I’m the husband of Cyndy Shearer, the proud father of 12 children, an Elder at Abundant Life Church, Director of the Francis Schaeffer Study Center, co-founder and publisher of Greenleaf Press and was the City Manager of Mt. Juliet from 2000 to 2007. We have lived in Wilson County, TN just outside of Lebanon since 1987. At various times, I’ve been a college professor, marketing VP for a regional Coca-Cola bottler, senior analyst for a demographic consulting firm, executive vice president of a research firm providing strategic planning services for hospitals, publisher, author, and a small business owner.
I grew up in Atlanta, GA (North Fulton High School, ’73), went to college in NC (Davidson, ’77) where I met my soulmate, Cyndy. After graduating from Davidson, I spent two years on the left coast, pursuing graduate degrees in History and Humanities (Stanford, ’79). Along the way, I lived in Germany for two years, in the quaint little town of Marburg-an-der-Lahn. In 1975-76 I was an undergraduate exchange student there at the Phillip’s Universität. In 1979-80, I was a Fulbright Scholar working at the Hessische Staatsarchiv, also in Marburg.
I was introduced to Francis Schaeffer when I was a senior in high school in January of 1973. I was enrolled jointly at the local public high school and at Georgia Tech in downtown Atlanta. At Tech, I found myself taking an introductory philosophy course. The youth pastor at my church (a graduate of Westminster seminary) suggested to me that I should read The God Who is There. A Christian apologist who dealt head-on with the ideas of existentialism and relativism was a revelation to me – it resulted in my beginning to take the Bible seriously in all that it teaches. And it confirmed to me that Jesus really is the answer.
My email address is: rob at schaefferstudycenter.org
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Where can I send Rob Shearer an email? A I have photo he would like to see from his Davidson days. Could be two photos.
Rob I went to Dvidson with a Shearer from Cornelius–
Class of ’49—My disinctions we not academic–tommy Peter’s Trophy etc…and fun.
Do you remember where Schaefer quotes Luther on opposing the onslaught of the enemy at that very point.I had a Latin L’Abri in Miami, and stayed in tocuh with Edith, Udo, and Os.
Blessings,
Billl
732-877-9373
Bill:
Here’s the quote I think you’re thinking of – it’s one of my favorites:
“If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the Word of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Him. Where the battle rages there the loyalty of the soldier is proved; and to be steady on all the battle front besides, is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point.”
-Luther’s Works. Weimar Edition. Briefwechsel [Correspondence], vol. 3, pp. 81f
Although I’ve been involved in studying Christian theology for over 30 years, I haven’t been that foud of Schaefer. I found that the way he attacked Dali and Kierkegaard seemed to come from a position of that “heresy hunting”
mentality which was exactly what Jesus prayed against. Ronald Reagan also had this divisive thread with the way he demonized democrats.
One has to really strive for wisdom to understand exactly what it is we believe and what are the possible consequences. Although those who profess Christ may differ in how we follow Christ, that doesn’t mean one of necessarily more right to God. I believe this is really the message of the New Testament and often where we expect to find the greatest light we end up finding great darkness. Like Franky Schaefer, his son, I ended up getting more from the writers of the Philokalia that Evangelicals.