Preaching Isaiah and Proverbs Course – March 22-26, 2010

I’d like to commend the following course to you for serious consideration.

BT/CM 819 Preaching Old Testament Poetry

March 22-26, 2010

3 credit hours

Instructors for this course are the father and son team, Dr. Ray Ortlund, Jr. (Pastor, Immanuel Church, Nashville, TN, and former professor of OT at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School) and Dr. Eric Ortlund, Assistant Professor of Old Testament, Briercrest Seminary).

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course is intended to give students practical, step-by-step methods in preaching from Old Testament poetic texts in ways which are exegetically responsible, powerful and illuminating in application, and gospel centered. Our time will be spent considering and practicing deep ways of reading OT poetic texts and methods of analysis of the poetry, structure, theology, and literary, canonical, and salvation-historical contexts of different OT poetic passages, all for the sake of speaking the gospel responsibly and powerfully in the pulpit.

COURSE INTEGRATION

Isaiah and Proverbs are two OT poetic books which pose special problems for preachers. In addition to the difficulties of interpreting any given line in Isaian poetry, the book evinces a large-scale structure which forms an indispensable context for individual claims which Isaiah makes. Isaiah also ties different chapters together by echoing images or phrases (perhaps the most significant occurring in Isaiah 35.4, 10; 40.9-10; 51.11; and 62.10-12). But how can one move from text to sermon in ways which take these larger poetic and theological structures into account, and in ways which deepen and nourish the sermon? The preacher of the book of Proverbs faces similar challenges: in addition to questions concerning parallelism and poetic imagery in individual proverbs, chs. 10-31 of the book present the preacher with a bewildering and almost staccato-like series of maxims. How to preach the book in a way which is both responsible to the ancient text and helpful for modern audiences is not at all clear. This class is designed to furnish students with methods, approaches and tools which can guide them from text to sermons in which the complexities and richness of the ancient text nourishes and deepens, rather than dampening or clouding, dynamic, visionary, and helpful preaching.

Although skill with Hebrew is naturally helpful for this course, it is specifically geared for students who work from English translations in sermon preparation.

If you are interested in signing up for what promises to be an exciting course, please contact Academic Services at Briercrest Seminary. (academicservices@briercrest.ca).

Briercrest Seminary Course Highlights – Fall 2009

If you haven’t had a chance to check out the course line up at Briercrest Seminary for this fall, I encourage you to do so here.

But here are just a few highlights that I would commend to you. These are courses that come up a bit less regularly, so if you have any inkling that it might be something that might apply to you, I encourage you to register as soon as possible.

• LE845 Governance and Board Development (Oct 26-30) with Dr. Paul Magnus.
• YF819 Career Youth Ministry (Oct 26-30) with Mr. Ron Friesen.
• BT835 Romans (Nov 2-6) with Dr. Marty Culy.
• CM701 Pastoral Theology and Practice (Nov 23-27) with Pastor Darrell Winger.
• BT714 Psalms: The Poetry of Prayer (Dec 7-11) with Dr. Eric Ortlund.

If you have questions, email me (dguretzki AT briercrest.ca)!

DG

Cor Hartenberg – With the Lord

We received word that Cor Hartenberg, beloved former Briercrest Seminary registrar, has gone to be with the Lord.  He passed away late afternoon on May 25, 2009.  Cor was 62 years old. We here at Briercrest have missed Cor & Mieke deeply in the past two years, but we know that Cor is now in Christ’s presence. A memorial service will be held in Listowel, Ontario on Friday May 29, 2009.

We do ask that you pray for Cor’s wife, Mieke, as she mourns the loss of her husband. Pray also for Richard, Joyce, and Marc, and their families, as they also mourn the loss their father and grandfather.

If you wish to send a note of tribute or condolences to Mieke, you can do this by sending David Guretzki an email at dguretzki@briercrest.ca. The notes and tributes received will be printed out, compiled and presented to Mieke. Tributes and notes of condolence must be sent no latter than 3:00 pm (CST) on Wednesday May 27. 

If you wish to send a card directly to Mieke, please contact me privately and I will be able to provide a mailing address for you.

Thanks for your prayers.

David Guretzki

dguretzki@briercrest.ca

Cor Hartenberg update – May 2009

I just got off the phone with Mieke Hartenberg. Cor’s condition continues to degenerate. It is at the point where he is barely conscious of his surroundings. When he is conscious, is feeling quite suspicious of anyone getting close because of how much pain he is in. Someone just touching him is very painful. A nurse comes in once a day to help with washing, etc. and the doctor was in today and told Mieke that Cor may need to be moved very soon to the hospital because his condition is at the point where constant care will be needed. At this point, they are just trying to make him as comfortable as possible.

I asked Mieke specifically what we should pray about. She said, “That God would take Cor home quickly.” So please do pray together with her for this.

I also talked to Marc, who happened to be there. If you are wanting to send a note to Cor and Mieke, he suggests that the best way to do this is through sending comments to Cor’s Facebook group. If you are on Facebook, you can find the group here.

If you aren’t on Facebook, but you still want to send an email, you can send an email to Marc’s email address and he will make sure Cor and Mieke get it. Marc’s email is: hartenberg4@yahoo.com

You should know that Cor’s old email addresses are no longer functional, so if you have one of those email addresses in your contacts, you should stop using it because it will likely be undeliverable.

Finally, Mieke wanted me to tell you all that she very much can feel the prayer support they have and thanks us all for praying.

David Guretzki, PhD
Associate Professor of Theology

Seminary 1/2 Day of Prayer – February 26

This coming Thursday (February 26) the Seminary community will celebrate a morning of prayer. The plan for the morning is as follows:

7:30-8:30AM – Contemplative Prayer – reflection, prayer, quiet music

8:30-9AM – Breaking of the Pastry – fellowship 

9:00-11:00AM – Group Prayer Stations

11-12:00 – Community Prayer through Song (Revelation and Response)

Noon – We will continue with our tradition of Soup Lunch for a loonie. 

 

Some suggestions on how you might participate:

As an off campus student, we would invite you to consider how you might join with us. One of the ways this might happen is through spending time in prayer during the morning. We could share with you some of the prayer requests from the resident student community and at the same time, invite you to share with us prayer items that are relevant to your life and local community.  If you would like to participate in this way, please forward any prayer requests to tschnare@briercrest.ca. Similarly, ff you are in ministry and we could support you and/or your faith community in prayer, please feel free to pass on requests. If you would like to receive prayer requests from us, please let me know and I will add you to the prayer list and send requests to you during the morning of prayer. We look forward to gathering together in this way and supporting one another as we spend time with God in prayer. 

As an on campus student: We would invite you to join with us in the Seminary Chapel beginning at 7:30AM. If you are unable to join us for the whole morning, please note the transtion times and join us as you are able. We would also invite you to submit prayer requests ahead of time and will will include these in our prayer times during the morning. Please forward any prayer requests to tschnare@briercrest.ca. 

Rich Blessings,

-~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Tony Schnare

Sam Berg – New Article

Sam Berg recently had chapter article published. His article is entitled, “The Use of Narrative Practices and Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy with First Nations Couples” in Mudita Rastogi and Volker Thomas (eds.), Multicultural Couple Therapy (Los Angeles: Sage Publications, 2009), pp. 371-88.

Congratulations, Sam!

Twins for the Coutts!

Congratulations to Angie and Jon Coutts on the safe delivery of twin boys! Here is, in Jon’s words, the details:

—————

I’m proud to announce that my wife Angie bravely gave birth to twins yesterday morning! (That’s Thursday, November 20th). Here are the details:

 

~At 3:08 am we were awoken by “water breaking” and were at the hospital in Edmonton by 4 am.

~At 10:05 am the first twin was born naturally: a 6lb13oz baby boy! His name is Jesse Ransom Coutts.

~Shortly after, although it felt like a long time after, they determined that a C-section would be needed. I was ushered out of the room and the place was chaos and Angie battled through and by 10:28am the second twin was born: a 6lb8oz baby boy! His name is Mattias Gabriel Coutts.

 

Both babies are healthy and adapting to life on the outside quite well. Angie is recovering, but it takes some time. She’ll be in hospital with the babies until at least Sunday. If you are the praying sort please pray that her lungs recover as there have been some questions about some pain in her chest that they’ve been trying to take care of. Things seem optimistic but you know how it is.

 

Elijah and Brady are excited about their new brothers, and are handling the somewhat chaotic week pretty well so far. I’m thrilled, but pretty tired.

 

We are grateful to God for these gifts of life and we thank you for your prayers and your part in our lives.

 

Ministry Magazine Writing Contest

The journal, Ministry, International Journ for Pastors, is once again sponsoring a writing contest. This is the same contest in which our own Jon Coutts won a third place showing last year. The will be 12 winners, with the grand prize being $750, $500, $400, and $300 for first, second, and third place winners respectively. There is also a potential for article to be published at a later date.

Information and guidelines for submission can be found online here: http://www.ministrymagazine.org/student-writing-contest.html

For those on campus, watch also for posters on the seminary bulletin boards.

Submission deadline is June 30, 2009.

Congratulations to Jon Coutts!

Congratulations are in order for Jon Coutts, recent grad of our seminary, who won a third place showing in “Ministry” magazine’s Ministerial Student Writing Contest. Contest winners can be found here. Jon was the only Canadian in the list. Unfortunately, the magazine did not publish the title of the article. If Jon is watching here, maybe you could let us know what the title of the article was.

A new blog

Word has been starting to filter out that I have started my own blog, and some have been asking for the URL. So for those interested, you can find my blog at http://dguretzki.wordpress.com. I’ve also added a link in the blogroll below. Be sure also to check out some of the other really good quality blogs there as well.

As before, if you are a Briercrest Seminary student or alumni and would like your blog advertised here, please send me an email at dguretzki “AT” briercrest.ca and I’ll add it to the blogroll.

Best,

David Guretzki