More About Dr. Mansfield

Our family had a dream of owning its own business and since I was to be the kingpin, they believed I should attend engineering school, so I spent three difficult years at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, struggling through calculus, strength of materials and electrical engineering, none of which I liked and to this day can’t recall a single thing of them. I did well in a writing course, and that seemed to indicate the direction I should pursue, though at the time I didn’t realize the destination.

It was there I received a call to the ministry, and finding it impossible to stay a fourth year, I transferred to Houghton College, tucked in the rolling hills of western New York. It was a strict fundamentalist college, but enabled me to mature as a new Christian. And it was Houghton with its Arminian theology and excellent teachers that sparked my creative juices and helped me win a writing contest. I also learned I had a sense of humor. I think.

Westminster Theological Seminary in Glenside, Pennsylvania was a strong cup of Calvinistic tea, the theological opposite of Houghton. I thrived under the tutelage of godly, scholarly men like Cornelius Van Til whose apologetic system influenced me for life, and John Murray whose theological acumen gave me an appreciation for precision in thinking.

Though I served four churches in Illinois, Michigan, Tennessee and Georgia, I really do not think I was a pastor. My people liked my sermons, for as one said, “When you described something, it was like we were actually there.” That’s because J. Gresham Machen, who founded Westminster, said to preach to the twelve year olds, for if they can understand you, everyone will, and so I reached for ears of the children.

After three years on staff with a collegiate ministry, I was admitted to graduate study in Pastoral Counseling at Michigan State University, and after receiving my PhD, I taught at Covenant College on Lookout Mountain, Tennessee and The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. I left to become director of a counseling service.

All told, as a marriage and family counselor, I’ve had about 9000 clients. That experience taught me one clear thing: I am definitely not an expert in human behavior, and don’t let anyone tell you that they are; no one except God knows the depths of the human heart, and the variety of choices people make. All of us are merely learners struggling together in a world full of confusion and heartache. We all make dreadful errors of judgment and do horrendous things, often rationalizing away our inner motives. I know I have, and so I try to write from an awareness that the best of us have human frailties and the worst of us have magnificent talents. I also know that forgiveness and mercy are healing, and that judgment and self-righteousness are destructive. I try to do the former and avoid the latter, but sometimes the negative part of me wins and I don't like it. Yet, I am a survivor. I live without thumb in mouth and self-pity parties, and work at spreading joy as much as possible. It certainly makes living lighter.