R N (Ron) Frost is a student of history, especially the history of Christian spirituality. Ron served for more than 20 years at a Portland, OR, college and seminary. At the seminary, from 1995-2007, he was a professor of historical theology and ethics.

Ron earned his PhD at King’s College of the University of London. His research featured Richard Sibbes (1577-1635), an educator and pastor at Gray’s Inn, London, and Katharine Hall, Cambridge.  Sibbes’ love for God, as noted below, offers the biblical and spiritual context for this site.

For an introduction to Sibbes and his best known publication, see Frost, “The Bruised Reed by Richard Sibbes” in The Devoted Life, eds. Kelly M. Kapic & Randall C. Gleason (Downer’s Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2004): 79-91.

Sibbes was captivated by God’s love. This love, he held, is birthed out of the eternal triune communion of God. Thus God’s love is a “spreading goodness” that extends to the cosmos as the basis for its creation and the context for all of human life and conduct. We were made by God and for God, as those beloved by the source of love himself. Jesus, who is the “Word” that expresses God to humanity in terms we can grasp, offers God’s love and life through the Spirit.

With this as spiritual DNA for our “Spreading Goodness” site, readers are invited to enjoy a conversation about the God Sibbes knew, loved, and with whom he now resides.  Ron offers at least one new posting each week, with additional responses to comments as time allows.  Other writers, all of whom share the Trinitarian and affective values Sibbes represented, will sometimes offer guest columns in Ron’s place.

Ron is now a pastoral care consultant with Barnabas International.  In this role he provides care, coaching, encouragement, and educational services to those in overseas cross-cultural ministries.  This involves a number of trips to worldwide destinations each year, each by invitation.  All his services are gratis, so ministry partners are needed and welcomed.  Go to Barnabas International for more information about this unique ministry and for a link that offers support options.