Jul Medenblik

Julius Ted Medenblik, the eldest son of Lambert and Martha Medenblik (nee Vander Ploeg) was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan, in 1960. His family became charter members of Faith Christian Reformed Church and for a short time he attended Kalamazoo North Christian School. In 1966 the family returned to the Fulton, Illinois, area when his father purchased the family farm that had been previously rented by Jul’s grandfather. There Jul attended Fulton Christian Grade School and Fulton Community High School, and the family joined Bethel Christian Reformed Church, also in Fulton.

After high school, Jul attended Trinity Christian College in Palos Heights, Illinois. He graduated with a major in Philosophy and double minors in English and History while on a pre-law track that included a semester internship at a legal aid clinic in Harvey, Illinois. While at Trinity, he met Jackie Klain from Lansing, Illinois. Three weeks after graduation, Jul and Jackie were married, and three days after that they moved to Gainesville, Florida, where Jul entered the University of Florida Law School. During his law school days, Jul served as research assistant for Professor Joseph W. Little.

After graduating with a Juris Doctor degree cum laude, Jul obtained a position as an associate in the law firm of Stewart, Call, Byrd & Rozelle in Palm Beach, Florida. The Medenbliks joined Lake Worth Christian Reformed Church in Lake Worth, Florida, where Jul served as a Sunday School teacher and superintendent, catechism teacher, elder, and eventually chair of a Pastoral Search Committee. It is during those years that he felt called by God to ordained ministry, and in 1991 Jul, Jackie, and their four-year-old son, Joshua, left Florida and entered a Master of Divinity program at Calvin Theological Seminary. While at CTS, Jul did a summer assignment at Providence Christian Reformed Church in Holland, Michigan, and a full-year internship at First Calgary Christian Reformed Church in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. It was during the internship year that their daughter Julianne was born.

Following graduation in 1995, Jul accepted a call to Orland Park CRC in Orland Park, Illinois, to be the founding pastor of a church plant in New Lenox, Illinois. New Life Christian Reformed Church began worship services in a public high school auditorium in 1996, was organized as a congregation in 2002, and moved into its own building in 2003. During this time the church expanded from one to three worship services with over 700 people in total attendance.

Jul has served as a former board member and president of the CRC Loan Fund; former board member and president of the Chicago Christian Counseling Center; former board member and chair of the Classis Chicago South Home Missions Committee; Synodical Deputy from Classis Chicago South; board member and president of the Calvin Seminary Board of Trustees; synodical delegate to the synods of 1990, 2002, and 2006; and Church Planting and Development Point Team Leader for Christian Reformed Home Missions.

Upon receiving this latest appointment, Rev. Medenblik stated, “I am humbled by the opportunity to move from serving the church as a local pastor and in various denominational settings to the presidency of Calvin Theological Seminary. One picture that we have in church planting in the Christian Reformed Church is embodied in the phrase, ‘Deep Roots, New Branches.’ Calvin Theological Seminary is deeply rooted in and nurtured by the church. We have a great opportunity to use those roots to nourish preachers and church leaders for the ministries and new opportunities that await us in the mission field around each and every one of us.”