Saturday, April 29, 2023 — 8:30 am – 3:30 pm
There will be two sessions in the morning and one in the afternoon, with a break for lunch on your own at area restaurants. Snacks and coffee will be provided by the church.
Chad and Emily Van Dixhoorn
Chad and Emily met as students at Westminster Theological Seminary and were soon married. After graduation, they moved to Cambridge UK where Chad studied the Westminster Assembly and served as an associate pastor. Emily focused on caring for their four children. In 2008, they moved to Vienna VA where Chad served as an OPC pastor and as a church history professor for Reformed Theological Seminary. Emily enjoyed leading women’s Bible studies and retreats through their church and through Bible Study Fellowship. During this time Chad wrote a book “Confessing the Faith: A Reader’s Guide to the Westminster Confession of Faith” for which Emily wrote a study guide. In 2018, with one more child in the family, Chad and Emily returned to Westminster for Chad to teach church history and direct the Craig Center for studies on the Westminster Assembly.
Now with most of the children out of the house, Emily spends much of her time in moms’ prayer groups and mentoring seminary students and students’ wives. For fun, Chad enjoys woodworking and Emily plays racket sports. They have two dogs. They are sometimes fun.
Gospel-Shaped Marriage
Gospel-Shaped Marriage: Grace for Sinners to Love like Saints asks how Christians can make marriage easier, not for themselves, but for their spouse, or their married friends. In particular, the book focuses on what we can do to support one another in our particular callings, whether it be as a husband or as a wife. All the classic topics on marriage are addressed: family, marital roles, conflict, and intimacy — applying the gospel to each one. The book looks at marriage in the big picture: what God designed it for and how it fits in redemptive history. The authors see themselves both as sinners needing the Savior and as Saints who need to more closely reflect him in all that they do — including married life.