Dear Friends of Mid-America Reformed Seminary,
It is time to bring you up–to-date on several exciting developments in the Seminary since our last visit with you by newsletter. When you read on, we think you will agree with us that the Lord’s prospering hand is establishing this effort in answer to your many prayers. The Board and its Executive Committee have spent many hours discussing the varied questions surrounding opening the Seminary this fall.
To be ready for opening this September, we have begun remodeling the building (already!). The north wing, once a dormitory-style annex to the main building, is almost a library now. We eagerly await the arrival of the shelving and furniture in order to begin organizing and cataloging the books and magazines. We aim to have at least 5000 volumes by this September and have already received about 1300 volumes. If you or anyone you know wishes to donate books or magazines to the Seminary, please send a list of them to Rev. Jerome Julien, 919 9th St., Sheldon, Iowa 51201. A generous donor who wishes to remain anonymous gave to the Seminary a charitable trust of more than $50,000.00, the interest of which is designated for library expense. By means of other donations, the remodeling and furnishing costs have also been met.
By now you know that we plan to open the doors of the Seminary this coming September! If your calendar is handy, mark the following date in bright colors: Wednesday, September 1, 1982—for the Second Annual Seminary Festival to be held that afternoon, and for the First Annual Seminary Convocation, which will officially begin the school year. If you have not yet seen our facilities or have never been to a “convocation,” why not plan a little trip for that week! On Thursday, September 2, at 8:00 a.m., classes will begin, the Lord willing, and Mid–America Reformed Seminary will be a reality!
To have a school, we need students and teachers. And we have both! Already three students have committed themselves to study at Mid–America this September, and we are confident that as our recruiting efforts proceed in earnest, more will join them. Please pray that the Lord will open the hearts of young men so that they may consider studying for the ministry at Mid–America Reformed Seminary and come to us for their training.
At the January meeting of the Board, appointments were offered for teaching at the Seminary. We are happy to report that both Dr. Peter Y. De Jong and Rev. Henry Vander Kam will be teaching part–time for the first year. At this writing we also have a full–time professor, Dr. David Van Gelder, who has come to us for the academic year 1982–83, with the intention of reappointment after the first year. Dr. Van Gelder is a native of Orange City and will be teaching the Old Testament language and Bible courses. His doctrinal dissertation is entitled The Use of Calvin’s Anthropology in Pastoral Counseling.
Our curriculum has been adopted for the program of study at the Seminary. We like to describe it as “lively” and “intensive.” Lively, because it offers all of the basic courses in Biblical Studies, Ecclesiastical Studies, Doctrinal Studies, and Ministry studies, in a way designed to thoroughly equip men for enthusiastic, committed, Reformed preaching and teaching as ministers of the Gospel. And intensive, because the semesters average 17 hours of classroom study per week. Between semesters students will enjoy an interim during January for intensive study in one course. In addition to classroom work, we are making plans for a Pastoral Apprenticeship Program, in which seminarians will learn many of the “how to’s” of calling, consistory meetings, and teaching by being tutored under individual pastors in the local area.
If you would like more information about the details of our Seminary program, we invite you to write the Seminary for a catalog. Better yet, write for two catalogs, and give one to a prospective student at Mid–America!
During this past fall and this coming spring, Adult Education Classes were and will be taught to local church members who are interested in learning about anything from the Church Order to the work of Deacons and current issues in the CRC. Many enthusiastic comments were heard after our first session, and so we are encouraged as we prepare for a second session which will begin soon.
Truly the Lord has blessed the efforts of the Seminary in ways beyond our prediction. So often we have prayed for His direction and help as many knotty questions were faced. And we still rely upon our gracious Lord, especially now as we go out to recruit students and to bring the program of study before the public. This infant is learning to crawl! She will soon be ready to stand up and take that first step! Our confession has always been, “Unless the Lord build the house, those that build labor in vain.” Please continue to pray with us that the Master Builder will continue His work among us.
One more thing: the Board, at its January meeting, requested Rev. Nelson Kloosterman to pursue post–graduate study for the purpose of returning to teach at Mid-America, and the Board committed itself to the financing of this study according to need and existing academic regulations. Rev. Kloosterman has said “yes” to the Board’s request, and plans to move his family this summer to the Netherlands, to take up his studies at the Theological College of the Liberated (not the synodical) Reformed Churches in Kampen. Some time ago a Scholarship Fund was established for the purpose of supporting qualified young men for post–graduate study like this. The funds needed are outside of the general operating budget of the Seminary. And so we now make our appeal to you for your contribution to this Scholarship Fund. Please give this need your prayerful consideration. Write to Mr. Harlyn Jacobsma, Treas. c/o Mid–America Reformed Seminary, P.O. Box 163, Orange City, Iowa 51041.
Please designate your gift for the Scholarship Fund.
Again, your prayers and gifts for the establishment of Mid–America Reformed Seminary are sincerely appreciated. Many congregations took collections this past Thanksgiving and holiday season.
Brothers and sisters, our warmest Christian greetings to you! Remember us in yo ur prayers!
Fraternally,
Mid–America Reformed Seminary Executive Committee
Timothy Momma, veteran Nigeria missionary and presently professor at Reformed Bible College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, has accepted the appointment to be a full–time professor in Mid-America Reformed Seminary. He will be teaching in the areas of Church History, Apologetics and Ethics. His masters dissertation at Calvin Seminary was entitled “The Bible as Spectacles in Calvin’s Apologetics.” His doctoral dissertation at Fuller Semi· nary is entitled: “African Urban Missiology: a synthesis of Nigerian Case Studies and Biblical Principles.”