October 2025 Newsletter

GARY AS MENTOR OF FUTURE TEACHERS

This month Gary says: I have been professor at Seminario ESEPA since we graduated from language school in 1999. 

My main focus is the New Testament, and typically on the graduate level (master’s degree). Last term I taught Exegesis of Luke, and that involved many facets, including a great deal of them working in the Greek text. But I also serve as MENTOR for students who are writing their master’s thesis. What is this all about?

A THESIS is the final project before they graduate with a Master’s Degree in Biblical Exegesis. They show that they have “mastered” all the relevant areas (Hebrew, Greek, exegesis, Bible interpretation, Bible background, theology, teaching experience). Because of the investment in time for a professor, I typically work with no more than one protégé per year.

What does a thesis look like? It’s a document of about 100-130 pages; its main thread is to prove some point that the student has developed. He or she will choose a method and also explore all the bibliography that we can get our hands on (this includes material I send them from Pennsylvania). They need to offer some original contribution: for example: “I will seek to prove that X is true, based on the Greek exegesis of ‘Son of man’ references in the book of Revelation and their roots in the Old Testament.”

This year I was asked to work with WERNER. I was happy to do so, because I had had him in class and found him a reliable worker.

My first step with Werner was in April 2024, when I read his preliminary research proposal (technically called an “anteproyecto”). He was going to explore particular aspects of “John’s Christology” (the doctrine of Christ in the gospel of John), using such-and-such methods, and giving a preliminary list of 40 books and articles he wanted to use. He also had prepared a calendar for finishing it.

Since then and this summer, it was back and forth between me and Werner. He would send me a dozen pages, I would comment on them, he would make changes, and after more weeks send me some more material. Brick by brick the building grew, until this August, when I told him that in my opinion, he was ready to turn it in to ESEPA for approval.

This past Friday was a milestone: he stood before the “jury,” a group of four examiners, including myself. He gave a summary of his work for about a half hour, then received questions from professors who had been appointed to read and evaluate its quality. The last stage I had with my student was to “prep” him for this jury: what sorts of questions he could expect; how to present himself; how not to say too little or too much when asked a question; what to do if he doesn’t know the answer. And to dress with coat and tie! I sent him emails during the last few weeks, asking how he is feeling, giving him boosts of confidence.

The jury lasted two full hours. One of my questions was, “Este capítulo en el estudio de Juan está inevitablemente vinculado con Rudolf Bultmann. . . ¿Podría señalar dos o tres formas en que, a su juicio, él perdió el rumbo?” (“This chapter in John’s study is inevitably linked with Rudolf Bultmann . . .. Could you point to two or three ways in which, in your opinion, he lost his way?”). The question, by the way, was easier than it might appear!

After the exam, which I thought went very well, we dismissed the candidate. Werner went out for some coffee and fresh air while we discussed his presentation. Each made various comments, and we then voted: Werner received a unanimous vote that he “Passed” his project, and that will be entered into the academic register. I believe this was his last barrier to graduating this January. Werner was sent for and the jury chairman announced that he had passed. Hearty handshakes, claps on the back, smiles, “¡Bien hecho!” (Well done!), and the meeting broke up – his family was waiting to take him to lunch. 

I contacted him later that afternoon to ask how he felt, suggesting he might want to decompress over the next few weeks. I have led maybe a dozen students through their projects and “defenses”, plus the one I myself did in the 1980s, and I know the importance of a cooling-off period!
 

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The majority of ESEPA’s students work on a bachelor’s degree at a Bible college level, which prepares them to be pastors, missionaries, counselors, and other Christian workers. 

For advanced students like Werner there is a master’s degree level, what in America we call a seminary program. It prepares men and women who in the future will prepare other Christian workers. 

Think of 2 Timothy 2:2 – “what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful people, who will be able to teach others also.” The master’s graduates will be “able to teach others who in turn will be able to teach others who in their turn will be able to teach others, ad infinitum.”

It is not easy to get into ESEPA’s master’s program. As you can see, it’s not easy to get out of it either! But we now have Werner and other new graduates whom the Latin American church can deploy as teachers, writers, thinkers. And that’s one of Gary’s major life goals.