A Calvin Theological Seminary Publication by Students & Alumni
Letter from the Editors by Monica Brands, Editor-in-Chief

Letter from the Editors by Monica Brands, Editor-in-Chief

Welcome to the 2015-2016 school year! I can’t speak for everyone, but I have sensed an energy in the air this year, a feeling of hope and the promising contributions of new faces and voices. I’m excited to continue working with a great team for our student magazine. As most of you know, as an editing team we have continued to explore the shape and role the magazine can play in the life of our seminary as an outlet for highlighting student voices. We are even in the process of proposing a name change from Kerux to Ambassador, a name we feel better aligns with the paper’s horizontal and vertical roles at the seminary: both being an ambassador for Christ (see 2 Cor. 5)  and an ambassador for student perspectives. That decision still awaits the final will of Senate and the student body via a Senate vote, but we are excited to carry forward our vision for the magazine into this school year.

For this edition’s theme, we felt it would be valuable for the seminary community to learn from the internship experiences of fellow students over the summer. We were inspired by Kyle D. Kooyer’s hashtag for his internship experience, (#ChangeOurWorld), enough that we co-opted it as our theme for this edition. Something about those words struck a chord with us. In the Reformed tradition, we have rightly learned to be cautious about making grandiose claims regarding our own efforts and abilities to change this world. We know that our best efforts can accomplish nothing, that we are powerless apart from Christ. We also know that until Christ returns, nothing will look the way it should be, that we wait for a better world, for Christ’s final return to finally put things right once and for all.
But, sometimes that Reformed caution can leave us malnourished. As human beings, we are also meant to hope, to live with confidence in God’s power to bring resurrection life into the concrete spaces we inhabit, and to participate with our whole hearts in that work. We are meant to believe that the resurrection life of the future is also transforming the present, that God is powerfully at work breathing life into the spaces around us. “Change Our World” captures all of these dynamics. It is both a prayer for change and an expression of hope-filled faith that God is at work transforming the brokenness around us. This edition captures an array of experiences of finding God in unexpected places, from witnessing resurrection life in North Philadephia, finding healing through ministering in the midst of tremendous pain, or experiences as a new preacher of God working through those faltering first sermons.

Enjoy the pieces, and please share with us any inspiration and ideas they spark in your own ministry. May we continue to work with excellence as we pray for our Lord to continue to change our world!

 

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