Eric has been an ordained pastor for 30 years, serving in a number of different settings, from large multi-church parishes to individual churches to a church plant to being a nursing home chaplain. For the last five years, Eric has worked with congregations in conflict, transition and crisis through his Moving Forward consulting ministry. In addition to consulting, Eric also teaches a course in “Care and Counseling for Ministry” at UNWSP in the ministry department and is honored to be an Adjunct at MI. Eric is in the process of getting his Doctorate at Fuller Seminary. He has been married for 34 years to Pamela and they have two grown daughters.

Pam has served in pastoral ministry since graduating from college with a degree in Social Work. She has served in a variety of capacities: Youth Ministry, Lay Pastor, Director of Missions and Young Adults, Small Groups, Caring Ministers, Women's Ministry and Nursing Home Chaplain. Her deepest passion is to build strong marriages through her ministry, On Bended Knee Ministries. Pam has been a trainer for Prepare-Enrich for the past 16 years training hundreds of pastors and counselors to be certified facilitators.  Pam also comes alongside churches to help them grow their marriage ministries through offering Marriage Matters Seminars and helping train Marriage Mentors.

As a mother of two young adult girls through the gift of open adoption, Pam's other passion is adoption. She recently served as the Outreach Coordinator for Bellis, a non-profit which offers adoption education and support. Pam's post college education was through the North Heights Lay Ministry Training Center and Luther Seminary. Pam loves the opportunity to get to know the students at The Master's Institute Seminary.  

Pam is the primary instructor for the Weddings Course and Eric is the primary instructor for the Funerals Course although they both assist in both courses. Eric is also on the Board of Directors for The Master’s Institute. 

Course Description:

This course intends to introduce students to the dynamics of grief, loss, and death from a pastoral perspective. Practically, it intends to help prepare students for the work of walking with individuals and families through grieving and loss, and the conducting of the funeral or celebration of life in a way that honors life honestly, as well as exalts the gospel.

Through discussion, guest speakers and focused learning, students will gain practical confidence to more effectively handle the various grief and death situations that happen in a church setting. These situations include understanding grief, the cancer journey, suicide, preaching and conducting a funeral, practicing a burial and other situations that will someday arise.

When I'm not teaching at The Master's Institute, my full-time position is as an Assistant Professor of Bible and Jewish Studies at Macalester College in St. Paul. My PhD is from Vanderbilt University (2017) where I focused on New Testament and Jewish Studies, but I also have an MA in Old Testament from Luther Seminary (also in St. Paul). I taught the History of Ancient Israel course last year, and I'm excited to be with you for a study of the Pentateuch (or what I'll likely refer to more often as the "Torah" [Hebrew for "Teaching" or "Instruction").

Course description:

This course will introduce students to the Pentateuch as essential for understanding the Biblical story and Israelite identity, and as essential Christian Scripture. It will focus on the content, themes, and narrative scope and structure of the Pentateuch, as well as matters pertaining to historicity and the claims made about God, humanity, and the created world.

The focus of this course will be on the ways that the Pentateuch (or Torah) would have been understood by its first readers in an ancient Near Eastern context. In order to understand the Five Books of Moses within this context, we will examine related texts produced by Israel’s neighbors as “translational tools” to help us understand the original intention of the Torah. Along with attention to the texts’ ancient history and milieu, students will learn how to relate the Pentateuch to the ongoing Christian mission, and how the Torah informs and enriches major aspects of Christian faith such as God, law, ritual, atonement, reconciliation, and salvation.