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| Billie Silvey |
| June 2006 |
| Tom Olbricht: Beloved Educator |
| One of the high points of both last year’s and this year’s Pepperdine Lectures for me were Dr. Tom Olbricht’s expository classes on the lecture themes--"Lifted Up: An Expository Study of John" last year and "Life Together: An Expository Study of 1 John" this year. An excellent choice for such profound studies, Olbricht has served as a minister almost fifty years and an elder the past twenty. He has preached or lectured on every continent but Antarctica. A renowned scholar, he attended Harding University, Northern Illinois University, the University of Iowa and Harvard Divinity School, studying Scripture, communication and church history. Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Religion at Pepperdine University, he has taught at Harding University, the University of Dubuque and its Theological Seminary, Pennsylvania State University, and Abilene Christian University. He is author or editor of sixteen books, including the two most recent books on the themes of the Pepperdine Lectures. He and his wife Dorothy now live in retirement in South Berwick, Maine. Married for fifty-four years, they have five children and twelve grandchildren. William Baker, editor of the Stone-Campbell Journal and professor of New Testament at Cincinnati Bible Seminary, writes of last year’s Lecture theme volume, “Tom Olbricht shows once again why he is the most highly beloved educator in the Churches of Christ. This very readable monograph on the Gospel of John displays wise observations gained from careful pondering and a command of language, theology, criticism and popular culture. Even as the original beloved disciple intends to 'lift up' the name of Christ, so does this contemporary beloved professor 'lift up' the Gospel of John.” In his first class on “The Heart of Love and Fellowship in 1 John,” Olbricht discusses a break in fellowship caused by some who left the church, claiming a superior status. John, in his epistle, opposes their claims by presenting God as reaching toward us, sharing himself as he entered human life fully in Jesus, and encouraging them to abide in him and his forgiveness. In the second class, “Love in Action Tested,” Olbricht points out that love is not just a warm feeling, but action. He contrasts loving, Christian fellowship with love for the world. “Love doesn’t box you in,” Olbricht says. “It gives you latitude to do something.” It’s not the amount of sacrifice that matters, but the heart behind it. Love expresses itself in a concrete response to needs. The third class, “The World Conquered through Koinonia,” treats the testimony to Jesus of the three witnesses--the Spirit, the water, and the blood. Jesus, the Son of God, could be seen, felt and heard. Only such a vital faith, as opposed to just a warm feeling, can cause us to lay down ourselves for other people. Only such a vital faith can give us boldness before God. And only such a vital faith can enable us to stay the course in the larger fellowship of God’s people. Hearing Olbricht teach forces me to wonder how real my love is for the Christians I’m in fellowship with, but it never makes me question Jesus’ love--or the love of Tom Olbricht for Jesus--and for us, his grateful students! |
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