About
Win Groseclose
Senior Pastor, St. John’s (Burry’s) United Evangelical Protestant Church, Rochester, PA
Adjunct Professor of Theology, International Theological Seminary of Donetsk, Ukraine
Education:
Associate of Arts in Secondary Education, 1992 (Harford Community College, Bel Air,MD)
Bachelor of Science in English, 1994 (Towson State University, Towson, MD)
Master of Divinity, 2006 (Reformed Theological Seminary, Jackson, MS)
Win and his wife Denise are natives of northern Maryland, so the hills of Pennsylvania are not too far distant from the hills that they grew up calling home. Yet, their trip to Pennsylvania was not a direct one, having spent four-and-a-half years in Mississippi for seminary and five years in ministry in Florida.
Win began his preaching ministry prior to seminary, where he spent five years as a licensed lay-preacher in the United Methodist Church. Yet during this time, Win’s theology began shifting and by the time he and Denise were praying about seminaries, they knew that they would never be a fit for a pastorate in the Methodist Church. This led Win and Denise to Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi and to the Presbyterian Church in America.
While studying in seminary, Win continued his preaching ministry, serving small PCA churches in rural Mississippi and one small OPC church plant in Natchidoches, Louisiana. In addition, Win preached weekly at Gateway Rescue Mission, a downtown Jackson homeless shelter, ministering to the men there.
After seminary, God led Win to serve in two contexts in the panhandle of Florida. First as the Discipleship Director/Chaplain of Rocky Bayou Christian School and secondly as the pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Milton, FL. As Discipleship Director, Win oversaw the spiritual life of the school, was a senior administrator, chair of the Bible Department, leadership development coach, and Bible Teacher as well as the counselor for the boys. As Pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church, he served around his school schedule to minister to this small congregation.
Currently, God has seen fit to bring Win, Denise, and their two children “back home” to the hills of western Pennsylvania, this time to serve in one context, as senior pastor of St. John’s (Burry’s) Church.
Since 2005, Win has also served as an Adjunct Professor of Theology for the International Reformed Seminary of Donetsk, Ukraine. As part of this commitment, Win teaches for two weeks each year in eastern Ukraine and has taught core courses on Reformed Theology, Christology, and Soteriology as well as electives on C.S. Lewis and the Practical Theology of Christian Benevolence. The seminary is operated by R.I.T.E.-Ukraine (Reformed International Theological Education).
Win’s writing has also demonstrated itself to be an important part of his ministry. His personal goal is to write on every passage of scripture as well as to author several theological pieces. He is a long way from that goal, though you can follow his progress by clicking on the various links to Win’s books on this site.
Books by Win Groseclose
Letters to the Churches in Asia: Reflections on Revelation 2-3
Words of Assurance: Reflections on the Epistles of John
The Preeminence of Christ: Reflections on Paul’s Letter to the Colossians
The Egyptian Hallel Psalms: Reflections on Psalms 113-118
Credo, Ergo Confiteor: I believe, therefore I confess
The Prophet, the Big Fish, and the Great God: Reflections on the Book of Jonah
Docens Coram Deo: Teaching Before the Face of God (Festschrift in honor of founders of RBCS, I served as editor and contributed 2 essays)
No Nice Christians!: Reflections of a Pastor, Teacher, Theologian
Faith in the Presence of Judgment: Reflections on the Laments and Song of Habakkuk
Saved From What???: A Brief Introduction to Christianity
Win, I feel honored to have someone like you give me advice and encouragement. Thanks for being a good, caring man. God bless you and your family.
Thank you, Tamara, may God bless you and your family as well.
in Christ,
win
I just found your site. I have been praying for people with whom I could get feedback upon my interpretation of Scripture in Hebrew. Hebrew’s nuances demand discussion and I see God’s hand in that because it motivates us to be in relationship with one another to fully understand His Word. May I from time to time post a question to your blog site for clarification/discussion? God bless, Dave
Dave, I would be honored and delighted to interact with you in that way. May God bless you as you continue to immerse yourself in His word.
win
God bless you for your reply. I confess I am a beginner in Hebrew. I’m still learning the ropes. I am looking at Gen. 1:6 and the use of the verb ‘to separate, divide’ (badal). In my interlinear text the word does not seem to be rendered in the Qal stem. Am I mistaken that it is instead in the Piel stem? My reason for asking is if it is indeed in the Piel stem the word construct would carry the sense of God’s ongoing providence; that He continues His creative act. Am I seeing what I want to see, or does the construct have a different connotation?
Dave,
You are right that badal is not in the Qal; it is actually in the Hiphil stem, not the Piel. The connotation thus is not a continuing action of separation, but one of God’s forceful and direct work. The waters above did not separate from the waters below by some random means, but instead did so by God’s intentional design and separation.
The creation account is written in such a way to reflect God’s work of creation beginning and ending with that first week, thus we see God resting from his labors on day 7, so while God’s providence is certainly ongoing, the language here doesn’t reflect that so much as it reflects God’s own intentional action. Creation is meant to be seen as a miraculous work of God.
What is likely throwing you off in your parsing with this particular case is that it is a participle as well (giving the ‘m’ prefix). Sometimes they can be tricky.
May I ask which grammar and resources you are using?
Blessings,
win
I would welcome suggestions and guidance regarding a good grammar and parsing guide. I use my interlinear (Kohlenberger) in conjunction with an embedded Strong’s lexicon on a compute search engine. As soon as you brought up the matter of participles the fog lifted. Like I said, I am a beginner, but I have fallen in love with Hebrew. I am encouraged that I reached the same conclusion regarding the passage, but still need to improve at ‘parsing’ the reasons. You don’t know how much this means for you to take this time with me. God bless you.
Though I am far from being a master of Hebrew, it is a language that I too have fallen in love with both for its richness and color and because of my love of scripture. I am glad to meet other like-minds.
In terms of suggestions; I used Gary Pratico & Miles Van Pelt’s Hebrew Grammar when I was in seminary and commend it highly. It is well structured, easy to follow, and has lots of useful helps and guides — particularly in the way of charts to help learn verbal stems. I would commend it highly. When I was teaching High School, I taught some willing students a semester of introductory Hebrew as an elective and used that grammar with them as well.
In terms of software, I use a Mac, so Accordance by Oak Tree Software is the top of the line. If you use a PC, Logos comes close to Accordance, though the interface is not as intuitive. Both pieces of software are pricey, but in my opinion, well worth every penny.
Another tool that I found helpful when teaching Hebrew was the resources available through EKS Publishing Company. They are a Jewish company dedicated to helping make the Hebrew language more accessible to Jews as well as to Christians. There are some great tools there for reading — childrens books and the like to use to reinforce your comprehension. One of the more enjoyable products they have is a book called “Tall Tales in Hebrew” where familiar folk stories are told in Hebrew, again to help recognition. The language is simple and the text is meant to be easy to follow, which then improves your Hebrew in other areas as well.
Also, if you go to http://www.dictionary.co.il you can sign up for a free Hebrew vocabulary word to be emailed to you daily. These are in modern Hebrew, but again is a good reinforcement. They also offer lessons and teaching aides, but I have never utilized these thus far.
Hope these are helpful, God bless you in your continued studies and feel free to drop me a note anytime.
Win
p.s. and for a real treat, go to: http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Blessings/Synagogue_Blessings/Priestly_Blessing/priestly_blessing.html
Then click on the “listen” tab. Some good stuff here as well
dear pastor win: thank you so much for making these biblically-based writings and resources available. am going through times (common to all ) that greatly challenge me to question the Lord’s intentions towards me. finding your website and its’ contents are helpful as i walk these things out. blessings on you and yours.
Guin, I am glad that these have been a blessing. God gets the real credit, though, in every way. Blessings, win