–> REGISTER NOW FOR MINISTRY LEADERSHIP DAY 2020

Renowned theologian and author Dr. Kevin Vanhoozer will be teaching on the topic of discipleship and the local church at the upcoming Ministry Leadership Day being held at Heritage College & Seminary on Thursday, March 26, 2020.

Dr. Vanhoozer currently serves as Research Professor of Systematic Theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois.  He is also the author and editor of a number of books including his latest release, Hearers and Doers: A Pastor’s Guide to Making Disciples Through Scripture and Doctrine.

Dr. Wayne Baxter, Associate Professor of New Testament and Greek at Heritage Theological Seminary, describes Dr. Vanhoozer as a brilliant theologian, and is excited to have come to this year’s event to talk about the value of teaching sound, scriptural doctrine in the discipleship of those in the church.

“Whereas many gifted academics reserve their brilliance for the academy, God has given Dr. Vanhoozer a burden to help shepherd the church and its leaders theologically,” says Dr. Baxter. “I’m excited to see what theological discipleship looks like in the local church and I am thrilled to have the opportunity to pose questions to one of the brightest minds in the church today.”

Ministry Leadership Day is an annual event organized and hosted by Heritage Theological Seminary and welcomes pastors and ministry leaders to Heritage for a day of encouragement and equipping through relevant, practical, and theological teaching about topics connected to the health of local churches.

Dr. Rick Reed, President of Heritage College & Seminary, believes that the topic of biblically rooted discipleship is important for health and life of today’s church. He hopes that pastors and leaders will attend this year’s event to learn more about this subject.

“All who are engaged in making disciples through local church ministry will benefit from the biblical insights and ministry implications that Dr. Vanhoozer will bring to us at this year’s Ministry Leadership Day,” says Dr. Reed.

This year’s Ministry Leadership Day will also include a special lunch option for pastor’s wives and women serving in ministry attending the event hosted by Dr. Linda Reed, Director of the Heritage Centre for Women in Ministry.

For more information on the upcoming Ministry Leadership Day or to register for this event, please visit https://discoverheritage.ca/mld-2020/.

Heritage College & Seminary will once again be hosting the annual Student Job Fair happening on Thursday, January 16, 2020 from 2:00pm to 5:30pm in the Heritage Community Centre.

Each year, the event provides College and Seminary students, high school students and other young people interested in ministry positions the opportunity to learn more about a wide variety of Christian employment opportunities that are open to them. The event will include representatives from churches, camps, mission organizations, and parachurch organizations who will be available throughout the afternoon to answer questions and receive applications.

The Student Job Fair is a great opportunity for students and young people who are looking for: summer jobs at Christian camp, summer jobs at churches, internships, vocational ministry opportunities, missions, or volunteer ministry experience.

For more information on the event, please visit - https://discoverheritage.ca/student-job-fair/

For Ellie and Jeff Kendrick, Heritage is like home. Both Jeff and Ellie met, studied and graduated from Heritage. Both are currently involved today at the school with Ellie auditing a seminary class and Jeff teaching at the college. They are also proud parents of two students who are following in their footsteps – Moriah and Caleb.

As an alumnus and Heritage mother, Ellie says that it is an incredible experience to see her children studying God’s Word at Heritage. She explains that she and Jeff are praying that God would use Moriah and Caleb’s Heritage experience as He did in her and Jeff’s life.

“We are praying that they will grow strong in their knowledge and love for God, that they will walk humbly and in a manner that is worthy of His calling,” says Ellie. “That their hearts would be opened so that they will know and cherish the hope to which He has called them.”

Ellie fondly looks back at how God used her time at Heritage to build her knowledge of the Bible from teachers who cared for her spiritual growth, while developing her character in a Christ-centred community.

Heritage also holds a special place in Jeff’s heart. Shortly after being saved, Jeff started attending the college to study God’s Word and loved getting involved in every aspect of student life on campus. Today, he says that he still sees the impact God made on his life and thanks God for the school every time he thinks about it.

“When I started at Heritage, I was like a sponge soaking up every bit of teaching, training, and fellowship with my fellow students and interactions with the professors,” says Jeff. “Even now as I think back, there are so many aspects of who I am today because of my time at Heritage. It was truly God’s plan for my life.”

Moriah now has the opportunity to learn as she follows in the footsteps of her parents, knowing the impact that studying at Heritage had on the lives of her mom and dad.

“They love God so much and I want to love God as much as they do, I know that my love for God will grow at Heritage,” explains Moriah. “I love walking through the halls knowing that once upon a time my parents walked through these same halls. It makes Heritage feel more like a home and this is all because of God.”

Since starting in September 2019, Moriah says that God has already used her time at Heritage to root her identity in who she is in Christ. After participating in a trip to Ethnos Canada’s Off The Grid weekend retreat with a group of students, she has also been growing in her global understanding of the world that God loves.

“Seeing and learning about all the broken people around the world gave me such a heart for these people, I want to go tell them about Jesus,” explains Moriah. “As the year continues, I am looking forward to continuing to grow in my love for God and grow a bigger heart for the broken people around the world.”

For Caleb, his time at Heritage in the Christian Formation class and his volunteer work in the cafeteria has given him the opportunity to meet new friends and grow in his own faith.

“It is a place to learn about the Bible and that God has a plan and purpose for me,” says Caleb. “He continues to show me that He is great and powerful.”

Knowing how their time at Heritage has equipped both of them for life and ministry, Jeff and Ellie now encourage others to see Bible college as a valuable decision for not just their own family, but for others.

“It’s so important to us that they grow in their knowledge and love for God, gaining a stronger foundation in the Christian faith,” explains Ellie. “So that when they move away, get married, or move on to adulthood, that they would be equipped and ready.”

Read this story and more in the upcoming Heritage Christmas Newsletter arriving in mailboxes in December 2019. 

Advent is a treasured time in the Christian life. Through the busyness and messiness - the ups and downs – that come through our daily lives, Advent invites believers into a time of quiet reflection on Scripture, focusing on the great joy of the incarnation.

This is the motivation behind the new Advent devotional recently released by the Marion E. Wade Center at Wheaton College and the Christian History Institute entitled The Grand Miracle.

This collection of daily reflections has been authored by a number of scholars and Christian leaders who have been inspired by seven prominent authors from Christian history. One of the authors who was asked to contribute to this project was Dr. Carolyn Weber, Professor of English Studies at Heritage College & Seminary.

Weber says that she was grateful to be asked by Marjorie Mead, the longtime Associate Director of the Wade Center, to contribute to this collection of reflections.

“I have had much rich interaction and longheld ties with the community at Wheaton and the Wade Center in the past and I very much admire all seven of the Wade authors – so the Wade Center holds a special place in my heart for me,” explains Weber. “I was honoured to be asked, and I appreciate the depth of their work.”

In the devotional, Weber was assigned a quote from G.K. Chesterton discussing the discord brought about by Herod in the midst of the joyous account of the birth of Christ in Matthew 2. She explains that this idea of discord describes personally the fallen human condition, like the disordering of our loves resulting from the fall as described by Augustine. The hope we have as Christians, especially around Christmas, is that within the discord of our own lives we can hear the song of heaven in the coming of Christ.

“Even though we are in discord on this side of heaven, we can still hear the tune – feel the tune – somewhere, out around us in Creation, and deep within our own creation, that reminds us of our longing for home, that sehnsucht or infinite longing, soul homesickness for eternity, that C.S. Lewis described so well as inherent in the human condition as made in God’s image, and our desire to be reconnected to it,” says Weber.

With the devotional’s unique blend of quotes from the “Seven Sages” connecting to the biblical story of the birth of Jesus, Weber says that this kind of reflection is helpful for today’s Christian to see that their thoughts are shared by a greater, historic community of faith.

“Looking back at these authors reminds me I am not alone: that others have grappled with the same questions, weights, fears, exultations,” explains Weber. “It is mindblowing company to keep, quite frankly. I am so unworthy of it, and yet here I am, proof of grace in how He sets us in relationship to better know his relational reality.”

“And that sigh, that goosebump, that catch of the breath, as Beuchner puts it, so representative of the hope embodied in Christmas – it changes, well, everything. Every thing.”

For more information on The Grand Miracle or to purchase the devotional, please visit the Christian History Institute website.

For Dr. Ian Vaillancourt, Associate Professor of Old Testament and Hebrew at Heritage College & Seminary, publishing his first monograph has been an exciting, learning experience.

As he anticipates the release of The Multifaceted Saviour of Psalms 110 and 118: A Canonical Exegesis, Dr. Vaillancourt looks back at all the support he received from an experienced faculty at Heritage, who gave him the feedback and encouragement needed to help produce his first book-length publication. He sees it as a blessing to be able to work alongside of this group and learn from their experience, knowledge and wisdom.

“I am humbled to be on a faculty team that is filled with people who have much more publishing experience than I have,” explains Vaillancourt. “It’s an honour to learn from these scholars as I seek to grow as a writer and use this ministry to bring God glory.”

It was this heart to see God glorified that led him to research Psalms 110 and 118. Vaillancourt explains that when he approached this study, he wanted to go deep in the Old Testament with the hopes that it would help Christians see Christ in its pages. In the case of this monograph, he hopes that the depth-work from an Old Testament perspective will also aid future work by New Testament specialists, as they explain the various appearances of the two most cited psalms in the New Testament.

In The Multifaceted Saviour of Psalms 110 and 118, Dr. Vaillancourt takes a canonical approach to these Psalms, arguing that within the final portion of the book of Psalms there emerges an eschatological messianic figure who will bring ultimate deliverance for God’s people.

“I pray that Christians would see that God planned to send his son before He laid the foundation of the world,” explains Dr. Vaillancourt; “that Jesus is the ultimate prophet who speaks God’s authoritative word to us, the priest who mediates between us and God, and the king who rules over his people and the cosmos.”

With the recent release of his first monograph, Dr. Vaillancourt will also be involved in a number of presentations this November focused on his research. In addition to a presentation in the Psalms and Hebrew Poetry section of the Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society (ETS), Dr. Vaillancourt was one of five people selected to present in the Emerging Old Testament Scholar section at the Annual Meeting of the Institute for Biblical Research (IBR).

Dr. Vaillancourt’s monograph is currently available through Sheffield Phoenix Press and will be made available at both the ETS and IBR meetings.

Please pray for our Heritage Theological Seminary professors as they travel to San Diego to attend and present at ETS, IBR and SBL.