A. Christian Van Gorder
My mother was from a devout Catholic family and my father was active in the Methodist Church. At age 11, I responded to a message by a television preacher on the imminent return of Christ. I became very active in the local Plymouth Brethren church, but I then began to attend the Church of the Brethren in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh. By age 15, I had become convinced that I was called to Christian service. At 18, I went to ORU.
In 1981, I met Stephanie and we were married in 1983. We both attended Asbury Theological Seminary. When our academic advisor, Dr. Robert E. Coleman left Asbury, our mentor became Matt Zahniser. Matt continues to have a major impact on our lives. His authentic approach to life coincides with his sincere engagement with his students.
Upon commencement, Stephanie became the Christian Education Director at Hope Methodist Church and I took an associate pastoral position at Judson Baptist Church in Burton, Michigan. After two years, Stephanie joined me at Judson. This meant hours of counseling, visitation, caring, and listening. In order to expand their horizons, we took students on short-term teams to inner-city London and Mexico City as well as to local government housing communities. The Senior Pastor, Karl Unger was a wonderful "grandfather in the faith" for me who taught by his example and input throughout the four years I served at Judson Church.
In 1987, we began studying Chinese for two years at the National University of Singapore. In 1989, our family moved to southwest China to teach at Yunnan University for the next two years. This was a wonderful time for personal and spiritual development. After completing our two year teaching contract, we returned to further our studies.
I enrolled in a Ph.D. program at Fuller Theological Seminary but soon transferred to the Edgehill College of Queen's University of Belfast, Ireland. While in Northern Ireland, I learned much about the tragic civil war there. I tried to be part of the solution by encouraging people in both communities to become more aware of the larger world. Having just returned from China, I strove to maintain my links with the church worldwide by representing a Dutch organization called Open Doors. Their leadershipwas very supportive of my academic research and underwrote a year of research on my thesis in the Netherlands. While with Open Doors, I twice traveled into Soviet Central Asia and once visited North Africa.
When our studies were finished, we returned to China. We were there for one year before returning to the States. It was a wonderful time among the Chinese students. In retrospect, however, we had not grasped the magnitude of stress inevitable in raising four children in China. From this, God has worked in us a fuller awareness of how important a healthy marriage and family are to a balanced, fruitful life.
Stephanie and I have been married for seventeen years (2000) and we believe in "couple power." We have come to realize that the best way to change the world is also the simplest way - by experiencing and sharing God's contagious love in our generation of brokeness.
We have four children. Patrick Xavier, 13, was born in America; Brendan Daniel, 8, was born in Ireland; Keegan Evangeline, 6, is a Dutch girl; and Sean Michael 4 was born in China. I was born and raised in Western Pennsylvania. My father is a lawyer and my mother is an educator. Stephanie's mom is also in education and her father is a doctor. Stephanie has two brothers and one sister with another sister already in heaven waiting for her! I have come to realize in this past year that my children will never have any other father and my wife will never have any other husband while God, in His mercy, does not "need me" to single-handedly try to help Asia's billions.
The pain of my parent's separation has indelibly affected my life. On the positive side, my father taught me such Dutch ethnic values as how to work hard, be thorough, persistent, and to treat people non-judgmentally. My mother taught me to be creative, to show respect for the English language, to serve and value others, to stop and have a cup of coffee and appreciate the Autumn leaves or the beauty of a Rhododendron blossom.
In terms of aesthetics, I have found satisfaction in expressing an idea effectively on paper. My brother is the musician and photographer in the family and my sister is a visual artist. What was always important to my mother was not how things were expressed, but that they were evaluated and appreciated with creative engagement.
I enjoy many different kinds of music; the passion of Mahler and Mussorgsky; the lyricism of Van Morrison or James Taylor; the robustness of "Fiddler on the Roof;" the celebratory notes of African-American Gospel; the sweetness of Louie Armstrong; the puckishness of Irish Ceili music and devotive melodies of Bach. I enjoy theater and this interest led to my being a drama minor at University. I enjoy reading all kinds of poetry and short stories and teaching English, Irish, and American Literature in China was a joy.
Our dinner table was an on-going Chautauqua! Thanks to my mother's connections with the University of Pittsburgh, visitors from all over the world would recount with tears, laughter, and passion the perspectives of their hearts over cup after cup of her strong coffee. We grew up to love books and were taught to listen. As a young man I struggled, as so many in my generation did, with Hesse, Pirsig, Salinger, Joyce, Camus, and Thoreau. Later, I found challenge in Martin Buber's Hasidism; in Eli Wiesel's memories of the Holocaust; in Berdayev's "Meaning of the Creative Act"; in Huxley and Orwell's apocolyptism; and in Joseph Heller's stark realism. I love to read biographies, histories, and cultural anthropological studies.
The Kingdom of God is an inclusive entity which transcends cultural, racial, and ethnic distinctives. Christian higher education seeks to represent an authentic, uncompromising faith in the presence of a diverse world.
As we acknowledge cultural diversity, we need also to affirm our evangelical particularity. The ethnic broadening of the student body of an institution, such as Messiah, is a process of institutional maturation. It also reflects the increasing plurality of our society. The American future will be increasingly pluralistic rather than the integrative "melting pot" of the past. We are quickly becoming a nation of diverse cultures, denominations, and religious views.
The interaction of cultures need not lead to uniformity. In fact, as Messiah seeks to serve a more diverse population it must remain true to its own distinctive identity. The broadening of the institution's foundation need to lead to compromise or vision and heritage. Only by being faithful to its mandate to make "Christ Preeminent" will Messiah College achieve its objective of making a significant impact on this generation.
When I was a little boy, I remember spending many wonderful summer afternoons with my mother. She has always been an artist and a nurturer. She gave me a painter's smock and reams of coloring paper without lines. We had a potter's wheel where she patiently encouraged me in the process of bringing clay to life. but what I remember most is how she would put a blanket out in the backyard and read stories by the hour. Between stories we would stare up at the clouds and imagine them as mountains or monsters or wild animals.
Somehow even when my life has been fraught with demands, I have never left that backyard blanket. People are what intrigue me most. God has made each of us so different and so filled with majesty, potential, and capacity to glorify Him. Each person has a story to tell and I love to listen to the whisper of God's voice among the warp and woof of each story among the laughter, the wonder, and the tears.
I am a Dutchman! Sometimes when I get involved in a project I find it hard to stop Zecheriah 14:20 tells us, the day is coming when "Holiness unto the Lord" will be written on even the "pots and the pans" of the Temple. As Michelangelo said, "Trifles make for perfection and perfection is no trifle!" But we are not called to do everything. When His spirit calls us to move on we have to be "like the wind" and follow without hesitation. It is those times of transition that are often difficult for me. Chocolate chip cookies fresh out of the oven with ice cold milk is another major weakness!