Thank You, Nijay, Tara Beth, Matt and Drew!

How does one respond to a volume of essays by one’s friends written in tribute to me? I know I can’t respond adequately to the honor or express my gratitude deeply enough for the gift of this book, Living the King Jesus Gospel. I knew nothing about this book, and not a few of the authors have chuckled about how they have kept it a secret for two years. Not one leak.

This volume, dreamed up by my colleague and friend Nijay Gupta, is undoubtedly a highlight of my career, which steadily gets closer to 40 years of teaching. (Hard to believe that, friends, hard to believe.) We have a book case with my books in our living room and this book rises to the top shelf!

I love how broad this books’ perspective is in choosing authors, and by broad I mean the selection of authors. And topics. This is one of the rare tribute volumes that combines church life and academic life, and I’m confident it is written at at level that pastors will want to read it. Let’s face it. Many Festschriften, the German word for essays bound into a single volume, are by scholars, for scholars, read by scholars, and quite varied in themes. I first learned about such volumes in college when I read a collection of essays for Leon Lamb Morris, and over the years not a few of these kinds of volumes found their way onto my shelves – about six feet or more.

Most are given to the professor according to age: 65, 70, 75. None of those fit this year (I’m 67 for a little while longer). Or they are given upon retiring, which made me wonder if Northern had something up its sleeve! (I checked; not the case.)

Anyway, the authors represent my world so very well and I commend Nijay for the selection, and he has told me some stories about how he enlisted some of these authors. Here they are:

Editors: Nijay, Tara Beth Leach (my first TA at Northern and now a pastor and author), Matt Bates (friend and colleague in battling for the gospel), and Drew Strait (a friend and a wonderful professor at the Mennonite seminary in Goshen Indiana).

Authors (I’ll offer only brief comments about each, and I’d like to write much more about each).

NT essays on living the gospel according to various books in the NT.

Mike Bird, professor in Australia whose stuff I just love to read.
Drew Strait, author of a book that has shaped my forthcoming book on Revelation.
Matt Bates, I’m thinking Nijay didn’t know Matt cheers for the SanFran Giants, which in some seasons I can forgive.
Lynn Cohick, colleague, our Dean and Provost, and whose work on women is so influential on my thinking.
Nijay – we’re all wondering how he pulled this off. Nijay has mastered writing books that straddle the academy and the church.
Dennis Edwards, former pastor and colleague at Northern, a one-time student of mine, an author and professor of NT at North Park.
Dana Harris, worships with Kris and me on Sundays at Church of the Redeemer, a good friend, and the author of an exceptional new Greek grammar.

Essays on Christian history and tradition

Hauna Ondrey, former student at North Park and TA, co-author of a book about conversion, and beginning to make her mark in early church history.
Brad Nassif, in this collection Brad is my longest friend; his wife Barb was a student of mine at TEDS when they were dating and soon Brad and I became friends. Great scholar on Orthodoxy.
Winfield Bevins, fellow Anglican and author of a couple very useful books for understanding the liturgical turn and Anglicanism.
Todd Hunter, my bishop and friend of many years (and perhaps not known, quite the baseball player in his younger years)

Essays on the Christian life, discipleship, and community today

David Fitch, OK, this has to be said. He duped me into reading his essay some months back to make sure I got a few things right, and now he loves that he duped me. His time will come.
Nancy Ortberg, she was the first pastor at Willow to contact me way back when I was talking about conversion, and I greatly admire her courage, compassion, and no-nonsense clear-headedness.
Dave Ferguson and Tammy Melchien. Dave and I have been friends for a number of years; I have admired his pastoral work, and over the last couple years Tammy, a serious Bible student, has been part of the discussion a few times I have spoken at “Yellow Box.”
Derwin Gray, the biggest chest of any student I have ever taught. Former NFL player who now pastors a wonderful multi-ethnic church in Charlotte.
Becky Castle Miller, a recent graduate of our NT program at Northern, author of numerous writing projects, and relentless advocate for abuse survivors.

To the endorsers, another big thank you: Jeannine Brown, Greg Boyd, Rich Villodas, Beth Felker Jones, Tim Gombis, Sharon Hodde Miller, and also to Northern’s President, Bill Shiell.

I cannot express my gratitude enough for these essays.

Nijay has sent me a bound copy and I will begin reading them when the volume gets here. (Yes, I’ve dipped into a few but I’m disciplining myself to wait.) After reading each essay the author can expect a note from me.

Again, Nijay, grazie!