Education
A.B. Hope College, M.Div. Western Theological Seminary, Ph.D. Fuller Theological Seminary
vern.sterk@westernsem.edu

Courses
CM112 Seminar on Communicating the Gospel
TF547 Gospel in Context
TF622 Mission and Ministry across Cultures
MT230 Seminar in Contextual Analysis

Crossing cultural barriers to communicate the Gospel is one of the most challenging tasks facing the church today. Equipping students to contextualize the Good News to diverse ethnic populations is essential to the life and ministry of the church in this century.

Background
For 37 years, Vern Sterk and his wife, Carla, have served as missionaries of the Reformed Church in America. After nearly 10 years of village evangelism in a previously unreached tribal area in Chiapas, Mexico, Vern helped establish a Tzotzil Bible School to train leaders for the growing Tzotzil church. When persecution became a major part of the work in Chiapas, Dr. Sterk led the relocation and defense of suffering Christians and completed his dissertation on "The Dynamics of Persecution" to earn his Ph.D. in the area of Intercultural Studies.

From 1988-1998 the Sterks coordinated the translation of the first complete Bible in the Tzotzil language. In the years following the Zapatista insurgency movement they have been involved in reconciliation and the defense of Christian leaders falsely accused of civil war atrocities.

Vern continues to coordinate the Chiapas Mission Agency, which is preparing to send out missionaries from Chiapas. From 1997 to 2005 Vern taught at Western Theological Seminary for one semester each year. In the fall of 2005 Dr. Sterk became a full-time associate professor on a three-year appointment.