Arend J. Poelarends is the director of the Center for Faith and Learning at Anselm House, a Christian study center serving the University of Minnesota (Twin Cities). He received a Ph.D. in Astrophysics from Utrecht University in the Netherlands and an MDiv from Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis (MO). Prior to moving to Minnesota, he taught Physics and Astronomy for 11 years at Wheaton College (IL), where he thought deeply about questions at the intersection of Science (cosmology) and the Christian faith.

Dr. Hans Madueme is associate professor of theological studies at Covenant College on Lookout Mountain, Georgia. Hans was born in Sweden and grew up in Nigeria and Austria. He originally trained as a medical doctor and completed his residency in internal medicine at the Mayo Clinic before shifting his focus to theology. He received his Master of Divinity and then completed his Ph.D. in theological studies from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He has written or co-edited two books, many book chapters, articles, and shorter essays for a variety of publications, including Tabletalk, Themelios, Books & Culture, and The Gospel Coalition.

Clarke Scheibe is the director of Canadian L'Abri and has been involved with L'Abri since 2007. He graduated from the University of Mississippi with a B.A. in Literature, with an emphasis in creative writing, and from Regent College in Vancouver, Canada with an M.Div. He has a wide variety of interests such as baking, short stories, art, biblical hermeneutics, cultural studies, and early blues music. He is married to Julia; they have two children, Samuel and Sarah Beth. 

Jim Paul is the director of English L’Abri where he and his wife Merran have lived and worked for the past 21 years. Before that he practised as a palliative care doctor in London. He is the author of ‘What on Earth is Heaven? '(IVP 2021) and a trustee of a community nature conservation project in his village.

Dr. Mike Sugimoto worked at Swiss L'Abri 1979-84, studying literary/social theory at the University of Minnesota and Cornell. He's a professor of Asian Studies at Pepperdine University in Malibu, CA and is married to Carolyn with two adult children, Michael and Jack. He and Carolyn were founders of Beacon Hill, a classical Christian school in Camarillo, California.

Mark Ryan has served as a pastor in the United States and in his home country of Australia. He, together with his wife Terri, also spent numerous years working with L’Abri Fellowship in the U.S. and in Canada. Currently, Mark is the Executive Director of Sage Christianity, a not-for-profit organization whose vision is to bring the questions and doubts of life into hospitable conversation with the wisdom of Jesus. He also continues his long association with Covenant Theological Seminary, as Adjunct Professor of Religion and Culture. Mark and Terri have been married for 29 years and are parents of one teenager and two twenty-somethings. 

Hannah Eichelberger is a worker at Canadian L’Abri and has been involved with L’Abri since 2022. After graduating with her BFA in Graphic Design, she spent just over 5 years working in design and creative direction in the heart of Washington, D.C. In 2025, she graduated from Regent College in Vancouver, Canada with a Graduate Diploma of Christian Studies. Her interests include communication arts, indie gaming, literature, art history, and anything science fiction. 

People grow frustrated when they see Jesus being misused, for example, by political factions. However, it is easy to project a false image of Christ to match what we want Jesus to be and to be for. This talk will look at various images of Christ, contemporarily and historically, before turning to the image presented in the New Testament. We will consider what it means to measure our own images to that original one and what it means to follow Jesus, not just as an image, but as the risen Lord.

Many people are gripped by anxiety as they witness the environmental collapse of Planet Earth. Yet the biblical story bears witness to the renewal of creation at the end of this age. How can we see this future hope, not as a license to ignore ecological issues, but as a call to participate, here and now, in this renewal?

Ideas affect our lives in both positive and negative ways.  Some of the greatest problems in our lives have their origins in confused thinking.  Such thinking makes serious thought about the ultimate issues of life close to impossible.  We will look at a few common confusions that deeply harm people and leave them without hope.  This lecture does not presuppose any previous academic preparation.  It is meant to be accessible, practical, and engaging.  As always, there will be significant time for discussion.

The concept of worldview is now sometimes regarded as reductive and overly mental, as an approach in determining truth and meaning. Francis Schaeffer's complex use of the term, perhaps owing to his early study of Heidegger, will guide our study of the term and its present critique, perhaps best typified by the views of philosopher James K. A. Smith. This workshop explores how a more robust understanding of worldview can help clarify the cultural framing of expressions that either subjectify meaning ('Your truth') or objectify it ('True Truth'). In another example, we will explore how seemingly opposite understandings of the human being, whether from the progressive Left or the tech Right, may actually indicate a common worldview.

The Fall has affected even our loves, so instead of guiding our next generation into material “success”, our education should be primarily for realigning our affections to reflect the character of God.  From there, “vocation” returns to its original meaning of “calling.”

Uncertainty and mystery are often seen as a threat, instead of something that can add delight and even greater understanding to our lives and walk with God. This lecture is meant to open us up to wonder, a delight in the exploration and adoration of that which is outside of our complete understanding, through a look at the illuminated manuscript, the Book of Kells.

Just thinking about hearing a diagnosis that we have a terminal illness sends a shiver up the spine and dampens the joy in the heart. Our life, so significant, only to be snuffed out in a moment. It is a subject we'd like to avoid but it is inevitable as we experience the death of others around us and one day our own. How are we to reflect on death? In this talk we will look at how some want to suggest death is natural, necessary, and good. However, this is not the biblical view, where humans view death in all its horror as a curse, yet are not overwhelmed by that fear since Jesus himself broke the power of death by his own death and resurrection. This led the early church to express a hope that transformed how they lived now.  

We often think of heaven as a future place we escape to when we die. But Jesus said, "The Kingdom of heaven is here”. What then is heaven and where is it? How do earth and heaven relate? And how can we participate in heaven here and now in our square inch of this earth?

Even though humans are the only creatures who weep, all too often our tears remain mysterious and possibly even absent from our lives.  While considering the broader question of what it means to be human, this lecture will take its starting point with Jesus weeping at the tomb of Lazarus in order to reflect on how we navigate difficult emotions and understand the tears we cry.

Taking our cue from Job’s response to his (less than helpful) comforters, and surveying the wider Scripture for clues and insight, this workshop considers the perennial problem of human suffering and pain through the lens of Scripture’s unfolding narrative. While certainly less than a definitive answer, even so, this workshop offers a vantage point and place to stand when suffering intrudes, and pain disfigures our sense of how life should be.

This workshop explores L’Abri’s legacy of cultural engagement—a tradition that goes beyond critique to genuine listening and learning. Drawing on the incarnational approach of Christ and Paul’s example in Acts 17, we’ll consider how to find truth and grace even within secular narratives. Together, we’ll rediscover how thoughtful curiosity and compassion can open doors for meaningful dialogue in a divided world.

The poem “The Lowest Room” by Christina Rossetti explores what it means to be in the lower place, the spot where you look up and see all the things that you want to be and should be and instead find yourself, discontentedly, on the lower rung. In this lecture, we are taking a look at a life of comparison, the standards we set for ourselves and others, and what Christianity reveals about being in the lowest room.