Merry Christmas from the Mark Farnham Family

SI readers,
This is my first year writing for SharperIron, and I have enjoyed the challenge of blog writing. The glut of information and opinions on the Internet has made it seem comparable to having 5,000 cable channels—too much to digest in a year, let alone a day. That’s why for us to be relevant we must say things that are eternal. The infinite God has condescended and revealed Himself to us so that we can know Him who is incomprehensible. This is the most relevant truth communicable! I’m glad I don’t have to keep up with every new website. I simply need to know the Word, which reveals the infinite God and helps me interact with my culture in a redeeming fashion.

My wife, Adrienne, and I have been married 18 years, and our kids are getting older (two teenage girls and an 11-year-old son). We marvel at the students here at Calvary Baptist Theological Seminary who are raising little children (some as many as six children) while going through school. We are now years past the age when our kids need us to get them dressed, bathed, and fed. In fact, many nights we go to bed before our children. So, parents of little ones, hang on; it gets easier! Enjoy those days—they disappear almost suddenly.

Adrienne teaches second grade at Calvary Baptist School and leads a small group in the Seminary Wives Fellowship. I teach Theology and New Testament at the seminary and am on half load until I finish my coursework. I am also the chaplain of the seminary and oversee the mentoring program. All of my kids play basketball (among other sports), and right now I am coaching my son in a town league and my daughter’s junior high girls’ team. We are all looking forward to a basketball-free week this week!

We don’t get to go on vacation too often, but when we do, it’s to the beach or to the mountains of New Hampshire. Since I was a kid, our family has vacationed in Chatham, Cape Cod, and hiked the White Mountains in NH. We haven’t gone the last two summers, but hopefully this year. We will spend a few days in our home state of Connecticut this holiday season.

Adrienne and I have a growing passion for mentoring seminary couples and have been hosting an apologetics forum at our house once a month during the school year. She and I both mentor students and wives, and we find great joy in sharing our struggles, failures, and joys with them. In 2008, we plan to host with a pastor friend and his wife a few seminars on Marriage, Romance and Sex for seminary couples.

I am only a year and a half away from being done with coursework for my Ph.D. at Westminster in apologetics. After that comes a year of preparation for comprehensive exams, and then starts the dissertation process. It is a loooong road, but I enjoy learning immensely. I am presently working on writing a new D.Min. course for the seminary (Ministering in a Postmodern World) and rewriting several others (Soteriology and Ethics). My hobby is cultural analysis, and I have lectured frequently on pop culture and cultural engagement. I just finished lecturing on The Golden Compass book and movie and hope to have an SI article on it soon. I also hope to finish my series on Secularization this winter.

I would also like to try to connect with other young(er) Ph.D. students and those considering doctoral work for encouragement, fellowship, and sharing of ideas. Please e-mail me if you are interested: mfarnham@cbs.edu.

Our family wishes you and yours a Christmas full of joyful worship of our Savior, whose love is beyond comprehension. May the richness of Christ and the full measure of His grace occupy your hearts and minds this week and this new year!