In the heart of historic Edinburgh, Scotland, over 5,000 miles from Escondido, CA, alumni from Westminster Seminary California are helping to shape the future of ministry in the Free Church of Scotland. Remarkably, three graduates currently serve as full-time lecturers at the denomination’s ministerial training college, Edinburgh Theological Seminary.
Ben Castaneda (MDiv, 2012) is lecturer of New Testament, a position he has held for the last five years, after years of laboring as both a pastor and missionary. He said, “WSC gave me a great and solid foundation in the languages, and really emphasized just knowing the Bible well, which is one thing I want to communicate my students. As those going into the ministry in some capacity they need to know their Bibles.”
Daniel Sladek (MDiv, 2001) reflected on the “helpful and fruitful” way in which the professors at WSC taught theology: “One of the things that I really benefited from was the robustly, soundly exegetical approach theology—a study that was also done in a way that was confessionally aware.” Daniel has been living in Scotland since he graduated from WSC in 2001. After pastoring for seven years in the rural highlands, he completed a PhD and now is lecturer of Old Testament and Hebrew.
Upon completion of his MDiv in 2012, Zack Purvis went on to study at Oxford, where he received a DPhil in 2014. After several other post-doctoral fellowships, in 2021 he began as lecturer in church history at ETS. Zack recently remarked on the influence that Dr. Godfrey had on him during his time at WSC, “not only for his great knowledge of the church but for his great love for the church, and that’s what I hope to bring to the students here as well.”
This microcosm of WSC in the hub of historic Presbyterianism reflects well our desire and aim to serve the global church. Join us in thanking God for these men, and others like them, and pray that the Lord would bless their efforts to train the next generation of pastors.
