Western’s graduation weekend is always an incredible time. You remember yours I’m sure. At this year’s banquet, we heard John McKay tell of his first class at Western, Dr. Millard Erickson’s Twentieth Century Theology. His shocking introduction to Western came when he sat down for class that first day. His neighbor heaved a big sigh as he commented on the difficulty of the required pre-class readings and the pre-class paper. A quick change of attitude, and some serious catching up followed quickly. His great relief when he turned in his exam turned to dismay when he discovered it had been submitted to Dr. Mallard Erickson. John is always the loyal Duck fan, much to Todd Miles’ dismay!
My highlight was Tin Nguyen who acknowledged how his speech impediment had left him feeling disqualified from any public speaking. He then spoke eloquently of how God has called him to take the gospel back to his native Vietnam and to Vietnamese people in Malaysia, using his technical skills as a senior engineer at Intel to enable him to minister, teach and preach to Vietnamese people in several areas. He will go to Vietnam again at the end of this month. His prayer request is that he would be able to speak the Word boldly despite the danger of official reprisal.
Please pray for Carl Laney. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer and will have surgery on May 18. Norm Thiesen just had prostate surgery and Terry Burns had it a few years ago. They interact about their shared experiences which the rest of us hope are unique to them.
Katharine Sweeney discovered that the chemotherapy that had been recently doing so well has finished its work and her lung cancer is growing once again. She will participate in a research trial of a new type of treatment. Her presence at the Commencement services were a time to greet and pray for her.
Doctrine: What Christians Should Believe, the fourth book Mark Driscoll and I have done together, has been released. An Episcopal priest adopted it for their year long apprentice training program reviewed it here. Since I so dislike writing, it is all the more amazing that our books were done in three years!
You must read Bev Hislop’s book, Shepherding Women in Pain. Don’t let the title mislead you. It is not just for women. Where else will you find immensely helpful chapters on such issues as infertility, eating disorders, incarceration, suicide, domestic abuse, divorce, spiritual abuse and same sex attraction?
Other recent faculty and student books include Todd Miles, A God of Many Understandings?: The Gospel and Theology of Religions and Marc Cortez, Theological Anthropology: A Guide for the Perplexed and Jim DeYoung, Burning Down the Shack. Matt Mikalatos, long time Campus Crusade worker and 2010 graduate, published Imaginary Jesus, a tale of Jesus constructs from Magic 8 Ball Jesus, Harley Jesus, even Liberal Social Services Jesus. We are a productive seminary!
A final note: I will be having surgery on May 25 to close up a pouch in my esophagus. It should be quite routine and make swallowing easy again.
Jesus bless you!
Gerry
I blog at www.breshears.net. My seminary email is gbreshears@westernseminary.edu. I still use gbreshears@compuserve.com as well as gerry@breshears.net. The Western alumni blog is at http://westernalumni.blogspot.com/
PLEASE let me know of email address changes.