October 2, 2026
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — This summer, Midwestern Seminary faculty members John Meade and Peter Gurry traveled to the Netherlands to serve pastors and ministry leaders from around the globe by teaching on the authority of Scripture. The two were invited to speak at the fifth annual Preachers and Leaders Conference hosted by Tyndale Theological Seminary in Amsterdam, as well as to co-teach an intensive course titled The History of the Bible.
“John Meade and Peter Gurry are a gift to the modern church,” said President Jason Allen. “The trustworthiness and authority of the Bible are constantly under attack in our day. That is why I am thankful for the work of John and Peter. They have given a large part of their academic ministry to defending the Word of God. I am thankful for their recent trip to the Netherlands to strengthen and equip ministers, and I pray that their work will bear lasting fruit.”
Lasting more than two weeks, the trip was an opportunity for Meade and Gurry to help strengthen the Church by giving its leaders greater confidence in the trustworthiness and authority of the Bible.
Reflecting on the importance of their topic, Gurry said, “The apostles and prophets (Eph. 2:20) are the foundation of the church, and their teaching is only found in the Scriptures. With ongoing skepticism about the Bible—now widely spread through YouTube and social media—we want to provide responsible, historically grounded answers for Christians as they teach and preach from the Word.”
At the two-day conference, Meade and Gurry each delivered three sessions to a group of local and international ministry leaders. Meade addressed the topics of the canon of Scripture, the transmission of the Old Testament text, and Israel’s scribal history. Gurry focused on the legacy of William Tyndale, the apocryphal gospels, and the New Testament text’s transmission.
“In one of my sessions,” Gurry shared, “I spoke on the life and legacy of William Tyndale, the first to translate the Bible from its original languages. I explained what motivated Tyndale to suffer persecution and ultimately death in order to get the Bible into the hands of God’s people. I reminded the conference attendees that we as Christians must cherish the Bible and hand it on faithfully to the next generation.”
Following the conference, the professors taught a 10-day intensive course for seminary students at Tyndale. Their course explored the formation and preservation of the Bible, with added focus on textual issues and theological implications. Students represented a diverse group from Holland, Japan, Nigeria, and Ethiopia.
“Tyndale Seminary serves the global church as well as the Dutch church,” said Meade. “Not only were these students conversing with us about the English Bible they used but also the Bibles from their countries. That situation vividly reminded me that the Bible has a very broad history and that God’s Word has been active around the world for centuries in many different languages and countries.”
In one of his course lectures, Meade addressed a significant textual issue in Isaiah 53:11, a passage central to the prophecy of the Suffering Servant.
“I walked students through the variant in Isaiah 53:11—whether the Servant, after dying and being buried, sees “light” or not. Though the doctrine of the Messiah’s resurrection does not rise or fall on this textual problem, Isaiah 53:11 is one of the clearest places in the Old Testament that shows the Servant of the Lord will rise from the dead because his death was substitutionary and not for himself. In this verse, the complexity of textual criticism meets theology and how we read the Bible. The students caught that reality in Amsterdam, and the church needs to be reminded of the significance of this work on the text because it potentially (re)shapes the way we see Jesus and His ministry.”
Reflecting on the experience, both professors noted the joy of connecting with a global body of believers.
“It was a great treat to connect with so many faithful Christians in Holland,” said Gurry. “It reminded me again that the church is a global family and that wherever the church spreads, she must be built on the foundation of God’s authoritative Word.”
Meade added, “As Protestants, Baptists believe God’s inspired Word created the Church. God’s Word written has been ministering to human hearts and souls for millennia. Knowing the Bible’s history—the cost, the toil to get it to us—often encourages believers to read and study it as well as fosters more confidence in it.” The trip exemplifies Midwestern Seminary’s ongoing mission to train ministry leaders for the Church around the world.
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