College Park Church

Editorial Note:  Dr. D. A. Carson will be our guest speaker at THINK|11 (March 4-6, 2011), our annual theology conference aimed at showing the relevance of theology to all of life.  The following is a brief reflection from our own Marty Irwin, who served as Dr. Carson's secretary while her husband, Pastor Nate Irwin, was a student at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School where Dr. Carson still teaches.

When I first began working as a faculty secretary at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in the early 80's, I heard regular rumors from the other secretaries about how thankful they were that Dr. Carson was on sabbatical in England that year.  Their joy was due to the fact that they now considered their work load manageable and stress-free.  Towards the end of the year when my supervisor, somewhat apologetically, informed me that I was going to be Dr. Carson’s secretary the following school year, I honestly did not know what to think.  However, working for someone described as “detailed,” “organized,” “prolific,” and “hard-working” sounded like a dream job to me. 

Despite how the other secretaries felt about working for Dr. Carson, I thoroughly enjoyed working for him because of his organization, attention to detail, and work ethic.  I never had to correct his mistakes (because he doesn’t make any!), guess what he was trying to say, or rush an exam to the printers.  He always kept me supplied with work to do on my down times.  We were not to work on professors’ books unless all our other jobs were completed, and, because he was regularly on top of things, I usually had a book manuscript to work on.  He pushed the administration to supply the secretaries with computers (yes, it was that long ago!) so we could more quickly help to meet book deadlines. 

Best of all, he treated me with respect and took a personal interest in our desire to serve overseas.  When we were ministering in Pakistan, he kept up with us and has always shown an interest in us and our ministry ever since those days at Trinity.  I could not be more delighted that he is coming to the THINK conference!  We are in for a real treat.