Insight WINTER 2019
Walking by Faith
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“GUIDED THROUGH THE WORLD”
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DANIEL BACH
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“A JOURNEY OF...”
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“THE CALLING TO FAITH...”
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“WALKING BY FAITH...”
FROM THE PRINCIPAL’S PEN
“Walk by faith, not by sight”
Dear Friends,
is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he St Augustine once famously said, is greeted by a band of theologians who “Understanding is the reward of faith. have been sitting there for centuries.” Therefore seek not to understand that thou mayest believe, but believe that These thoughts came to mind one thou mayest understand.” Although Wednesday evening in September he was speaking of Christian faith when I joined a crowd of 450 gathered and Christian understanding, it may at a Wycliffe-sponsored event at Knox be argued that what Augustine said Presbyterian Church. The theme of holds true for all branches of human the evening was “Einstein’s God” and learning. The knowledge upon which featured the prolific theologian, scienwe base our lives and by which we tist, and biographer, Alister McGrath, make our way in the world is hedged and a panel of experts that included a about by all kinds of assumptions U of T Christian astrophysicist and an that can be neither tested nor proved. Oxford apologist. It was a fascinating Hence, they are ultimately matters of evening and much of the discussion faith. centred on the foundations of scientific knowledge and how scientists speak Many years ago, the noted NASA of God. According to Professor astrophysicist and self-professed McGrath, Einstein believed that there agnostic, Robert Jastrow, acknowledged are important questions about life as much when he admitted that the Big that science is incapable of answering. Bang could be a scientific description “Knowledge of what is does not open of the biblical creation story. Provoc- the door directly to what should be,” atively, he wrote, “At this moment it said Einstein. seems as though science will never be able to raise the curtain on the mystery “What should be.” This refers to moral of creation. For the scientist who has questions, existential questions, lived by his faith in the power of reason, questions of meaning, questions of the story ends like a bad dream. He has purpose. In these matters, Christians scaled the mountains of ignorance; he do not turn to science, but to faith. And 2
here, we don’t mean faith in abstract concepts like “truth” or “justice,” or in the ubiquitous inspirational quote. When St Paul talked about faith, he did not say “Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities!” (that was Norman Vincent Peale). Rather, he said, “I know whom I have believed” (2 Timothy 1.12). The object of faith for a Christian is not a thing, but a person. We hope that you find this issue of Insight both illuminating and inspiring, for it contains the testimony of a variety of friends connected to Wycliffe who have sought to “walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5.7). No scientific biographies here. What you will discover are stories that are really about the One who is both the Source and End of our lives, and who travels with us as a Companion on the way. And He is the only one worthy of our faith. Yours in the way of Christ,
The Rt. Rev. Dr. Stephen Andrews Principal and Helliwell Professor of Biblical Interpretation
Guided through the world By Patricia Paddey
Asked how he sensed God leading and directing him throughout all of those transitions, he says it was “Largely through circumstances and the Lord speaking through other people.”
When Stephen Chester was seven years old, his family moved from Liverpool—where he was born and where generations of Chesters had lived—50 kilometres away to North Wales. He remembers the feeling of leaving behind everything familiar. In spite of the relatively short distance, the move initiated a time of significant transition for the boy.
So it was with God leading him to Wycliffe College, where he took up the post of Lord and Lady Coggan Professor of New Testament on August 1, 2019. “Once I’d learned more about Wycliffe and had a chance to visit, I felt there was a really good fit between what the school was looking for and what I could bring.”
“It was moving from a city to a rural area, from England into Wales,” he says. “So the culture was very different. Wales had its own distinct identity. Suddenly I had to do Welsh classes every week in school. All of that was good, but it was a bigger transition than you might expect.” That major change was helped by a happy, stable home life and, looking back, he believes it served to equip him for other future and even bigger transitions and challenges when they came along. He moved away from home for university (studying history at the University of York). Then, after completing his undergraduate degree he moved again, this time to Glasgow, where he volunteered with Ruchazie Parish Church for a year, running a drop-in centre and setting up a credit union. The witness of the congregation and their deep commitment to serving their community in Christ’s name made a strong impression upon him, and life in Glasgow was transformative.
One of the things he will bring is a genuine love for helping students grow and guiding them to consider the contemporary relevance of biblical texts.
Stephen Chester
ordination (with the Church of Scotland). “We expected to stay in Scotland for the rest of our lives,” he concedes. But delving into theology, “I became gripped by biblical studies,” he says, “and by the end [of the Bachelor of Divinity degree] I wanted to do a doctorate.”
“Within the academic discipline you can pursue biblical studies as a purely historical discipline,” he explains. “History matters profoundly. But at the end of the day, it’s not just about history because the texts we’re studying are God’s Word for us. They were given to empower the mission and ministry of the church between Christ’s resurrection and Christ’s return. They are intended by the Spirit to guide us through the world in which we find ourselves.”
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As Lord and Lady Coggan Professor of New Testament, Dr Chester will teach a The doctorate led to a teaching job, range of courses and supervise doctorwhich in 2006 provoked another move, al students. He is the author of several Following his volunteer year, he took a this time a half a world away to North books, including Reading Paul with the job working in public housing, met his Park Theological Seminary in Chicago Reformers: Reconciling Old and New wife, Betsy, who taught in a local school, where Stephen would go on to hold Perspectives (2017, Grand Rapids: and sensed God calling him to ministry. the positions of Associate Professor, Eerdmans), winner of the 2018 He returned to school to pursue then Professor of New Testament, and Christianity Today award for best book theological studies and, eventually, Academic Dean. in Biblical Studies. 3
STAFF PROFILE
Wycliffe’s new Recruitment Officer Hired as Recruitment Officer August 1, 2019, Daniel Bach W19, is one of the College’s newest staff members.
Q: Please tell us a little bit about yourself.
of a friend’s nonchalant recommendation, I hesitantly called Wycliffe asking if I, a student at the University DB: Born and raised in Toronto, I am of Toronto, would be permitted to a second-generation member of the take a course at the College. I took my Korean diaspora here in Canada. Like first class with Judy Paulsen (Gospel, many Korean-Canadian children, my Church and Culture). It wasn’t my last older brother and I were reared and course: I had been unprepared for the nurtured under the attentive guidance depth and beauty that a theological of various Korean-Christian commu- perspective—and, more specifically, a nities in the Greater Toronto Area. Christian one—could offer. One However, I count my parents to be my professor at Wycliffe, Joseph Mangina, primary teachers in the faith and credit said that one who is well versed them with laying the foundations of in theology must become a “renaismy own Christian faith. My interests sance man/woman.” A theological are too many to name—much to the perspective cuts through and upends chagrin of my family and my wife any morose view of the cosmos. Christine, who labels whatever topic Instead, for those who have eyes to see I’m most interested in at the moment and ears to hear, all is imbued with the fingerprints and whispers of the as my “flavour of the month.” Creator, with everything and anything now understood as being part of the Q: Tell us about your time studying Creation called into being by a loving for your MTS at Wycliffe. God. Above all, it reminds us that DB: I did not plan on attending Wycliffe there is a God who is Immanuel, God College! While a graduate student at with us, Christ Jesus. the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) in 2016, I found Q: Why did you want this job? myself increasingly curious about theological perspectives on many DB: Not only does this role provide of the topics and issues of the day— an opportunity to serve an institution particularly in education. On the basis I have called home for several years, 4
it also presents the added prospect of serving the wider church. Equipping the church’s best and brightest to navigate through a now uncertain terrain has become imperative. To play a role, however small, in that process is a privilege and an honour. Q: What does your role involve? DB: I see the work of recruitment in a seminary as being synonymous with evangelization. The late Christian historian Jaroslav Pelikan once stated: “The church is more than a school, but the church can never be less than a school.” Though a seminary, Wycliffe College is a part of the wider church. As such, the role of recruiter is not confined to the statistics of enrollment but includes the cultivation of relationships with those churches, institutions, and peoples who share in the love and mission of Christ—relationships which, with God’s help, will bear much fruit. My hopes for my time at Wycliffe are singular: to do my part in building together with staff, faculty, and students that “city on the hill” whose light cannot be hidden.
STUDENT FOCUS:
Cole Miller I grew up in Baptist churches, but also have experience in Anglican, Pentecostal, and Brethren congregations. I did not plan to go to seminary. Seminary had never even crossed my mind until I was halfway through my undergraduate degree. It was at that point that I experienced a draw to ministry, but I did not know what this ministry would look like and hoped that I would gain clarity and spiritual direction in seminary. I first attended another seminary, but decided to change schools and applied to Wycliffe College. While at Wycliffe I have experienced a wonderful community and have established meaningful relationships with students, residents, staff, and faculty. My time at Wycliffe has been a significant
period during which I have begun to explore God’s call and plan for my life. I have a strong desire to carry out Jesus’ mission and ministry “to bring good news to the poor […] to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour” (Luke 4:18–19). I have a desire to bring people closer to God and to help them experience the love and grace that God has shown me. I am looking forward to my final semester at Wycliffe and to gaining insight into how God will use me and my desires to further His kingdom in the world. Cole Miller is in the third year of his MDiv program.
STUDENT FOCUS:
Nancy Phillips I have so enjoyed my first four courses at Wycliffe College. I cannot begin to say how much my faith has been strengthened and developed through my studies here. My walk with Christ and appreciation of His Word is so much richer than when I first walked through the doors. I have learned to face challenges, dilemmas, and even total reversals in my understanding of God’s Word. My professors have opened my eyes to truth from the Bible using original texts, culture, history, etc., and have taught me to explore and discover these Biblical truths for myself. The process and method of Bible study at Wycliffe has left me with more questions—and the exhilarating free-
dom to ask these questions, combined with the desire to dig deeper. Being open to new truths has meant allowing myself to ask honest questions about what I believe and do not believe and why. I have accepted the fact that some of my questions may never be answered in this life and that having unanswered questions is okay. The freedom to ask questions is amazing! Studying the Bible at Wycliffe feels to me much like I imagine my 19-monthold grandson must feel as he discovers a whole new world filled with wonder, surprise, excitement, and questions. I can’t wait for next semester! Nancy Phillips is a part-time student in the MTS program.
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STUDENT FOCUS As I reflect on my time at Wycliffe thus far, I almost feel as though I have just left Narnia: I know that a lot has happened, but the passage of time seems short by comparison. When I first entered Wycliffe, I had an idea what I was getting into, but it was an idea that was terribly inadequate. I thought I knew what it meant to desire the office of an overseer and to do my best to present myself to God as one approved, but my views of that work were woefully near-sighted. The remedy was exposure to all I have seen—and heard—at Wycliffe.
Matthew Waterman
As my horizons have broadened, the challenges and privileges of pastoral ministry have risen up before me so much in tandem that now I would hardly distinguish between them. The combination of an extensive classroom experience with field education placements, and the tensions and paradoxes that come with wisely shepherding God’s people, has made me aware of aspects of this calling that a less comprehensive curriculum could not provide. My prayer for the church going forward is that “the God of endurance and encouragement would grant [us] to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together we may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our LORD Jesus Christ.” (Romans 15: 5–6). Amen. Matthew Waterman is in the third year of his MDiv program.
Did you know… …that for the past few years, Wycliffe College has published a miniannual report? “The Word on Wycliffe” includes information on operating revenue sources and expenditures, an overview of who gives to the College, a summary of where their gifts go, student statistics, and more. This year we decided to save a few trees by making the report available exclusively online. To read “The Word on Wycliffe” for the 2018-19 fiscal year, visit: www.wycliffecollege.ca/mini-annual-report. 6
ALUMNI PROFILE
Mark Steinacher By Amy MacLachlan It seems God led the Rev. Dr Mark Steinacher to Wycliffe College. Steinacher graduated from Wycliffe in 1999 with his PhD. His research focused on the denominational history of a group called The Christian Connection, viewing its development through the lens of Chaos-Complexity Theory. His awareness of the College began long before this, however. “My first link to Wycliffe was actually my final year of undergrad,” says Steinacher, when, while studying at the University of Toronto, he took a New Testament course with Dr. Richard Longenecker (then Wycliffe’s Professor of New Testament). “Wycliffe was in my blood long before I did my doctorate,” he says. Steinacher grew up in Owen Sound, ON, but moved south in 1975 to do his undergraduate degree at U of T with a double minor in British history and literature. Having been raised in a Christian context, graduate work at a theological school was a natural fit. “I was raised in the United Church,” he said, “and I was led to the Lord by a Pentecostal guy at the end of my grade 12 year.” He became involved in InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, eventually getting to know John Bowen (Wycliffe’s Professor Emeritus of Evangelism) and his wife, Debbie, very well. “John was a huge influence on me because he was the one who taught me that evangelism is not a game. I wasn’t taking it seriously enough,” Steinacher continued. “And he was the one who drove home just how significant evangelism is for the church. It is central to the church’s being, even if not everyone is called to be an
Wycliffe is “in my blood.” College alum remembers life at grad school evangelist with a capital ‘E.’ All Christians are called to be ready to give a reason for the hope they have within them.”
to finish his course work and comprehensives in two years. He recalls taking courses throughout all levels of his theological education with Wycliffe’s Dr. Alan Hayes.
Steinacher recalls being encouraged by Presbyterian minister Greg Scharf to go “I worked as a TA for Alan Hayes for into the ministry. three years, which is quite unusual. Alan is one of my absolute favourite “It was October, and I remember people on the planet. I count him as shuffling around in the leaves arguing one of my mentors.” with God about why I really shouldn’t be an ordained minister.” “I didn’t realize at the time that I was actually choosing what ended up being He decided to follow God’s lead and, rated over and over again as the best after graduating in 1978, moved on university in Canada, and I’m very to Emmanuel College for his MDiv in thankful for that,” he says of the 1983 and a ThM in 1992. In June 2019 University of Toronto. he celebrated his 36th anniversary of ordination. Being a part of TST meant that Steinacher was able to take courses Steinacher is currently assistant at sister schools while being enrolled professor of Christian history at at Wycliffe, and to spend time with Tyndale Seminary, and is busy “writing, students from other faith backgrounds. teaching, and pastoring.” He has also been serving as part-time minister at “It was an amazing combination: Drumbo Baptist Church in Drumbo, terribly rigorous academically, but ON, for the last five years. all of my profs managed to weave in different levels of spirituality. Wycliffe “It’s been a long haul,” he says, “but a was a great place to hang out. You look at the range of denominational good haul.” backgrounds that show up in the When Steinacher began his PhD at student body in all of the programs, Wycliffe, he had three young children and it’s an amazing cross section of and a part-time ministry at Emmanuel evangelicals there—because it’s a great Church in Toronto. Still, he managed school.” 7
Walking by faith— from Sudan to Wycliffe College
By Patricia Paddey He’s lived a life of more heartache and loss than most of us could ever imagine. One of the many thousands of young boys who became known as “The Lost Boys of Sudan,” Deng Pager has walked countless miles by faith—literally and figuratively. This past summer, his journey brought him to Wycliffe College. “My people are called Dinka,” he says, “and they are pastoralists. We live on farms, raise cattle, goats, sheep, and crops. When I was a little boy [living in southern Sudan] I tended my father’s cattle. That was my early childhood.” That all changed in 1983, when war broke out between Sudan’s north and south. Dinka boys commonly spent long stretches of time away from their families grazing the flocks, and Deng was no different. When fighting intensified in 1987, he was separated from his parents. One among an estimated 20,000 Sudanese boys who fled for their lives, he sought safety by walking the 1,000-mile journey to a refugee camp in Ethiopia. He was nine years old. “We walked barefoot, with just the clothes on our backs. We walked for about a month,” he remembers. “A lot of boys died on the road. Hunger. No food. 8
God, it seems, has put that worry to rest. While Deng has worked “a lot of different jobs” and continues to hold a full-time position as a security guard, he also pastors a congregation of almost 200, composed mostly of Lost Boys and girls of Sudan and their families. They “The only hope we had was relying on meet at the Episcopal Church of the God, because we had no one to turn to. Ascension. “I preach all the time,” he We didn’t have parents or relatives. God says. “I do baptisms, weddings, burials.” became our father, our mother, and the great hope that kept us going. You would Last year, Bishop George Sumner see people die, but we kept moving (former principal of Wycliffe College) because in the midst of all those made the congregation a mission of the problems we knew that God was a good Diocese of Dallas. “He encouraged me God. We never missed a day of prayer. to attend Wycliffe, and made it possible We would stop, we would pray, and then for me to do so,” says Deng. “It has been like my prayers were answered. All we would keep moving.” my life I have wanted to further my It was during his long years of living in education and deepen my learning refugee camps that Deng felt God call about God. Wycliffe is a great, great him to minister to people. He started place for me to be.” preaching, teaching the Bible, leading songs, and prayer. Finally, in 2001, at Asked if there is anything else that he the age of 24, he was one of more than would like readers to know, Deng pauses 3,000 Lost Boys who were resettled in to think for a moment, then smiles. “God the United States. Deng was sent to live is a good God,” he responds. “He makes the impossible possible. If anyone is in Dallas where he remains to this day. going through any kind of situation, “We were happy that God had made a know that God is a good and loving God. way to bring us to the U.S., but my worry He can turn night to day, and walk with was, ‘Am I going to be able to serve God you in the midst of difficulties and show Himself to you in a loving way.” there?’” Wild animals. It was not easy. It was very terrible. There were children who were younger and also people who were older than me. We just had ourselves to encourage each other. The enemy was running after us.”
A journey of “great joy” By Karen Stiller
Bob Hamilton, the warm and affable outgoing Chair of the Wycliffe Board of Trustees, knows a good fit when he sees one. And Wycliffe College was a good fit. His banking career moved Bob and his wife Cathy around the world, where they attended many different styles of churches, spanning denominations. Sitting in pews of different flavours in varied traditions nurtured their love for the church, but also a mindfulness about how well, or not, churches live out their mission on Sunday mornings. “I’m a big critic of Sunday morning,” says Bob. “We can do better as a church.” That desire to help the church do better was the vision that drew Bob onto the Wycliffe Board in 2006, after being convinced of a common concern for the health of the church at a Principal’s Dinner he and Cathy attended with friends. Wycliffe was fundraising at that time for the faculty position that would eventually be taken up by Peter Robinson, Professor of Proclamation, Worship and Ministry. “They called it at that time the ‘Chair of Sunday morning’” recalls Bob. “Wycliffe was focussed on trying to
do things better, in terms of preaching, liturgy, communication … all those good things. We thought it was something we could really get behind.”
our game from the platform, and to help the church deal with the really challenging issues of the day. How do we respond well, and theologically?”
Bob’s journey on the Board landed him in the Chair’s seat in 2014, with two major tasks arising quickly thereafter: find a replacement for outgoing principal George Sumner—elected Bishop of the Diocese of Dallas in 2015—and lead the charge on executing a new strategic plan for the College, which Bob had helped craft as a Board member. “I had to think very carefully about how to provide leadership to an academy as opposed to a business,” says Bob. “That was a big learning curve for me. Lots of people were very patient with me.”
These days, Bob and Cathy happily attend St. Paul’s Anglican Church, Bloor St., a neighbourhood church for them. “We see fellow parishioners at the dog park,” he says. And they are caring grandparents who think about how they pass on their faith. “It’s incredibly important to me that we don’t dumb down the gospel, that we actually preach it relevantly to our generation,” says Bob. “As a senior guy now I’m concerned about transferring our faith to our children and our grandchildren. We have this huge concern that we leave a robust church behind for the generations to come.”
Wycliffe’s focus on helping the church think through “what it means to be a congregation at our time,” was a defining characteristic of Bob’s time on the board. “We are improving training in pastoral care. Wycliffe’s Preaching Day equips pastors by challenging the way we preach in church and how we can do that better. Excellent theological education has never been more important. As a church, we need to continue to upgrade
That love for the church was what drew Bob Hamilton to Wycliffe in the first place, and it has distinguished his tenure as a Board member and as Chair for the last five years. “One of Wycliffe’s great strengths is its huge commitment to the church, and that’s something that I very much appreciate. For me, it’s been just five years of great joy.” 9
The Calling to Faith By Craig Love Craig Love, now in his third year of Wycliffe’s MDiv program, was awarded the David Crane Memorial Scholarship for Homiletics in May 2019. Following is a sermon he preached in chapel during his second year. In Mark 10: 17–31, a man runs up to Jesus and his disciples, kneels down, looks up, then addresses our Lord. “Good teacher,” he says, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus says to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone.” Having paused long enough for the man to answer Him, and seeing no hint of understanding in the man’s eyes, or in his heart, Jesus goes on to say the second part of the Ten Commandments: “You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honour your father and mother.” Notice how each of these commandments has to do with our relationships with other people. It is as if our Lord’s earlier words, “No one is good but God alone,” cover the first four commandments, concerning our relationship with God.
told, He “loved” him. This is not surprising, for Jesus is God, and “God is love” (1 John 4:8). But this is precisely what the rich man fails to see in Jesus. “Jesus, looking at the man, loved him.” This detail is not recorded in the other gospels, but it is Mark’s great gift to us, and to all future generations, to set it down so that we might know it and never forget it. It draws our attention to a profound fact about our Lord: His love is not limited to those times when we can see Him. By God’s grace, our Lord is not limited, like us, in His love. Yet Jesus seems at least to share the popular prejudice against the rich, saying to the man, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” It is a memorable way to describe a man who appears to lack nothing. But it is precisely having nothing that the rich man lacks.
and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.” What a sharp contrast between the man’s coming and his going: he runs to Jesus and kneels before Him; he walks away sad. Jesus calls the man to faith, but the man walks away with good reason. Jesus, after all, is a great spoiler of worldly wisdom, and He overturns the received view of the Jews, that wealth is a sign of God’s blessing. Abraham, David, and Job all enjoyed wealth, and such men were held in the highest esteem. The rich man is sheltered not only by his money, but by his inherited view of it, and to be told to surrender it all to embrace a life of poverty went against reason and also revelation. Having kept the law from his youth, he may have thought he had earned his wealth.
I suppose the man gets what he deserves for asking, “What can I do to inherit eternal life?” The question The man is called to surrender every- suggests a complete misunderstanding thing he owns, as if he can only come of the good news—which depends on to know Christ by following Him, in faith to be received. The kingdom of poverty, along the way to Jerusalem. God is not earned by good works. Yet He can take nothing to prop him that, at least on the surface, is how the The man immediately answers, confi- up: no comforts to distract him, and Lord answers the man: do this good dently, “Teacher, I have kept all these no security to silence his fears. He is deed, and follow me. since my youth.” What a fast learner the called to rest entirely on the promises man proves, in matters of procedure! of God, and on God’s people. Of course, it is not the deed itself, He drops the word “good” before but the faith required to do the deed, “teacher,” and says, simply, “Teacher, I In this way, Jesus’ call to the rich man that Christ calls for here. This makes have kept all these since my youth.” is very like the call of God to Abraham. it seem impossible for a rich man to The man is quick to respond, but he The rich man is not simply a descen- enter the kingdom—for he must forsake has learned nothing in response to his dant of Abraham but he is invited to his understanding of how God works original question. He appears to think be a latter day type of the truly faith- in the world, and replace it with a that Jesus’ lesson concerned proper ful man. Jesus never questions the radically different understanding, forms of address—as if Jesus, the very man’s assertion that he has kept the one that is neither attested by one who has “the words of eternal life” law faithfully, but that is not enough, tradition, confirmed by human reason, (John 6:68), had only the smaller errors according to Jesus. The man must nor at all appealing in itself. He is of expression in mind to offer the rich leave all he owns to follow the Lord. called to radical faith in Jesus Christ. man! It is no surprise, then, that when the “It is easier for a camel to walk through Jesus looks at the man and, we are man heard Jesus’ call, “he was shocked the eye of a needle than for a rich man 10
to enter the Kingdom of God,” not simply because worldly treasures weigh us down. Rather, it is because the rich have the most to lose by the overturning of the present order. Not so for the poor, who have only to gain by such a revolution: they hear the good news gladly.
How are we approaching Jesus? ••• Are we kneeling, perhaps even bowing, to Him? The rich man himself honours Jesus, yet he comes short of recognizing the Christ, the way to eternal life, the King of the Kingdom.
He thought about the teacher’s words. He turned them over in his head. Then his eyes flashed wide open, he turned onto his knees, and answering Jesus’ question, he proclaimed, “For thou only art holy; thou only art the Lord; thou only, O Christ, with the Holy Ghost, art most high in the glory of God the The rich man is called not simply Father.” At last he could see! to observe negative commands What news: The rich man went but to see them in their positive through the eye of a needle. form—not simply, “You shall Glory be to God! It took years not” do or think evil against before words were found to your neighbour, but you shall express this mystery, preserved “Love your neighbour as your- for us in the Gloria. All the more self.” Called to sell all he has to reason not to shun the rich man, provide for the needs of the poor, but to love him as Jesus did, and the rich man is called to a life of turn our eyes to our own right service and obedience and trust relation to God. in God. Though it is hard not to think he is asked to make a very How are we approaching Jesus? costly sacrifice, this thought Are we kneeling, perhaps even fades the moment we imagine bowing, to Him? The rich man the cross on which Jesus hung himself honours Jesus, yet he to restore our relationship with comes short of recognizing the Christ, the way to eternal life, God. the King of the Kingdom. Are The rich man is remembered we coming to Christ as one as the disciple who might have who can add something to our been, the only person who does lives, perhaps help to clarify our not answer our Lord’s call to direction? Or are we approach“follow.” And, as much as that is ing Him as the Son of God, who shown in this passage, it is not, by the power of the Holy Spirit I hope, how the story ends. It will direct us in the way God may seem impossible for a camel wants us to go? to pass through the eye of a needle, but Jesus Himself offers This passage offers a glimpse of this word of hope: “For mortals what the kingdom of God looks it is impossible, but not for God; like, in which the world and its for God all things are possible.” values are turned upside down, in which “many who are first I like to imagine the man will be last, and the last first” converted sometime after this (10:31). It is a strange kingdom, meeting, fulfilling our Lord’s considered from the perspeccall after the fact. I imagine tive of the world, yet it is filled him sitting under a tree, some- with more treasures than all thing more lasting than Jonah’s the world. In order to gain this vine. There he is, enjoying the kingdom, we must surrender shade, out of the hot sun—to the notion that we can work for all appearances, enjoying a God’s gift of eternal life, which is good nap. And then, recalling free to those who would take it their conversation, the words in faith. May God ever grant to of Jesus sound again in the rich us the faith we need to see our man’s ears: “Why do you call me Lord, ever at work in this world, good? No one is good but God and may His words never cease to sound in our ears. alone.” 11
Leonard Griffith: sermons “like complex symphonies” By John Stackhouse
The Reverend Doctor Leonard Griffith was Professor of Preaching at Wycliffe College from 1979 to 1981. Another of Wycliffe’s preaching prizes—The Leonard Griffith Prize for Expository Preaching, awarded annually—is named in his honour. This excerpt—from an obituary published in The Globe and Mail on July 29, 2019—is reprinted by permission of the author. I watched Leonard Griffith at the height of his craft, in the late 1970s at St. Paul’s where, as a server, I sat beside him on Sundays as he prepared to mount the pulpit. It was like sitting in the bullpen with an ace pitcher preparing to take to the mound. Every week, as another minister, usually the Rev. Bob Dann, led the church in prayers and readings, Mr. Griffith sat quietly behind the pulpit, muttering key phrases to himself and reviewing his notes one last time before rising to speak. His sermons were like complex symphonies, rich with historical and intellectual detail that made the listener work. He eschewed the pop psychology that those in the modern pulpit often tried to deliver, preferring to take his listeners through the majesty and nuances of the theology he had learned from perhaps the century’s greatest thinker in the field, the Swiss theologian Karl Barth. Mr. Griffith treated every sermon like a marathon to train for, noting in his memoirs, From Sunday to Sunday: Fifty Years In the Pulpit, that he liked to spend an hour at his desk for every minute he would address the congregation. He studied at Montreal’s United Theological College, graduating in 1945, the same year he was ordained. 12
Mr. Griffith later confided that he never had a religious experience or revelatory moment that drew him to the church. He was instead drawn by the intellectual challenge of dissecting scripture (he wrote 21 books) and using his rhetoric to compel people to change. Mr. Griffith excelled as a small-town preacher in Southern Ontario before being called to Chalmers, then the citadel of the United Church in Ottawa, which he took over at the age of 29. He regularly drew more than 1,000 people to his Sunday morning service, and another 200 on Sunday evenings. But as the 1950s progressed, he noticed the evening numbers shrink, as did other ministers in Ottawa. Exhausted from the pulpit, he returned to academia to complete a doctorate at Oxford University in England, where he focused on the theology of Mr. Barth. From there, Mr. Griffith moved to City Temple in London, which at the time was one of the world’s most influential churches, patronized by those among Britain’s elite who didn’t attend the Church of England or Roman Catholic Church. In his memoirs, Mr. Griffith recollects using his time in Europe to visit Switzerland to interview Mr. Barth for his Oxford thesis. He was struck by a Grunewald painting behind the great theologian’s desk, depicting Christ as a figure who transcended the world and indeed religion. It was that image of infinite mystery, and transcendence, that helped him see his own messages as more than words spoken to an immediate audience. They were an expression of faith that he hoped lived beyond the moment of their delivery.
It was a faith he would need when he returned to Canada, moving to Toronto with his wife, the former Anne Merelie Cayford, and two young daughters. The city of the 1970s was in the early stages of a de-churching that would shake many church leaders and push them to try almost any gimmick to draw and retain parishioners. As Mr. Griffith later wrote, in his new pulpit at the prestigious Deer Park United in North Toronto, “membership shrank; the congregation shrank; its financial intake shrank; and I guess my popularity also began to shrink.” His confidence was shaken, like that of an all-star pitcher on a new team losing more games than he had won. He regained his confidence at St. Paul’s, and continued in retirement, preaching into his 90s and turning to new media— CDs at first, then YouTube—to record and share his work. Mr. Griffith died on April 7 in Toronto at the age of 99. He leaves his wife, Merelie; two daughters, Anne Rutherford and Mary Griffith; four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren (one of whom was born after his death).
Alumni news Friends in Christ, Thank you for taking a moment to update us on what has been happening in your life and ministry. It is amazing how much can change from year to year. This summer I was made incumbent in the parish I serve. Christina and I are very much looking forward to settling into more years of ministry here. Please be assured of my prayers for you that through all of the changes and chances of this fleeting world you might find rest in the unchanging love and mercy of our blessed Lord. The Rev. Jonathan Turtle (MDiv, 2012)
FROM THE 1950s Peter Niblock (W58) was delighted to have had a very small part in the recent General Synod in Vancouver, his first in 54 years. His hymn “Called by Name,” penned in ‘04 and based on Isaiah 43:1, was sung there as it reflected the Synod theme – I have called you by name.
FROM THE 1970s The Rev. Dr David McKenzie (W74) was made a deacon in 1974 and ordained priest a year later, both at St. James Cathedral (Toronto) by Bishop Lewis Garnsworthy. He served at Christ Church Deer Park, and then in the Diocese of Kootenay. In 1985 he went into federal prison chaplaincy for seven years. Receiving his PhD in human sexuality in 2005, he was registered as a board-certified counsellor in British Columbia and a certified sexologist with the American College of Sexology. Now 72, he is mainly retired.
FROM THE 1980s The Rt Rev. Dr Linda Nicholls (W86, W02, and W08), bishop of the diocese of Huron, was elected fourteenth Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada on July 13 at General Synod. She becomes the first woman in the history of the church to hold the position.
FROM THE 1990s Rev. John Gishler (W91) has self-published his spiritual autobiography Going Spiritual: Discov-
ering, Developing and Healing a Spiritual Life. He shares how a marriage breakdown drove him to read the whole Bible, and experience and discover the reality of the supernatural worldview of Jesus. The birth of his 10-week premature daughter in 1984 drove him to prayer and led to a powerful 25-year healing ministry in a dozen parishes. Going Spiritual is in the Graham Library and available from www.spiritual lifeteaching.info, Amazon, and bookstores worldwide on the Ingram network ($19.99 paper and $9.95 eBook with photos in colour). The Rev. Philip Der (W94) celebrated his twenty-fifth anniversary of ordination at St. Christopher’s on June 2. Rob Sweet (W94) and his wife Ruth were there for both Philip’s ordination to the diaconate and this year’s celebration. While at the General Synod in Vancouver in July, Philip met another classmate, Rick Chapman (W94). This past March, St. Christopher’s raised over $19,000 for the Diocesan FaithWorks, and $1300 for Richmond Hill Food Bank. With 10 weekly outreach activities, the church is actively searching for an associate
priest to assist. St. Christopher’s is exploring a church expansion to accommodate their growing missional efforts and to make the building accessible. The Rev. Haynes Hubbard (W95) will lead a parish in Maadi, Cairo, Egypt, beginning in January. Haynes and his wife Susan and their 13-year-old son Caspian will be going, leaving their two older children (Sebastian and Gabriella) to finish university studies in Canada. Haynes will work in the parish and teach in the Anglican seminary there while Susan, a registered midwife, will work with the Sudanese community who have sought refuge in Egypt. They will be teamed with Middle East Christian Outreach (MECO) for prayer support. They would be grateful if you would put them on your parish prayer list. For more information, contact Haynes at fr.hqhubbard@ gmail.com.
FROM THE 2000s Rev. Dorothy Hewlett (W00) is serving parttime (semi-retired) at Christ Church, McNab, in rural Niagara-on-the-Lake. She says she is “grateful to God in Christ for the past two years of spiritual renewal in me and our parish.” In spring 2018 they started a mission satellite (first begun at St. Alban’s, Grimsby) for migrant farm workers to have worship and ministry in Spanish (a Niagara Diocese-backed MFW Project). Thanks to their bilingual missioner priest, Rev. Antonio Illas, they offer the workers worship services, a meal, and socializing. They also collect warm clothes for field work, refurbished bicycles, information/access to a free medical clinic, and free school bus transportation to the church. The Rev. Dr Lissa M. Wray Beal (PhD, W03) is Old Testament professor at Providence Theological Seminary. She enjoyed a six-month sabbatical during the winter 2019 term and travelled to the U.K. to deliver the plenary paper at Trinity College Bristol’s PostGraduate Research Conference, and a paper at the Tyndale Fellowship Conference in Cambridge. A six-week residency at Tyndale House (Cambridge) facilitated her work on a Jeremiah commentary (Baker) and allowed time for final edits on her forthcoming Joshua commentary, Story of God (Zondervan). 13
Dr Sean O’Leary (ThD W03) started a new position as Music Director at Mountainview Christian Fellowship in East Vancouver. Besides providing worship leadership, there is opportunity for teaching, mentoring, and discipleship in this inner-city community of faith. He says, “Thank the Lord for His call and guidance and we are honoured to serve Him in this very needy city.”
The Rev. Karen Isaacs (W12) was appointed the new Associate Priest at St. Paul’s Anglican Church, Bloor Street. She was ordained a priest in 2018, most recently serving in the amalgamated parish of St. Mary and St. Martha.
The Rev. Jacqueline Daley (W04) was appointed Priest-in-Charge at St Margaret, New Toronto on October 27, 2019.
John Bowen (Hon. W12) is helping lead a “pioneer cohort” in Hamilton, ON. This is a weekly gathering of primarily young people either involved in new churches and ministries, or discerning what their involvement should be. He has also received funding from the Diocese of Niagara to conduct research on why Canadians are becoming Christians. He anticipates that the bulk of the research will be in 2020.
Vanessa Rottner (W05) volunteered at the information desk at the Doors Open hosted by St. James Cathedral in May. In June, she participated in reading the liturgy for the Toronto Indigenous Niigaani Gichigami Water Festival Lecture and was active on the registration desk for the Old Town Toronto Arts Festival at St. James Cathedral and St. James Park, with the Urban Sketchers Association in attendance. On Canada Day, she volunteered at the St. James Cathedral’s museum and archives. Within her lay ministry, she provides pastoral support to her friends. “So in Christ we, though many, form one body and each member belongs to all the others” (Romans 12:5). Paul Gilson (W06) is back volunteering and coaching football at Upper Canada College this fall after doing the same in 2018, and says, “we won the CISAA championship last year.” He also had a stint supply teaching at St Michael’s College School in spring 2019 and did some pulpit supply in the summer of 2019.
FROM THE 2010s The Rev. Derwyn Costinak (MTS, W11) has been serving in the Diocese of Calgary since August 2013. He was appointed incumbent of the Church of the Good Shepherd in May 2017 and added a new ministry role in June 2019. Derwyn is now chaplain for the King’s Own Calgary Regiment, a reserve unit in the Canadian Armed Forces, and looks forward to combining this military service with his regular clerical responsibilities at Good Shepherd. His wife, Wanda, is the Music Teacher at Chris Akkerman School, Calgary.
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Megan Enns (MTSD W11) and Don Robinson welcomed Grace Hannah Enns Robinson on April 1, 2019. Big brother Nate loves her too! When not caring for babies, Megan hosts groups of volunteers in the warehouse at World Vision Canada where they sort and pack donated resources for use in programs around the world. If you have a group who would like to volunteer and have a great time, email: groupvolunteers@ worldvision.ca.
The Rev. Jonathan Turtle (W12) was appointed Incumbent of the Parish of Craighurst and Midhurst. In 2017, he was appointed priest-in-charge on a twoyear term. He says he is “delighted” and looks forward to many more years of gospel ministry in a place and with people he has grown to love. Dr Anthony Siegrist (ThD W12) has published Speaking of God: An Essential Guide to Christian Thought. Dr Andrew Barron (DMin W16) is the director of Jews for Jesus Canada. His doctoral research at Wycliffe was on the beliefs, experiences, and ideals of a group of Jewish people who believe in Jesus. He demonstrated that C.S. Lewis was the author most cited across age groups in terms of influence and inspiration. He says “there is something powerfully familiar—a kinship of story—that vibrates deep within the collective imagination of the Jewish people, which Lewis touches.” He shared the research at Wheaton College in the USA, where their collections include the papers of C.S. Lewis. The Rev. Orvin Lao (W17) began his two-year curacy at Little Trinity Anglican Church in May, 2019, working as the Community Connections Pastor in the growing, historic neighbourhood of Corktown, downtown Toronto. He continues with his side business, working alongside his brother as a professional wedding photographer, mostly during the summers. Wonsang “Sam” Cho (W17) moved to Seoul Korea in 2016 and has been working with Interserve Korea. Interserve is a cross-cultural mission organization that started in England in 1852 and now serves in 40 countries in Asia and the Arab world with 900 workers from 21 nations. His role is National Director of Interserve Korea and he
helps the Korea office to recruit, train, and care for 181 members and their families. He also helps Korean churches to be more missional by providing educational content and consulting services. The Rev. Ananda Sinnadurai (W18) just celebrated his first year at his new church plant Immanuel Christian Church. They meet in a rented facility at 776 Brimley Road, Scarborough, hold weekly Saturday services in both Tamil and English, and continue to rejoice in God’s blessings. (Email: jananda_26@hotmail. com / Cell: 416-858-4912). Ananda says, “Please pray for the continued growth of Immanuel Christian Church as we seek to follow together the commission in Matthew 28:18-20.” The Rev. Dr Cole Hartin (PhD W19), Assistant Curate in the Parish of Portland (St. Luke’s Church, Saint John, NB), was ordained priest in Christ Church Cathedral, Fredericton, NB. In July, Cole celebrated the Eucharist for the first time, and after the service, a reception was held. Pictured with Cole is the Rev. Canon David Barrett (MDiv W85), Priestin-Charge.
Nominations Open Nominations are now open for the Archdeacon Harry St. Clair Hilchey Award! This award is presented annually to one alumnus or alumna of Wycliffe College who has distinguished themself in service to the Alumni Association, Wycliffe College, and/or the church. All nominations are to be submitted by January 5 of each year. For more information please visit the Wycliffe College website: www.wycliffecollege.ca/alumni/awards.
The Rev. Jonathan Turtle (left), President of the Wycliffe College Alumni Association, and Mr. Gary Shaw (right), former Trustee, Development Committee Chair, Alumnus, and recipient of the 2019 Archdeacon Harry St. Clair Hilchey Alumni Award.
Of meaning and transcendence By Steve Hewko
On September 25, Wycliffe was privileged to have Alister McGrath deliver a lecture on the religious beliefs of one of the greatest scientific minds of the last century, Albert Einstein. What struck me about the lecture was that despite Einstein’s general and near-comprehensive understanding of how the universe fits together there were still questions that he could not shake, questions that would haunt him until his death. For Einstein, these questions of meaning and transcendence pressed the limits of what science could articulate. Coupled with his “cosmic religious feeling,” a sense of awe and purpose, they drove him to probe deeper into the mysterious unknown.
Einstein never believed in a personal God; he did, however, respond to the beauty and order of nature. In an interview with George Viereck he stated, “We see a universe marvellously arranged, obeying certain laws, but we understand the laws only dimly. Our limited minds cannot grasp the mysterious force that sways the constellations.” The Psalmist writes that “the heavens declare the glory of God, the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” There is something about our world, our universe, that points to something greater. As Christians, we know the source behind this– the personal God of scripture, selfrevealing, and incarnate in Jesus Christ. What then is the role of a seminary in the
context of the university? Ironically, it is to provide context for the endeavours of the university. As knowledge increases and the mysteries of our world and universe are illuminated (and further mysteries created), we are called to proclaim the “mystery hidden for long ages past” and bring meaning, purpose and context to our understanding of our world.
In his role as Program Director, Steve Hewko develops programs and events through which Wycliffe College engages with the university, the church, and the general public.
Thank you for your generosity in 2018/19. Your support continues to keep Wycliffe’s tuition among the most affordable in Canada, while equipping a new generation of leaders to carry God’s Word around the world. Every year, theological colleges are faced with new challenges, but your support is an ongoing source of strength and a reminder of the devotion and dedication that Wycliffe College finds in its alumni and friends. We invite you to join us in furthering the critical mission of Wycliffe College in 2019/20 through your prayers and financial giving. 15
N E W FA C U LT Y B O O K S
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Pamela E. Klassen. The Story of Radio Mind: A Missionary’s Journey on Indigenous Land. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2018.
Catherine Sider Hamilton (ed.). Writing the Gospels: a dialogue with Francis Watson. London &
Ephraim Radner. A Profound Ignorance: Modern Pneumatology and Its Anti-modern Redemption.
In this book, Professor Klassen (Department of Religion, University of Toronto) follows Frederick Du Vernet (1860-1924), Wycliffe College graduate (1880), Anglican archbishop, and scientist, on his journey westward from Toronto to Ojibwe territory, and examines how contests over the mediation of stories—via photography, maps, printing presses, and radio—lucidly reveal the spiritual work of colonial settlement. A city builder who bargained away Indigenous land to make way for the railroad, Du Vernet knew that he lived on the territory of Ts’msyen, Nisga’a, and Haida nations who had never ceded their land to the onrush of Canadian settlers. Yet while still serving his church, he condemned the devastating effects on Indigenous families of the churchrun residential schools. Testifying to the power of radio mind with evidence from the apostle Paul and the philosopher Henri Bergson, Du Vernet found a way to explain the world that he, his church, and his country made. Klassen shows how the spiritual invention of colonial nations takes place at the same time that Indigenous peoples—including Indigenous Christians—resist colonial dispossession through stories and spirits of their own.
In this book prominent biblical scholars engage with Francis Watson’s most striking arguments on the creation of the gospels. Their contributions focus in particular on his argument for a fourfold gospel rather than four separate gospels, his argument against Q but for an early sayings collection, and on the larger landscape of Jesus studies, gospel reception and interpretation. The contributors ask whether, and in what ways, Watson’s reorientation of gospel studies is successful, and explore its implications for research. More than merely a critical review of Watson’s writing, this book carries forward his work with fresh treatments. The collection includes essays by Catherine Sider Hamilton (“Introduction: Francis Watson’s Gospel writing”; “The fourfold Gospel: engaging a ‘new paradigm’”), and by Ephraim Radner (“Singing the Gospels: beyond the bookish text”).
This book traces the development of pneumatology as a modern discipline and its responses to experiences of social confusion and suffering, often associated with questions linked to the category of theodicy. Radner proposes that the proper parameters of pneumatology are found in studying Israel and her historical burdens as the Body of Christ, showing how the Spirit is the reality of God that affirms the redemptive character of Christ, the Son. The traumas of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries have brought to the fore the problematic distance between earlier and more modern approaches to the Spirit. Radner attempts to locate modern pneumatology’s motives and interests within some of the novel social settings of a rapidly globalizing consciousness and conflicted pluralism. It is by following Israel into the Incarnation of Jesus, Radner contends, that humans find their unresolved sufferings and yearnings redeemed. The Holy Spirit operates in deep hope, the kind of hope that is inaccessible to simple articulation. Finally, he argues for a more limited and reserved pneumatology, subordinated to the Christological realities of divine incarnation: here, creaturely limitations are not denied, but affirmed, and taken up into the life of God.
New York: T & T Clark, 2019.
Did you know? You can help to raise the profile of Wycliffe publications (and those of our faculty members) by posting positive reviews on such sites as Amazon.ca, Amazon.com, and GoodReads.com. Give your favourite Wycliffe books (or Wycliffe professors) a lift and help others discover them by taking a few minutes to post a thoughtful review (or two or three).
Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2019.
DONOR PROFILE
Wycliffe “changed my trajectory” Recent grad becomes regular donor.
By Amy MacLachlan
Wycliffe College changed Orvin Lao’s life. Graduating in 2017 with an MDiv, Lao, now 31, came to Wycliffe as a result of his conservative upbringing. Born in the Philippines, he grew up in north Toronto and was raised in a Southern Baptist household. “I came in [to Wycliffe] with quite a constricted view of faith and how God worked in and around the world,” says Lao. “But the Anglican approach to theology and work and mission and the
human experience, it really stretched me in good ways. Growing pains, so to speak.”
year or early in 2020.
Because of his experience at Wycliffe, Lao chose to become a regular supporter Lao knew he wanted to go to seminary, of the College. During his education, but Wycliffe wasn’t even on his radar he remembers hearing about how until a good friend and mentor churchgoers are the ones who make an mentioned it to him. Lao took a chance education like his possible. because it was “more affordable than other seminaries, evangelical, and in “The future leaders of the church are downtown Toronto.” actually propped up by Christians who believe in this enterprise,” he says. “I was “Later I learned it was Anglican,” really inspired by that. says Lao. “And so I learned about Anglicanism, and it definitely changed “Giving is very important,” says Lao, my trajectory and my future.” whose monthly donation goes to Wycliffe’s Institute of Evangelism. “It’s a Lao commuted to campus every day way to develop and support the future from Markham, and made it a point of an institution that had a major effect to “be part of the community despite on my life, and I want the same for my living far away.” He was there for other students and future leaders of morning and evening prayer every day. the church.” “People thought I lived in residence; I was always around,” he says. “And I’m While Lao enjoyed all of his professors still quite well connected there.” at Wycliffe, he has two “favourites.” He’s grateful for the relationships he forged at Wycliffe, noting that he gained valuable life and ministerial skills because of the diverse community here. “Insight into other ways of believing, an openness to dialogue, and a willingness to work out differences in perspective, viewpoint and theological convictions” are all things he cultivated at the College.
“I was impacted a lot by Dr Ephraim Radner and Dr Peter Robinson,” he says, appreciating their “pastoral way of teaching.” “We’re not completely academic,” says Lao, noting that Radner and Robinson have a knack for taking a pastor/scholar/ priest approach to the way they teach.
“Much of my own conviction remained “I do want to express my deep grateunchanged,” says Lao, “but I developed fulness, and say that I’m indebted to more of an attitude and approach of Wycliffe,” says Lao. “The admin there, wanting to grow in my ability to be the staff, the faculty—who I am right in conversation with people who are now—is because of a multiplicity of different from me.” relationships, training and education, and learning from them. I’m grateful to Today, Lao is the Community Connec- God for that. My time at Wycliffe was a tions pastor at Little Trinity Church in significant historical moment in my life. Toronto, where he has been since January. It shaped who I am as a human being He was ordained a deacon in May and is and as a young Christian leader in the slated for the priesthood sometime this church.” 17
Walking by faith means walking—and working—together By Peter Robinson
Dr Chris Wright, biblical scholar and International Ministries Director of Langham Partnership, has suggested that the Great Commission in Matthew 28: 19, 20 is not so much a mandate to go to the far corners of the earth as it is about making disciples and baptizing wherever we are. Dr Wright is not downplaying an emphasis on missions. His argument is that we should be involved in mission wherever we find ourselves: in whatever we do and wherever we are we should be engaged in God’s work of drawing all people to Himself. And in one way or another we are to do that together with the whole body of Christ. 18
Since Jesus was speaking to His immediate group of 11 followers in Matthew 28 one could suggest that this charge is solely to church leaders. This view would seem to reinforce the commonly practised 20/80 rule in which a small minority within the church do the majority— if not all—of the ministry of the church. That would be an unfortunate interpretation because of the unequal division of labour and the limitations it would place on the ministry of the church but, perhaps most significantly, because of the immaturity it fosters in communities.
Reading Matthew 28 in context of Ephesians 4 When we read Matthew 28 in the context of an Ephesians 4 model of the church, the 20/80 rule is exposed as a serious barrier to church health. For Christians to grow up in their faith and for the body to function properly, every part needs to work together for the building up of the whole body— and this requires leaders who know how to lead others in ministry rather than leaders who do the work of ministry themselves.
role in mentoring, seeing others into the success of programs. grow up in the faith, as we walk Whether we have existing ministries that need new leaders alongside them. Doing so can or we are launching programs be as simple as checking in regularly to see how things are that need people to help, we going, listening carefully as they tend to find the nearest available people who might have the time take on responsibilities, paying attention to their struggles, and energy to do the necessary concerns, and questions, and work. But that is to use people praying for them. Paying attento make programs work instead of using programs to help tion builds trust, which in turn people grow. We need to cultivate fosters good communication. the kind of vision and practice where what is happening in 3) Never go solo. It is tempting, the lives of the people who are particularly if we are entreserving as they grow up in their preneurial, to launch a new faith is more important than the ministry even if no one else is results we hope to see through ready to help out or get involved. their ministry efforts. So, for We may even justify our efforts example, developing a small with the thought that once group ministry in a church is others see this new ministry they, good, but failing to use that too, will get excited about it and ministry to help people identify want to join in. While that might their gifts and grow into seem like the easiest and most A healthy body ministry is a missed opportunity. efficient way to get something new started, it is to miss the A healthy body is one in which 2) Commit to walking alongside real opportunity of inviting every part works together for the other leaders. It is not enough others into shaping a ministry whole, just as a healthy church is to tell people to let you know if and growing in their faith as one in which the whole community they need help along the way, or they do so. works together, both gathered and to tell them that you will check scattered, in God’s work of calling in on them from time to time These rules aren’t comprehensive, all people to Himself. At issue as they take on ministry but they do provide essential here is the recognition that some responsibilities. To give people reminders to encourage and support have particular gifts of leadership— ministry responsibility without others as together we grow up in precisely so that in using those also giving them support and our faith—so that the whole body gifts to build up the body everyone guidance is to betray them. It is can do the work God has given it to in the church might find their own difficult to find the right balance do in the world. métier in ministry. between micromanaging (where we don’t give others freedom With that in mind here are a few and responsibility to lead) and rules to help foster an Ephesians 4 asking others to take on model of the church, practices that ministries without paying serve to help disciple others as they attention to them as they grow grow into leadership. into that responsibility. Learning to lead well demands something of an apprenticeship—we need Practices for others to walk alongside us growing disciples to help us develop the skills, wisdom, and perspective that 1) Use programs to develop are essential to weathering the leaders. There is a temptation in challenges of ministry. It is Peter Robinson is ministry to focus on what we are evident that some leaders have Academic Dean and Professor able to measure, which can lead particular gifts in mentoring of Proclamation, Worship, and to putting our primary energy others but we can all play a Ministry at Wycliffe College. There is a tendency in churches to suggest that everyone has gifts of leadership. Referencing Ephesians 4, proponents argue that everyone in the church has at least one of the five gifts of leadership listed. As appealing as this approach might be it doesn’t bear out in the local economy of our church communities and it reflects a misunderstanding of the leadership role. Ephesians is describing a particular role in the church for those with gifts of leadership: it is to “equip the saints for the work of ministry for building up the body of Christ.” Leadership gifting does not confer the responsibility to do the ministry of the church. Rather, it is a call to invite, equip, and encourage the whole body to do ministry together, in and for the world.
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Calling all alumni The Wycliffe College Alumni Association now has a group on Facebook!
Pilgrimage to Israel
To access it: 1. “Like” the Wycliffe College Facebook page 2. Click “Groups” in the left column 3. Request to join the “Wycliffe College Alumni Association” group 4. Wait to be approved by one of our admins. Invite your fellow graduates, engage with one another, and post updates, articles, and news that you think would be of interest to your fellow alumni.
Family Advent Meditations
February 12-24, 2020
Explore the significance of the season with readings and family prayers each week of Advent. Visit www.wycliffecollege.ca/advent for more details.
wycliffecollege.ca/israel2020
Insight EDITORIAL BOARD
Connie Chan Rob Henderson
The Wycliffe College Newsletter for Alumni and Friends December 2019, No. 87 ISSN 1192-2761
Barbara Jenkins Shelley McLagan
Patricia Paddey Thomas Power
Marion Taylor
CONTRIBUTORS
Stephen Andrews Daniel Bach Sharon Dewey Hetke Peter Herriman Craig Love
Amy MacLachlan Cole Miller Patricia Paddey Nancy Phillips Thomas Power
Peter Robinson John Stackhouse Karen Stiller Matthew Waterman
INSIGHT is published twice yearly by Wycliffe College Communications
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FRONT COVER IMAGE: Special thanks to visual artist Petra Zantingh (http://petrazantingh.ca/) for allowing us to feature the image of her painting “Fruitful Trees” on the cover. Ms. Zantingh’s art was displayed in an exhibit at Wycliffe College throughout the fall.