BSc (Hons) (Witwatersrand, South Africa), PhD (Queen’s, Kingston), MCS (Regent College), PhD (St. Andrew’s, Scotland)
Ross Hastings teaches in the areas of the theology and spirituality of mission, pastoral theology, and ethics. He has served as a pastor in Kingston, Ontario; Burnaby, British Columbia; and Montreal, Quebec. For eleven years, he was the senior pastor of Peace Portal Alliance Church in White Rock, BC. He has earned two PhDs, one in organo-metallic chemistry at Queen’s University in Kingston, and the other in theology at St. Andrew’s University in his native Scotland. His theological dissertation is a comparative study of the Trinitarian theology of Jonathan Edwards and Karl Barth and is in the publication process. Dr. Hastings lost his first wife Sharon to cancer in 2008; he has two adult children. He was recently married to Tammy Carrillo and together they now have five children. He enjoys sport—especially rugby, cricket, soccer, and squash—as well as music of varied genres.
Session 1: "The Source: Fullness is in Christ Alone"
James M. Houston Professor of Spiritual Theology at Regent College
BRE (Briercrest Bible College), MCS (Regent College), DPhil (Oxford)
Bruce Hindmarsh is the James M. Houston Professor of Spiritual Theology at Regent College. He took his DPhil degree at Oxford University in 1993. From 1995 to 1997, he was also a research fellow at Christ Church, Oxford. He has since published and spoken widely to international audiences on the history of early British evangelicalism. His articles have appeared in respected academic journals such as Church History and the Journal of Ecclesiastical History, and he is the author of two major books of his own: John Newton and the English Evangelical Tradition and The Evangelical Conversion Narrative.
Dr. Hindmarsh has received numerous teaching awards, research grants, and fellowships. In recent years, he has been a Mayers Research Fellow at the Huntington Library and a holder of the Henry Luce III Theological Fellowship, and he is presently engaged in a research project on early evangelical spirituality. Dr. Hindmarsh is the incoming President of the American Society of Church History. The appointment, which began on January 1, 2012 and finishes on December 31, 2014, includes one year as President-Elect and another year as Past-President. An active lay member of the Anglican Church, Dr. Hindmarsh is married to Carolyn, and they have three children: Bethany, Matthew, and Sam. He enjoys running on the trails and beaches of Vancouver.
So many today in pastoral ministry are running on empty. These three sessions will look at themes from the book of Colossians on fullness in Christ and bring these down to earth by seeing them in the lives of three great pastors from church history.
Session 2: "Christ’s Fullness in Affliction: Gregory the Great (Col. 1:24)"
Session 5: "Christ’s Fullness in Glory: Richard Baxter (Col. 3:1)"
Session 8: "Christ’s Fullness in All Things: George Herbert (Col. 3:17)"
Senior Minister, First Baptist Church, Vancouver
BA (University of California, San Diego), MDiv (Fuller)
Darrell Johnson has been preaching the gospel since 1970, serving as Senior Pastor of a number of Presbyterian churches in California, and of Union Church of Manila during the so-called “People Power Revolution.” In the fall of 2000, he accepted an appointment to the faculty of Regent College, where he taught preaching, worship, pastoral theology, and biblical spirituality. In September 2009, he left Regent College to serve as Senior Minister at the historic First Baptist Church in downtown Vancouver. Darrell Johnson has authored a number of books, including Experiencing the Trinity (now translated into French and Korean), Fifty-Seven Words that Change the World (on the Lord’s Prayer), Discipleship on the Edge (on the book of Revelation), It Is Finished (on the meaing of the death of Jesus), The Glory of Preaching: Participating in God’s Transformation of the World, and Who is Jesus? Darrell Johnson and his wife Sharon have been married 39 years, and have raised four children adopted from four different countries of the world. They have five beautiful grandchildren.
Darrell Johnson will lead us in a frank and hopefully liberating conversation about essential disciplines that enable pastors to “stay full,” so that they can serve out of the fullness that the apostle Paul describes in his letter to the Colossians. For forty-one years now, Darrell Johnson has lived a very demanding life. Out of his experience, he will help us think and feel our way to fresh ways to do the kinds of things that help us stay alive in the life of the Trinity.
Sessions 4, 7, 10: "A Pastor-to-Pastor Conversation"
Executive Director and Professor of Sociology and Christianity,
New College Berkeley
BA (Willamette University), PhD (California, Berkeley)
Susan S. Phillips has served as Executive Director at New College Berkeley since 1994, and prior to that was the Academic Dean. Dr. Phillips is keenly interested in how we live our faith in daily life, drawing insight from the diverse fields of the social sciences, biblical spirituality, and practical theology. She is a trained spiritual director and sees individuals for spiritual direction, teaches and writes in the field, serves as supervisor for spiritual directors, and consults for Christian organizations. Dr. Phillips enjoys teaching and speaking in many settings. In addition to being a regular contributor to summer classes at Regent College, she teaches at the Graduate Theological Union, Fuller Theological Seminary (Northern California), and San Francisco Theological Seminary (the program in the Diploma in the Art of Spiritual Direction). Her most recent book is Candlelight: Illuminating the Art of Spiritual Direction. With her husband Steve, she worships at First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley, and has served there as an elder. Dr. Phillips and her husband have two sons, Andrew and Peter.
Drawing water from a well requires a tool, a receptacle for acquiring and holding the life-giving liquid. These three sessions will introduce some simple spiritual exercises for receiving and sustaining fullness—tools for holding onto Christ. Susan Phillips will provide instruction and the opportunity for guided practice and response to each spiritual exercise.
Session 3: "Praying with Scripture"
Session 6: "Prayer of Examen"
Session 9: "Centering Prayer and Response"