, and for being my best friend. (I’m sorry that I’ve kept this so short, but you told me to tone it down.)

In cooperation with Naphtali Press, Reformation Heritage Books has just printed the first of three volumes of “The Shorter Writings” (375 pages in a critical edition meticulously done by Chris Coldwell) of George Gillespie (1613-1648), the famous, young, and brilliant Westminster divine who contributed in significant ways to the writings and work of the famous Westminster Assembly in the 1640s. In addition to close to 100 pages on Gillespie’s life in prefatory material, this volume contains six significant treatises by Gillespie, of which “Wholesome Severity Reconciled with Christian Liberty” is itself well worth the price of this treasured volume. Highly recommended!

When Gillespie was on his deathbed at age 35 after only ten years of ministry, Samuel Rutherford wrote to him that he should look only to Jesus, and then added, “Christ in and by you hath done more than by twenty, yea, an hundred gray-haired and godly pastors. Believing is now your last task.” Pray with me that God would raise up many more gifted young men in our day, stalwart for biblical, Reformed, confessional, experiential, and practical truth.

https://www.heritagebooks.org/products/the-shorter-writings-of-george-gillespie-volume-1.html

Today I got to meet our new and first Puerto Rico student, Joel (2^nd from right), who arrived with his brother, Jonathan Edward (I’m not lying about the name—and I must confess that I’ve wanted to meet Jonathan Edwards ever since I was a teenager!), and his parents, Roberto and Irma. Robert is an OPC pastor in Puerto Rico. What a joy it was to visit with this dear family! Pray for Joel that he will flourish here in his studies.

As our PRTS librarian, Laura Ladwig, writes: Today we are thrilled to receive our custom-designed Torah scroll cabinet from Michigan craftsman Alan Young.  It is designed to be fully functional as a teaching resource and also a beautiful piece for permanent display.  The design gives an appropriate nod to the ark of the covenant in the Old Testament.

Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary looks forward to using the Torah scroll for teaching purposes in Hebrew language courses in addition to being on permanent display in the William Perkins Library.  The scroll’s provenance is mid-19^th century Romania.

This scroll has been deemed pasul or disqualified for use in a synagogue. Factors may include small blemishes, tears, loosening seams, textual errors, letters touching, incorrect shapes of letters and most often fading or flaking ink. These rules carefully protect the reading of the text against any corruption.

Good news! Yesterday morning Crossway sent volume 3 of “Reformed Systematic Theology” (by Paul Smalley and me) on the Holy Spirit and salvation (it came to 1,170 pages—the “slimmest” volume so far) to the printer. It should be available by early November, D.V. For an author, this is almost as important a day as receiving the book, since now we cannot make any changes anymore. Presently, we are about 40% of the way into the last volume (vol. 4 on the church and the last things). Pray for God’s continued blessing on this major task

After this wonderful news, we enjoyed lunch at our home with Preston and Breanna Kelso and their precious daughters. Preston is one of our relatively new ThM students whom I have not had a chance yet to get to know. The visit was delightful—especially hearing about their conversions.

On the Lord’s Day, I had the privilege of preaching for Immanuel Fellowship Church in Kalamazoo (see picture #1), due to the pastor having Covid—happily, he is steadily improving. After church in the evening, we had a great visit with our good friends, Pastor Robert Briggs and his wife Elaine (see picture #2). I’ve done a few conferences over the years for brother Robert in his home church in California. He also serves as president of a Reformed Baptist seminary that now has more than a hundred students.

In this episode of Theology Applied, Pastor Joel Webbon interviews me about the Puritans and the rebuke they would give to the American Church today if they were still here

Friday night date… we went on our traditional 4.5 mile bike ride down Leonard street last night. Puritan Village (seminary student housing) in the background.