About Me
I am from Stoney Creek, Ontario. I live in Kentville, Nova Scotia, with my wife, Meagan, and five boys. Yes, we have five boys.
By profession, I am Assistant Professor of Theology of Acadia Divinity College. Previously I have served as Pastor of First Baptist Church of Sudbury, the Assistant Chaplain of Thorneloe University at Laurentian University, and I was also part-time faculty there in religious studies and theology.
I did my undergrad and masters degrees at Heritage College and Seminary. I wrote my master’s thesis, entitled, “Trinity and Community: the Postmodern Evangelical Theological Methodology of Stanley J. Grenz.”
I did my Doctor of Theology for University of Toronto, Wycliffe College, in systematic theology, with my dissertation entitled, “The baptist Vision: Narrative Theology and Baptist Identity in the Thought of James Wm. McClendon, Jr.” (the small “b” there is intentional).
This blog is entitled “Friend of Radicals” to encapsulate both my convictions as a Anabaptist/Baptist as well as a Christian thinker willing to listen to other pioneering hearts and minds, who offer great lessons on living the faith in “radical” ways.
You can read my full faith story, entitled “Faith in Fragments” in three parts:
Spencer Boersma 
Quite by accident born of e-browsing to find out who said what about the spiritual meanings of the Garden of Eden, I came across yourself Sir. I went to that place where you posted your Article “”Eden: Physical Place or Spiritual State?” written October 9,2015. Even though I’m a “cradle-Catholic, I married a Baptist girl back on December 29, 1962 and so I’m a little familiar with Baptist (Freewill) tenets. But to my point: I think you nailed it with your article about the spiritual nature of the story of Eden … and by extension of the whole megillah, that is the Complete creation and Eternal Life story.
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Thank you, Professor Boersma, for your extraordinary sermon on the poem “In Flanders Fields.” In the minutes it took me to read, I had the sensation of hundreds of jigsaw puzzle pieces all snapping into place to create a clear picture–of why that beautiful poem makes me so uneasy; of how Christianity does and should speak to the realities of war and its aftermath; and of so much more. I will be crediting your work and thought in my own sermon this Memorial Day here in the U.S. Many thanks.
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Deletable comment. In your outstanding article on the “freedom” convoy in the Baptist global news, you mentioned marshal law. The word is martial, not marshal.
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thanks. Looks like that one slipped past the editor and myself.
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Thank you, for sharing your story. It is God who redeems us and loves us. God’s love is eternal (from life’s first cry until our final breath). Even in the eye of a storm, God is with us. Yes, like fragments we will experience God’s light shinning through the darkest places of our heart. God’s light dispels everything we think we could have ever experienced in this life. God uses our brokenness to draw us closer to him. Looking through the lens of a telescope, we begin to recognize the never-ending grace God has bestowed on us. God’s love for us is like a never-ending ocean and his favor lasts a lifetime. If Jesus did not reach out for us, we just wouldn’t be here today. I’m reminded of the Welsh Hymn:
“Grace and love, like mighty rivers;
Poured incessant from above,
Heaven’s peace and perfect justice;
Kissed a guilty world in love.
The imagery here is strong and compared to mighty rivers. Incessant meaning never-ending, a continuous flow. Does perfect justice exist in this world? Not really. But, we have an Advocate, our Heavenly Father and Comforter who will bring in his divine wisdom “perfect justice”. This is just what the world needs. God’s love transcends time, history and still continues to comfort our aching hearts. The joy and hope we have in Jesus is just nothing this guilty world can ever offer. So, let’s come boldly but humbly thanking God for his wondrous grace in us, through us and in the world. We just wouldn’t be here, if it wasn’t for Jesus.
-Rachel Dougherty
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