Aesthetics of Faith - Multnomah University

Transcription

multnomah
Multnomah University
8435 Northeast Glisan Street
Portland, Oregon 97220-5898
www.multnomah.edu
FALL 2012 | Volume 15 Number 2
HOMECOMING
SAVE THE DATE
MARCH 11-16, 2013
L O VIN G T H E SAV I OR
A HOMECOMING CELEBRATION:
Mark your calendars and save the date for our Homecoming 2013 Celebration. The Multnomah Alumni Association
invites you to come home to Multnomah the week of March 11-16, 2013.This year’s Homecoming celebration will
have something for everyone, and is especially meaningful as we close out Multnomah’s 75th Anniversary year. If
you were a part of last year’s celebration, you know this event is one that you will not want to miss.
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK TO INCLUDE:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Alumni awards chapel
Class and affinity reunions
Faculty appearances
Student-Alumni activities
Alumni Banquet
Multnomah vocal performances
We look forward to seeing you and celebrating our rich
heritage together as we continue to fall in Love with the Savior.
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Multnomah magazine | F a l l
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1.877.9ALUMNI
WWW.MULTNOMAH.EDU/HOMECOMING
multnomah
A New
Renaissance
Christians are returning to expressions
of worship through art and they
aren’t afraid to call it ministry.
letter
From The Editor
R ob e rt L e ary
Creation Creating
The idea for this issue came about as a result of a
conversation with two alumni nearly a year ago. I asked
one of them (pictured on page 22) why it is that so many
Multnomah grads go on to thrive in these artistic fields
when we do not have a fine arts major. His answer stuck
with me because it is simple and true:
“God made me who I am and I just utilize these
gifts. I’m not a successful photographer because
people think I take nice pictures. I’m a successful
photographer because Multnomah taught me
to love people well.”
department I work in is full of top-notch creative
professionals. This issue is a testament to this expression
of the Imago Dei!
Sometimes we just have to stop and admire the
beauty of creativity. We marvel at the painting of a
master. Prose, expertly crafted by its author, is revered
through the ages. When we see striking photography,
we know it. When a dancer nails her steps, we are awed.
When we’re moved by song, we remain in our parked
car until it is over.
We are creatures admiring creation.
It has been my observation that quite a few of you
are very creative in the artistic sense. We often write
about people doing ministry in a more “traditional”
sense, but this issue is dedicated to those who minister
as a result of a creative response to the Creator.
Multnomah is made up of many alumni and students
who are professional photographers, designers, actors,
directors, dancers, musicians, and writers. Even the
Robert Leary
Director of Promotions & Communications
This issue is another step toward a more
improved magazine. In addition to the further design
refinements, increased emphasis on photography, a new printing
company, a new efficient printing method, less expensive
environmentally friendly paper, and less expensive postage,
we have also redesigned our subscription mailing list to be
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more efficient. We value every reader and ask that you remain
patient with us while we work out any kinks in our mailing list.
If your household is receiving too many or not enough or you
know of someone we missed, please let us know right away!
Always be sure to let us know how we’re doing on anything at
[email protected] or 503.251.6452.
contents
Features
5
Evangelicals
and the Arts
Dr. Brad Harper discusses whether
evangelicals are experiencing an
artistic renaissance.
12
The Joys of
Creative Writing
After writing his first full book, Dr. Dan
Lockwood reflects on the process and
lessons learned.
17
Visual, Performing,
and Written Arts
Nine alumni from many creative fields
discuss how their gifts minister in nontraditional ways.
44
A Beautiful
Response
Students take the lead in a chapel where
worship and arts come together.
Regulars
2 Your Letters
46 Advancement
52 Alumni News
59 Faculty Calendar
60 Devotional
Specials
48A Reunion to Remember
50 Faculty Q&A
51 Multnomah Memory
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1
letters
To The Editor
Servant Leadership
and Two Presidents
One of Dr. Mitchell’s favorite
challenges to students was,
“What, don’t you read your
Bible?” For those who do not
think “servant leadership” is
found anywhere in Scripture, the
first question is, “Don’t you read
your Bible?” Dr. Lockwood has
written an excellent article on
the subject of servant leadership
based on the gospels. Paul also
addresses the subject in at least
two places. Those who would
be Lord-Leaders rather than
Servant-Leaders should read
1 Corinthians 4 and take it to
heart. Then, when they have
followed Paul’s example there,
they should read Ephesians
5:15-6:9. In this passage, so
often remembered when men
want women to obey them, the
third effect of being filled with
the Holy Spirit is submission
one to another. During Dr.
Joe Aldrich’s presidency at
Multnomah, a questionnaire was
sent to alumni which included,
“What would you suggest we
add to our teaching program?”
or something to that effect.
Dr. Joe and I ended up in a
mutual agreement dialogue
when I suggested, “Be
sure the future pastors and
teachers trained at Multnomah
understand Christ’s command to
“Descend the Ladder of Success”
(my title for the message). He
sent me a tape of a message
he gave (I believe at Cannon
Beach) on the subject. We need
to keep the message of servant
leadership before our students
and current church leaders.
David K. Smith (1976)
Needham’s Legacy
As I read your article telling
Dr. Needham’s story my heart
was filled with joy and gratitude
for being allowed to briefly share
his journey while a student at
Multnomah. His curiosity about
and pursuit of his Savior and
magnificent eternal Father so
captivated me I left his class
insatiably hungry to experience
God’s person and presence. Both
he and his class altered me for
a lifetime.
It has been my privilege to turn
my face to our amazing holy
loving God most every day for
44 years of full time ministry. I
owe most of this joyful passion
to Dr. Needham’s inescapable
example. I am eternally grateful
to God for him!
Rev. Dennis Miller
President,
Church Development, Inc.
Printing Errors in Spring Issue
As some of you have likely noted, there was a problem with missing or duplicated pages in the Spring 2012 issue.
The portion most affected by the mistake was the article featuring Professor David Needham. This problem occurred
with a binding malfunction at the printing house. Some of the issues made it to circulation before it was caught.
We regret the error.
If you were not able to read the whole article online or would like a replacement copy with the correct number of
pages, please contact us with your name and address and we’ll promptly send one to you free of charge. -Eds
Fall 2012 | Volume 15 Number 2
multnomah
Multnomah magazine will be published two times a year–spring and fall–and sent free
of charge to the friends and supporters of Multnomah University. Multnomah is located
at 8435 Northeast Glisan Street, Portland, Oregon 97220-5898. All correspondence
should be sent to Multnomah magazine or call us at 503.251.6452 or e-mail us at
[email protected].
No part of this publication may be reproduced without the expressed written
permission of Multnomah University.
To learn more about Multnomah, visit our Web site at www.multnomah.edu.
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Dr. Daniel R. Lockwood, President
Robert Leary, Director of Promotions/Communications;
Managing Editor: Kristin Kendall, Communications Coordinator
Editorial Contributor: Michelle Peel, Director of Alumni Relations
Copy Editing: Ellen Bascuti, Josh Friesen, Amy Gravseth, Michelle Grimms
Photography: SJ Harmon Photography, Ryan J. Lane Photography,
Tim Newman Photography, William Anthony Beatty-Tinsay
Design: Thot Communications, Inc.
Printing: Good Impressions Printing Company, Inc.
Publisher:
Editor-in-Chief:
the
Writers
Brad Harper
College Faculty
Evangelicals and the Arts
Dr. Brad Harper is a Professor of Theology and
the Chairperson of the Bible/Theology Division
of Multnomah University. He is the father of
three children and lives with his wife, Robin, in
Vancouver, Washington.
Dr. Daniel R. Lockwood
President
Forrest A. Bjelkevig
Director of Planned Giving
Dr. Randy Alcorn
Author
Charitable Gift Annuities
Writing Arts: My Journey
as a Christian Writer
Dr. Randy Alcorn is a Multnomah graduate
(ThB, 1976, MA Biblical Studies, 1979) and the
New York Times bestselling author of over forty
books, including Heaven, If God is Good, and
Deception. The founder and director of Eternal
Perspective Ministries, he’s married to Nanci
and is the father of two daughters and five
grandchildren.
Benjamin Tertin
Seminary Student
Visual Arts:
The Aesthetics of Faith
Multnomah Bible College graduate Benjamin
Tertin is currently a student in the Seminary.
He resides in Portland, Oregon, with his wife,
Alison, and daughter.
Gail (Stark) Lundquist graduated from
Multnomah twice – first with a Diploma in
1962, then with a BS in Biblical Studies in 1985.
Gail and her husband, Lynn, enjoy having their
daughter, Denise, and her husband, Marc – along
with Mia, 10, and Ryan, 9 – living across town.
Marcus Brotherton
Journalist
Writing Arts: Why I Write
Multnomah Bible College graduate, Marcus
Brotherton (B.S., ’90), is a journalist and
professional writer known internationally for
his literary collaborations with high-profile
public figures, humanitarians, inspirational
leaders, and military personnel. Marcus lives
with his wife and children in Washington state.
Performing Arts:
Leading the Way
Multnomah Bible College graduate Suzanne
(Hadley, ’00) Gosselin, is a freelance writer
and editor. She resides in Colorado Springs,
Colorado, with her husband and two children.
Dr. Domani Pothen
College Faculty
Three Questions
Dr. Domani Pothen is a professor of English at
Multnomah University. She resides in Portland,
Oregon.
Kim Felton
Freelance Writer
Writing Arts: A Risky
Business, this Writing Life
Suzanne Gosselin
Freelance Writer
Gail Lundquist
Multnomah Alumnus
A Reunion to Remember
The Joys of Creative Writing
Dr. Daniel R. Lockwood is the President of
Multnomah University. He resides in Portland,
Oregon, with his wife, Jani.
Forrest A. Bjelkevig is the Director of Planned
Giving at Multnomah University. He resides in
Vancouver, Washington, with his wife Susan.
Dr. Daniel Scalberg
College Faculty
Multnomah Bible College graduate Kimberly
(Claassen, ‘96) Felton writes and edits in a
number of genres, most appreciating the
assignments that bring with them comical
relief or spiritual growth. She lives in Dundee,
Oregon, with her husband, Rob, and daughter.
Band of Brothers and Sisters
Dr. Daniel Scalberg is a professor of History at
Multnomah University. He resides in Vancouver
with his wife, Kimberly, and two children.
Dr. Thomas R. Hauff
College Faculty
Liz Clark
Freelance writer
Beautiful Service
A Beautiful Response
Multnomah Bible College graduate Liz (Murrell,
’12) Clark is a freelance writer residing in
Milwaukie, Oregon, with her husband, Nathan,
and son.
Dr. Thomas R. Hauff is a professor of Bible
and Theology at Multnomah University. He
also teaches regularly in his church’s Adult
Education programs. He resides in Vancouver,
Washington, with his wife, Kathy.
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Cover Story
B r ad Har p e r
Evangelicals
The Arts
b y B r a d H a r p er
Allow me to begin this article about art and
Christianity by saying that I am not an artist. I
am a lover of art. I appreciate seeing it, listening
to it, reading it, even touching it. But as far as
producing it, let’s just say that, for me, stick men
are a challenge. My fascination with art goes back
decades, however. I remember when I was 12 years
old begging my mom to take me out of school for
a day so we could drive to the De Young Museum
in San Francisco to see the traveling exhibit of the
art of Vincent Van Gogh. We had to stand in the
rain for two hours. But it was totally worth it.
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Cover Story
B r ad Har p e r
What I do know a little bit
about is theology and the history
of Christianity—which brings
me to my ongoing interest in art.
The way I see it, art is a deeply
theological endeavor, even for
people who may not believe in
God. Perhaps this is because the
best art, the art that endures, is
often the result of artists engaging
both the most common and
the most important questions
about life. Moreover, for at
“...the best art, the art
that endures, is often
the result of artists
engaging both the most
common and the most
important questions
about life.”
least 19 centuries, the life of the
church was deeply invested in the
development and production of
art. This leads me to the issue I
will address for the main portion
of this article—what is for me
the disappointing relationship
between the church, or at least
the American evangelical church,
and art in the 20th century. I am
fairly critical, both of our attitude
about art in the 20th century, and
about the art we evangelicals have
produced. To explain why, I need
to do a bit of history.
At the end of the 19th and
beginning of the 20th century,
developments were taking place
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in American Christianity that
led to a crisis, which became
known as the fundamentalist/
modernist controversy. Modern
developments in the academic
disciplines of science, history,
and philosophy led many in the
church to move away from some
of the long held commitments of
historic orthodox Christianity—
commitments like belief in
the deity of Christ, the divine
inspiration of the Bible, the
Trinity, etc. As liberal Christians
moved away from these doctrines,
conservatives reacted, drawing
theological lines in the sand
and began to call themselves
fundamentalists. The battles
between fundamentalists and
modernists were very public
for years, culminating in 1925
in what became known as the
Scopes “Monkey” Trial, the
symbol of the culture war that
resulted in fundamentalists
beginning to disconnect from
culture generally and to create
their own distinct subculture.
This antipathy towards culture
outside the church resulted in
several worldview developments
that were not only cultural, but
also theological.
One of these developments
was a growing feeling that there
should be a separation between
the secular and the sacred. The
values of the culture outside the
church were understood to be
secular, or ungodly as opposed
to the values of the church,
which were seen as sacred. For
many conservative Christians,
this meant that the cultural
venues for artistic expression,
the theater, movie house, and
dance hall, for example, came
to be seen as “dens of iniquity.”
Thus, the products of these
venues were also tainted. Another
characteristic of this period was
what I consider to be a loss of
the awareness of the theological
principle that the image of
God remains both present and
active in all persons, whether
or not they are Christians
such that non-Christians, by
nature, will often reflect and
hold to values that are deeply
biblical and Christian. But for
many fundamentalists, unless a
product of culture was done by
a Christian or had an explicitly
Christian form or message,
it could not say anything of
biblical or Christian value. In
other words, God does not speak
through culture.
One of the casualties was
the arts. For many of us growing
up in the wake of this backlash,
it meant that dancing, movies,
and the theater, for example, were
generally seen in a negative light.
I remember when I was in high
school, a former drummer in a
rock band came to our church
and told the congregation that
“volume plus pulsation equals
manipulation.” Thus, music
with a rock beat was inherently
dangerous, even if it had Christian
lyrics. The upshot of all this was
that the institution that had been
such a patron of the arts for so
long essentially walked away.
But the conservative
church did not stay away from
the arts forever. After several
decades, we began to reengage.
My own personal date for the
beginning of the reengagement
is 1971, the year of the birth of
Maranatha Music at Calvary
Chapel in Costa Mesa, California.
This reengagement is a good
thing. The problem is that
we evangelicals had forgotten
much about how to do art well,
and we still took too many of
our cultural cues from our
fundamentalist forefathers and
mothers. So for the remainder
of this article, I want to outline a
few issues that, in my view, make
the return of evangelicals to the
arts in the last three decades
of the 20th century a mixed
blessing.
here in my opinion is, what
does it mean to redeem culture?
Would McDonald’s be redeemed
if the church somehow got the
company to include gospel tracts
“...for many
fundamentalists, unless
a product of culture
was done by a Christian
or had an explicitly
Christian form or
message, it could not
say anything of biblical
or Christian value.”
in its happy meals? Would Van
Gogh’s Potato Eaters be better if
a Christian artist painted Jesus
into the picture to remind us that
Christ is with us in tough times?
Here are a few reasons
why I am disenchanted with
Christian art that is a product
of baptizing the secular. First, it
violates the intentionality of the
artist/author. Most artists are
likely to think it is inappropriate
for others to use their art to
communicate a message that
they did not intend. Second, it is
not incarnational, which is how
God engages culture. When God
wants to communicate himself to
the world, he does it by entering
fully into that world and taking
it on himself as a means of
1) Baptizing
the secular:
What I mean by baptizing
the secular is when we take
something popular or respected
in the secular world of
pop-culture and “Christianize”
it. I remember when evangelicals
coopted the Coca-Cola motto,
“Coke, It’s the Real Thing,” and
changed it to “Jesus, He’s the Real
Thing.” Of course, anyone who
knows something about church
history might raise objections
to my concerns, arguing that the
church has always transformed
the secular. Easter and Christmas,
for example, were both
adaptations of secular holidays.
True enough. But the question
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feature
Cover Story
B r ad Har p e r
revealing himself in his absolute
uniqueness, a uniqueness the
world simply cannot produce or
even fully recognize on its own.
Instead, baptizing the secular to
produce Christian art is like using
Jesus as whiteout and a Sharpie.
2) Willingness to
use clever clichés:
A second problem for
contemporary Christian art is
its tendency to use clever clichés.
Examples of this are abundant.
Consider the ubiquitous church
signs which give us such catchy
lines as, “Avoid sunburn. Use
Sonscreen,” “Make your eternal
reservations now... ‘smoking’ or
‘non-smoking’?”
Then there is Christian
T-shirt art telling us that “Jesus
is my homeboy,” and that we
need to “Get right, or get left.”
And there is always the plethora
of Christian bumper stickers,
perhaps epitomized by an artist’s
rendering of the Jesus fish eating
the Darwin fish. The theological
issue that concerns me in all of
this is that the use of clichés in
producing Christian art has the
disastrous effect of trivializing
Jesus. I’m just not attracted to a
trivial Jesus.
3) Christian art
is hesitant to
engage suffering:
A
Or, as one of my colleagues,
a professor of literature, says,
“Christian art does not want to
see the world the way it is. And
when it does, it often presents
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Multnomah magazine | F ALL
Jesus as a Band-Aid that makes
all the suffering better.” I feel
like I grew up with a kind of
“Romans 8:28” Christianity
where in bad times we would
quote that verse to each other as
a way of saying, “Don’t worry.
God will make it all better.” I
“When God wants to
communicate himself to
the world, he does it by
entering fully into that
world and taking it on
himself as a means of
revealing himself in his
absolute uniqueness, a
uniqueness the world
simply cannot produce
or even fully recognize
on its own.”
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see this kind of lack of authentic
engagement of suffering in much
evangelical literature. I agree
with the opinion I found on
Amazon.com of one reviewer’s
summary of a series of novels
by a very popular Christian
writer. She writes, “Happy
endings are enjoyable, but when
every single ending is picture
perfect, the story loses a lot of
the realism that makes the rest
of the series so easy to relate
to.” We like happy endings, but
they often don’t really relate to
our experience of life and its
sufferings. Instead, they tend
to be escapist. As a theologian,
I might simply suggest that
Christian artists consider
the book of Ecclesiastes. It is
pretty cynical about life and
its hardships. Life is tough,
sometimes empty, and there are
no band-aids. Even the reference
at the end to obeying God as
the final duty of humans is not
seen as something that fixes life’s
problems. Rather, it’s more about
how we should trust in God
whether or not he relieves our
suffering. If Christian art is going
to be honest about suffering, it
needs more of Ecclesiastes.
4) Evangelical
nostalgia for a
world that never
existed:
Especially when talking about
the current state of society, I
sometimes find evangelicals
nostalgic for life as it used to
be in the 50s and 60s when we
still had prayer in school and
kids respected their elders. But
I think this is a rather naïve or
even ironic nostalgia, like the
nostalgia of Archie and Edith
Bunker as they sing “Boy the
way Glen Miller played. / Songs
that made the Hit Parade. / Guys
like us, we had it made. / Those
were the days.” Yes, but those
Glen Miller days were also the
Great Depression. And perhaps I
won’t make many friends among
evangelicals by what I am about
to say, but this is one reason why
I don’t like the art of Thomas
Kinkade. I have no idea if he
was an evangelical, but he has
become one of the defacto artists
of the evangelical subculture
and, in fact, even made claims to
that effect over the last few years
of his life. Be assured, none of
what I say is meant to demean
his talent, which was prodigious,
but a fair bit of Kinkade’s art,
in my opinion, seems to be
telling us that America was
really a much better place in
the past, 50 or even 100 years
ago in the Victorian era. But for
many people, especially those of
marginalized communities, the
America of the past was not a
better place. It is interesting that
the era that seems so idyllic in
the paintings of Kinkade, not to
mention Currier and Ives, is the
one which Mark Twain called the
Gilded Age—an era with a thin
veneer of gold over pot metal.
A very popular current
evangelical artist who specializes
in this kind of Christian
nostalgia is Ron DiCianni. One
of his paintings, for example,
called “Daughter of the King,
portraying an honorable knight
seeking the hand of a beautiful
young woman, longs for the
medieval era and the values of
knights and princesses. But the
problem, of course, is that these
were not good times for most
people, and knights were often
mercenaries who killed wantonly
at the behest of their feudal
lords. In addition, the painting
stereotypes women as innocent,
dependent creatures whose
deepest need is to be rescued
by a warrior. His paintings
are often hyper idealized and
romanticized. Every person is
overwhelmingly handsome/
pretty, super clean cut, dressed
in 1980s preppy clothes, or neat
and wonderfully colored clothes
of “biblical times,” and they are
generally white. Many of his
paintings seem to be an attempt
to show us what the world is
really like, with an emphasis on
the unseen world of God and
angels in touch with our world.
But they really don’t see the
world for what it is at all. It is
hard to believe that anyone in
many of these paintings is really
broken or in need of anything.
5) Finally, Christian
art is often simply a
means of marketing
Jesus, which often
makes Christian art
little more than
propaganda:
My friend, Dan Seidell, professor
of Art History and Criticism
at the University of Nebraska,
says that a problem with
contemporary “Christian art”
is: . . .the evangelical desire to
send messages. Art becomes just
a way of sending messages, yet
art by its very nature is complex,
ambivalent, revealing multiple
meanings. So, the desire is to
make art send more specific
and narrow messages, hence the
idea of propaganda. I often see
“If Christian art is going
to be honest about
suffering, it needs more
of Ecclesiastes.”
this as the work of art merely
becoming a visual illustration
of an idea already expressed
verbally. That makes really bad
art. Art, to my mind, isn’t a mode
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Cover Story
B r ad Har p e r
“...this is a generation
that is particularly
skeptical about simple
answers to complex
questions... As a result,
they are not generally
attracted to simplistic
and cliché approaches
to life, or art.”
of communication, in which a
meaning is sent from artist to
viewer. It’s a means of communion,
participation, contemplation in
which the work itself ‘works’ on
the beholder. . . . Propaganda, and
bad art in general, emerges when
an artist already has the ‘message’
in his brain and then sees his
medium as simply executing it.
Dan Facebooked this quote to me
April 22, 2009.
OK, so given my sometimes
scathing criticism of the art
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of the evangelical world, one
might assume that I have no
hope for the future, but I do.
I am actually very optimistic
about the future in regard to the
relationship between evangelical
Christians and art. Let me tell
you why. I spend much of my life
hanging out with 20-25 year old
evangelicals and here are some
of the things I see. First, this is
a generation that is particularly
skeptical about simple answers
to complex questions. It’s not
that they don’t believe that Jesus
is somehow the foundation for
the answers to all the important
questions of life—they do. But
they are also unlikely to accept
that there are many simple and
one-size-fits-all solutions to the
problems of life. As a result, they
are not generally attracted to
simplistic and cliché approaches
to life, or art.
Further, this generation
recognizes that the way they
understand life, truth, and even
God is always perspectival. While
they are fully willing to accept
that there is absolute truth, they
know that the way we perceive or
understand that truth is always
shaped by our background,
experience, race, education, etc.
Finally, this generation is far more
engaged with culture in general
than the past few generations
of evangelicals have been. That
reality has both its upsides and
its dangers. One of the upsides is
that this generation believes that
God really does reveal himself
outside the church and the
evangelical subculture, allowing
them both to hear the voice of
God in the world and to find
authentic points of connection
for bearing witness to Christ.
As a result of these
characteristics, and others, I
believe the current generation
of evangelicals has the potential
to engage the arts more
meaningfully and certainly more
broadly. For one thing, they do
not feel like, as Christians, they
have to expose themselves to or
produce only what we might
call “Christian art.” They take
in a wide variety of music, film,
and TV, both Christian and
non-Christian. And because of
their confidence that God speaks
through nature and culture,
they find that sometimes the
art that asks the most profound
questions and gives the most
honest answers is produced by
non-Christians. Further, they
recognize that art can lead
them to theological reflection,
even draw them to a deeper
relationship with Christ without
explicitly communicating
anything at all about God.
Let me conclude with a
couple of thoughts. First, the arts
is a highly subjective arena, and
perhaps even more so the critique
of art. For a fun exercise in
subjectivity, just ask five artists or
professors of art to define good
art. It simply cannot be evaluated
like a correctly done quadratic
equation or a good manual for
assembling your child’s bicycle
on Christmas Eve. I’m sure that
some readers will take issue with
my critical evaluations of certain
examples of “Christian art,” a
problematic phrase in itself. But
that does not concern me. My
hope is that not only this article,
but this entire issue will serve
to encourage us evangelicals to
think more carefully about how
we engage the arts, and how we
produce it—that we would refuse
to be satisfied with a kind of
us-against-them pitched battle
between “Christian art” and
“secular art,” and that we would
produce more art that does
not feel it necessary to provide
simple answers to complex and
troubling life questions. Finally, I
pray that we evangelicals would
engage the arts more dialogically,
not only as a means of bearing
witness to Christ in a needy
world, but also with the openness
to recognize that sometimes the
people who see the important
issues of life most clearly will
be our non-Christian dialog
partners. M
Student Art Theology
Every semester many of my students do art projects for my classes as a way of reflecting upon
and engaging the discipline of theology. Some of their work is simply amazing. The very best
of it engages the complex questions of life and refuses to be satisfied with cliché or simplistic
answers, but instead recognizes that the one true God can often best be encountered in art
that is ambiguous; art that does not attempt to explain the relationship between the holy and
infinite God and a finite and broken world through the medium of pious platitudes. It is art that
is honest, fearless, and okay with the fact that in a fallen world honest believers will always
struggle with God as well as praise him. It is art that is more interested in drawing people into
an encounter with God than in trying to explain him.
View more
examples of
student art at
Clockwise from top; Alex
Paterno, Wendy Contreras,
Allyson Tafilowski.
www.multnomah.edu/art
Multnomah magazine | F ALL
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From The President
Dr . Dani e l R . L oc k w o o d
The Joys of
Creative Writing
The Task of Technical Writing
When I became Multnomah’s president over fifteen years ago,
I was not surprised by many things that my position required:
administrative duties, tons of meetings, speaking in chapels,
in the community, and on countless occasions representing
Multnomah, and working with many different constituencies—
from students, staff, and faculty to alumni, trustees, and donors.
What did surprise me, though, was the immense amount of
writing I would do. Much of it, of course, is what might be called
“technical” writing. I’ve written—and rewritten—over a dozen
strategic plans (with appropriate follow-up progress reports).
I just completed my fifteenth President’s Annual Report for
this fall’s board of trustees meeting, a report that reached one
hundred and four pages when all the charts and graphs were
included. I have refined and written class notes, including
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From The President
Dr . Dani e l R . L oc k w o o d
a new Degree Completion Program
(DCP) course on The Holy Spirit and
Angels. And I have authored half-adozen accreditation evaluative reports
of other seminaries after chairing ATS
site visits. Though I have not been the
lead writer for any of Multnomah’s
self-study reports, I have contributed
written sections for our ATS, NWCCU,
and ABHE reports over the years.
Happily, there have been occasions
that have encouraged my more creative
side. I’ve composed scores of letters to
alumni, donors, and friends updating
them on Multnomah’s progress
and encouraging them to continue
supporting Multnomah with their
prayers and gifts. At certain times—like
Thanksgiving or Christmas—I have
recounted personal memories of my
earlier years that could help readers
identify with me a little better. I have
also interviewed a number of alumni
and students for these letters, telling
their stories of God’s miraculous grace
in hopefully compelling and engaging
ways. I have also written forty-four
articles for Multnomah’s earlier
publication, Multnomah Message,
and for its more recent incarnation
as the Multnomah Magazine. These
regular columns have given me a
wide platform to discuss biblical and
theological issues of interest to our
readers, to review books of critical
importance to evangelicals, and to
assess educational trends affecting
Multnomah University.
An annual creative challenge for
the last decade has been writing a more
popular-level narrative of Multnomah’s
year for my January President’s
Annual Report (PAR). Working
with our ProCom department’s fine
14
design team, this yearly publication
has brought me immense creative
satisfaction as I’ve seen the artful
merging of words and images in a
professional report that highlights
fulfilling Multnomah’s mission.
“Without
question, writing
Unlikely Heroes
stretched my
creative writing
muscles in
several ways.”
The Transition to the Creative Side
When I began writing the early
chapters of what would become my
book, Unlikely Heroes, I started with a
more technical thrust. I fancied myself
a biblical scholar, after all and as a
theologian, I conceived of a book that
would enumerate the many principles
of faith found in faith’s hall of fame
chapter. My working title, Back to the
Basics: Principles of Faith from Hebrews
11, reflects that impulse. But I also
wanted to include introductory stories
from my own life that would illustrate
these principles. During my 2004
sabbatical, I wrote the early chapters,
combining the introductory stories
with heavier theological meat. My
friend David Sanford, after helping me
write a formal proposal with a couple
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of these chapters, sent out feelers to
friendly publishers.
The response was an overwhelming
yawn. One editor was brutally honest.
“Your introductory stories strike some
interest,” he said, “but things bog
down real fast when you start talking
about the biblical characters. We’re not
interested.”
So I returned to the drawing
board. I decided to emphasize the
people of Hebrews 11, not the
principles. I eliminated the first chapter
(“The Foundation of Faith”) as too
theoretical and went straight to the
biblical characters. With a new working
book title, Biblical Heroes, I rewrote my
first six chapters with a ruthless editor’s
eye to refashion the telling of these
familiar stories in a fresh, interesting
way without sacrificing important
nuggets of content.
Then, the chapters sat in my
computer for two years.
The breakthrough came when one
of Dave’s editorial staff did a quick
read-through of my proposal and
chapters. “Why not take a unique angle
to these men and women?” she asked.
“Each of them seems flawed in some
way. At the very least, they are ordinary.
You could develop each character from
this point of view and that would relate
well with a contemporary audience.
You could even title your book,
Unlikely Heroes!”
That was the push I needed to
restart my creative engines. That and the
hard and steady pressure from Robert
Leary’s ProCom department telling me
my book had to be finished in time for
Multnomah’s Diamond Anniversary
celebration during homecoming week
in February 2012.
Lessons Learned
from Creative Writing
think I struck the right balance.
Fourth, I wanted to be explicit—
and illustrative—with applications
to these rich episodes. Like any good
preacher, I included stories to pound the
points home. I used charts, diagrams,
and tables—a favorite element of my
professional teaching—to add variety,
insights, and interest to each chapter.
What’s Next?
Above all, I learned that writing any book
is hard work. The creativity required for
such a project demands focus, discipline,
and the willingness to revise again and
again. Will I ever embark on such a
project again? Oh, I already have three
or four ideas brewing! M
Unlikely Heroes:
Ordinary People with
Extraordinary Faith
Is it possible for broken, ill-eq
uipped, faltering,
or average people to meri
t God’s highest commenda
tion?
For him to say they lived
“by faith” ? Yes, it is.
F O R WA R D
B Y
R A N D Y
A L C O R N
In Unlikely Heroes: Ordina
ry People with Extraordinary
Faith, Daniel R. Lockwood
a cast of Old Testament
presents
characters from Hebrew
s 11—seriously flawed people
that teach us about genuin
with stories
e, biblical faith.
Biblical insights, histori
cal significance, and engagi
ng storytelling carry reader
generations of faith into
s across
the adventure that is ours
today, with guidance for
and courageously. So strap
traveling wisely
on your dusty sandals, pick
up your reliable walking
get ready to travel in the
stick,
and
footsteps of some remark
ably unremarkable individ
meet people whom God
uals. You will
himself calls faithful and
discover they are people
like us!
Heroes make a choice in
the face of great risk. Lockwo
od makes a point that all
even with our faults and
of us,
failings, can by faith still
be a hero. . . You will be
strengthened, and motivat
encouraged,
ed to step up with the faith
that God has given you as
the-blank, heroic champi
a fill-inon for someone in need.
—Bruce W. Fong, Ph.D.,
Author of The Wall
I read this book at an altitude
of 37,000 feet en route
to my father’s bedside and
battle against cancer. I needed
his
this fresh reminder that
I’m not alone in my struggle
trust God. The path I travel
to
bears the footprints of believer
s who, through the ages,
proven God’s goodness and
have
trustworthiness. Thank you,
Dan Lockwood, for nourish
my faith in God and, I trust,
ing
the faith of many others.
—Carolyn Custis James,
Author of Half the Church
and The Gospel of Ruth
The Bible is clear that “withou
t faith it is impossible to please
God.” Unlikely Heroes guides
the reader through the
maze of God’s list of faithful
men and women from
11 and shows how this faith
Hebrews
not only transformed unlikely
biblical heroes, but can
transform twenty-first century
also
unlikely heroes as well.
. . an excellent text for
group Bible study.
a small
—Donald L. Brake, Ph.D.,
Author of A Visual History
of the English Bible and
A Visual History of the
King James Bible
Is it possible for broken,
ill-equipped, faltering,
or average people to
merit God’s highest
commendation? For him
Daniel R.
Lockwood, PhD, is preside
nt of Multnomah Univers
Oregon. Educated at Westmo
ity in Portland,
nt College and Dallas
Theological Seminary,
Lockwood has worked in
Dr.
theological higher educati
on since 1977. He and his
Jani have an adult daughte
wife
r, Elise.
to say they lived “by
Multnomah
University
faith?” Yes, it is.
Background Image: Rembrandt
, Sacrifice of Isaac (1635);
public domain.
LOC KWO OD
Without question, writing Unlikely
Heroes stretched my creative writing
muscles in several ways.
First, in writing the introductory
stories from my own life, I was able
to develop humor, compose dialogue,
and craft short segments in ways I
hoped would be interesting to readers.
Since my humor tends to be selfdeprecating, I enjoyed developing new
ways of poking fun at myself. Also,
because this material is drawn from
my own experience, I did not have to
worry about theological missteps. My
aim was to help the reader get used
to the idea of invented dialogue that
is true to the basic thrust of the story
without implying they are transcripts
of recorded conversations.
Second, in retelling these familiar
stories in fresh ways, I did a lot of
pondering about what the characters
were feeling, thinking, or asking
that is not explicitly mentioned in
the text. I researched commentaries,
Bible encyclopedias, atlases, and other
exegetical tools, of course, but in the
end I spent as much time thinking
about these characters and how
they would respond to meeting God
face-to-face, for example, as I did in
traditional research. Describing them
in the earthy hues of self-doubt, fear,
frustration, or frailty made, for me at
least, believable characters with which
I could more easily identify. Certainly,
including sections that explained how
each personality was an “unlikely” hero
was an important starting-point in this
retelling.
Third, I eventually invented
dialogue for most of the Hebrews 11
characters, like the conversation Noah
has with his family around the supper
table after the Lord informs him of the
impending flood. This was both the
most satisfying creative aspect of my
book and the riskiest. It was satisfying
because these conversations propel
the plot forward while underscoring
unique aspects of each personality. But
it was risky because I never wanted the
reader to believe these stories were just
make-believe. I wanted to balance my
conviction in the absolute reliability
of the biblical accounts with creative
suggestions of these people’s thoughts
and feelings that, while unstated in the
story, are entirely consistent with it.
Thankfully, several reviewers seemed to
ORDINARY PEOP
LE WITH
EXTRAORDINAR
Y FA I T H
A Biblical and P
ersonal Reflecti
on on Hebrews 1
1
DANIEL R. LO CK
WO O D
Now available on Amazon and Kindle
Coming soon to Nook, iBooks, and Google Books
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The Aesthetics of Faith
Creative Christians hone their craft and
call churches to up the artistic ante
efore following Jesus, a young man once suffered
through a sub-par concert and said, “That was
pathetic.” After becoming a believer, though, the
same young man sat through an exponentially worse Christian
concert and said, “Oh well. God can still use it.” Then he went
to a Bob Dylan concert and felt his soul move. Inspired and
changed, he said, “This is amazing…awesome.”
Why? What’s going on here?
Whether the great Minnesotan folk genius tickles your fancy or
not, you get the point. Contemporary Christianity and the arts
have been fumbling in an awkward waltz for some time. The
two are like immediate kin who keep forgetting the other’s name
and point at God’s sovereignty to ease the embarrassment. Then,
onto the dance floor steps the buff, chiseled third cousin named
Pragmatism, and everyone circles ‘round to watch his predictably
b y B en T ert in
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smooth moves. His long shadow
Ryan Lane
swallows up the artist, and the
“I need to create,” says Ryan Lane. “As
enamored crowd falls in-step
a kid, I spent most of my time making
with its promising leader. But the
things, but after high school I didn’t
strong painters, the musicians, the
really know where I was going or what I
photographers and designers and
was doing creatively, so I started making
filmmakers in the room are, by nature,
a lot of idiotic decisions.” Idle hands are
unable to fall in-step. They buck the
generally dangerous, but particularly so
step. They remain compelled to create.
when they’re attached to an artist.
So what now?
A music minor who graduated in
What do we say to the student
2007, Lane says his post-high-school
who, during the early part of his third
spiral landed him in detox units and a
semester of Bible school, says he is
treatment program where he faced, for
seriously keen on the visual and graphic the first real time, the need for a deeper
arts? What appropriate advice can be
understanding of biblical truth and
given to the young man who crammed
the living God. His pastor pointed him
one hundred pages of illustrations and
toward Multnomah. “I did come here to
doodles into his Pentateuch notebook
learn the Bible,” says Lane, “but not to
but filled only ten with written notes?
become a vocational pastor.”
Commendations might roll out for
He certainly applied himself in
the milestone Hebrew/Greek Lexicon
class, though, if you ever pressed him
or systematic theology book purchase,
to see his OT History and Poetry notes,
but what might a Bible college student
you would have likely found a goldmine
expect to hear after investing in a
of strange and interesting and hilarious
digital video camera or updated Adobe
drawings. “I’m just creatively wired;
creative suite software?
my mind goes there and flows there, so
some of my having a hard time paying
Multnomah Magazine recently
attention in school came from me
talked with four Multnomah-grad
figuring out who I was as an artist, and
artists – doodlers, creators, pushers of
because my brain does not naturally
the artistic envelope – who embraced
gravitate toward formulaic lectures.”
the artistic life early on. They journeyed
to Multnomah for the Scriptures, but
then had stowed away within their souls
“I’m just creatively wired;
those creative cravings and vibrant
my mind goes there and
imaginations that drove them beyond
traditional vocational ministries often
flows there...”
associated with the Bible-college degree. – Ryan Lane
They share their stories, here, and
Then he started dabbling with
then they collectively grab us all by the
cameras. Dabbling turned into learning
shoulders and say, “Wake up, friends!
and practicing. Doors started opening,
Let’s put the fumbling, ambiguous, lazy
and, meanwhile, the professors, studies
waltz to death and teach Christianity
and community element at school
and the arts to dance in perfect,
worked more to mold Lane’s artistic
beautiful harmony.”
person than they did to bolster his
cognitive database.
He moved from photo snapping
as a spare-time hobby to professional
photography as a full-time vocation,
from his first $11 paycheck for several
stock photos to an entire yearly income
for thousands of stock photos, wedding
portfolios, picture editing, and other
commercial project work. “Even still,”
he says, “photography is not really my
passion. Creating is my passion.”
Today, Lane is sought after
by designers, photographers and
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filmmakers everywhere for everything
from stock photos to acting jobs, and
every year he continues to expand
his experience portfolio, writing and
recording music, creating other artwork
as he hones several crafts.
Steve Mitchell
“What do you want to do?” she
asked.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I mean….”
“Is it medicine? What do you want
to do, really?”
“Well…, really, I think I want to be
an artist.”
“All right,” she said. “Then you need
to go to the best art school possible.”
Trusting her read, Mitchell pruned
out all other pursuits and began to
cultivate those long established creative
roots, starting with the infamous Art
Center College of Design and then
seriously advancing as a designer
through several leading design firm jobs.
Fast-forward to 2003, where a cap-andgown-clad Mitchell is graduating
from Multnomah’s M.A.P.S. program,
and you see a man bonded closely
to production designers at Disney,
big-time graphic designers and others
who learned to play their graphic-arts
harps skillfully.
Of his later Multnomah years,
Mitchell says, “Right at the time that
I was feeling a strong desire to use all
of these creative tools I had learned as
a professional artist, I started finding
places to use them. Nobody was looking
for another seminary grad to come
preach more sermons, but when it
came to making artwork for the church,
people were like, ‘Yeah! We can use you.
Will you help us out?’”
Mitchell quickly tied in with
Beaverton Foursquare Church and
started making art there, still pursuing
other clients as a freelancer. “It’s always
a twofer for me, now” he says. “I’m
always doing some kind of pastoral
ministry and freelance artwork at the
same time. The ‘world headquarters’
of Steven Mitchell Graphic Design is
in the basement of my house, where I
do most of my design work, and I also
oversee the small group ministries at
my church.”
Lane and Mitchell have both
remained in some way active in the
more traditional “ministry” roles at
their churches, Lane working with
worship music and Mitchell leading
small groups. But other alumni, such as
Jelani Memory (a good friend of Lane’s)
and Jamie Lawson, have situated their
vocational ministry within creative
fields outside of local churches.
Now, jump back about five decades into
young Steven Mitchell’s living room and
discover there the same internal drive
to create. Just five years old and not yet
in Kindergarten, Mitchell’s wide-eyes
spoke insatiable curiosity to his dad,
who was at the time wielding dusty
sandpaper blocks and sticky, fuming
cans of varnish for the living room
refinishing project. All wise young boys
in the vicinity of dad’s weekend project
know that the sidelines are safest and
questions are to be avoided, so Mitchell
turned quietly to the chalkboard. He saw
a nearby pile of “Life” magazines and
copied the lettering. Then Mom walked
in, followed by a proud exclamation:
“George, look! Our boy taught himself
to write – he’s going to be a doctor!”
Mitchell says that this living
room moment steered him onto the
cognitively demanding and logically
intense academic road, where he ran like “It’s always a twofer for me, now” he says. “I’m always doing some
a champ all the way to pre-med at Penn
kind of pastoral ministry and freelance artwork at the same time.”
State. There, gasping for air, he said,
– Steve Mitchell
“What am I doing?” Scholastic success
had marked every turn on his path. He
could have pressed on. But that deeprooted longing – to make, to build, to
draw, to create – was screaming loud.
“My wife, Anita, always seems to
speak prophetic words of wisdom at key
points in my life,” says Mitchell, “and
this was one of them.”
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Jelani Memory
Jelani Memory minored in Greek but
technically remains one credit shy
of his undergraduate degree. Since,
however, he has yet to find any photo
or video clients demanding a Bible
college degree from him, he cracks a
wry smile and says, “I’m just going
to hang onto that one for a while.”
What, then, did the biblical theological
education do? Were all of Dr. Wheeler’s
Greek classes useful in the end? What
good is it to a professional filmmaker
and photographer to know the
difference between a subjective and
objective genetive?
“I look at what I’m doing or
see what other Multnomah students
like my friend, Ryan Lane, are doing
creatively, and it is clear that our
careers have more to do with what
Multnomah formed us into than the
specific information we learned in the
classrooms,” says Memory.
“Don’t miss what I’m saying
though. It’s not that the specific
things we learned are unattached or
unimportant to who we were formed
into. I did Greek. I haven’t kept up
with it, though, I could probably scan
through it and pick it back up. But,
principal-wise, Greek taught me critical
thinking skills, how to parse things
out, how to understand the meaning
Whether making a short
promotional video for
freeze-dried chili or
shooting a still portrait,
Memory points to his
ability to see and create
the human story as the
hingepin upon which
artistic success turns.
– Jelani Memory
of relationships, how to work well in
high-pressure situations, how to speak
another language.” These skills transfer
into every client meeting, he says, where
pressurized deadlines can cripple many
artists. He knows the importance of
paying attention to context. He knows
how to get beyond the letter, into the
spirit of things.
Even more, he learned about
God through the great biblical
communication tool of storytelling.
Quality films, he says, pull us into a
deeper story; horrible films may have
the cutting-edge cinematics and high
falutin’ technology, but they always lack
compelling story. Whether making a
short promotional video for freezedried chili or shooting a still portrait,
Memory points to his ability to see and
create the human story as the hingepin
upon which artistic success turns.
By the beginning of his sophomore
year (Fall, 2004) Memory had caught
the entrepreneur bug and realized that
he would never use his Multnomah
degree to get a job. Each night, after his
vocab was memorized and paradigms
were rehearsed, he pulled out his laptop
and key artistic tool – a whopping 3.1
megapixel camera that…wait for it…
took video! Today, Amazon could
probably sell you a mechanical pencil
that shoots better quality video, but
back in the far distant past of 2004,
Memory was dabbling with some
space-age tech that cut every edge. And
he was rocking it, too.
“I started shooting 10- to 15-second
clips at Multnomah events, and then I
would cut them together into a montage
for people,” Memory says. “And today,
that’s exactly what I’m getting paid a
lot of money to do.” Attentions these
days are drawn like moths to a lightbulb
when a moving picture is in view, and
most film creators are doing short-clip
meldings of half-sentences and briefly
articulated concepts that form into
one idea. This is where Memory lives.
Since his senior year, when he made
a deliberate choice to merge art and
commerce, he has worked full-time in
photo and film production.
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Jamie Lawson
So, too, is the story for Jamie Lawson, a
2001 youth-ministry grad who started
with a love for filmmaking and dove
into Multnomah’s life-changing waters
long enough to earn a Bible degree
before climbing back out, onto the
filmmaking shores.
“I started right at the beginning
of the digital age,” Lawson says. “I was
tagging along with a friend who was
a film student, following him to the
set and watching. I remember looking
at the post-production room, where
I saw all of the equipment set up, and
thinking, ‘Yeah, I get this. I know what
they are doing.’”
So, he bought a Mac. He bought a
camera. He bought some software, and
he started shooting. “I really cut my
filmmaking teeth in youth ministry at
Harvest Community Church, in Camas,
Washington.”
If Lawson needed to explain
youth event rules, he shot a video. If
he needed a common project to work
on for relational mentoring, he taught
younger guys how to make videos. If
the church wanted to capture the stories
from summertime events, he created
a montage video. “At some point in
ministry,” he says, “I realized I was less
‘pastoral’ and more of a builder and
creator. I establish. I start. I was good at
getting something going, but then I kept
changing and rebuilding it, even if it was
already healthy, and I realized I needed
an exit strategy.”
That strategy basically boiled down
to one epiphany: “I need a marketable
skill.” Mix that with the love of creating,
plus some filmmaking experience, plus
a few Multnomah friends in similar
positions, and you cook up a small
production company called “Off the
Menu Productions.”
“Our first paying client was
Marriage Team Ministries,” he recalls.
“We were using cheap shop lights. We
had no script. We had this ‘brilliant’ idea
to have an impromptu conversation
with strange shots and about one
hundred twenty minutes of footage for
a 90-second video. But in the end, they
really liked it.”
On one hand, he is enmeshed in the
filmmaking world – writing scripts,
building camera rigs, staging lights,
editing footage. And on the other hand,
he has started a company called Reel
Innovative (clever, eh?), which answers
the “What do I do with it?” question
for clients, working in social media,
building apps and that sort of thing.
“As an artist, you get to
help interpret meaning
for people. The whole
spectrum of living life and
the hard questions, the
‘Why?’ questions...”
Word spread. Clients flocked.
And remember, this all started before
Facebook revamped the foundations of
the universe. “People are not looking
at text anymore,” says Lawson. “Visual
communication is absolutely central, and
many people recognize this. The problem
is that just having video is not enough;
you need to know what to do with it.”
The needs for visual artwork and
for knowing how to employ it have
driven Lawson to two businesses.
– Jamie Lawson
Several of Lawson’s Bible-school
friends have jumped with him into the
wild waters of commercial and creative
arts, and he’s got high fives all around for
such courage. “I see Christians all around
me starting to become great storytellers,”
he says, “people who communicate the
story in an artistic way.
“As an artist, you get to help
interpret meaning for people. The
whole spectrum of living life and the
hard questions, the ‘Why?’ questions,
the pain and suffering and beauty and
transcendence – artists have a way of
helping think about and interpret the
mass of data in our world. In some way,
I think that the artists around us have
the most influence. Look at how we ask
actors for their political views. I think
this is indicative of where our culture
is right now. And if Christians will
acknowledge this and insert themselves
into the artistic arenas, they can bring
true influence.”
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Good Art? Bad Art? Yes Art? No Art?
These four believers look with some
clarity toward the rapidly widening
field of visual arts and get amped up
about its unprecedented potential. But
now let’s push beyond their personal
passions or vocations and think about
artists in general and how our churches
embrace them.
In our Christian communities,
where does the artist thrive? Is he
commissioned for church picnic posters
and nothing more? We have stages,
podiums, sound systems, intros, bios,
pamphlets, stickers, and space galore
welcoming the speaker and the teacher.
What welcome might the painter,
designer, or dancer experience? Is he
or she tapped for anything more than
stenciling the nursery? We store up
funds for the scholastically minded and
“Real art cannot be somebody’s good intention; it actually
academically inclined youngsters, but
has to look good – really good.” ~ Steve Mitchell
for the kid who has been inclined from
day No. 1 to create beautiful artwork,
might serve as a window dressing for
have we set aside similar support?
of any kind, we sometimes utter the
“My concern is that very few people their messages,” Mitchell says, “as a way
too-familiar phrase: “Oh well. God
understand art,” says Mitchell. A beloved to get people to read or sit still in front
can still use it.” While the truth itself
of a cool video. But this view of art
trend within Evangelical churches today
is tough to argue with, the usage is
leads to soul-less promotional material.” suspect at best. Is God’s sovereign ability
seems to be a wholehearted obsession
And when it lacks soul, it’s barreling
with business-like leadership. “It drives
to redeem failures a good excuse for
headlong into the dung heap.
me crazy,” Mitchell says, hands in the
lackluster work as long as the artist loves
air. “You end up with church leaders
Ask Mitchell the almost terrifying
Jesus? Memory says, “Real art cannot be
from business backgrounds who are
question “What is good art?” and after a somebody’s good intention; it actually
very pragmatic, which is not to say that
solid thirty seconds of face contortions
has to look good – really good.”
they are devoid of sensitivity or that
and painful grunts, he declares, “Bad
Lawson echoes, saying that in his
they lack pastoral heart, but the drive
art is soul-less. Have you ever met a
20 years of church experience, he has
toward pragmatism gets so strong that
person who seems hollow and empty
watched believers consistently take the
the ‘impractical’ is quickly marginalized. on the inside? As sharp and good as
copy-cat route, always playing catch-up
And if there is one thing that is
they might look on the outside, there’s
but rarely leading innovation. Why?
‘impractical,’ it is art.”
Because the focus is often on parroting
just nothing in there. Bad art is like a
Mitchell makes a distinction, here,
familiar theological summaries or ultraperson without a soul.”
noting that many younger pastors at
As a pseudo consolation for the
basic Christian slogans. “It seems that for
once see the power of media but fail
pathetic sermon, the boring painting,
art to be ‘Christian,’ according to many, it
to understand art. “They see how art
the shoddy design, or the artistic failure
has to give a clear Romans Road or four
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spiritual laws or sinner’s prayer element,” beyond words, imagery and metaphor,
Lawson says, “and that negatively impacts capturing clarity for things that were
the story that you’re trying to tell.”
previously elusive feelings.”
Why does this happen? Is it that
None of these four men suggest
parrot-talking is the safest and easiest
a wholesale rejection of the cognitive,
route? No doubt, the greatest artistic
intellectual approach to Christian
minds power through convention and
understanding or even evangelism.
drive us into the uncharted territories
There’s no anti-apologetics mantra here.
of our hearts and minds, and they do
But each believes that aesthetics hold
so at the costly expense of practice,
a raw and robust power to reveal the
determination, careful discipline. They
excellence of God’s creative character,
make us say, “Wow! That is awesome.”
of his life, and of his salvation. Lane,
Mitchell, Memory and Lawson look
But when an artist is encouraged to
to their Multnomah days as a time of
duplicate, over and again, the familiar
establishment, when a wisely chiseled,
Christian-culture mottos or über basic
rock-solid life foundation was built
outlines, then the onlooker’s eyes roll
around the deepest and most lifewhile his mouth yawns and his mind
giving well, ever. Now, each of these
turns to the nonbeliever’s more carefully
crafted work. “A lot of Christian art seeks men recognizes a high calling to create
so much to be ‘Christian’ that it becomes beautiful, story-encompassing, soulun-Christian,” says Memory. “It becomes filled artwork upon that foundation.
“When I, as a Christian, create
un-God-like, unredemptive, because it
ceases to be a genuine piece of art.
“Think about our world. God
“It seems that for art to
didn’t skimp on creation,” Memory
be ‘Christian,’ according
says. “He did a really good job. We need
to many, it has to give a
to start asking the question, ‘Is this a
valuable piece of art?’ rather than ‘Did a
clear Romans Road or four
well-intentioned Christian make this?’”
spiritual laws or sinner’s
C.S. Lewis said somewhere that we
prayer element,” Lawson
do not need more Christian writers; we
need more great writers who happen
says, “and that negatively
to be Christian. Mitchell recites that
impacts the story that
reference and says, “If we made more
you’re trying to tell.”
space within our churches for really
good artists, the art would improve.”
“God is a poet,” says Lawson. “He is a excellent art, people everywhere are
storyteller. Every time you see him speak, interested, they are drawn in, and they
get to peer through my eyes,” says
you see poetry. When Jesus told a story
2,000 years ago for farmers or shepherds, Memory. “And if I’m looking at others
he somehow made me understand, me, a as though they have immense value,
that comes through the work in a
guy who has digital cameras in Portland
beautiful way.” The flipside, of course, is
in 2012. He speaks to the heart and the
the excellent artist who hates God and
emotions and the things that are far
mocks Jesus, drawing people in to peer
through eyes that devalue humanity,
creation and the way everlasting. Could
it be that, all along, God has intended
for his people to speak with boldness
and lead the arts with his power?
Mitchell points to Exodus 31 with
a wide smile. “Look here. This is the
first recorded instance in the Scriptures
where we see God giving his Holy Spirit
to people. It’s the point where he’s
telling them, ‘I want you to make the
tabernacle.’ And when you think about
that being a picture of Jesus, as a type of
Jesus, it seemed incredibly important to
him that the Tabernacle be beautiful.
“And so God mentions two guys,
Bezalel and Oholiab, and he says, “I’m
putting my Spirit on them in order for
them to make things – to make beautiful
things.” Something touches the heart of
God when people make beautiful things.
I firmly believe that people are drawn
to God through the beauty of Christ
showing redemption.
“People are drawn to beauty.
Take a bunch of kids to the Oregon
coast and watch the sunset. You’re not
going to hear a debate about whether
that’s beautiful or not; they simply
respond to it. Doesn’t matter what
their background is. Whatever their
education. God has built something in
each of us to respond to aesthetics.”
One of Mitchell’s heroes, Jonathan
Edwards, was writing a systematic
theology based in aesthetics when he died.
“He believed that the beauty of God was
the ground of theology,” says Mitchell. “In
the Western church, I think we have often
emphasized the cognitive expression of
the Gospel at the expense of the aesthetic
expression of the Gospel. But I truly
believe that faith is born in aesthetics.” M
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Performing
S uz ann e G oss e l in
Performing
28
Leading the Way
Former and current Multnomah students talk
about the performing arts, creativity, and living
out the gospel.
ichael Watson seemed destined to find his
way into the Christian music industry. As an
eighth grader, he was invited by one of his
father’s drum students (Kutless bass player Dave Luetkenhoelter)
to a Christian camp in Southern Oregon. It was there Watson
gave his life to Christ. “Music was always tied into my faith
experience,” he says. “That’s had its ups and downs.”
One of the ups was signing with Sparrow records at 23 as lead
singer, songwriter, and guitarist for Above the Golden State, an
acoustic pop/rock Christian band. The group, whose self-titled
album was released in 2008, enjoyed some radio success and
toured with bands such as Sanctus Real, Starfield, and Kutless.
But the accomplishment Watson is most proud of is his
involvement in starting Solid Rock church in Portland, Oregon,
in 2004. The congregation (where Watson still serves on the
b y S u za nne Go sselin
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30
Performing
worship team) started with 250 people
but has grown to nearly 10,000 members.
It was under the mentorship of
pastors and musicians there that Watson
began writing songs. “The songs started
coming from the realization of what God
was doing in Portland,” Watson says.
In fact, the Above the Golden State
song, Streets, which talks about showing
Christ’s love to the hurting and broken,
came directly from a sermon Watson
heard at the church. He now believes that
song had prophetic elements. In 2010,
Solid Rock opened an inner city location,
reaching out to some of Portland’s most
needy and hurting people.
“We are the ones who should
be reflecting the God who
created music in the first
place. This is God’s area of
expertise.”
– Michael Watson
Touring with Above the Golden
State for two years allowed Watson
the opportunity to see how God was
working both outside of his city, as well
as, in it. “Touring helped me get a pulse
on The Church across the nation,” he
continued. “But it also gave me a sense
of the unique thing God was doing here
in Portland.”
It was his heart for the local church
that led Watson to look into earning a
Biblical Foundations Major through
Multnomah’s degree completion
program (DCP). “I was learning a lot
from touring and my heart was to serve
with the local church,” he says.
Multnomah, he shared, “threw
a twist” into his songwriting as he
developed a deeper understanding
of God’s Word and a more coherent
theology. “It’s helped to redefine and
restructure my music,” he says. “Now
when I’m writing, I stop and think, that
lyric... I could probably say that better.”
Watson, who is currently recording
a worship album, says the Christian
music industry has undergone radical
changes in recent years to survive in
the digital age. While it used to be
enough to have a successful record,
today’s musicians (both Christian and
secular) must attempt to get their songs
in movies and TV shows because that’s
how they make their money.
Christian musicians also work
(with some difficulty) to establish
their identities in an industry sharply
divided between music intended for
entertainment and music created
for worship.
Still, Watson remains positive
about the changes. “Music has taken a
shift back toward the church,” he says.
“You see a lot more attention being
given to worship leaders and worship
bands. The church is being sought out
for what it has to offer.”
This is good news for someone who
believes the church should be leading
the way in the arts. “We are the ones
who should be reflecting the God who
created music in the first place. This is
God’s area of expertise. Music has to
come back around to glorifying God
and influencing culture.”
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Performing
Along for the Journey
“It’s not just about the dancing;
Sarah Hadley’s earliest memories are of
it’s about having something
spinning around the kitchen floor on
in common with people who
top of her dad’s feet. “I loved moving
and spinning,” she says.
don’t know Christ.”
Hadley, who has studied and
– Sarah Hadley
performed ballet, jazz, modern dance,
swing, and tap, says she gravitated
the gospel. Hadley was so enthralled
to dance because of her love of
by what they were doing that she
performance.
participated in a summer program at
“When I dance, I’m telling a story,”
the school when she was 18.
she shares. “I enjoy dancing more
She continued to hone her gifts in
when people are watching. It makes my
worship dance at Multnomah, founding
performance feel purposeful.”
a dance ministry for children called
That is one tension Hadley has felt
Holem Adonai at Central Bible Church
being a Christian engaged in performing as her practicum. The dance troupe,
arts. In the secular arena, performing
comprised of 1st through 6th graders,
arts are about bringing glory to the
performed for holidays, special church
performer, but a Christian is obligated,
services, and the missions conference.
and compelled, to bring glory to God.
These days, Hadley’s dance
While Hadley believes artists glorify interests have focused on community
God simply by exercising their gifts,
and teaching. She swing dances
she admits discovering how to use her
regularly and teaches lessons in
talents with humility has been a process. Olympia, Wash. As one of the more
During high school, she discovered
skilled dancers, Hadley has earned
worship dancing—a style of dance
a platform in the lives of her fellow
combining ballet and interpretive dance dancers. She works to keep her focus
with lyrical praise music. At the time,
missions-minded.
she was heavily influenced by Ballet
“I try to be approachable and really
Magnificat!, a Christian dance company delve into friendships,” she says. “It’s not
located in Jackson, Mississippi. The
just about the dancing, it’s about having
troupe uses dance specifically to spread
something in common with people who
don’t know Christ.”
As a result of her investment in the
swing dance community, Hadley has
had many open conversations about
her faith. Some of her friends have
even started attending her church and
Missional Community Group.
Last May, Hadley was asked if she
would teach a worship dance class for
some young girls at a nearby church.
Hadley says she was hesitant to get
involved because she was in a busy
season of life, but she agreed to teach
a four-week course.
“Ten to fifteen little girls showed
up every Saturday morning,” Hadley
says. “I left each week thinking, ‘This is
what I was made to do!’ There’s a heart
connection I have to bringing young
girls along on that journey that
I experienced.”
More than technical skills, Hadley
hopes to inspire her students to
have a God-centered love for dance.
“The minute you start dancing
out a message from a song, you’re
proclaiming it,” she says. “I want them
to put themselves in the throne room
of God and make them aware of the
story they have to tell.”
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Performing
Defining a Generation
Courtney Clark teaches acting, singing,
and dancing to children at Christian
Youth Theater (CYT) of Vancouver,
Washington, but she didn’t grow up
doing a lot of theater. Clark spent
much of her youth showing horses
competitively and participating in
performing arts when she could.
But in 2009, a friend from church
who worked for CYT, a theater arts
training program for students 4 to 18,
invited her to work at a summer day
camp. “I would say I got dragged into
it,” Clark says, laughing. “I didn’t know
what I was getting into.”
That week, Clark prepared six and
seven year-olds to perform in “The
Little Mermaid.” Each day she ran them
through an intense rehearsal schedule of
dancing, acting, and singing.
“Going into it, I was scared to
death,” she says. “All week I just did
the best I knew how. The night of the
performance, there was so much joy and
laughter. It was rewarding to see them
work hard and do their best.”
Clark received more performance
opportunities when she attended
Multnomah from 2008-2011 and
majored in music. Taking voice lessons
and other music classes also shaped
Clark’s philosophy on performing arts.
“The arts define a generation,” she
continues. “Art takes what’s going on
in the world and helps us understand
it and grasp it. Christians need to be
involved.”
Clark has found the act of
embodying a character or message
on stage can be powerful. “We live in
a very mental culture, but we don’t
really ‘get’ something until we’ve lived
it out—until it’s in our hands and feet.
The arts show us how we can live out
the gospel.”
In the last few years, Clark has
taken on a larger role with CYT,
teaching dance and voice classes, as well
as providing vocal direction for camp
shows. She loves to see how theater
impacts young people.
“There’s something in them that
comes alive,” she says. “God’s made us
“We live in a very mental
culture. But we don’t really
‘get’ something until we’ve
lived it out—until it’s in our
hands and feet. The arts
show us how we can live
out the gospel.”
– Courtney Clark
to receive from Him and then give to
others. They’re feeling how God has
made them to be.”
“Those who are performing get
to work in unity, to tell a story in a
powerful way. Striving for that unity
requires so much sacrifice. So many
gospel values are required to be a good
performer. I like to pass those values
onto my students.”
Clark may have been dragged into
teaching theater arts, but she has no
plans to leave. “I love what I’m doing for
so many reasons.” M
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Writing
Kim F e lton
Writing
36
The Writing Life
t’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door,”
[Bilbo Baggins] used to say. “You step into the road, and if
you don’t keep your feet, there is no knowing where you
might be swept off to.”
Penned by the master wordsmith J.R.R. Tolkien in Lord of
the Rings, Tolkien could have spoken of the writing life itself: It’s
a dangerous business, writing, putting fingers to keyboard. You
start down that road, and if you don’t keep your head, there is no
knowing where you might be swept off to.
A pastor ends up writing a book that has the word “Shifty”
in the title. A man begins his writing career with a book about
the sexual revolution. A woman discovers blogging about pain
reaches through space to help bind broken hearts – but only
when she’s willing to bare her own.
Randy Alcorn, Marcus Brotherton, and Kimberly Claassen
Felton write here about crawling inside the doubts of doubters,
probing deepest longings, and removing debris in search of
truth. In short, they write about the writing life.
I n t r o b y Ki m Felto n
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Writing
R andy A l c or n
My Journey as a Christian Writer
In 1970, when I was sixteen and a
new Christian, friends invited me
to an evening class on the Gospel of
John taught by John G. Mitchell, one
of Multnomah’s founders. I became
hooked on Bible study and knew my
future was at Multnomah.
I completed my bachelor’s work in
1975, married my favorite Multnomah
student, Nanci, and soon entered the
school’s new master’s program. One
of my favorite theology professors,
Dr. Joseph Wong, scratched on a term
paper: “You should consider being a
writer.” I took it to heart (and have
often thought about the power of brief,
encouraging words).
In 1985, I wrote my first book,
Christians in the Wake of the Sexual
Revolution, published by Multnomah
Press, which was owned by the college.
Since then I’ve written forty more
books. I enjoy writing both fiction and
nonfiction. After I’ve finished a novel,
I’m always ready for nonfiction. And
after two or three nonfiction books, I’m
eager to tackle another novel.
Not many writers move back and
forth between fiction and nonfiction.
I’ve been told it’s not smart branding-supposedly it muddles people’s
perception of a writer. Honestly, that
doesn’t concern me. I ask God to direct
me toward each project. He has, and
I’m grateful to be able to write—
everything from detective and otherworldly fantasy novels to children’s
books to theological works on subjects,
such as money, heaven, purity, grace,
truth, and suffering.
b y r a ndy a lc o r n
I just finished a graphic novel
(comic book style) with a fantastic artist
and am currently working on a book
about happiness. I love stretching myself
as a writer. My favorite parts of writing
are reading and researching extensively,
indulging my thirst for learning, and
interviewing interesting people.
Every writer needs a mission. Mine
is to probe our deepest longings for
something more, then open a door into
the invisible realm so readers can see
ultimate realities. One glimpse of the
other world weans us from the illusion
that reality is limited to our five senses.
My life verse is, “We fix our eyes not
on what is seen, but on what is unseen,
since what is seen is temporary, but what
is unseen is eternal” (2 Cor. 4:18). Once
we see differently, we live differently.
I thank God for the privilege of
being his errand boy, delivering the
message that it’s not about me, but that
it’s about Him. I don’t always succeed,
but living that way is pure pleasure.
I often hear, “I want to write a
book.” I’m convinced most people
don’t really want to write a book; they
want to have written one. Some people
view writing as easy—not a real job.
A physician said, “When I retire, I’m
going to become a writer,” but if he’s not
writing now, waiting until retirement
may be too late. What if I said, “When I
retire from writing, I’m going to become
a physician”? Whatever the profession, it
takes decades of practice to become the
best you can be.
Writers are stewards of words,
accountable to God for how they are
arranged. What’s easy to read is hard to
write. People sometimes say that God
gave them the words to write, yet the
words may be poorly chosen. I don’t
think God wants credit for them. It’s
“Honest critics and careful
editors are essential. But
above all, I need Christ, who
said, ‘Apart from me you can
do nothing’ (John 15:5).”
– Randy Alcorn
great if God leads you to write, but get
the help you need to write your best for
His glory! I constantly seek criticism,
running everything by my co-workers
at Eternal Perspective Ministries. (I
prefer to get it right before the book is
published!) Honest critics and careful
editors are essential, but above all, I need
Christ, who said, “Apart from me you
can do nothing” (John 15:5).
I won’t deny that it’s fun to make the
continued on page 47
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40
Writing
M ar c us B r ot h e rton
Why I Write
Recently, I met with some high-powered
b y m a r c u s b r ot h erto n
church consultants who were looking
for editorial help in writing a book. I’d
brought along several of my previous
reading experience might help lead
book projects as samples of the different them to Jesus.
types of writing I do.
I attended Multnomah from
One book was Shifty’s War, the
1986 to 1990, took the journalism
biography I wrote about Sgt. Darrell
concentration, and absolutely loved it.
“Shifty” Powers, the elite sharpshooter
Then I graduated from Talbot Seminary,
featured in Band of Brothers. The book is
majoring in theology and writing. My
initial goal was to be a writing pastor,
a widely-acclaimed hardback published
sort of like Max Lucado or Andy Stanley.
by Penguin, one of the six top-ranking
I worked in pastoral ministry for
New York publishing houses.
Unimpressed, one of the consultants eight years and was ordained in the
Baptist General Conference. I worked
glanced at Shifty’s War, a sneer on his
mostly in traditional churches and
face, and said, “What possible benefit to
encountered almost solely Christians.
God’s kingdom could ever come from
writing a book like that?”
The other writing samples I’d
“People need God. They may
brought were undoubtedly more what
never darken a church door,
the church consultant was used to—
but they might read a book
overtly prescriptive ministry-oriented
books I’ve worked on by collaborating
like Shifty’s War—and the
editorially with the authors. They’re
reading experience might
books by pastors telling people how to
help lead them to Jesus.”
live more Christ-like lives, and books by
church consultants telling pastors how
– Marcus Brotherton
to build better churches.
Along the way, I began to develop
So, why did I, as a Christian, ever
a huge burden for the lost. I hungered
write Shifty’s War?
to encounter people outside the church
The simple answer, to quote
walls, to enter their spheres of influence,
Archbishop Michael Ramsey, is that
and to communicate the ministry of
I want to commend the faith by
Jesus Christ within those subcultures.
putting myself “inside the doubts of
I wanted to be, in the words of the late
the doubters, the questions of the
Bob Briner, a roaring lamb.
questioners, and the loneliness of those
The year 2000 was my last year in
who have lost their way.”
formal pastoral ministry. I sensed that
People need God. They may never
the Lord was leading me to write—and
darken a church door, but they might
write mostly for the world. God didn’t
read a book like Shifty’s War—and the
want me to
stop being a
minister, but
he wanted
me to stop
being a
minister inside the walls of the church.
I switched careers entirely and
took a job as a newspaper reporter.
The newspaper was small and the
work humbling, yet it proved to be
an incredible learning experience. For
five years, I wrote a thousand words
a day under deadline about any topic
imaginable. It also proved to be a good
ministry environment. People say never
talk about religion or politics, but in the
newsroom, it seemed like that was all
we talked about.
I was married by then, and my
wife and I had a mortgage and a child.
So, mostly to pay bills, I began to
moonlight as a book editor. At first, I’d
work on anything a publisher sent me—
mostly line edits and collaborations,
anything to keep a dollar coming in.
Word spread and more projects came.
The book work gradually overtook
my newspaper work. In 2005, I made
another career jump, this time to fulltime freelance author and collaborative
writer in the book industry.
In 2006, my agent phoned about a
potential project. Lt. Buck Compton, one
of the original Band of Brothers, wanted
to write his memoir. He was looking for
a writing collaborator. Was I interested?
I jumped at the chance, then in a
quieter moment wondered what I had
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Writing
Kim F e lton
A Risky Business, this Writing Life
“Want to do this story?” journalism
professor Ann Staatz asked me. “No one
else will take it.”
My 38-year-old self would say, “No
one else will do it? Maybe there’s some
wisdom in that.”
My 18-year-old, fresh from the
country and dropped into the city,
missionary kid self said, “Really?
Pick me!” Days later, I was calling
a “practicing magician” within the
goddess movement—a believer working
her way toward priesthood. Spooky.
Finishing our conversation, I dropped
the phone and jumped up to walk off
the shivers.
But I told her story. In the same
article, I told the story of a social worker
who interviewed women in jail, finding
that all—all—of them were abused by
men. God couldn’t be male, she said, not
when men had done so much harm.
The story hit the front page…of
Multnomah’s student paper, The Voice,
that is. While the campus congratulated
me for so clearly showing the error of
a false religion, the practicing magician
applauded me for being one of the
few evangelicals in her experience to
aptly, and without rancor, represent her
beliefs. By her reckoning, “Truth had
come to Multnomah.”
This launch into writing—into
story telling—taught me two things:
showing respect for those I write about
resonates with the Spirit within me, and
listening to others’ stories creates room
for compassion even when I disagree
with their conclusions. Nearly twenty
years after writing that article, I still
b y Ki m Felto n
think of the social worker trying to
make sense of pain and find truth in a
world skewed by evil.
Perhaps that’s what we’re all doing
as we tell our stories: making sense
of pain and sorting through debris in
search of truth.
Some people write to amuse, others
to convince. I’m seldom funny, and rarely
compelling. Yet God has given me the
understand, small parts of that story
become part of mine.
When I interviewed Phil Joel, then
bassist for the Newsboys, he spoke
of grappling to understand himself,
a misfit within his adopted family. I
interviewed a number of musicians
while working for the Luis Palau
Association, but this interview stuck
better than most. Fifteen years later, I
held my adopted daughter in my arms
and remembered how important it is
that she knows her roots.
“We write, I’ve found, to know ourselves. To clarify, to
explain, to synthesize, and to mine from ourselves and
others the diamonds as well as the coal hidden in the
depths of emotion and experience.”
gift of stepping into others’ stories and
inviting others to step into mine. The
former is a privilege; the latter a risk.
Every time people choose to
answer my questions and submit to
my rendition of their lives (for all to
read), they trust me. They trust my skill,
my intuition, my honesty. Every time
I listen to someone’s story, delving to
– Kim Felton
Prior to the adoption, I walked
a difficult path. In the midst of the
journey, I interviewed Mark Doyle, a
biology professor who had thirty-seven
surgeries, died twice—and lives to tell
about it. But he lives, quite literally, in
excruciating pain.
“How do you have faith?” I had
to ask him; not just for the readers,
but for me.
“We have to embrace mystery,”
Doyle told me, shaking his head. “I
don’t understand it. God is a heck of a
lot greater than I am. My suffering is
something He cares about, but what is
more important to Him is that I love
Him, and I do.”
As I shape these stories, God
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43
feature
Beautiful Response
Li z C l ar k
Beautiful Response
eautiful Response is a
community-building week of
vulnerability, discovery, and
insight in which Multnomah students
share their creative expressions
throughout four chapel sessions.
Presenting a variety of art forms, many
of the artists explain the stories behind
their art. Here is a sampling of two
such artists.
you are trudging up a hill,” she said.
“But when you finally do get to the
top, you can look back and see where
God has brought you. You can see His
faithfulness.”
Several paintings hang in Jennica’s
dorm room. Each one portraying a lesson
God has taught her. Each one proving His
faithfulness, yet again. Each one serving
as an opportunity to communicate with
others what God has done.
LEAD ME TO THE CROSS
Senior Jennica Mosser, Educational
Ministries major, began painting a year
ago after completing an art assignment
in Professor Stan Campbell’s Fine Arts
class. Since then, she has used painting
as a means of expressing what God has
taught her.
As Jennica entered the 2011 fall
semester, she was in the midst of healing
from a broken relationship, mourning
two deaths in her family, and adjusting
to the responsibilities of her role as
Alternate Resident Assistant in the
dorms. The song “Lead Me to the Cross”
by Brooke Fraser brought Jennica words
of peace. “Going to the cross is all I
have,” she said.
On a particularly difficult day,
Jennica and her roommate retreated
to their room to rejuvenate. Listening
to worship music, they prayed, poured
out their hearts, and painted. The
painting Jennica presented at Beautiful
Response was born that day as she once
again found herself returning to the
cross. “In the midst of trials, it feels like
44
The black tree trunks
picture Christians’
transition from death
into life, while the fall
leaves stand for the
change Christ makes
in their hearts.
ROOTED AND GROUNDED IN LOVE
Sabrina Johnson, 2012 alumna and
Pastoral Ministries major, has loved oil
painting since she was in second grade.
She said her paintings are more than art:
“The paintings represent what I have
discovered.”
Based on Ephesians 3:14-21, Sabrina
intended the painting she presented at
Beautiful Response to portray the depth
of God’s incomprehensible love. The red
background symbolizes Christ’s blood
and the white strokes represent His
blood cleansing those who hope in Him.
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The black tree trunks picture Christians’
transition from death into life, while the
fall leaves stand for the change Christ
makes in their hearts. God’s love is what
ties this all together. Like the wind that
moves the leaves, we don’t always see it,
but we can feel it.
“I wanted to remind people who
look at my painting that Christ is
dwelling in our hearts as believers,”
she said. “Because we are rooted and
grounded in love, we now have the
opportunity to know Christ’s love.”
Sabrina said we can’t fully grasp
Christ’s love in our minds, but we can
through our experiences. “That’s how
art is too,” she continued. Art is a way to
convey meaning without words. “What
is silent speaks clearly.”
For Sabrina, painting is a process
that connects her with God. She doesn’t
just sit down and complete a painting.
She starts it, analyzes it, changes it,
and sometimes starts over. For her,
painting is often a humbling process of
conviction and correction from God.
Multnomah values and provides
opportunities for student’s artistic
expressions. While students can present
their art at Beautiful Response just
once a year, they can also submit art to
Muse, Multnomah’s student publication,
throughout the year. It is significant to
see people’s hearts through their art. It
is not only about the process of creating,
but also about getting to know people
through their creations. Behind each
piece is a person and a story. M
Update:
“Aslan’s Country” by Anthony Beatty-Tinsay
“Rooted and Grounded in Love” by Sabrina Elzinga
“Not My Home” by Josh Murrell
by Janelle Gregory
Untitled by Beau Stumberg
by John Lucas
by John Lucas
“Isaiah 12” by Malia Pearson
“Lead Me to the Cross” by Jennica Mosser
regular
Advancement
F or r e s t Bj e l k e vig
Charitable Gift Annuities
f you’d like to support our mission and receive steady
payments during your retirement years, a charitable gift
annuity may be right for you.
Your Rate
Generally, the older you are at the start of your payments, the
higher your payments.
How It Works
Through a simple contract, you agree to make a donation
of cash, stocks, or other assets to Multnomah. In return, you
receive (and someone else, if you choose) a fixed amount each
year for the rest of your life.
1 – Create a Gift Annuity
3 – Remainder to
Multnomah after
your lifetime.
1
3
Charitable
Gift
Annuity
2
In addition to providing a gift to Multnomah and receiving
fixed payments for life, you also receive these benefits:
• Your initial gift is partially income tax–deductible.
• Your charitable gift annuity payments are partially income
tax–free throughout your estimated life expectancy.
• Your payments are not affected by ups and downs in
the economy.
• The gift annuity can be for one or two people, so your
spouse or another loved one can also receive payments
for life.
• If you use appreciated stock to make a gift, you can usually
eliminate capital gains tax on a portion of the gift and
spread the rest of the gain over your life expectancy.
Your Age Rate of Return
Your Ages Rate of Return
50
3.7%
50/55 3.3%
55 4.0%
55/60 3.7%
60 4.4%
60/65 4.0%
65 4.7%
65/70 4.4%
70 5.1%
70/75 4.8%
75 5.8%
75/80 5.3%
80 6.8%
80/85 6.1%
85 7.8%
85/90 7.3%
90+ 9.0%
90/95+ 8.8
These rates are the maximum rates recommended by the American
Council on Gift Annuities and are adjusted periodically.
2 – Receive an income
tax deduction and fixed
payment for life.
46
One LifeTwo Lives
2 0 1 2
Not all organizations offer charitable gift annuities at the
above ages and rates. Contact Multnomah for a personalized
illustration or for more information.
Example
Jill, 70, established a $20,000 charitable gift annuity. Based on her
age, she was able to receive an annuity rate of 5.1 percent. This
means that we will pay her $1,020 each year for the remainder of
her life, of which $824 is tax-free. She’ll also receive a charitable
deduction of $7,231 if she itemizes on her income taxes (assumes
annual payments and a 1.4 percent charitable midterm federal
rate). After her lifetime, the remaining amount is used to support
the charity’s mission. M
To learn more about supporting Multnomah through a Gift
Annuity, please contact Forrest A. Bjelkevig at 503-251-5363 or
[email protected].
Randy Alcorn - Continued from page 39
New York Times bestsellers list, but my
greatest desire is to please the audience
of one. I want to hear God say, “Well
done, my good and faithful servant.”
There’s no bigger payoff than that! Since
his judgment seat is the only one I’ll
stand before, his opinion is the one that
matters: “Whatever you do, work at it
with all your heart, as working for the
Lord, not for men.... It is the Lord Christ
you are serving” (Col. 3:23-24).
I seek to write with all my heart, as a
service to the Lord. One hundred percent
of my book royalties go to help the needy,
support just causes, and reach people
with the gospel. By God’s grace, we have
more than seven million books in print.
It is fun to know the Lord is using both
the books and the royalties to touch lives.
Whether we build, draw, fix things,
or make a home for our families, God
wants us to yield our gifts to him,
depending on the Savior for the next
step, the next breath. I pray that I’ll be
God’s instrument to passionately and
accurately convey the truths of his Word.
What do I look forward to? Serving
my King as a resurrected person on a
resurrected Earth, where joy will be
the air we breathe. I anticipate meeting
those who touched my life and saying,
“Thanks for being faithful.” Then, like
all God’s children, I’ll get to hear from
those whose lives the Lord allowed me
to touch. What a privilege. What could
be better than to be loved by Jesus, to
love him and his people, to anticipate
the new earth that awaits us, and to serve
him both now and for eternity? M
faith—or lack of faith.
For instance, Buck Compton
became a definite Christian later in life,
which we talk about in his book. After
Shifty Powers came home from the war,
he was baptized as a Christian, partially
to help with the effects of the horror he
had encountered during WWII.
Here’s how these books affected
one person. A man was dying of cancer,
his time clearly short. Yet he was
hardened to the gospel and resisted any
overt discussions about faith.
A friend discovered the man
enjoyed military fiction and loaned
him a copy of Call of Duty. The cancerridden man ate it up, and then read
all my other military books before the
cancer finally consumed him.
We don’t know if the man ever
accepted Christ, but we have hope
because we do know that near the end
he exhibited a definite change of heart
toward God.
Previously, the man couldn’t speak
the name of Jesus except in a string of
expletives. Right before he died, he was
speaking the name of Jesus reverently,
with great care and even awe.
I definitely attribute that to the
power of the Holy Spirit. I’d like to
think that the books had a hand in it.
Famed theologian John Stott
wrote, “The entering of other people’s
worlds is exactly what we mean by
incarnational mission, and all authentic
mission is incarnational. We are to be
like Christ in his mission.”
That’s why I write. It’s perhaps not
the most customary career path for a
Multnomah graduate, but I believe it’s
my calling: to enter the world and be
salt and light. M
Multnomah alumnus, Randy Alcorn,
is the founder and director of Eternal
Perspective Ministries. You can read his
blog at www.epm.org
Marcus Brotherton - Continued from page 41
done. I’d pulled off several full-length
collaborative biographies, but I didn’t
know anything about the American
military. I’d grown up in Canada.
Lieutenant Compton and I dived
into the project, eventually titled Call
of Duty. The book became a national
bestseller, and it led to another project,
an oral history book with twenty of the
surviving Band of Brothers, called We
Who Are Alive & Remain. It hit number
twenty-eight on the New York Times
bestseller list and led to another book,
A Company of Heroes—profiles of the
deceased men of Easy Company. And
that project led to Shifty’s War.
All the military nonfiction
books I’ve written or coauthored are
thoroughly secular. Yet all have what
I call “breadcrumb trails back to
Jesus.” These aren’t books that provide
readers with “ten steps to a closer walk
with God.” But they show real life
stories of men grappling with their
Multnomah alumnus Marcus Brotherton
(BS ’90) has authored or coauthored more
than twenty-five books. Read his blog at
www.marcusbrotherton.com.
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47
47
special
Class Reunion
G ai l L undq uis t
A Reunion to Remember
he Multnomah class of 1962 loves to reunite. After
50 years, we simply push the Class Reunion button
every five years and begin gearing up for the next gathering.
2012 proved to be no
exception. Since this year
we would be celebrating 50
years, we began planning
a full year in advance for
a major celebration. The
University was planning
to honor our class at
commencement in May with
graduates of 2012 being led
in by our class dressed in
cap and gown. We wanted to
be sure to include all 1962
alumni in the reunion as
well. Therefore, we began
planning an additional
program of our own; a
reunion to remember!
Fortunately, a group of
roughly a dozen classmates
in the greater Portland
area gather once a month
for lunch. This provided
a ready-made reunion
committee. The group
discussed the upcoming
reunion over lunch each
month and began to
divvy up the planning
responsibilities. We decided
to have a reunion brunch
on campus on Saturday,
the day after graduation.
48
Members of the lunch group
volunteered to help with
registration, a memory
book, the program, and
decorations. The reunion
began to take life.
We first considered
keeping the reunion simple,
allowing plenty of time for
simply mixing and mingling.
Yet, as more and more
responses began to come
in, we realized we needed
to make this reunion truly
worthwhile for classmates
coming from all over the
country. And come they
did – from North Carolina,
Pennsylvania, Texas, Iowa,
Colorado, and Canada, as
well as closer to home. We
were amazed as our list of
attendees grew to include
nearly half of the class.
We started out by
sending an invitation to
everyone (as many as we
could) who had ever been
a part of our class. We also
invited a few guests who
had been faculty or staff
members while we were
students. We encouraged
fellow graduates to not
only participate in the
commencement activities,
but also urged them to
attend our class reunion
the following morning.
Fortunately, most
members of our class are
technologically semi-literate,
allowing much of our
communication to be done
by email. Otherwise, we
chose to keep this a low-tech
affair. Highlights of the
reunion were singing our
favorite songs from student
days and a time of sharing
what Multnomah has
meant to us over the years.
Our memory book, which
classmates were able to
order, was filled with stories
We were amazed as our list of attendees
grew to include nearly half of the class.
Left: Wayne
Peevyhouse with
President, Dr.
Dan Lockwood
Center: Hubert
McDaniel
Right: Alumni
Terry Jones and
Carolyn (Hallock)
Lattin
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of what classmates have been
doing since their Multnomah
days, pictures of us “thenand-now,” and anecdotes of
our student days. This book
will help keep the memories
alive for those who attended
the reunion, as well as those
who were unable to.
As might be expected,
the road to the reunion
was not perfectly smooth.
Plans were on track until the
final week when, suddenly,
we encountered uncertain
flight schedules, illness,
and family emergencies
affecting key people. These
“surprises” seemed to
make major changes in the
program inevitable. We
were confident, however,
that because we had
diligently prayed, planned,
and prepared for this big
event, we could trust the
outcome to our all-knowing
God, even if things did not
proceed exactly as planned.
As it turned out, we did not
have to implement a Plan B
at any point!
Classmates who came
from far and wide were
deeply grateful for this
opportunity to be with
friends they had not
seen in 50 years.
Classmates who came
from far and wide were
deeply grateful for this
opportunity to be with
friends they had not seen
in 50 years. The planning
committee was able to
doubly enjoy the reunion-first in planning the
reunion, then in delighting
in the reunion itself. We look
forward to 2017 when it will
be time, once again, to push
the Class Reunion button! M
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49
special
Faculty Q&A
C om pi l e d b y K r is t in K e nd a ll
Three Questions
A Faculty Q&A with Dr. Domani Pothen
Why do you do
what you do?
Edward Tingley, in his 2006
Commencement Address to
the new students at Augustine
College, says this about education: “We usually think about
education as something of use
to us, and there is a certain
sense to that. But […] that
is, typically, the backwards
vision of the fevered mind.
Really, in reality, the purpose
of education is to make us
useful to God.” Laboring
to render hearts sensitive to
serving God— possible only
with God, for who knows of
God’s plan and pleasure apart
from God? —is immensely
satisfying and utterly impossible apart from the grace of
God. Why do I teach? I do it
to learn about the reality and
reliability of God’s redemptive
work. Why English Studies?
To learn about the complexity,
the articulated intuition,
and the responsive cry of the
human condition.
1
How did God
prepare you for
where He has you now?
Well, thank the LORD for
His provocation, preservation, and satisfaction of
2
50
“We usually think about education
as something of use to us, and
there is a certain sense to that.”
“But...in reality, the purpose is to
make us useful to God.”
a sense of wonder—that
“realization,” according to
Abraham Heschel, “that
the world is too incredible,
too meaningful for us”! I
do recall, with gratitude,
my parents’ patience with
my interminable questions:
“Why are tires black?” “And
round?” “Why do rainbows
have seven colors?” “Only
seven colors?” “What is an
abomination?” I may not
have grasped everything then
2 0 1 2
about carbon black, refraction, reflection, or dispersion
—I did learn to spell “abomination”—but my parents’
interest in my inquiries was
formative. They indicated
the intrinsic value of both
the universe and a caring
response to it. They validated
wonder. My formal education
was the channeling of that
wonder into an awareness of
the utter privilege of being in
a too meaningful universe.
The deepening of
wonder into gratitude is a
natural process in God’s
Grace. In a human heart
insensible to that grace, the
process is thwarted. Wonder
can become curiosity—the
latter anchored in selfinterest; learning can become
an expression of self-will. My
parish priest used to recite
Gerald Manley Hopkins’ lines
about the self estranged from
God to me— “I am gall. I
am heartburn. God’s most
deep decree/ Bitter would
have me taste. My taste was
me.” The revelation of the
horrors of a depraved heart
–Hopkins’ “scourge to be
[one’s] sweating self ”—and
the miracle of God’s transformative care, not always easy
but ultimately right, these are
part of His investment in me.
What has God
taught you during
your time in this position?
I am answerable for the
investment. Teaching is
indeed a vocation entrusted
to one. It is, as George Steiner
aptly puts it, both privilege
and mystery—this building
of “one’s inward present [into
another’s] future.” M
3
special
Multnomah Memory
Dr . Dani e l scal ber g
Multnomah Memory
Band of Brothers and Sisters
he 1946 Ambassador
Yearbook was dedicated
to the Multnomah
students who left the college
to serve in World War II. The
dedication read in part, “To the
sixty-eight men and three women
who, in the providence of God, left
the halls of Multnomah to join in
the ranks of those serving our
nation during the conflict of World
War II, we wish here to pay
tribute.”
In order to ease the academic
burden on these students during
the war years, Multnomah
temporarily shifted from a semester
to a quarter term system. The
shorter term allowed more students
to complete additional academic
requirements prior to their
enlistment or induction into the
armed forces. If you have additional
written information or photographs
on Multnomah’s “war generation”
that you would like to loan or gift to
the university, please contact Daniel
A. Scalberg, Ph.D., Multnomah
University, History Department,
8435 N.E. Glisan St., Portland, OR
97220 or email at dscalberg@
multnomah.edu.
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51
current
Alumni
News
C ol l e g e
Multnomah Bible College
1954 Harvey and Nina (Woodward)
1965 Dave and Neta (Thiessen)
1967 Kathy (McAnlis) and Ken
Taylor ministered in Vietnam and Japan
Jackson are currently writing “Windy
Hoffman spent eight years in Bolivia
before spending thirty years serving in
City Stories”—a series of novels about
with South America Mission before
Beijing, Tianjin, Lhasa, and Kunming,
the many ways God is at work in the lives
joining Christar. They ministered
China. While in China, they taught at
of the diverse people who make up the
for twenty-two years at the SAM
a university, did cross-cultural training,
city of Chicago. Their multi-book fiction
headquarters, first in New Jersey and
broadcast on China Central TV, ran a bed
series, titled “The Neighborhood,” is set
then in Pennsylvania. Currently, they
and breakfast, and did other forms of
to launch next May. The Jacksons are best
comprise Christar’s Timothy Team, serving
outreach. They are now pursuing outreach
known for the Yada Yada Prayer Group
as “mobile missionaries” who travel
with internationals in the Seattle area.
series, which has sold more than 800,000
at the request of mission personnel to
copies, and the Trailblazer series with sales
provide encouragement and additional
1962 Linda Jansen Is an active
of more than 1.7 million copies. Together
resources where needed (I Thess. 3:2). In
member of Willow Glen Baptist Church
the Jacksons have garnered numerous
the near future, they will lead a team that
in San Jose, California. She met her
awards for their books. Check out their
is being mobilized to reach the Kurds of
husband in San Jose, and they have
Web site at www.daveneta.com for more
Northern Iraq.
two married daughters and four
information. Photo
1
1971 Dave Johnson and his wife,
grandchildren. Linda has worked as a
Sunday morning music director, choir
1965 Ruth Knutson taught school
Lynne, who have five grandchildren,
member, publication editor, and various
in Colorado Springs, Colorado, after
recently celebrated ten years of ministry
other administrative roles for the last five
graduating from Multnomah. For the
in Baja California, Mexico. God has
years at Willow Glen. She has worked in
last thirty-two years, she has served with
blessed them with opportunities to
full-time administration for the last 14
The Navigators. Six of those years were
share community health in schools
years at SRI International. She also plays
spent in Kenya, East Africa. Currently, she
and churches and has given them a
bass with several community groups
shepherds and trains the younger staff
wonderful team of local teens who
including musical theater, symphony, and
at Navigators’ headquarters in Colorado
assist them in reaching their area for
a little bluegrass now and then.
Springs. Photo
Jesus. Photo
1
52
2
2 0 1 2
2
3
4
3
6
5
7
8
1972 Ellen Jackson received her
1982 Brent Ralston has been serving
have three children: Roi Yoel (9); Matan
forty-year certificate from Wycliffe
with World Venture as a missionary in
Ben (6); and Dvir Asaf (3). Through their
Bible Translators in 2011. She currently
the Philippines since 1989. He is involved
main ministry of literature distribution
serves as SIL International Language and
in coaching/mentoring church planters,
in Eastern Galilee, they work with many
Culture Learning Coordinator based in
developing leaders, overseeing American
groups from all over the world. Last year
Dallas, Texas. Photo
short-term teams, and developing
alone, more than thirty teams, including
microfinance initiatives.
one from Iran, shared in this ministy. For
4
1979 Ken Reddington, who grew up
more information on their work and
in a missionary family, returned to Japan
1986 Marlene Etter has been serving
for opportunities to participate in the
as a missionary more than thirty years
with WEC International in Chad, Africa,
sowing, e-mail [email protected].
ago. He and his wife, Toshiko, are church
since 1998. She is endeavoring to
Photo
planting in Kochi. They have five children,
plant churches among Muslims and is
two of which are in the U.S. for their
encouraged to see how God is at work in
education. Ken is on the servant-leader
people’s lives there. Photo
6
7
College Weddings
2010, 2011 Ashley Holloway and
teams of Prayer Summits for Western
Japan and Shikoku. He is also on the
1990 William Rogers and his wife,
Kyle Dalen met at Multnomah and
executive committee for “Praise Worship
Vered, currently live in Israel and have
became best friends. After dating for
Day in Kochi” and serves as secretary for
served for nine years with OM Israel.
three years, they were married May 6,
the Kochi Citywide Interdenominational
Bill, who graduated from Multnomah in
2012. Kyle is a full-time musician and
Pastors Group.
1990, moved to Israel where he lived as
Ashley is a youth pastor at Salem Alliance
a tentmaker. He then met and married
Church. They are living in Salem, Oregon,
Vered, a native Israeli, in 2001. They
and loving life! Photo
1981, Darrell Racey and his wife,
8
Ruth, finished twenty-five years of service
in the Middle East with Christar this year.
Racey, who graduated from Multnomah in
1981, and Ruth work with Iraqi refugees
from Yazidi, Sabean, Shiite, and Sunni
backgrounds. They are currently working
with 10,000 Arab immigrants in Lincoln,
Nebraska, and want to plant an Arabicspeaking church there before returning
to the Middle East. Photo
online resources
multnomah.edu/blogfacebook.com/multnomah
twitter.com/multnomahu pinterest.com/multnomahu
ww.multnomah.edu/social
5
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53
current
Alumni
News
C ol l e g e
2012 Matthew Janz and Becky
2009 Keith and Vanessa
1946 Doris Merle (Wiley) Cox
Mortenson were married January 7,
(McDonald) Eisenzimmer welcomed
passed away early in the morning
2012. After meeting each other during
their first child, baby girl Ainsley Claire,
September 6, 2011, in Lacey, Washington.
orientation weekend at Multnomah
into the world December 5, 2011. The
Doris was born on February 16, 1925, in
three years earlier, neither one would
Eisenzimmer family currently lives in
Vancouver, Washington. She became a
have predicted that God would have
Gresham, Oregon, where they are helping
follower of Christ at an early age. It was
brought them together through their
plant a church. Photo
at Multnomah that she met George Cox,
3
time at college. Their desire is to enter
whom she married in 1948 after a long
into full-time ministry when Matthew is
2011 Brent and Crystal Looyenga
war-time courtship. Doris served faithfully
finished with his schooling. Photo
welcomed their first baby, Isaiah James,
by his side in ministry. While George
1
on May 24, 2012. Brent currently attends
pastored, Doris cared for her large family
2012 Nathan Rinne and Kaitlin
Multnomah Biblical Seminary. He hopes to
and taught Good News clubs and Sunday
Handley were married May 19,
graduate in May of 2013 with a master in
school classes. She was a capable writer,
2012. They met in 2007 during freshman
Pastoral Studies and then work as a youth
producing Sunday school curriculum and
orientation at Multnomah and became
pastor and basketball coach. Photo
stories for take-home papers. Doris had
4
fast friends. They have been together
a gift for hospitality, always welcoming
ever since. Kaitlin graduated the day
of coffee, a snack, or a meal. She was
TESOL, and Nathan is currently working
1939 Robert E. Smith passed away
a woman who feared the Lord. Her
toward completing his Mission Aviation
October 18, 2011. Robert, who was
husband, George, and their children
major. Photo
raised in Portland, Oregon, moved to
Catherine, Neal, Susan, Keith, Dean,
Washington, DC. In 1941, Robert got
and Bruce rise up and call her blessed.
married, and he and his wife, Marion,
Photo
2
College Births
5
were together sixty-four years. Robert
2007 Jonas and Melanie (Guerin)
worked in several departments of
1948 Carol Cross went to be with the
Knudsen welcomed their second
government and retired in 1975 with
Lord May 10, 2012, after several years
daughter, Nora Eden, born April 19, 2012.
thirty-five years of service. He then
of battling Alzheimer’s. Carol was born
She is joined by her older sister, Olivia (3).
joined Wycliffe Bible Translators where
December 25, 1917, and married Ira
Jonas and Melanie are missionaries on
he helped prepare Semantic Structure
Cross in 1940. She and her husband of
staff with Youth Dynamics, working with
Analysis of the books of the Bible. Bob
seventy-two years served on the mission
teenagers in Burlington, Washington. retired from Wycliffe in 2009 after thirty-
field in Africa (Belgian Congo, Dahomey,
three years of service.
and Ivory Coast) from 1948 to 1979. They
1
54
friends, family, and visitors with a cup
•College Deaths
before the wedding with a degree in
2
2 0 1 2
3
4
6
5
retired in Sonora, California. She is survived
7
8
Christ. Soon after, he met and married
and seventeen great-grandchildren.
by her husband, Ira, and two daughters,
Audrey Schireman. He moved his family
Margie Wall (1965), and Jeannie Bowen
1950 Herbert Ironside Elliot went
to Portland, Oregon, where he trained
and their spouses. Photo
to be with the Lord February 17, 2011,
for the pastorate at Multnomah. Ron
6
at the age of eighty-seven at his home
served as a pastor for eight years and as
1947 Dora Lucille Euhus of
in Trujillo, Peru. Bert was born November
an evangelist for four years. He directed
Springfield, Oregon, went home to be
3, 1924, in Portland, Oregon. He was a
and worked in multiple stewardship
with the Lord June 24, 2012. Born in
student at Multnomah when a visiting
departments until retiring in Portland.
Meeker, Oklahoma, February 7, 1917,
missionary from Peru challenged him
Ron and Audrey have six children: Keith
Dora was 95 years old. She trusted Christ
to “get married and go on a mission.”
(who preceded him in death), David,
as her savior as a child, and later moved
Herbert married Colleen (Collison) Elliot
Lois, Miriam, Fredric, and Joyce. They
to Bend, Oregon, with her family in
(1951) in 1949, and six months later they
also have fourteen grandchildren, sixteen
1935. There she met and was married to
arrived in Peru. They were missionaries
great-grandchildren, and two great-great
Elmer Euhus, ‘48, who preceded her to
there for sixty-two years where they
grandchildren. Photo
heaven November 27, 1993. They took
focused on medical care, evangelism,
their young family and moved to Portland
and discipleship. They were instrumental
1954 JoAnn Unsicker died peacefully
to get a Bible education at Multnomah
in planting about 150 churches and
Monday, December 19, 2011, in Portland,
School of the Bible when Elmer felt called
founding a school. Bert was the older
Oregon. JoAnn was born February 20,
to the ministry. Dora was a Pastor’s wife
brother to missionary martyr Jim Elliot.
1935, in Walters, Oklahoma, and moved
and stay-at-home mom, and served small
Colleen passed away on March 30, six
with her family to Oxnard, California,
rural churches in Oregon and Washington
weeks after Bert’s passing. She took a
at an early age. She moved to Portland,
with her husband. In their retirement
bad fall while visiting Portland for Bert’s
Oregon, to attend Multnomah. She then
years, they continued to lead Home Bible
memorial service and later passed away in
went to nursing school and became
Studies and ministered in nursing homes.
the hospital. Photo
a LPN, which was her occupation for
7
8
forty years. JoAnn taught children with
They also made a number of short-term
mission trips to Alaska, Canada, and
1952 Ronald C. Arnold passed away
Child Evangelism Fellowship and worked
Mexico. Dora finished well with a sweet
September 15, 2011. Ron was born in
with Stonecroft/Village Missions in rural
testimony to her caregivers at Gateway
1916 in Roland, Iowa, and grew up in
Colorado. She made her home in Portland
Living. She is survived by her four sons
McCallsburg. Because work was scarce
where she owned a house and rented
and their wives, Donald (Kathleen),
during the Depression, Ron hitchhiked to
rooms to fifty students from Western
Lowell (Janet), Keith (Kay), and Paul
Seattle, Washington, to seek employment.
Conservative Baptist Seminary during a
(Marilee), as well as ten grandchildren
In December 1942, Ron accepted Jesus
period of twenty-eight years. She had
2 0 1 2
55
current
Alumni
News
S e m in ary
March 14, 1928, in Grand Forks, North
Dakota. She was raised in Bellingham
and graduated from high school in
1947. She taught elementary school in
Tacoma, Bellingham, Elma, and Puyallup,
Washington; Battle Creek, Michigan;
and Port Washington, New York. She
taught elementary students at a U.S.
1
2
3
Army school in Japan, and taught English
to adolescents and adults. Donna was
proud of her Icelandic and Norwegian
heritage. She was very fond of travel,
a true heart for God and loved telling
and Anne started JDW Distributors,
especially by train, and had visited all
people about Jesus. JoAnn is survived by
consistently looking to God for guidance
fifty states.
two sisters (Pauline and Patricia), as well
and direction. Through miracle after
as six nieces and nephews. Photo
miracle, God provided, and they
2009 Jennica Hummel Kruse was
1
consistently gained customers. Anne
called home to Jesus April 12, 2012, due
1961 Audie Anne (Casey) Kearley
retired with Gary from JDW in 2006 and
to an undiagnosed brain tumor. Jennica
passed away November 7, 2011. She
they moved to Big Bear Lake, California.
enjoyed working with children and
was born September 20, 1940. Anne
Anne knew Jesus Christ personally and
served as children’s pastor at Burien Free
and her husband, Gary Kearley
knew that she was going to heaven.
Methodist Church. She married current
(1961), had a great life together. They
Photo
seminary student, Andrew Kruse
2
(2011) in March 2011 and started her
met their first day at Multnomah in
1958. They married in 1961 and had
1962 Donna Josephine Reinholt
master of arts in teaching at Multnomah
three children. In 1982, Gary and Anne
passed away February 2, 2012, in
in the fall of 2011. Jennica is dearly
began to sell chocolates on the West
Bellingham, Washington, after a
missed by family, friends, and children
Coast. As product sales grew, Gary
battle with cancer. Donna was born
whose lives she touched.
Multnomah Biblical Seminary
1991 Rob Thomas and his wife,
their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary
attending Western States Chiropractic
Kathy, recently celebrated their
and are planning a cruise to Alaska to
University and will finish this winter with
twentieth anniversary of pastoring
celebrate both milestones.
his doctor of chiropractic degree. The two
Community Bible Church in Concrete,
met in 2009 while working at Bookwalter
Washington. They have three children.
Seminary Weddings
Josh (24) is serving in the United States
56
Winery in Eastern Washington. Photo
3
Marine Corps; Beka (22) is a senior at
2012 Desiree Norens and Kyle Bryant
Seattle Pacific University; Caleb (20)
were married in June of 2011. Desiree
is working in Hollywood, California.
currently works at Columbia School
2006, 2006 Matt and Sharon
Rob and Kathy also recently celebrated
of English as an ESL teacher. Kyle is
(Morrow) Mormance welcomed their
2 0 1 2
Seminary Births
We love to hear what’s going on
with our Multnomah alumni, and we
know you do too. Please send us your
4
latest news to [email protected]
5
third baby, Alex, September 16, 2012. Alex
in high school, and was married in 1941.
ministry. That call was recognized when
joins his two older sisters: Eliana (3) and
In 1944, Con enlisted in the Army Air
at the age of 19, he was ordained as a
Maia (1). Matt and Sharon serve with
Corps and trained as a bomber pilot. He
minister of the Gospel by his home church,
Josiah Venture in Slovenia working with
was a veteran of World War II and the
Temple Baptist in Tacoma. He preached
Korean Conflict. In March of 1945, Con’s
his first sermon at the age of 18 and his
B-17 was hit. He was reported missing in
final sermon in January 2012 at the age of
action. He received the Silver Star and the
91 after learning he had cancer. Between
Purple Heart for his heroism. Con served
those two sermons he pastored churches
2004 Joshua Raway Hong passed
as a youth pastor at First Presbyterian
in Beaumont, Texas, Vancouver, British
away suddenly May 28, 2012. He was
Church in Aurora, Illinois. He also
Columbia, Santa Barbara, California, and
thirty-six years old and had been doing well
ministered in Christian Radio for eighteen
Portland, Oregon. He served on the faculty
following a kidney transplant a year ago.
years. He produced Multnomah’s radio
of Multnomah (1951-1969) at Central
In spite of his serious health problems, he
broadcast, The Know Your Bible Hour with
Bible Church as Assistant Pastor to Dr.
continued to actively serve the Lord and
Dr. John Mitchell, for eighteen years. Later,
John G. Mitchell and then as Pastor, and
was always prepared to share his testimony.
he continued working with Multnomah
finally as Pastor of Trinity Bible Church.
Joshua worked with Overseas Radio and
in the Stewardship Department until he
His years at Multnomah were some of the
Television (ORTV) in Taiwan. ORTV sent him
retired in 1997. Multnomah honored him
happiest of his life, and he maintained
to Multnomah for seminary training. Upon
by naming its new radio studio after Con.
life-long relationships with his students.
university students in Ljubljana. Photo
4
Seminary Deaths
graduating, he worked as a minister at
For decades he has been a familiar voice
Taiwan Grace Church in Taipei, Taiwan, and
L. Dwight Custis died on Wednesday,
on KPDQ radio. His legacy of a deep love
at National Prayer Network. Joshua served
July 11, 2012, at the age of 92. Born in
for Jesus Christ and a passion for God’s
the Lord faithfully.
Tacoma, Washington, June 21, 1920,
Word lives on in the lives of those who
Dwight was the first of seven children.
will miss him most: Lucille, his beloved
In 1938, Dwight left Tacoma for Waco,
wife of 69 years, his brother, Bryce, his
Former Staff
Texas, where he attended Baylor University
four children and their spouses—L Dwight
Con Leonard Robinson transitioned
and met his wife Edith Lucille Mouton.
Custis Jr. and Nancy of Southlake, Texas,
from this earthly life into his forever life
They married in January 1943. Dwight
John Marc Custis and Marilyn of Gresham,
with his Lord on October 26, 2011. He
completed his B.A. in Philosophy and
Oregon, Carolyn Custis James (1971)
rejoins his beloved wife, Patricia, who
Psychology at the University of British
and Frank of Boxford, Massachusetts, and
died in 2002, and his son, Larry, who
Columbia and his M.A in Theology from
Gary William Custis and Martha of Tigard,
passed away in 2010. Con was born in
Dallas Theological Seminary. As a young
Oregon, eight grandchildren, and nine
Fillmore, California. He met his wife while
child, Dwight felt called to Christian
great-grandchildren. Photo
5
2 0 1 2
57
Kim Felton - Continued from page 43
shapes me. He reinforces my faith,
readjusts my perspective, and tucks
away knowledge for another day. While
readers digest my articles and, I pray,
are encouraged and challenged by
others’ stories, I’m well aware of the
privilege allotted me in those few hours
of entrance into someone’s heart and
life; sitting, questioning, listening…in
the end, being mentored by those who
speak with me.
But God had another story to tell,
another way to use the gifts He gave me.
At age thirty-two, in my second year of
marriage, my husband and I lost our
first child. The infertility and years of
inexplicable physical pain that followed
left behind a wake of questions that
lapped against shores with no answers.
“We read to know we are not alone,”
C. S. Lewis said. We write, I’ve found, to
know ourselves. To clarify, to explain, to
synthesize, and to mine from ourselves
and others the diamonds, as well as, the
coal hidden in the depths of emotion
and experience.
We write to understand; to be a
voice crying in the wilderness—in the
58
hope that rather than the voice echoing
into emptiness, it will instead raise a
chorus of voices in response.
The grace in a painful journey
is pressing against another’s sadness,
feeling the throb of their sorrow, and
easing their burden by lending words to
their pain. The prophet Isaiah put ink to
God’s words about such journeys:
I will give you the treasures
of darkness
And hidden riches of secret places,
That you may know that I,
the Lord,
Who call you by your name,
Am the God of Israel (Isa. 45:3).
God calls us by name. Do my
readers know that? I want them to know
this; not through trite repetition, but by
my uncloaked honesty, a raw look at the
dark side of faith. This is the gift God
gives me: to help others discover the
treasures of darkness; to know God calls
them by name; to know their pain is
real, valid, and known by God regardless
of what others may say.
Out of our journey of infertility and
the unknown path of adoption grew a
2 0 1 2
blog, giving people a safe haven to catch
their breath and hear their agony echoed
by one who knows. Written for a rather
narrow niche, people at various stages
and crossroads of the journey have
paused at the blog to rest.
A birth mom—a woman who gave
her child up for adoption more than a
decade ago—stumbled upon the blog
and wrote to me. “Almost eleven years
is a long time, and so much of the bitter
has passed, leaving the sweet—but oh,
the first year was so very, very dark.
I don’t think it is possible to survive
the experience of being a birth mom
without walking through that fire.”
Another woman, recovering from a
Mother’s Day with empty arms, wrote,
“I found your blog this past Mother’s
Day when in a fit of frustration and
tears, I Googled ‘stupid things people
say when you are adopting.’ It’s probably
apparent how my Mother’s Day went.” I
ache for her, and I’m glad I was honest
enough to write about the tough stuff in
the adoption journey.
I’ve said it’s a risk sharing your
story, and it is—always. Not everyone
wants to hear it, and you may be
misunderstood. Yet our stories are what
we have. They encompass who we were
and who we are becoming. They are the
expression of God in us, shining a bit of
light on someone else’s dark path. M
In addition to freelance writing
for magazines and organizations,
Kimberly (Claassen, ’96) Felton blogs at
oursecretthoughts.wordpress.com, and
will be published in the upcoming book,
“The Spirit of Adoption: Writers on
Religion, Adoption, Faith, and More.”
Faculty Calendar
Oregon
Dr. Ray Lubeck 11.11.12
Endeavor, Portland, OR
Dr. Ray Lubeck will preach at Endeavor’s
Sunday service.
MORE INFO: [email protected]
03.12.13
Solid Rock Church, Portland, OR
Dr. Ray Lubeck will present an Old
Testament theology seminar at Solid Rock
Church’s downtown campus.
Prof. Dave Jongeward 11.26-30.12
Ecola Bible School, Cannon Beach, OR
Prof. Dave Jongeward will be teaching
on the Doctrine of God the Father and
Leadership in Ministry classes.
Washington
Dr. Ray Lubeck 11.10.12
Warm Beach Camp, Warm Beach, WA
Dr. Ray Lubeck will give a presentation
on world views and how to interact
with them. For more information on the
conference, visit www.thoughtlife.com
02.02.13
Thoughtlife Conference, Olympia, WA
Dr. Ray Lubeck will speak on Christian
worldview and the reliability of the
Bible at the Thoughtlife Conference. The
event will be held at South Puget Sound
Community College.
Mission Connexion 01.18-19.12
Crossroads Community Church in
Vancouver, WA
Other U.S.
Dr. Ray Lubeck 01.18-21.12
Ravencrest Chalet, Estes Park, CO
Dr. Ray Lubeck will give a multi-day media
presentation on worldviews and how to
interact with them.
Dr. Rebekah Josberger 11.14.12
Evangelical Theological Society Annual
Meeting, Milwaukie, WI
Dr. Rebekah Josberger will present a paper
at ETS’s 64th annual meeting. Her topic will
be Divinely Sanctioned Violence and Old
Testament Theology.
January 18-19, 2013 Multnomah professors
will take part in this annual missions
conference by teaching a variety of
workshops. Multnomah professors and their
workshop topics are listed below.
Dr. Martin Alphonse
Engaging the Gospel in the Hindu Culture
Dr. Greg Burch
Becoming a Community for Children at Risk
Dr. Karen Fancher
God in the Midst of War:
Reflections from Southern Sudan
Dr. Elizabeth List
Staying Sane in Missions: How to Keep
Missionary Families Healthy on the Mission
field
Dr. Roger Trautmann
Creating Transformational Cross-Cultural
Partnerships
International
Dr. Ray Lubeck 11.14-16.12
Evangelical Theological Society Annual
Meeting, Milwaukie, WI
Dr. Ray Lubeck will serve as the
consultation chair on Textual Strategies in
the Hebrew Bible.
Dr. Greg Burch 12.24-31.12
URBANA, St. Louis, MO
Dr. Greg Burch will be conducting a
seminar at Urbana, Intervarsity’s student
missions conference on Becoming a
Community for Children at Risk.
Dr. Rob Hildebrand 02.13-20.12
Cadence Student Ministries, Bitburg,
Germany
Dr. Rob Hildebrand will teach and minister
to military youth in Germany.
Dr. Daniel Scalberg
London, England
03.23-04.01.12
Dr. Daniel Scalberg will lecture at a number
of locations in connection with his class
on Tudor-Stuart England. Points of interest
include Westminster Abbey, Parliament,
Tower of London, and several other sites.
2 0 1 2
59
regular
Devotional
Dr . Thom as Hauff
Beautiful Service
xodus 25:1-8 records God’s words to Moses
When God’s desires are ignored, no matter how we
instructing him to gather a contribution
try to justify it, we are only distancing ourselves from
from among the Israelites for the construction of a
true happiness and relationship with Him. Far from
tabernacle: a holy dwelling place for God among His
depriving God, we are really only depriving ourselves
people, Israel. There, the Israelites could gather for
when we withhold our lives from Him.
worship and sacrifice. It doesn’t seem like it would be a
terribly involved project—just a building and an altar.
serve God is found in God’s list of items to gather
Yet, in God’s directives to Moses, we see two important
from those who were willing to give. As mentioned
truths about our service to God.
First, God says the contribution should come
“from everyone whose heart prompts them to give.”
Building God’s dwelling place was not forced upon
Israel by God, but rather was offered to them as an
opportunity to express their love for Him and as a
means of being a part of God’s work in the world.
This reveals a critical step in our faith—developing a
sense of thankful obligation to God and a willingness
to give freely of our own means for His desires. We
might wonder what may have happened if everyone’s
hearts were hardened to the idea of supporting the
construction of the tabernacle. What if all of Israel had
neglected God’s desire to have a dwelling place among
His people? How sad it would have been for them if
that were to have happened. Perhaps they would have
thought they were saving their own treasure or time,
but in truth, neglecting to build the tabernacle would
have only hurt themselves and their community.
They would have deprived themselves of the glorious
presence of God. This is true for our age as well.
60
The second important truth about how we
“Far from depriving God, we are really only depriving
ourselves when we withhold our lives from Him.”
above, it would seem the only items needed would
metals, fine cloth, costly gems, unique incense, and
be materials for a building and an altar—a place for
distinctive spices. He requested craftsmen skilled in
God to inhabit and for Israel to offer sacrifice. But
their work for the construction. When we read how
God’s list implies so much more. It included precious
the tabernacle should be built, we see why. Both
the tabernacle, and all its related objects were to be
made beautifully. Service to God should not just be
functional, should not merely accomplish something.
It should be artistic, crafted, lovely, and unique. This is
true of everything we undertake in life as children of
God. We should serve our God not with mere ability
and energy, but also with beauty. We have all seen the
difference between one who gets a job done and one
who does a job well. When we work at our jobs—
which are really our ministries regardless of what job
we do—we ought to ask ourselves constantly: Am I
doing my best? Am I doing something lovely of which
the One I love would be proud? Artistry and beauty
are not limited to the arts. Artistry and beauty are
for each of us in whatever we do and are manifested
in creativity, enthusiasm, skill, and delightful
functionality. As the Apostle Paul urges even slaves,
whatever you do, do your work heartily—and, I
would add, beautifully—as for the Lord.
61

Aesthetics of Faith - Multnomah University

Transcription

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