Western Theological Seminary is pleased to announce that Dr. Alberto La Rosa Rojas will be joining the faculty of Western Theological Seminary beginning in the 2022-2023 academic year to serve as Assistant Professor of Theology and Ethics.

“We are delighted to welcome Dr. La Rosa Rojas back to the WTS community,” said Dean and Vice President of Academic Affairs Kristen Deede Johnson. “His addition to our faculty marks an important milestone; as our third fully bilingual professor, it is now possible for us to provide rigorous academic degree programs in both English and Spanish.  Further, as one who draws constructively on both Reformed voices and the voices of Christians in the majority world, Dr. La Rosa Rojas has invaluable contributions to make in the classroom,  in the world of scholarship, and in the wider church.”

Dr. La Rosa Rojas’s scholarship lies at the intersection of systematic theology and ethics, focusing on theologies of migration and home.  He is currently a postdoctoral associate and an advisor to the Presbyterian/Reformed House of Studies at Duke University Divinity School. He has also been involved in the divinity school’s Hispanic House of Studies and Hispanic Latino Preaching Initiative.

Dr. La Rosa Rojas received his Th.D. in Theology and Ethics from Duke Divinity School (2022) with a dissertation titled, “God’s Journey Home: Toward a Theology of Migration and Home from the Americas.”  He’s a graduate of Western Theological Seminary and Trinity Christian College.  He has received fellowships from the Hispanic Theological Initiative, the Golieb Fellowship in Interfaith Education and Engagement, and the Kenan Institute for Ethics.

Alberto has written a number of book reviews and book chapters, including “A Migrant at the Lord’s Table: A Reformed Theology of Home,” included in Reformed Public Theology: A Global Vision for Life in the World, and “The God Who Elects Leaving,” in Before the Face of God: Essays in Honor of Tom Boogaart. He has been involved in and presented at the Society of Christian Ethics, the American Academy of Religion, and the Annual Karl Barth Conference at Princeton Theological Seminary.

Dr. La Rosa Rojas has taught courses in the United States, El Salvador, and Peru in Christian ethics, theology in the early Church, Karl Barth and Reformed theology, and theology of the sacraments.

He has been involved in a local Presbyterian church throughout his years in Durham while retaining his membership in the Reformed Church in America (RCA).  He is also a licensed candidate for ordination in the RCA.

Western Theological Seminary Welcomes Dr. Madison Pierce

New Faculty member will serve as an Associate Professor of New Testament

Holland, MI (March 2022) – Western Theological Seminary is thrilled to announce that Dr. Madison Pierce will be joining the seminary faculty beginning in the 2022-2023 academic year to serve as Associate Professor of New Testament. 

Dr. Pierce is a respected biblical scholar and teacher. Her areas of research include the book of Hebrews, the Catholic epistles, and the use of Scripture in Scripture.  

“I could not be more delighted that Dr. Pierce will be joining the Western Seminary community,” said Dr. Kristen Deede Johnson, Dean and Vice President of Academic Affairs. “Dr. Pierce is motivated by a deep love of God and Scripture and is an exceptionally gifted scholar and teacher. She’s also very committed to the life of the Church as well as engaging with important contemporary social realities. It will be a joy to welcome Dr. Pierce to Western, knowing that she will invest deeply in the lives of our students and in the mission of Western Theological Seminary.”

Dr. Pierce has been serving as an Assistant Professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, where she taught a range of courses including Introduction to New Testament, Greek Exegesis, Exegesis for Preaching, and courses on Johannine Literature, Paul, the General Epistles, and the use of Scripture in Scripture.  She received her Ph.D. from Durham University and her M.Div. from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. 

Dr. Pierce has four upcoming books and monographs reflecting these research interests, including a book on Christology in Hebrews, an exegetical commentary of Hebrews, a commentary on 1 Peter, and a co-authored book on the later New Testament.

Dr. Pierce’s previous publications include Divine Discourse in the Epistle to the Hebrews (Cambridge University Press, 2020) and an array of essays in a peer-reviewed journal and edited volumes. She has also co-edited two volumes: Muted Voices of the New Testament (T&T Clark, 2017), with Katherine M. Hockey and Francis Watson, and Gospel Reading and Reception in Early Christian Literature (Cambridge University Press, 2022), with Andrew J. Byers and Simon Gathercole.   

Dr. Pierce is an active member of the Society of Biblical Literature as well as the Institute for Biblical Research. She is the co-host of the Foreword Podcast. She is also actively involved in her local church, Church of the Redeemer in Highwood, Illinois, and preaches both there and elsewhere.

Western Theological Seminary is pleased to announce the 2022 Leonard F. Stoutemire Lecture in Multicultural Ministry speaker will be Dr. Tony Tian-Ren Lin. 

This in-person event will occur in the Mulder Chapel at Western Theological Seminary on Monday, March 7, from 1:30-3:00 PM and is open to the public. 

Dr. Tony Tian-Ren Lin’s lecture, Multicultural Faithfulness, will speak to the challenges of multiracialism and the Christian leader. He will also be hosting some conversations in Spanish.

Dr. Tony Tian-Ren Lin is the Program Director for the Leadership Development initiative at Trinity Church Wall Street. He is a cultural sociologist whose scholarship focuses on the intersection of religion, immigration, race, and ethnicity. He is the author of Prosperity Gospel Latinos and Their American Dream (University of North Carolina Press, 2020), which is praised by Publisher’s Weekly as a “well-reasoned,” “evocative debut” that “immerse[s] readers in the lives of his subjects.” His work has been featured on NPR, Latino USA, The Atlantic Monthly, and other national media. Lin is also an ordained Presbyterian minister.

The Leonard F. Stoutemire Lectures in Multicultural Ministry are named in honor of the late Reverend Leonard Foster Stoutemire, pioneer African American clergyman and church planter to Holland, Michigan. Although he initially wanted to be a missionary in Africa, in 1944, Stoutemire migrated to Holland, MI, to plant the city’s first intentionally multi-racial congregation, the All Nations Full Gospel Church of Holland.

The lectures equip seminarians, faculty, staff, alumni/ae, and local congregations with resources for increased intercultural competence for greater effectiveness in Christian ministry.

Holland, MI – Western Theological Seminary (WTS) has received a grant of $1 million to support the launch of the Eugene Peterson Center for Christian Imagination and to expand student access to the seminary’s Hispanic Ministry Program (HMP). 

The effort is being funded through Lilly Endowment’s Pathways for Tomorrow Initiative, a three-phase initiative designed to help theological schools across the United States and Canada as they prioritize and respond to the most pressing challenges they face as they prepare pastoral leaders for Christian congregations both now and into the future.

The grant will support the Seminary’s Eugene Peterson Center for Christian Imagination as it partners across denominational lines and nurtures pastors toward a lifetime of humble, faithful ministry. The Peterson Center launched this fall and continues the work of Eugene Peterson, author of 40+ books and translator of The Message, by encouraging pastors, artists, and hopeful-but-often-perplexed Christians toward a God-drenched life that renews our humanity, creativity, and sacred calling. 

The grant will also support WTS’s Hispanic Ministry Program as it establishes new partnerships, identifies and recruits new students, and integrates the ethos of Peterson’s ministry into its academic programs. It will also open the door for seminary education to students who have not historically had access to affordable ATS accredited programs. 

“We are so grateful for this generous grant from Lilly Endowment. The church is God’s chosen vehicle to share the good news of the Gospel–the life, death, and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ–and the abundant life that we may live through the Holy Spirit,” said WTS President Felix Theonugraha. “We are excited for the opportunity through this grant to raise up leaders for God’s church by cultivating faithful and humble pastoral imaginations and by equipping the growing Hispanic congregations in the United States.”

WTS is one of 84 theological schools that are receiving a total of more than $82 million in grants through the second phase of the Pathways initiative. Together, the schools represent evangelical, mainline Protestant, non-denominational, Pentecostal, Roman Catholic, and Black church and historic peace church traditions (e.g., Church of the Brethren, Mennonite, Quakers). 

Lilly Endowment launched the Pathways initiative in January 2021 because of its longstanding interest in supporting efforts to enhance and sustain the vitality of Christian congregations by strengthening the leadership capacities of pastors and congregational lay leaders.

About Lilly Endowment Inc.

Lilly Endowment Inc. is an Indianapolis-based private philanthropic foundation created in 1937 by J.K. Lilly, Sr., and his sons Eli and J.K. Jr. through gifts of stock in their pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly and Company. In keeping with the founder’s wishes, the Endowment supports the causes of community development, education and religion and maintains a special commitment to its founders’ hometown, Indianapolis, and home state, Indiana.  The primary aim of its grantmaking in religion, which is national in scope, focuses on strengthening the leadership and vitality of Christian congregations in the United States. The Endowment also seeks to foster public understanding about religion and lift up in fair, accurate, and balanced ways the contributions that people of all faiths and religious communities make to our greater civic well-being.