Distinguished Alumni Awards 2008
At its meeting on February 15, 2008, the Trustees of CTS named two recipients of the Seminary’s Distinguished Alumni Award for 2008. The award is given annually to recipients who have brought unusual credit to their alma mater by their distinction in Christian ministry. For 2008 the recipients are The Reverend John H. Stek and The Reverend Anthony Van Zanten.
Rev. John H. Stek
The Reverend John H. Stek received an A.B. from Calvin College, a B.D. from Calvin Theological Seminary, and a Th.M. from Westminster Theological Seminary. An ordained minister of the Christian Reformed Church in North America, John served his denomination as a pastor in Raymond, MN, as an elder, as a member of the Calvin College and Seminary Board of Trustees, as an astute member of many synodical study committees, and, for thirty years, as a professor in the Old Testament Department of Calvin Theological Seminary, retiring in 1991.
John was a marvelous teacher—alert, balanced, highly intelligent, hospitable to students. He taught Hebrew Bible, and the Hebrew part of his teaching was always for the sake of opening the Bible and letting students see deeply into it. Everything in his teaching was worked up from scratch with the result that it was always honest and fresh.
In addition, for many years John served on the translation committee of the New International Version of the Bible. He is Associate Editor of the NIV Study Bible, and a significant contributor of the version's study materials for seven Old Testament books—and for two of them, the principal contributor.
John Stek is a leader of the church and a worthy recipient of the 2008 Distinguished Alumni Award.
Rev. Anthony Van Zanten
The Reverend Anthony Van Zanten, a native of rural Iowa, made the American city his home and mission field, first in Harlem, then in Paterson, NJ, and for twenty-eight years as pastor and director of the Roseland Christian Ministries Center in Chicago. Tony has offered hospitality to homeless people, healing to addicted people, training for unemployed people, food for hungry people, hope in the blessed gospel of Jesus for all people.
He has been a tireless agent of racial reconciliation.
Tony is reformed in the tradition of John Calvin, who not only comforted and prayed for the victims of plague in sixteenth-century Geneva, but also introduced new hygienic measures to arrest the spread of diseases. Accordingly, Tony Van Zanten has not only preached the gospel and administered the sacraments; he had also set up beds for those who would otherwise shiver on Chicago’s wintry streets. He has not only prayed for devastated people; he has stayed with them, trained them, found support for them, fought for them. Tony’s life, his health, his safety, his peace of mind—the things we all protect—have become his gift to the church, neighborhood, and community. His ministry in all these ways has said: "The body of Christ for you." The blood of Christ for you."
Tony is an alumnus of Calvin Theological Seminary and a Distinguished Alumnus of Calvin College.
Tony Van Zanten is a leader of the church, and a worthy recipient of the 2008 Distinguished Alumni Award of Calvin Theological Seminary.