Ted Vellenga the parable worker

Jay Knochenhauer
Grand Rapids, MI
Seminary Friend

I met Ted on a day I was visiting Calvin Seminary as I tried to decide if I should enroll. By God’s wonderful providence I had the privilege of hearing Ted preach what I think must have been his first sermon. It was a snippet really, a brief re-telling of a parable in Dr. Rottman’s introduction to preaching class in early 2004. Often these are more worthy of repentance than remembrance. But I remember Ted’s distinctly. He was assigned Matt. 20, the parable of the workers in the vineyard. He stood nervously but in quiet humility and as he related his experience of having personally lived in this parable a few years prior as he struggled with depression. He told of the grace and the benevolence of his boss who took him under his wing and smiled upon him and encouraged him even though Ted was the slowest worker in the orchard. The owner paid him a wage that far exceeded his worth. It was poor business practice and so unexpected, yet so God-like. It was grace. “This parable is showing us that the economy of the kingdom of God operates on different rules than ours,” Ted said. “This is what God is like.” He told of undeserved grace and mercy and seeing the smile of God upon the lowly, the lost, the unwanted. God used Ted at that moment to pull back the veil that obscures the invisible kingdom of Christ. He made me want to be a preacher. Ted showed me more of God. Now he sees face to face what he only knew in part. I was blessed to know him.