British Columbia Needs TEDS

Samuel Lippitt traveled from British Columbia, Canada, to Deerfield, Illinois, in January to begin a Master of Theology program with TEDS. A few months later, he was surprised to hear that TEDS would be moving to British Columbia to join Trinity Western University as its seminary.

Samuel believes that TEDS will bring a huge benefit to the church and people of Canada, “I think it will give the church additional resources. Definitely creating pastors and teachers. It will be an improvement for the churches.”

Samuel grew up near Calgary, Alberta, and he moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, to attend Regent College. He found a culture that needed the gospel. “The West Coast of Canada is traditionally a little more opposed to Christian values, as a whole in the society. People like to move there to take on the West Coast lifestyle—drugs are very common in British Columbia, especially marijuana. It’s all over the place.”

He recalls his journey to faith as a teenager. Growing up in a small church, his parents would take him to a Christian summer camp on Canada’s West Coast. “And that’s where I actually made my faith my own. When I was in high school, I went to work at the camp for the whole summer, and I was immersed in Bible study really for the first time. I was also surrounded by Christian guys my own age who were good role models.” When he was 17 years old, he felt a call to teach the Bible. That sense of calling led him to work in youth ministry in Vancouver and also to manage a gospel music group.

Now at TEDS, Samuel says he loves his classes in the ThM program, “I wanted to learn more about my faith and be able to explain it to others. Right now, I am in Theological Methods with Dr. Vanhoozer, which I’ve been enjoying. I really wanted to take a course with him. My major is Old Testament. I’m also taking Syriac (a dialect of Aramaic) with Dr. Tully.”

Samuel has gotten involved at North Suburban Church in Deerfield, where he will be teaching an upcoming Life course on II Chronicles. “Dr. Monson is going to be teaching I Chronicles, so I’ve got some large footsteps to follow!” Samuel is also teaching the church’s first and second graders in Sunday School.

Samuel says his next planned step after completing his ThM will be to pursue a PhD to further prepare him for his calling to teach. “I have this innate desire to learn more about the Bible, because it’s the foundation of our faith. I also feel the desire to be able to articulate it to other people—really to anybody—in a way that is understandable to them.”

He says he’s excited that TEDS is moving to his home country, and he sees a great future for TEDS in British Columbia. “I would encourage the people who are moving up to Canada to be very intentional about keeping up their faith, because the West Coast can be a hard place to be a Christian. In British Columbia, it is difficult to get to know people, and that can influence the church a lot, but it can also be a great place of ministry—a great place to serve. So, I look forward to seeing the positive influence TEDS will have on my culture.”