All Articles For From the Theological School Committee

I have been commissioned by the Theological School Committee (TSC) of the PRC to a most delightful task. However, to do the task thoroughly would likely require a special issue of the Standard Bearer. Consequently, I will be a bit abbreviated and selective. The delightful task is to express the TSC’s great appreciation for Judi Doezema’s thirty years of service as the seminary’s secretary. Judi’s secretarial work at the seminary required that she serve many people in a myriad of ways. Any attempt to list them all will be inadequate, but I submit the following paragraphs to provide the reader...

When I was appointed to the Theological School Committee seven years ago, I was assured by the “old guard” members that the committee met just four or five times a year, that its meetings were short, that the work and time required would be minimal. What a surprise that turned out to be! The Theological School Committee now meets on a very regular monthly basis, with an agenda that is usually full, with meetings that have, on occasion, lasted beyond reasonable expectations. 

I recall vividly the time, at a rather informal faculty meeting, when Prof. Hoeksema and I talked a bit about the possibility of publishing a Seminary Journal. The time was about fourteen years ago, and we hesitated long before entering this new field. We wanted to publish a Journal which would be somewhat more “scientific” in character than the Standard Bearer; i.e., which would deal more, technically with matters of theology than would a paper with greater popular appeal.

The doors of our Seminary have closed! Closed for the summer, that is! Closed for an all too brief respite from hard work on the part of the students, a vacation from studies but not from work. The students will utilize this time to their utmost to earn money to carry them through the coming school year. Some will work at landscaping, some a construction; but work will be their lot.

It was with considerable trepidation, in 1971, that the Theological School Committee began carrying out its Synodical mandate to initiate drives for funds for our new seminary building. None, I think, expected the tremendous support in prayer and through gifts that we received. At best we hoped for sufficient funds to begin building—with the total cost of the building to be paid for over a period of ten or more years.

The assignment given me at a recent Theological School Committee meeting was to write for publication in The Standard Bearer a brief summary of the activities of the committee and the seminary. In trying to fulfill this mandate I found that it is not easy for a neophyte member of this committee to write such a summary. There is so much history and therefore so much learning and adjusting to do that one scarcely has the time to reflect long enough to report in any detail what has happened.

Dear Timothy,  Since it is quite some time since last I wrote to you, I think it best that I try to pick up the tread of our conversation a bit so that it will become clear how this letter is intended to follow upon my last letter to you. 

I recall vividly the time, at a rather informal faculty meeting, when Prof. Hoeksema and I talked a bit about the possibility of publishing a Seminary Journal. The time was about fourteen years ago, and we hesitated long before entering this new field. We wanted to publish a Journal which would be somewhat more “scientific” in character than the Standard Bearer; i.e., which would deal more, technically with matters of theology than would a paper with greater popular appeal.