Mission Trip to Nepal

I leave in the morning for a mission trip to Nepal. I’ll be gone for about 10 days, and since I am not likely to have internet access I don’t expect to be posting.
I along with some others will be providing biblical and theological instruction for about 60 local pastors. These men will be travelling to our city from outlying areas. I am told that a number of them will travel for two weeks by foot and bus to get there. Many of these men have been imprisoned for their faith. They do not have much access to training, so they are eager. I expect, however, that I will learn even more from them- men who have labored in overseeing the flock and preaching the gospel in spite of persecution. Hopefully I can benefit them as I glean from their faithfulness.
You can read more about the trip here. This site will also provide updated information on the trip as often as possible. Click on “plogs” on the left side and then choose “2008 Nepal.”

Romans, January Bible study

My brief article on studying Romans which I previously mentioned was published in this week’s edition of the TN Baptist state paper.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year.

I have been away for some time, but have several things waiting to post.
Let me start this year with a quote about the heart of ministry. My good friend Ron Sloan, who runs Refiner’s Fire bookshop in Louisville, gave me an old book on pastoral ministry over Christmas. The book is titled Ad Clerum: Advices to Young Preachers, and it is by Joseph Parker. The book does not contain any introductory matter, but it appears to be a collection of advice from different sources. The first chapter is excellent. This quote is one to keep before us:

“…I deeply feel that without a spirit of reverent and contrite humiliation before God, and a constancy of loving and trustful desire towards the Saviour, no man is fit to have part or lot in the Christian ministry; when, therefore, I avail myself of satire or raillery, it will relate to the weakness or eccentricity of human usages, and never to the vital and solemn realities of the Divine vocation. Our place, as aspirants to the highest ministry, is at the Cross, where alone the oppression of our unworthiness is relieved by the completeness of Jesus Christ’s grace and truth. All this must be assumed; if we are wrong here, we shall be wrong everywhere; - the gift of prophecy and tongues, and the understanding of all mysteries, will be only temptations and snares, and our ministry will be as a plague in the church.” (1-2)

The book has been reprinted and is available at Amazon.com (an excerpt of chapter one can also be viewed from this Amazon listing).

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!

Oxford Press Holiday Sale

Each year I look forward to the annual holiday sale from Oxford University Press. They regularly have exceptional deals on prominent books. This year the sale is even better because they teamed up with Amazon. See the sale homepage here.
There are not many things in their bible/theology section that I like. They are good for broader reading, which brings back a point I have mentioned before: Pastors need to read broadly.
Some of the categories I particularly like from Oxford are: American history, world history and reference works. Happy reading.

Work, Worldview and Maturity

I am quite behind in items I intend to write about here, but the rush of finals and a cracked screen on my laptop are conspiring against me. :)

I am almost half way through listening to the audio version of How Ronald Reagan Changed My Life , by Peter Robinson, and it is surprisingly good. Whatever you think about Reagan (I like him), this book is compelling and worthwhile for several reasons. First, the author is honest enough to state that as he came to the White House (getting his first real job by fluke as he says) in his early 20’s he was looking for an older man to serve as a role model. We all need such role models, though sometimes people do not want to admit it. The account of this young man trying to define his life, looking for an embodied example of a ‘good life’ reminds me that there are people all around asking this same question. The author did not tell Reagan he had begun watching him as an example. He just watched, thought and discussed with others. Who is watching us without our knowing? What sort of example are we providing? As pastors we should expect to serve as examples to the church (1 Timothy 4:12; Titus 2:7; my previous post mentioned the sore lack of good examples).

The life lessons mentioned in the book so far are really good ones, typically rooted in a Christian worldview. The discussion about working hard and persevering were particularly good. It made me think this would be a good book to give to young men in keeping with the “Month of Man” address I mentioned previously. Robinson discusses the value of work and how we were made for meaningful work (drawing from his conversations with a theologian friend). This idea is so important and contrasts clearly with the spirit of the age which was illustrated in an email I recently received. The email encouraged me to sign up for a certain service which would make me money. It promised to “help you make the income you want without the stress of a job.” Get all you want without the bother of a job! Work is not only a means to an economic end. It is a worthwhile end in itself.
We need to teach once more the biblical idea of work, and it is encouraging to find this concept in a book like this one.

Importance of Example

Here is a sad comment from a student. He was discussing his call to ministry and wrote:

“when I felt God calling me to ministry I was truly ignorant about how to live the life, because I can’t say that anybody truly set a good example for me growing up.”

This is far too common. We need for the church to be the church and for pastors to lead well with teaching and example (1 Tim 4:16). This is also a reminder of why we need not just good examples out there somewhere but faithful churches and faithful pastors in every place. May God give us grace to provide examples to the young men coming behind us.

Studying Romans

Each year in the SBC a certain book of the Bible is chosen to be the focus of the “January Bible Study.” Churches are not required to do this, but it does provide a good way to encourage careful study of various books. This year the study focuses on Romans, and this Saturday I will meet with a group of pastors to study through the book in preparation for them teaching their churches.

I have written a brief article on “The Opportunity of Studying Romans” to encourage pastors and others undertaking this study. Romans has had such a significant impact on the church historically and this brief article traces some of this in the stories of Augustine, Luther and Wesley. Gordon Fee has written, “This letter is arguably the most influential book in Christian history, perhaps in the history of Western civilization.”

May the Lord be pleased to bless these studies going on around the country to the good of His church.

Sermon on Rom 8:18-30

I meant to post this last week but failed to in the midst of other things. Last Sunday Lee Tankersley, one of our pastors currently on sabbatical, was back with us and preached on Romans 8:18-30 in our ongoing series through Romans. Here you can read the text and find a link to the audio. It was an excellent sermon on a variety of levels. It is a good example or preaching pastorally. Sermons ought to expound a biblical text and be rooted in sound exegesis. However, exegesis is the engine and not the destination of the sermon. Some times in reaction against shallow preaching, people tend to think bare exegesis is the goal. Bare exegesis is better than nothing of course, but the goal is to explain what a text means so that people can follow and then to apply that well to a specific congregation. This sermon is a good example of this.

"Month of Man"

This past Monday night I spoke to a group of guys here at Union on the topic of manhood. Some students had organized “The Month of Man” (‘official’ website) for some humorous celebration of manhood and also to call on themselves and others seriously to pursue maturity in manhood. I applaud their efforts and was honored to speak at the event.

You can see the rough notes of my address here as well as a link to the audio. This is not a sermon, but more of a ‘sit down chat’. Somewhere I came across an author saying every young man needs an older man who regularly gets in his face about growing up and becoming a man. That is basically what I have tried to do here.

One of the real needs in the church is for us to encourage, help and challenge our young men to resist the culture’s call to perpetual immaturity and encourage them instead to pursue maturity.

ETS Annual Meeting

I travelled to San Diego today for the annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society meeting followed by the Society for Biblical Literature meeting. I have various responsibilities over the next week so I expect blogging will be rare.

Amend ETS Article Online

I have commented here previously about the effort to amend the doctrinal basis of the Evangelical Theological Society. Following the "ETS" label at the bottom of this post will take you to the previous posts. Denny Burk and I have been working on this and have written an article to explain our concern, proposal and rationale. The ETS Annual Meeting will begin next week and our proposal is tto be read to the members. The proposal would not be voted on until next year.

Below I have slightly reworded Denny's announcement about this article being made available.

In order to get the word out about this amendment, Denny and I have written an article that was published this fall in the Criswell Theological Review. The title of the article is “Inerrancy Is Not Enough: A Proposal to Amend the Doctrinal Basis of The Evangelical Theological Society.” The editor of CTR has allowed us to post a free copy of the article on the journal’s website, and you can now download and read our rationale for the amendment. Even though the article relates most directly to voting members of the ETS, the issues we raise here are relevant to anyone who is concerned about the shape of contemporary American evangelicalism.
Denny Burk and Ray Van Neste, “Inerrancy Is Not Enough: A Proposal to Amend the Doctrinal Basis of The Evangelical Theological Society” Criswell Theological Review n.s. 5 (2007): 69-80.
[For more information, visit the website www.AmendETS.com.]
[For information on how to subscribe to CTR, visit www.CriswellJournal.com.]

Survey Article Online

The 2007 Bibles and Bible Reference Survey Article which I mentioned in the previous post is now available online here. Due to space I was not able to say a lot about each book, but I aim to give an overall feel for what has come out in the past year in each area and which books might be helpful in specific ways.

2007 Bibles and Bible Reference Survey Article

The latest issue of Preaching Magazine has just come out containing my article which surveys new study Bibles, commentaries and other books on Bible study that have come out since last Fall. The print magazine has a shorter version of the essay dealing with Bible commentaries, introductions, etc. Eventually the article will be made available online, and the online version will also include books on theology, church history and some other books which arrived too late to be included in the print edition.

Michael Duduit is the editor of Preaching Magazine and he does a good job with it. There is much helpful information in the magazine. If you get the print version I would welcome any feedback on the article. Once it goes online I will mention it here and will be interested in more feedback. I am slated to do the article again next year so I want to do what I can to make it as useful as possible to pastors.