One year ago, the “News From Seminary Hill” article answered the question, “What happens on Mondays at seminary?” This article gives a glimpse into seminary life on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Good reason exists to devote an article to the Tuesday/Thursday schedule. First, most classes meet twice a week, either on Tuesday and Thursday or on Wednesday and Friday. With this focus you can learn about entire classes. Second, Tuesdays and Thursdays are the more routine days of the week; Wednesdays and Fridays often include some special events. Next year, God willing, the Wednesday/ Friday calendar will be featured. GREEK GRAMMAR...
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FRIDAY, AUGUST 22, 2025: THE END OF A QUIET SUMMER Today professors were busy with last-minute preparations for the start of school next week. Every time I retrieved papers from the faculty printer/copier, another colleague was either coming toward the printer or just leaving it with papers in his hand. And when I asked Bethany, our secretary, if she noticed a different feel in the air, she readily agreed. After all, she had just sent out the revised class schedule and was attending to other details that indicated that classes would soon start. Summers are always quiet at seminary—busy, but...
professor of Church History and New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Theological Seminary, and member of Trinity PRC in Hudsonville, Michigan Romans 12 and Ephesians 4 are two of several New Testament passages that speak of the church as Christ’s spiritual body. This beautiful figure suggests that: The church is numerically one. A body is only one entity. So Jesus Christ died to save, and now indwells by His Spirit, one church. The church is inwardly united. The body’s many parts work together for the good of the whole. So the church’s members serve each other. The body is...
professor of Church History and New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Theological Seminary, and member of Trinity PRC in Hudsonville, Michigan Tradition has it that Monday is a minister’s day off. If my own past experience is representative of pastors in the PRCA, that bit of folklore is not true. What is true is that the burden of the past week, growing increasingly heavy as Sunday approached, has been lifted. Perhaps the minister has started his Monday off slowly. But by the end of the day, especially if he is in West Michigan, he has prepared for and taught between...
professor of Church History and New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Theological Seminary and member of Trinity PRC in Hudsonville, Michigan The summer vacation is past; the heat and humidity of West Michigan summers are over and gone; and the time of teaching our students has come again. STUDENTS AND FULLTIME STAFF God has blessed us with four students studying for ministry in the PRCA. Our senior is Mr. Aaron VanDyke (Faith PRC); Mr. Bruce Feenstra (Hope PRC, Grand Rapids) is our junior; and Mr. Isaac VanBaren (Hope PRC, GR) is our sophomore. Mr. Joe Ophoff (Byron Center PRC) is,...
Prof. Ronald Cammenga, rector and professor of Dogmatics and Old Testament in the Protestant Reformed Theological Seminary and member of Southwest PRC in Wyoming, Michigan The woodcut pictured on the next page, made and donated by one of the seminary’s supporters, hangs from one of the walls in the seminary building. The wall joins the classroom section to the library and the professors’ offices. It also faces the entrance. Visitors entering the seminary will immediately see it off to the left. Since it adjoins the professors’ offices and the library where each of the students has his study carrel, both...
By the time this report reaches the readers of the Standard Bearer, we will be well into the first semester of classes in the Protestant Reformed Theological Seminary. The 2023-2024 school year began on Tuesday, August 29, with a full slate of classes. We also held our first chapel service of the year. Customarily the rector leads the first couple mid-week chapel services. Thereafter, in the weeks in which we have no practice preaching exercises, the area ministers lead our chapels. Not only are the chapel services a source of encouragement to our students and faculty, but they are also...
As is our custom during each new semester, we submit a report to the readers of the Standard Bearer on the goings-on at the Protestant Reformed Theological Seminary. We understand that the members of the Protestant Reformed Churches and the readership of the Standard Bearer are supporters of PRTS and are interested in being updated on the life of our theological school. At this point of the second semester of instruction, although much continues as it did in the first semester, there are some developments worth reporting. Staff and students of PRTS One development is that we have a new...
The 2022-2023 school year is well underway. After a busy summer, it is good to fall back into the routine of the daily schedule at the seminary. We continue to be very thankful for the facility that God has given us in which to work and study. A small patio addition has recently been added onto the north side of the seminary building, overlooking the woods in back. This provides us a place outside on sunny days to enjoy our mid-morning coffee break and eat our noon lunch. We are grateful for this improvement that the Theological School Committee saw...
And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also. II Timothy 2:2 There is good reason that II Timothy 2:2 is engraved in stone at the entrance of our seminary (cf. photo above). The passage is the locus classicus (the classic text) of biblical instruction about training ministers. It teaches us that ministers are to be trained by men who themselves are ministers—ordained ministers— not by professional theologians. Paul and Timothy— ordained ministers—are the teachers of preachers. In fact, four generations of...
