In our continuing series of profiles of college presidents, Trinity Christian College president Dr. Steve Timmermans gives us a glimpse into his media life.
Q. What are some of your all-time favorite books?
A. I’ve always appreciated the works of Lewis B. Smedes, particularly How Can It Be All Right When Everything Is All Wrong (Shaw Books) and A Pretty Good Person (HarperCollins). Also, John M. Perkins’s writings, such as Let Justice Roll Down (Regal) and A Quiet Revolution (Word Books), are favorites. And so many of Richard J. Mouw’s books are favorites, such as Uncommon Decency: Christian Civility in an Uncivil World (IVP) and Called to Holy Worldliness (Fortress Press).
Q. Are there any that have particularly influenced your life or work?
A. H. Richard Niebuhr’s Christ and Culture (Harper & Row) was significant for me in college; Anthony A. Hoekema’s The Christian Looks at Himself (Eerdmans) was critical in providing me a Christian perspective on the person while studying psychology at a secular university. Brian J. Walsh and J. Richard Middleton’s The Transforming Vision: Shaping a Christian Worldview (IVP Academic) and Albert M. Wolters’s Creation Regained: Biblical Basics for a Reformational Worldview (Eerdmans) have been worthy companions throughout a career in Christian higher education. James K. A. Smith’s Desiring the Kingdom: Worship, Worldview, and Cultural Formation (Baker Academic) continues to challenge me as a college leader.
Q. What are you reading now or hoping to read soon?
A. Souls in Transition: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of Emerging Adults (Christian Smith and Patricia Snell, Oxford University Press).
Q. Do you prefer to read paper or digital books?
A. Always paper.
Q. What is on your iPod or in your CD player right now?
A. Harmony: American Songs of Faith (The American Boychoir/St. Olaf Choir/the Alumni Choir of the American Boychoir, Albemarle Records).
Q. If you could only have three albums for the rest of your life, what would they be?
A. Morten Lauridsen’s Lux Aeterna (Hyperian U.K.), any album with Aaron Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man, and The American Boychoir’s Carol (Angel Records).
Q. Are there any songs that especially call you to worship?
A. “Come All You People” (from Sing! A New Creation, Faith Alive).
Q. Do you have any favorite movies that have stuck with you long after watching them?
A. A Beautiful Mind.
Q. It’s evening, you’re home alone, and you just want to sit in front of the TV for a while. What will you watch?
A. The news.
Q. Are there movies or shows that people keep telling you to watch that you just aren’t interested in?
A. I don’t have the patience or time for movies or television shows—there are so many other things that I choose to be involved in that have, for me, greater value.
Q. What sites do you find valuable for your work?
A. There’s not so much a specific site, but that I can Google to find what I happen to be looking for. For non-work, news sites and streamed music sites (Sunday morning’s “Choral Traditions” from Blue Lake Public Radio; Soul Music from KUSC in Los Angeles).
Q. Are there any podcasts that make your running/walking/odd jobs much more fun?
A. Not really.
About the Author
Kristy Quist is Tuned In editor for The Banner and a member of Neland Ave. CRC in Grand Rapids, Mich.