Dear Church Family,
Summer Conference starts this weekend with worship and teaching every night through Wednesday. Sunday night, we meet at 5:00 with dinner to follow. Our speaker is Dr. Jay Sklar, an Old Testament professor at Covenant Seminary in St. Louis. He was Brandon Lauranzon’s mentor, and so I asked Brandon how he would introduce Dr. Sklar. Here’s his response: “As far as my own introduction, if I had been there, I would have said the following: Dr. Jay Sklar is ridiculously, crazy, wildly smart. He knows Hebrew like he was born in the Old Testament! Everyone on campus calls him Jay because he is so personal and friendly. He exemplifies what Covenant wants in its professors, a Pastor-Scholar. He led a small group of students one semester that I was in, in which we talked about loving our wives and being godly husbands. He led by example, demonstrating vulnerability, repentance and passion for doing all the things that he said. He remembered all of our names, our wives’ names, our unique situations and struggles, and continued to ask us about them a year later! He and Ski [skee], Jay’s wife, had the entire Hebrew class over to their house for desserts and socializing. I never had another professor do that. He does that every semester. I went to Jay for advice when I was thinking about proposing to Robyn. He listened to me and encouraged me and is one of the reasons I sealed the deal. He was patient with me as I caught up on work I had missed because of my honeymoon — he made me want to be a better steward of God's word. Jay is one of those teachers that you tell every person you know: ‘You must hear him any chance you get!’ There are phrases and catch lines he taught, now almost four years ago, that I still remember verbatim to this day. He loves God, loves His Word, and loves people.”
• Tim Keller is a gift to Christ’s church. He recently was asked about his church’s position on homosexuality in an environment very hostile to Christianity – Columbia University. Here’s his response.
• This weekend in worship, we’ll be saying farewell to Jamie and Angel Richard and their boys. What a gift to SRPC they have been. Turn off the TV, forget about Casey Anthony, and come to the Summer Conference!
Love,
Ray
