Covered in His Dust
Marty Solomon went to Israel for the first time in 2008 and it changed everything.
After being born in a small, southern Idaho town and being raised in a fundamentalist evangelical community of faith, Marty pursued a sense of calling into the ministry. He studied at Boise Bible College and received a Bachelor of Arts in Christian Ministries. After leading a small congregation as a young, naive pastor, he was grappling with a dissonances between the Bible he loved and preached, the Jesus he was getting to know more and more, and the “normal” he was handed in the world of evangelical church ministry.
Fortunately, some great mentors pointed Marty in the direction of different academic voices who were pursuing Scripture through the lens of a historical, Jewish perspective—a perspective Marty was unaware of. Through each new lesson, the Bible began to make more sense, and the invitation to partner with God in pursuing the concept of shalom was becoming more and more compelling. He also saw an approach to discipleship where these young men possessed a fiery passion to become like their rabbi; or, as the rabbis would say, to be “covered in his dust.”
Then Marty was able to travel with one of these teachers, Ray Vander Laan, and the whole ceiling was torn open. It started a journey that would radically change Marty’s life and family, let alone his ministry. His family was drawn to reclaim their Jewish heritage in ways that aligned with their understanding of more recent scholarship, and to begin experimenting with new approaches to discipleship that mimicked aspects of that first-century rabbinic method. Over the next few years, Marty poured himself into the study of this new world and the bibliography of his teachers as he began to dream about and form a body of work he could share with others.
Marty now serves as the President of Impact Campus Ministries and has a passionate belief that the best way to pursue all of these dreams for changing the world is to work with the young adults who will be creating that world. He longs to help them see why the work they do every day is part of how God is putting the world back together. He eagerly desires to spread the news among college students that God is looking for partners.
The last decade has been a journey of sharing resources, ideas, and experiences with others; Marty has a passion for teaching others how to ask better questions, pointing them toward experts who can help them grow and develop as followers of Jesus. Whether it’s preaching for a Sunday morning, leading study tours to Israel and Turkey, teaching at a weekend seminar, producing digital resources, or championing the cause of campus ministry, Marty loves to use his creativity to inspire others with the truth of God’s love for the world by introducing them to better readings of our Bible.
