In October of 2025, I received an invitation to present at an academic symposium about some church consulting work that I had done. Attending Urshan Graduate School of Theology had always been a dream of mine as a teenager, so getting invited to attend as a speaker felt like a high honor.
One of the fellow speakers, and resident professor, at the symposium was Dr. Jeff Brickle, a good friend of my family for a long time and a long-time teacher of Greek and Hebrew at UGST. As a child, I never really understood the intricacies of what Jeff studied and worked on (I barely understood what my Dad did for work), but re-engaging with Jeff as an adult opened my eyes to the richness of his world.
Indeed, many might think of the world of ancient language academia would be mundane and full of stuffy offices with dusty books. To be sure, his office was stuffed with books, but the conversations I had with him that weekend were anything but mundane.
Over the course of two conversations (Episodes 4 and 5 of the Reflective Ecclesia podcast) we dove deep into the subjects of his expertise — revolving largely around ancient memory conventions and techniques, understanding the sound mapping approach to the New Testament, and reflections around needs in the modern-day Church.
These were conversations that I deeply enjoyed and benefited from. But beyond that, my talks with Jeff re-awaked a desire to study and teach in academia myself that I hope to one day be able to act upon. The world (and especially the Church) needs more people with the level of knowledge and studiousness of Jeff Brickle.
Thanks again, Jeff, for the wonderful time and I look forward to more conversations in the future. For everyone else, I sincerely hope you enjoy these two episodes!
Much love,
Nathan Marlette
