L'Abri Conference Rochester 2012:
"In the Beginning...."
Celebrating and Defending the Doctrine of Creation in a Naturalistic Culture
February 10th-11th, 2012 ; Rochester, Minnosota
Download the PDF of the Conference schedule and Registration form. All of the information is on the PDF. We will be adding more descriptions to this web page soon.
Click Here to Download
The 2012 Rochester L’Abri Conference speakers include:
Jerram Barrs is Professor of Christian Studies and Contemporary Culture and Resident Scholar of the Francis A. Schaeffer Institute at Covenant Seminary in St. Louis. Jerram joined the Covenant Seminary faculty in 1989 after 18 years with L'Abri Fellowship in England, where he also served as a pastor in the International Presbyterian Church. He is the author of numerous books including The Heart of Evangelism, The Heart of Prayer, Through His Eyes: God's Perspective on Women in the Bible and Learning Evangelism from Jesus. He also co-authored Being Human: The Nature of Spiritual Experience with Ranald Macaulay. Jerram and his wife Vicki have three grown sons.
C. John 'Jack' Collins is Professor of Old Testament at Covenant Theological Seminary in St Louis, Missouri. He was a teen-aged herpetologist, and went to MIT for his M.Sc. in Computer Science and Systems Engineering, to Faith Lutheran Seminary for his M.Div. and to the University of Liverpool for his Ph.D. (Hebrew linguistics). He has been a research engineer, a church- planter, and, since 1993, a teacher. His early work focused on the grammar of Hebrew and Greek, but he has branched out into studies in science and faith, in how the New Testament uses the Old, and in Biblical theology. He was Old Testament Chairman for the English Standard Version of the Bible. He is the author of many articles and books including The God of Miracles: An exegetical examination of God's action in the world; Science and Faith: Friends or Foes? and, most recently, Did Adam and Eve Really Exist?: Who They Were and Why You Should Care (Crossway, 2011). He and his wife have been married since 1979, and have two children.
Denis Haack is co-director, with his wife Margie, of Ransom Fellowship (www.ransomfellowship.org), a speaking, writing and mentoring ministry designed to help Christians develop skill in discernment, in order to be able to winsomely apply the gospel to all of life and culture. He is a visiting instructor in practical theology at Covenant Theological Seminary (St. Louis), an elder in the Presbyterian Church in America, and is writing a book on Christian faithfulness in a pluralistic society.
Dick Keyes is the Director of L'Abri Fellowship in Southborough, MA, where he has worked with his wife, Mardi, since 1979. He holds a B.A. in History from Harvard University and an M.Div. from Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. Dick worked for L'Abri Fellowship in Switzerland and England, where he also served as a pastor in the International Presbyterian Church in London. He has been an adjunct professor at Gordon Conwell Seminary and Westminster Theological Seminary, and is the author of Beyond Identity, True Heroism, Chameleon Christianity and Seeing through Cynicism. He has also contributed chapters in anthologies such as No God but God, Finding God at Harvard and The New Dictionary of Christian Apologetics.
Ranald Macaulay was born in South Africa in 1936. He was educated at Cambridge (law) and King's London (theology). He joined L'Abri in 1959 and married the Schaeffer's second daughter, Susan, in 1961. Together they started the English L'Abri in 1971. Since 1996 they have been living in Cambridge. In 2001 Ranald was instrumental in the foundation of 'Christian Heritage', based in the 12th century church called The Round Church.
Nancy Pearcey was a student at the Swiss L'Abri first in 1971 and then 1972. She is the author of the bestselling, award-winning book Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from Its Cultural Captivity and editor at large of The Pearcey Report. Currently she serves as a faculty member at Rivendell Sanctuary in Bloomington, MN. Her latest book is Saving Leonardo: A Call to Resist the Secular Assault on Mind, Morals, & Meaning.
Workshop Speakers:
Matthew Dickerson is a professor at Middlebury College in Vermont and the author or coauthor of several books, including most recently The Mind and the Machine: What it Means to be Human and Why it Matters (Brazos Press, 2011). His past titles include Ents, Elves, and Eriador: the Environmental Vision of J.R.R.Tolkien, (with Jonathan Evans), Narnia and the Fields of Arbol: the Environmental Vision of C.S.Lewis (with David O'Hara), and From Homer to Harry Potter: a Handbook on Myth and Fantasy (also with David O'Hara). He has written articles for a number of magazines and journals that explore theology and culture including: Christianity Today, Creation Care Magazine, Flourish, The Other Journal: an Intersection of
Theology and Culture, Image: a Journal of the Arts and Religion, The High Calling, Books and Culture, and Paste.
John Hodges worked as an orchestral and choral conductor from 1983-2009, and was professor of the arts and culture at Crichton College, (teaching worldview, philosophy of the Christian faith, and theater) before founding and directing the Center for Western Studies, a Christian gap-year program in the humanities. The CWS offers a Christian worldview and
an overview of the history of Western literature, art and music. John has written for variouspublications on music, aesthetics and education. He has been married to his beloved wife Day for 27 years, and their son Mason is a junior in college.
Greg Jesson obtained a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Iowa focusing on the philosophy of mind, formal ontology, epistemology, and phenomenology. He previously obtained philosophy degrees from UCLA and USC where he studied under Dallas Willard. He speaks throughout the country on Christian Apologetics and Philosophy. His published articles include, Plantinga's Externalism and the Terminus of Warrant-Based Epistemology; Love Focused Through the Eye of the Lens: Romance, Sex, and the Human Condition in Contemporary Cinema; and The Intersection of the Mind and the World.
Stefan Lindholm directs the work of Swedish L'Abri. He and his wife Lois and their two children also spent five years at the English L'Abri. Stefan has earned a M.Th. at Lund University in Sweden and is currently writing his doctoral dissertation in Religion at the Stavanger School of Missions in Norway, focusing on the metaphysics of the incarnation in early protestant
scholasticism. Should he ever have some spare time he enjoys reading, smoking his pipe and listening to (and occasionally playing) jazz.
Sue Morell spent her childhood growing up in the countryside of Australia. After working as a nurse and midwife she then joined the staff of English L'Abri in 1987. For the past sixteen years she and her husband Joe and two boys have lived and worked in the main house in Southborough.
Marvin Padgett, a former bookstore owner, is now the Editorial VP at P&R Publishing in Phillipsburg, NJ, where he finds authors and books that bring a biblical perspective to the issues of life – practical, personal, theological and ecclesiastical. Marvin is also the VP of the Board of Great Commission Publication. Marvin graduated from the Univesity of Alabama
with a degree in Aerodynamics. He served the Presbyterian Church in America as their national coordinator of campus ministries for two years, and has worked in publishing for 29 years. He is a former County Commissioner. Marvin and his wife Jean, married 44 years, have three grown children as well as nine grandchildren.
Rick Pearcey a student and helper at Swiss L'Abri from 1972-73, is editor and publisher of The Pearcey Report and a faculty member at Rivendell Sanctuary in Bloomington, MN. His articles have appeared in Human Events, the Washington Examiner, CNSNews, WorldNetDaily, and elsewhere. He has edited several books by best-selling authors and is currently writing a volume on the question of resistance in today's world.
Arend Jan (AJ) Poelarends is assistant professor of Physics and Astronomy at Wheaton College (Illinois). He holds a Ph.D. in Astrophysics from Utrecht University in the Netherlands and a M.Div. from Covenant Theological Seminary in Saint Louis (MO). Besides his interest in questions of science and faith, he also studies the role of worldview stories in our culture, and how these shape our identity, our view of God and of this reality, and our ethics.
Mark Ryan serves Crossroads Presbyterian Fellowship in Saint Louis, MO, as an associate pastor. He also serves as a visiting instructor at Covenant Theological Seminary. Prior to hisreturn to the pastorate, Mark, together with his wife Terri, served for a number of years with L'Abri Fellowship in the USA (Southborough, MA) and in Canada (Bowen Island, British
Columbia). Mark and Terri have three young children ages 6 and younger.
Clark Scheibe has worked at L'Abri Canada on Bowen Island for the past four and a half years and currently serves as its director. He graduated from the University of Mississippi with a B.A. in Literature, with an emphasis in creative writing, and from Regent College in Vancouver, Canada with a M.Div. He has a wide variety of interests such as baking, short
stories, art, biblical hermeneutics, cultural studies, early blues music and folk. He is married to Julia; they have two children, Samuel and a newborn baby girl.
Larry and Nancy Snyder worked in L'Abri for over 40 years and recently moved to Saint Louis to be near family. Larry's undergraduate degree was in history and political science. His M.Div. in theology is from Covenant Seminary. His primary interests are in the created order, the cultural mandate, and the history of the early church and the Reformation.
Nancy was a nurse early in their marriage, but L'Abri brought new ways of caring for people –hospitality and an open home; mealtime discussions and tutoring; and reading good and fun literature at high-teas
What is a L'Abri Conference?
L'Abri is the French word for shelter. The L'Abri ministry was founded by Francis and Edith Schaeffer in 1955 to provide an environment where Christians and non-Christians could seek answers to questions about God and truth. Following in that tradition, a L'Abri Conference is an opportunity through lectures, discussions, and personal interaction, to feed and hone the mind in an effort to deepen one's understanding of what it means to be a Christian in our society. The on-campus housing and mealtimes are designed to facilitate an exchange of ideas among conferees and speakers.