All Articles For Seminary Graduation Address

Introduction  It is to be hoped that this subject will be, first of all, of benefit to our graduates. I refer to the general decline in preaching in our day. I refer not so much to the fact that there is a drift away from the preaching as the center of worship services. I refer rather to a radical change in the content and the form of preaching. The two are related to each other. And it is my intention to defend expository preaching. This defense requires a stress upon exegesis as being at the bottom of all sound preaching. 

Prof. Decker is professor of Practical Theology in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. A significant event in the life and ministry of the Protestant Reformed Churches and their seminary occurred in the evening of May 20. That night the thirty-third Commencement service of the seminary was held in the sanctuary of the Southwest Protestant Reformed Church in Grandville, Michigan. Graduating this year were Seminarians Christopher John Connors and David Phillip Higgs of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Australia. After the Rev. Dale H. Kuiper, acting President of the Theological School Committee, awarded the brothers their diplomas, they presented to the seminary...

The Word of God upon which I base my remarks this evening may be found in II Timothy 2:19: “Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are His. And, let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.” The text begins with the word nevertheless. This is a word of comfort and assurance for Timothy, the youthful pastor at Ephesus, and for the faithful church there.

Robert D. Decker is professor of New Testament and Practical Theology in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. The great joy of a minister of the gospel is not easy. In fact, it is very difficult. The ministry involves a great deal of hard work. Sermon preparation takes much time and effort. To prepare two good sermons each week is no small task. Catechism classes must be taught and Bible study societies must be led. There are various pastoral labors which must be done: visiting the sick, comforting the sorrowing, family visitation, etc. The minister is called upon to chair consistory meetings, serve on...

(The text of the address given at the convocation of the Protestant Reformed Seminary, September 4, 1974)

Mr. Chairman, Members of the Class of 1979, Brethren of the Theological School Committee and of the Synod, Brethren and Sisters gathered with us: 

He was in prison for the second, and what would turn out to be the last, time. He would leave the prison only to be executed. He had just appeared before the judge, and he felt that his life on earth was near the end. He was an old minister of the gospel and was in prison as a result of his beliefs. He seems to know that he will soon die, and therefore writes a letter to a young minister whom he had trained for the ministry and whom he loved very much. In this letter he asks this...

[The following is a transcript of an address delivered at the commencement program of the Theological School of the Protestant Reformed Churches. Those present at the-time of the program will notice that some parts of this address which were abbreviated, for lack of time, when the address was delivered are here represented in considerably expanded form.]  Mr. Chairman, Fathers and Brethren of the Synod, Class of 1972, and Friends gathered with us: 

The subject of my address is borrowed from the last part of II Timothy 4:13, where Paul writes to Timothy: “The cloak that I left at Troas with Carpus, when thou comest, bring with thee, and the books, but especially the parchments.” 

“We believe that the Father, by the Word, that is, by his Son, hath created of nothing, the heaven, the earth, and all creatures, as it seemed good unto him, giving unto every creature its being, shape, form, and several offices to serve its Creator. That he doth also still uphold and govern them by his eternal providence, and infinite power, for the service of mankind, to the end that man may serve his God.