Serious Joy Newsletter Fall 2019

VOL . XI, NO. 1

FALL 2019

A Semi-annual Report to Friends of Bethlehem College & Seminary

THE VISION OF COLLEGE EDUCATION AT BETHLEHEM COLLEGE & SEMINARY

Great Books in the light of the

Greatest Book for the sake of the Great Commission

WOVEN TOGETHER: BY TIM TOMLINSON

From the President

NEWS & EVENTS

Unchanging Truth for a Changing World EVENTS

From the beginning, Bethlehem College & Seminary has sought to create a new, dynamic, radically God-centered approach to higher education—saturated with the Bible, pointing towards the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples, of the highest quality, and provided at an affordable cost. By God’s grace, we’ve been building this new model for ten years now and it has been gratifying to watch it develop before our very eyes. We have learned much through the process of building and perfecting this new model as we serve our students.

These are the truths that you can, and should, live by. Hebrews 13:8 is a clear testimony to the unchanging Truth of Jesus Christ.

8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

And, in the book of Jude, verse 3:

2020 Bethlehem Conference for Pastors + Church Leaders February 3-5, 2020, Minneapolis Convention Center www.bcsmn.edu/conference-2020

PUBLIC LECTURE

John Witherspoon’s American Revolution: Calvinist Forefather or Enlightenment Apostate?

Featuring Dr. Gideon Mailer, University of Minnesota-Duluth February 27, 2019, Downtown Campus www.bcsmn.edu/mailer

3 Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.

Our faith, built on the gospel of Jesus Christ, has been “once for all delivered to the saints.” It will not change. The gospel, like Jesus, is the same forever and remains the central, most important Truth of the universe.

Those “capital T” Truths—that Jesus is the same forever, and that the gospel will never change—are the bedrock of Bethlehem College & Seminary. They are the foundation upon which this school has been built and upon which this school will stand until the Lord returns!

However the second reality we embrace at our school is that the world around us is everchanging. The world in which our students will lead and minister when they graduate is going to be significantly different than the world you and I have known. There will be new challenges as well as new opportunities for living a life devoted to making much of God and to spreading of the gospel worldwide.

This reality is why we have embarked on this major renovation of our undergraduate programs.

Our students need an education that will prepare them to be bold, gospel agents in this new world before them. We are convinced that the changes we are making will improve our programs in such a way as to more effectively prepare our students for this world. May the Lord use them powerfully for the advancement of His Kingdom!

And we are so grateful to you, dear friends, who are partners with us in the most important work.

By your prayers, volunteer efforts, encouragement, and financial support, the Lord has used and will continue to use Bethlehem College & Seminary as an outpost of the gospel—training men and women to be agents of gospel grace and truth in whatever sphere or part of the world the Lord places them.

We covet and are so thankful for your continued prayers and support.

May the Lord bless you!

Tim Tomlinson, President, Bethlehem College & Seminary

However, as with almost everything here on earth, there is always room for improvement. And so, as we have observed and evaluated our programs along the way, we have adjusted and tweaked our curriculum and our structures in order to make a very good program even better. Now, we are about to make significant changes to our entire undergraduate program. No, we are not abandoning our integrated approach to the study of all subjects in light of the overarching purposes of God’s redemptive work in the world. Rather, we are building on what we have learned over our first ten years to make an already innovative, God-glorifying undergraduate program better and stronger than ever. The study of everything starting with the creation of all things up to the present day is a daunting challenge within the scope of a two-year degree as it is presently structured. Therefore, in order to more effectively and comprehensively help our students develop a truly God-centered, thoroughly Christian worldview through which they will be able to evaluate and interpret everything else in the world and in their personal experience, we felt the need to expand the curriculum in two exciting ways.

First, our Omnia core curriculum will now be expanded to three years from its present two-year format. Second, we are now offering students the opportunity to earn both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree from the college in just five years’ time.

You will read about these exciting changes in the following pages of this Serious Joy Newsletter.

I personally think these changes are significant and will serve our students much more effectively in the years to come.

There are two realities that we embrace at Bethlehem College & Seminary. First, the most important truths in all of life don’t ever change.

FACULTY AND STAFF UPDATES

Chris Bruno (PhD, Wheaton College) Assistant Professor of New Testament and Greek, has been promoted to Associate Academic Dean Burt Koppendrayer has been named Accounting Manager

Lance Kramer (ThM ‘17) has been promoted to Assistant Professor of Bible and Theology

Cody Sandidge (MDiv ‘14) has been named Director of Student Discipleship

NEWS

David Capistrant (MDiv ‘16) has been called as Lead Pastor of Living Hope Church, Willmar, MN

Danny Francis (MDiv ‘17) has been called as Lead Pastor of Beloit Road Baptist Church, West Allis, WI

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Great Books in the light of the

Greatest Book for the sake of the Great Commission

Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. c ol ossian s 1 : 2 8

The Vision of College Education at Bethlehem College & Seminary

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ethlehem College & Seminary exists to spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ by equipping men and women to treasure Christ above all things, to grow in wisdom and knowledge over a lifetime, and to glorify God in every sphere of life. This institutional vision means our philosophy of education is designed to shape a certain kind of person for a lifetime, not merely offer technical, professional, or career training.

One way to express the vision for the college is this: We seek to educate students who graduate as mature adults who are ready to witness for Christ with wisdom and wonder for the rest of their lives. Or, to put it another way, the aim of our college is Christian discipleship, the formation of mature Christian adults through rigorous study of the Great Books, in the light of the Greatest Book, for the sake of the Great Commission. This document endeavors to clarify this vision of education.

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Forming Mature Christian Adults

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e begin with the notion of maturity. In an age of extended adolescence, our goal is not to entertain boys and girls but to establish stable men and women in the faith through challenge. Generally speaking, many incoming undergraduate students at Bethlehem College & Seminary have a good grounding in Christian belief and practice. While they are by no means perfect in either, most of them come from good Christian homes and churches that have grounded them in the faith before they arrive at our doors. Thus, our college students tend to have assumptions about Christian belief and practice with which we largely, if not completely, agree.

What then do they gain from their Bethlehem education? One of the effects of our curriculum on students is to strengthen many of their (good and biblical) assumptions by subjecting them to stress-testing. The effect of exposing students to alternative perspectives and challenging them to think through difficult questions is to build resiliency in their faith. In most universities, such challenges often come with the goal of undermining or overthrowing these beliefs and assumptions. But at Bethlehem, our goal is to strengthen, solidify, and (sometimes) correct these assumptions, beliefs, and practices. Strengthening a student’s faith requires subjecting them to a process of engagement with authors and texts that articulate beliefs and ideas that differ from their own.

This process, while often uncomfortable and difficult for the students, is good for them and the solidity of their Christian convictions. A biblically-grounded, missions-minded, liberal arts education forces them to think about why they believe what they believe, compels them to explore the deeper reasons for their faith, and seeks to shape their overall orientation to the world.

While such an education has value in enabling students to commend the faith to others, the first aim of the education is not apologetic or evangelistic but formative and personal. We want our students to be real Christians, all the way down. To use Owen Barfield’s description of C. S. Lewis, we want them to be “thoroughly converted.”

The contemporary world poses significant intellectual, moral, and affectional challenges for Christians. Standing firm in the evil day demands deep Christian convictions that have been tested and tried through broad exposure to the rigors and weight of a liberal arts education in a global context and led by wise and faithful professors who care about the outcome of our students’ faith.

But the aim of our education is not merely defensive; it also seeks to broaden the mind, enlarge the heart, and enrich the soul of the student. We want students to lean into Reality, to have eyes wide open in wonder at the world that God has made and that man has cultivated and adorned. A biblically-grounded, missions-minded, liberal arts education helps students to grow in wisdom, attuning them to Reality, so that they are ready and equipped to walk wisely and joyfully in the world.

Rooted in the Scriptures

T

he entire education is oriented and framed by our commitment to the authority, inspiration, sufficiency, and inerrancy of the Bible. At Bethlehem College & Seminary, theology is still the queen of the sciences. As a result, we aim to equip students with the tools necessary to study the Scriptures for themselves in conversation with the best theological minds that God has given to the church throughout the ages and throughout the world. In order to lay a firm foundation in the Scriptures, our programs offer extensive instruction in biblical exegesis, biblical theology, historical theology, and systematic theology. What’s more, we don’t merely seek to give the students the tools to study the Bible; we aim to impart to them a deep love and delight in the word of God. Our programs are designed to lead our students to exclaim, “O how I love your law!” so that they discover the Scriptures to be more desirable than gold and sweeter than honey. We are not content to merely instruct the mind and awaken the affections; the Scriptures are meant to be obeyed and practiced. All of our biblical and theological study is practical and aims at the transformation of the whole person for the sake of Christ’s church, so that our students present their bodies as living sacrifices, renew their minds in conformity to the will of God, and recognize their place in the body of Christ.

Enriched by the Humanities

O

ur vision for education includes a strong emphasis on the Great Books—works of history, literature, philosophy, and theology that have stood the test of time and resonate with human beings through the ages and around the world. This Christian liberal arts education is a humane education; that is, it trains the student in ways of being human, so that they grasp the tendencies, trajectories, and boundaries of our created nature; so that they are aware of the distortions, corruptions, and temptations of our fallen nature; and so that they glory in the gospel-grounded hope of our redeemed nature. Our commitment to the humanities is grounded in the biblical witness that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Christ (Colossians 2:3), that all of creation reveals the glory of God (Psalm 19), and that human culture, despite its fallenness, is still a repository of wisdom and insight that can be wisely used by the saints to enrich our faith. As such, we stand in the tradition of Augustine, who urged Christians to plunder the Egyptians of their wealth in order to build a house for God’s name.

WE WANT STUDENTS TO LEAN INTO REALITY, TO HAVE EYES WIDE OPEN IN WONDER AT THE WORLD THAT GOD HAS MADE AND THAT MAN HAS CULTIVATED AND ADORNED. A BIBLICALLYGROUNDED, MISSIONS-MINDED, LIBERAL ARTS EDUCATION HELPS STUDENTS TO GROW IN WISDOM, ATTUNING THEM TO REALITY, SO THAT THEY ARE READY AND EQUIPPED TO WALK WISELY AND JOYFULLY IN THE WORLD.

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The Habits of Mind and Heart OBSERVING UNDERSTANDING EVALUATING FEELING APPLYING EXPRESSING F ROM T HINK: T HE L IFE O F T HE M IND A ND T HE LOVE O F G O D

BY J OH N P IP E R

The Bethlehem Student The Bethlehem College & Seminary student is a man or woman whose character and lifestyle increasingly reflect knowledge of, love for, and joy in the Triune God and who • submits to the authority of Scripture and rightly handles God’s inerrant Word, • enjoys relationships marked by love and guided by wisdom, • is an active participant in the worship, community, and ministry of the local church, • is committed to spreading a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ, and • inclines toward the six Bethlehem “Habits of Mind and Heart” as a lifelong learner.

The Bethlehem House System enriches college student life by fostering a community that promotes spiritual growth, academic flourishing, and leadership development. Each incoming college student is assigned to a gender-specific, non-residential “house,” which meets regularly to deepen friendships and strengthen each other’s faith through life together, events, and competition with other houses.

The Bethlehem college student becomes by God’s grace a certain kind of man or woman, exemplified by the lives and virtues of those whose names identify the communities of the Bethlehem House System.

J O N AT H A N E D WA R D S

Revivalist Preacher Steadfastness, Honor, and Joyful Service C. S. LEWIS

Author and Christian Apologist

AUGUSTINE

Theologian and Philosopher

Courage, Meekness, and Joy

Ordered Love, Chastity, and Friendship

Bethlehem House System Communities

PERPETUA

Martyr Honesty, Confidence, and Faithfulness

ANNE DUTTON

Poet and Calvinist Writer on Religion

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Honesty, Humility, and Hospitality ELISABETH ELLIOT

Missionary and Author Wholeheartedness, Modesty, and Grit

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The Bible gives the decisive meaning of all things. But the Bible itself sends us over and over again to the world for learning. God has revealed his glory in both—and means for us to see him in both.

Education in Serious Joy Life will bring suffering to every joyful saint.

Our calling is to rejoice in it and thereby show the superior value of God.

Joy is a good feeling in the soul produced by the Holy Spirit as he makes us see and savor the glory of Jesus Christ.

College Education at Bethlehem College & Seminary Five ways that students graduate as mature adults ready to witness for Christ with wisdom and wonder for the rest of their lives.

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Christian Hedonism

Intentionally Small

Church-Based

Demanding Curriculum

Debt-Free

Students become Godenthralled men and women who discover that God is most glorified in them when they are most satisfied in him by mining the treasures of the Bible and considering the wisdom of Great Books in the light of the Greatest Book.

Students learn in a tight-knit community of students, teaches, pastors, and church members who share a deep personal interest in both the students’ academic performance and spiritual growth.

Students study in the context of a globallyminded church in the midst of a multi-ethnic urban center with significant opportunities for equipping and ministry.

Students are pushed beyond their sense of their own abilities as we cultivate key habits of heart and mind and subject them to intentional stress-testing designed to ensure that they graduate with a resilient faith that is ready to stand firm and contend for the truth in the home, the church, and the world.

A committed community of generous contributors demonstrates their confidence in our education by ensuring that every resident student receives a Serious Joy Scholarship that enables them to launch into life and ministry without student loan debt.

BETHLEHEM COLLEGE & SEMINARY

Passionate for God’s Global Purposes in Christ

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n our vision of education, we are not content to merely study the Great Books and the Greatest Book.

Instead, because of our commitment to the Scriptures and to the Great Books, we are propelled outward on mission in God’s world. We believe that the rigor of our undergraduate education is ideal preparation for a variety of vocations—from psychology and counseling to law and business, from homemaking and journalism to pastoral ministry and Christian service.

But at Bethlehem, our vision of education places a distinct emphasis and priority on the global mission of the church to cross cultures and bring the good news of Christ’s kingdom to the unreached and unengaged peoples of the world. Thus, the backbone of our curriculum is the conviction that all of history is redemptive history. As such, our study of the Bible accents the missiological thrust of the Scriptures from Genesis to Revelation as God fulfills his purposes to gather people from every nation, tribe, and tongue into his church.

Our study of the Great Books recognizes the rigor and richness of the Western tradition, precisely because of the great diversity of cultures and perspectives represented within it, as well as the wealth of wisdom to be mined in Great Books beyond the West.

Moreover, because of our desire to produce missions-minded, world Christians, our course of study includes instruction in the history of missions, world religions, and cultural anthropology. At Bethlehem, we believe that an education is not fully Christian if it does not impart to the student God’s passion for his global glory among all nations. The Great Commission, with its mandate to disciple the nations of the world by baptizing them in the triune name and teaching them to observe all that Jesus commanded, is a central thread in the fabric of the education that we offer at Bethlehem College & Seminary.

Conclusion

A

t Bethlehem, we aim to educate students who graduate as mature adults who are rooted in the Scriptures, enriched by the humanities, and passionate for God’s global purposes in Christ.

We want every student who graduates to be a biblically-grounded Christian, a humanelyeducated Christian, and a world Christian. We believe that such an education is not only good for the individual student, but is also profoundly fruitful in the home, the church, and the world. A biblically-grounded, missions-minded, liberal arts education aims to produce stable, godly men and stable, godly women who will then form stable, godly households, which then form the backbone of earthly societies.

Our education endeavors to serve the body of Christ by creating healthy, committed church members; by filling the ranks of lay leadership in the church with biblically-grounded, big-hearted, and globally-minded men and women; and by being an ideal preparatory step on the path of those called to pastoral ministry. Finally, our education is designed to produce creative lifelong-learners who seek to honor Christ and love people in a great variety of vocations in the world, as well as being the training ground and launching pad for hundreds of missionaries who endeavor to gladly lay down their lives to take the gospel where Christ is not yet named.

John Piper, DTheol Chancellor

Timothy Tomlinson, PhD President Sam Crabtree, MA Chairman, Board of Trustees Justin Taylor, PhD Chairman, Trustees’ Committee on Academic Affairs Jason Abell, MBA Chief Financial Officer Brian Tabb, PhD Academic Dean Chris Bruno, PhD Associate Academic Dean Tom Steller, MDiv Associate Professor of New Testament Andrew David Naselli, PhD Associate Professor of New Testament and Theology John C. Beckman, PhD Associate Professor of Old Testament Jason Meyer, PhD Associate Professor of Preaching Chuck Steddom, DMA Associate Professor of Music and Worship David Howard, PhD Visiting Professor of Old Testament Kenny Stokes, MDiv Associate Professor of Church Planting

Rich Shenk, PhD Director of Non-Traditional Programs Barbara Winters, MSLS Librarian Travis Myers, PhD Assistant Professor of Church History and Mission Studies James McGlothlin, PhD Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Theology Brian Hanson, PhD Assistant Professor of History and Theology Joe Rigney, PhD Assistant Professor of Theology and Literature Dieudonné Tamfu, PhD Assistant Professor of Bible and Theology, Yaoundé Johnathon Bowers, MDiv Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Theology

Rich Shadden, PhD Adjunct Professor, Memphis Paul Ferris, PhD Adjunct Professor Andrew Nam, PhD Adjunct Professor Mackenzie Balken, PhD Adjunct Professor Bryan Blazosky, PhD Adjunct Professor Matt Sliger, PhD Adjunct Professor Glen Bloomstrom, MDiv Adjunct Professor Sam Choi, MDiv Adjunct Professor Jonathon Woodyard, MDiv Adjunct Professor Elizabeth Howard, MA Adjunct Professor Timothée Davi, MA Adjunct Professor

Matt Crutchmer, MA Assistant Professor of Theology

Larissa Melling, MS Adjunct Professor

Lance Kramer, ThM Assistant Professor of Bible and Theology

David Mathis, MA Adjunct Professor

Zach Howard, MDiv Instructor of Theology and Humanities

Rick Segal Distinguished Lecturer of Commerce and Vocation

Lewis Guest IV, MDiv Instructor of Bible and Theology Bryan Pickering, MA Instructor of Biblical Counseling

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He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or And he is before all things, and in him all things hold The foundational verse of Bethlehem College & Seminary represented by the Latin

The Core is more. In other institutions, the general education core involves two years of meeting requirements in order to pursue your field of interest. Here your field of interest is engaged on the first day of class and extended through the third year before you specialize.

Extended Omnia Academic Core History

Ancient Civilizations The Greek and Roman Worlds Medieval Europe Renaissance and Reformation Europe The Early Modern World The Modern World

Literature

The Literature of Ancient Greece The History and Literature of Ancient Rome Early Christian Theology & Literature Medieval & Renaissance Theology & Literature Early Modern Literature Modern Literature

Biblical and Theological Studies

Old Testament Survey and Theology New Testament Survey and Theology Advanced Studies in Doctrine 1: God, Creation, Revelation Advanced Studies in Doctrine 2: Sin, Christ, Holy Spirit

Philosophy

Classical Philosophy: Pre-Socratics and Plato Classical Philosophy: Aristotle and Roman Philosophers The Life and Thought of Augustine Medieval and Reformation Theology and Philosophy Early Modern Philosophy Modern Philosophy

Missions

Discipleship Studies

Foundations of Christian Discipleship

Latin

Elementary Latin 1

Greek

Elementary Greek 1

Elementary Latin 2

Elementary Greek 2

Letters

General Studies

Mathematics for Liberal Arts Natural Science: Foundations, Methods, and Application Trivium I: Grammar Trivium II: Logic Trivium III: Rhetoric Introduction to Visual Arts and Music

Hebrew Internship/Thesis

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BETHLEHEM COLLEGE & SEMINARY

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2

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creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. together. c ol os sian s 1:15 - 1 8 e sv “Omnia in Christo Constant” in the school’s official seal.

The program allows you to earn a bachelor’s degree in an area of specialization and then, in one additional year, a master’s degree in one of the others.

B.A. Specialization

Accelerated Master’s

Theology & Biblical Studies

Advanced Studies in Doctrine 3: Salvation, Church, Last Things Biblical Theology

Theology & Global Studies

History of Global Christianity Applied Anthropology for Ministry Contemporary Issues in Missions World Religions Global Church Planting Global Discipleship Christian Ethics and Apologetics Leadership and Vocation

Intermediate Greek Greek Readings Great Books I: Topics Great Books II: Topics

Theology & Letters

Great Books III: Shakespeare Great Books IV: Topics

Classical Hebrew 1

Intermediate Hebrew

Classical Hebrew 2

Hebrew Readings

Internship

Thesis

Cross-Cultural Internship

Comprehensive Examinations

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TO STUDY, PRACTICE, AND TEACH: FACULTY

Travis Myers

Banner Waving For God’s Global Glory in Christ

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eading even the signature of an email from Dr. Travis Myers can feel like a brief immersion in one of his courses in theology and global studies. Myers has long felt a burden from the Lord to be a consistent missions mobilizer, and he considers tasks as simple as sending an email to be an opportunity for “banner waving.” One of Myers’s driving desires is to bring rich theological thinking that is God-centered, Trinitarian, Christian Hedonist, Great Commission-oriented, and Churchcentric into the study of missions.

Daniel Kleven, current MDiv student and director of admissions at Bethlehem College & Seminary, calls the combination of church history and mission studies in Dr. Myers’s classroom “a recipe for an explosion of ‘omni-ethnic joy’”—particularly in the way Myers’s courses “push us outside of our American bubble.”

This semester, alongside a dense, diverse reading load in Myers’s senior undergraduate course on “Growing as a Global Disciple,” you can find Bethlehem’s international and third-culture seminarians leading the last hour of each three-hour-long class period. “I am thankful that

accreditation has enabled Bethlehem to host international students.” Myers reflects, “I am eager for us to serve and partner with the churches they represent.”

As Myers’s college and seminary students explore God’s design for history and the ways in which the Lord uses various means to bring people to faith, Myers also calls attention to factors that keep people from considering Christ. “This is why we study the history of global Christianity: to help students understand the importance of context for religious identity and conversion dynamics.” Myers, therefore, is particularly excited by the elevation of the Cross Cultural Ministry concentration in the new undergraduate theological studies program to a full degree in “Theology and Global Studies.” Recent college alumna, Christina Boyum describes Myers’s vision for missions as one that is “joyful, sober-minded, and servant-hearted.”

Myers has had a love for the nations as long as he can remember: “God made me a kid who enjoyed different cultures,” and he traces the Lord’s hand in using such interest to lead him to faith in Christ as an undergraduate at the University of

Illinois: “I leaned into philosophy clubs, history courses, and world religions classes. Eventually the Lord used the ethnic diversity of a majority Asian and Asian-American InterVarsity chapter to confirm for me the universal lordship and gospel of Christ.”

Myers headed to Trinity International University after graduation to pursue better knowledge of God’s Word and a Christian view of the world. In Chicagoland he met and married Susan. Because they had been so shaped and encouraged by Desiring God, The Supremacy of God in Preaching, and Let the Nations Be Glad!, they headed to Minneapolis in 1998 to find a season of rest, opportunities for urban ministry, and the experience of “Christian Hedonism applied to ministry and life together.”

A vision trip to Cameroon with Pastor Tom Steller led to a threeyear assignment where Myers taught seven courses in theology and biblical studies at Cameroon Baptist Theological Seminary.

As the Lord continues to raise up seminarians and missionaries in Cameroon, Bethlehem College & Seminary has now launched an urban seminary in Cameroon’s capital city of Yaoundé. Thrilled by what his own former CBTS student and now Bethlehem professor Dr. Dieudonné Tamfu is doing in Yaoundé, Myers

part, out of a frustration with many popular strategies for missions that he describes as “theologically anemic and unbiblical. Too often theology and missions studies are siloed at bible colleges and seminaries. It has produced bad fruit on the field and in trendy missions literature.”

When Myers began his dissertation for Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and Boston University, Steller invited him to bring his skills and passion to Bethlehem College & Seminary.

In the past few years, much of Myers’s own growth as a disciple and his ministry of mentoring students has been shaped by suffering. A diagnosis of lymphoma in 2015 forced Myers to embrace weakness and loss of control like never before.

“The Lord used the experience of diagnosis and treatment to give me more compassion for other sufferers.

Compassion has made me a better professor, colleague, and husband.”

His students concur. Myers is the professor who, according to one former student, has shown them “what it looks like to entrust ourselves to the sovereign, loving Savior God whom we confess, even in the midst of pain and uncertainty.”

With the return of his health Myers remains as motivated as ever to continue to call students’ attention towards “the eschatological horizon towards which God is moving history,” namely, “God’s blessing in Christ of Travis and Susan Myers’ global partner postcard when they appealed for support of their ministry in Cameroon in 2003.

muses, “I would love to see more of these smaller church-based pastoral training centers in cities.

When they returned to Minneapolis in 2005, Myers knew he wanted to pursue a PhD in either Biblical Theology or missiology. “I wanted to finish my MDiv first so that I would be more equipped to train pastors.” Myers was motivated, in

every tribe and tongue.” It is with marked gratitude, then, that students like Daniel Kleven joke, “When I graduate, I simply aspire to be a diminutive version of Travis Myers in another setting: teaching history, mobilizing for missions, for the joy of Christ’s omni-ethnic people.”

New By Faculty Authors

Paul vs. James: What We’ve Been Missing in the Faith and Works Debate

Reformation of the Commonwealth

Three Views on Israel and the Church

Why I Love the Apostle Paul

All Things New

BRIAN HANSON

ANDY NASELLI, ET AL

JOHN PIPER

BRIAN TABB

CHRIS BRU NO

Make Bethlehem College & Seminary your charitable beneficiary. Go to www.smile.amazon.com to learn how.

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BETHLEHEM COLLEGE & SEMINARY

THE BETHLEHEM BOOKSTORE

Buy over-the-counter, and the school benefits even more.

The Serious Joy Scholarship A Personal Ministry for Jesus Christ

With your help, graduates without debt are free to answer immediately God’s call on their lives and are made affordable to churches and ministries that need them.

THE BURDEN OF DEBT IS IMMENSE.

FINANCIAL RESOURCES ARE CONCENTRATED ON STUDENT INSTRUCTION.

As the price of higher education has risen, so has the amount of debt required to fund it, leaving many burdened with substantial financial obligations well beyond the college years.

44 MILLION AMERICANS NOW OWE $1.5 TRILLION DOLLARS IN STUDENT LOAN DEBTS.* AVERAGE U.S. STUDENT DEBT * UNDERGRADUATE

GRADUATE

$38,390 $57,600

EVERY RESIDENT STUDENT RECEIVES THE SERIOUS JOY SCHOLARSHIP.

Two-thirds of tuition at Bethlehem College & Seminary is paid by someone other than the students or their parents.

Generous contributors have rallied to make this robust, academically rigorous, high quality education available and affordable.

Bethlehem College & Seminary operates in a lean, no-frills way on the site of a local church.

Graduates without debt are free to answer immediately God’s call on their lives and are made affordable to churches and ministries that need them.

82.5% STUDENT INSTRUCTION

The Serious Joy Scholarship

PERCENTAGE OF U.S STUDENTS GRADUATING WITH 2000

$10,000

DEBT * 2018

28% 69%

9.3% ADMINISTRATION

Full annual tuition

8.2%

$16,000

AVERAGE YEAR TO STUDENT LOAN DEBT RETIREMENT *

ADVANCEMENT

21 43 YEARS

AGE

Student pays only

$6,000

Bethlehem College & Seminary depends entirely on God and the generosity he stirs in the hearts of his people. No funds are received from the state or federal government, the church’s denomination, or Desiring God Ministries. Bethlehem Baptist Church does support the school through the use of its facilities, staff support, and the funding of several Serious Joy Scholarships.

Pray that God might lead you to either be or help identify: A few who might permanently

Several who would gladly under-

The many who will supply at least

Those who will join the growing

endow one or more scholarships.

write the scholarships for multiple

one Serious Joy Scholarship for

community of friends who fund

students in the coming years.

the current year.

fractions of scholarships.

EMAIL: INFO@BCSMN.EDU PHONE: 612-455-3420

* Bloomberg, Forbes

The Serious Joy Scholarship WWW.BCSMN.EDU/CONTRIBUTE

720 13TH AVE. S. MINNEAPOLIS, MN 55415

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Serious Joy

IN THIS ISSUE From the President Woven Together Great Books in the light of the Greatest Book for the sake of the Great Commission: The Vision of College Education at Bethlehem College & Seminary.

Omnia Extended Core, B.A. Specializations, and Accelerated Master’s To Study, Practice, and Teach

BETHLEHEM COLLEGE & SEMINARY 720 13TH AVENUE SOUTH MINNEAPOLIS, MN 55415 WWW.BCSMN.EDU

We Thank God for You “Church planting will be hard,” many said. It has been hard, but it has also been incredibly rewarding, growth inducing, and has caused us to glorify a God who is at work in many ways we never imagined! As with much of ministry, finances influence a pastor and church planter’s ability to engage the lost and equip the saints—it is hard to be out spreading the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ while also worrying about paying the bills. We thank God for you and the help we received through The Serious Joy Scholarship that enabled us to graduate debt-free from Bethlehem College & Seminary and immediately enter into ministry. We pray you know that your partnership continues to expand the Kingdom of God and magnify Jesus Christ across our nation and world.

Ryan Eagy, MDiv, ‘17 Pastor, Table Rock Church, Boise, Idaho L-R back row: Abigail, Ryan (me), Gabe, Hannah, Katie (wife) L-R front row: Hosea, Gideon

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