Mid-America Announces
fall Evening Class

Mid-America Reformed Seminary cordially invites the public to attend its annual fall evening class led this year by Dr.Mark Beach, Professor of Ministerial and Doctrinal Studies at Mid-America Reformed Seminary. This year's fall class is entitled, KNOWING GOD - The Practical Implications of Understanding God. The class will focus on knowing God and its practical implications for living as Christians in the world.

The class will run 4 consecutive Tuesday evening in November beginning November 4 and concluding November 25. Classes will begin at 7:30 pm at the Seminary located at 229 Seminary Drive in Dyer, IN.

The topics for the four sessions are:

  • Session 1: Knowing the Holy God We Worship
  • Session 2: KNowing God as Powerful and Unchanging
  • Session 3: Knowing God Who Knows All
  • Session 4: Knowing God as Triune

To register for the fall class contact the seminary at 219-864-2400 or 888-440-6277.

Mid-America Serves
as Evacuation Center

A major rain event in the Chicago area on September 12-14 created significant flooding in communities surrounding the seminary. Many families had to flee their homes due to rising floodwaters. Civil authorities in Dyer contacted the seminary requesting that the facilities be opened as an evacuation center for displaced residents.


Evacuees in Mid-America's Cafeteria

Residents began arriving at the seminary around 10:00 pm on the Sunday the 14th with little more than what they could take with them as they hurriedly left their homes behind. Some residents had to be evacuated by boat and the arrived at the seminary in a open trailer being towed by a Humvee. Seminary personnel tried to make our guests as comfortable as possible while the campus served as their temporary home-away-from-home. At one point the seminary was host 45 persons, 6 dogs and 2 cats.

Mid-America provide food to eat, sleeping bags, and a comforting ear to residents who had no idea what the status of their homes was and when they would be allowed to return. While seminary classes were cancelled on Monday, students came to the seminary to spend time with local residents, many who were elderly, or to play games with the children of families who had been evacuated. Some families spent two nights at the seminary until local officials allowed them back into their neighborhoods.

Dr. Richard Muller to Lecture
at Annual Fall Lecture Series

Dr. Richard Muller, the P.J. Zondervan Professor of Historical Theology at Calvin Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan will deliver this year's annual Fall Lecture Series on November 5-6. Dr. Muller's lectures are entitled Revising the Predestination Paradigm: An Alternative to Supralapsarianism, Infralapsarianism and Hypothetical Universalism. Dr. Muller will deliver three lectures on this subject. The first lecture, entitled The Problem Stated, will be given Wednesday, November 5 at 1:00 pm. Thursday morning (November 6) at 8:30 am Dr. Muller will deliver his second lecture entitled The Lapsarian Question. His final lecture, entitled Varieties of Hypothetical Universalism, will follow at 10:30 am.

Dr. Muller earned an A.B. degree from Queens College, NY, an M.Div. from Union Theological Seminary, NY, and a Ph.D. from Duke University. Before teaching at Calvin Theological Seminary, Dr. Muller served as a pastor in two churches, and taught in two other institutions. His major teaching field is Reformation and early modern studies, and history of Christian thought. Dr. Muller is the author of The Unaccommodated Calvin; After Calvin: Studies in the Development of a Theological Tradition; Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics (four volumes); God, Creation, and Providence in the Thought of Jacob Arminius; Christ and the Decree; Dictionary of Latin and Greek Theological Terms; and The Study of Theology. He has also written numerous articles and reviews.

Mid-America hosts an annual lecture each fall, and these fall lectures are free to the public.

Faculty and Staff Honored
for 25 Years of Faithful Service

Rev. Mark Vander Hart, Professor of Old Testament Studies, and Mrs. Florence Kooiman, Mid-America Office Manager, were honored by the Board of Trustees for 25 years of faithful service to the seminary. On September 25 A dinner in their honor was held at the Munster, Indiana Fine Arts Center.


Rev. Mark Vander Hart and Florence Kooiman

In addition to the Board of Trustees, Mid-America faculty, staff, and area graduates of Mid-America and their wives were included in the celebration. After a delicious meal, Mid-America President, Dr. Cornel Venema, narrated a slide presentation showing a history of the work performed by Rev. Vander Hart and Mrs. Kooiman over the past twenty-five years. Dr. Venema also read greetings and recollections sent by graduates of Mid-America wishing to express their congratulations

Rev. Art Besteman, President of the Board of Trustees, presented a plaque to the two honored guests expressing the seminary's gratitude for their faithful labors over these many years. We give thanks to God for the labors of these faithful servants.

Prayer Requests

Give thanks that God has provided adequate operating revenues over the summer months. Pray that God would provide strong financial giving through the end of the year as we face very uncertain economic times.

Pray for students as they undergo mid-term examinations and labor to complete their many responsibilities before the end of the semester.

Pray for a strong class of new seminary recruits for the 2009 academic year.

Pray for our international students as they not only adjust to the work of seminary, but as they adjust to life in a new country away from family and friends.

Pray for the faculty as they faithfully labor to prepare a new generation of men for the gospel ministry.