It's been a very busy day. The speakers had a session this morning with Dr. Allen. I missed most of the information from that session because I was filming interviews with the speakers. Those interviews will show up here at SBC Voices in the near future. Going to the Chapel After the session we headed over to the chapel on campus. The chapel is a beautiful facility that was built since Dr. Patterson became President at Southwestern. Dr. Patterson told us yesterday that the facility was designed to be conducive to preaching. The purpose of going over to the chapel was to give the … [Read more...] about Day 2 of the SBC PC Colloquium at SWBTS
Seminaries
Day 1 of the SBC PC Colloquium at SWBTS
We had a great first day. Dave and I have both written about some of the first events of the day, but I want to give you a brief update before I hit the hay. Our First Session with Dr. Allen Dr. David Allen knocked it out of the park in our first session this afternoon with his lecture on text-driven preaching. Lots of people call their preaching expository, but often it is not text-driven. Southwestern is committed to teaching text-driven preaching in their brand new School of Preaching of which Dr. Allen is the dean. Text-driven preaching is where the main point of the text is the … [Read more...] about Day 1 of the SBC PC Colloquium at SWBTS
Questions for NAMB, IMB, and seminary leaders
One feature of the annual meeting of our beloved Southern Baptist Convention is a time for reports from entity heads. These leaders usually leave a short time for questions from the floor. While I'm not planning to be in muggy St. Louis next month, if I were and could stake out one of the floor mics here's a question or two that I'd like to ask: For David Platt, International Mission Board leader: The locations of our overseas personnel has shifted over the past years to a greater proportion being in World A locations. I presume that these are more difficult and stressful places and would … [Read more...] about Questions for NAMB, IMB, and seminary leaders
The New 81-Hour M.Div. at SEBTS
I know this is already two-week-old news and therefore is considered by some bloggers to have been unworthy of posting about 335 hours and 59.5 minutes ago, but since some of us here at SBC Voices have rejected the blogger wisdom of being quick to speak and slow to listen, and since nobody has said anything about this yet, I wanted to offer a quick overview of some changes going on at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (SEBTS). On February 17, 2016 SEBTS announced that its flagship graduate degree, the Master of Divinity, has undergone considerable revision. The major changes are as … [Read more...] about The New 81-Hour M.Div. at SEBTS
“We are Family” A Report from the NOBTS Trustee Meeting (Dean Stewart)
Dean is pastor at Vaiden Baptist Church and a trustee at NOBTS. I just completed attending the Fall trustee meeting for the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. The two weeks a year I am on the campus of NOBTS is pure delight. The faculty and staff, under Dr. Kelley’s leadership, is the finest anywhere at showing hospitality. If one has to serve in such a position for the convention then serving on a board where the seminary feeds gumbo, fried oysters and shrimp along with the best coffee in the south is the place you want to be using a shucking knife and serving. Most of the meetings … [Read more...] about “We are Family” A Report from the NOBTS Trustee Meeting (Dean Stewart)
Seminary President Questions #SBC15
William Blosh(?)Dr Akin about the Openly Secular video. Akin's response - Baptists have a wonderful history of support of freedom of belief and conscience. I stated that publicly. No other questions. It was fairly predictable that this question would be asked. The question was poorly asked. The question should have been asked, "why did you not include some form of gospel explanation inyour presentation" or something like that. The guy started to get angry and rant and he is supposed to ask questions. If you go to the mic, redeem the time! The crowd affirmed Dr. Akin's answer … [Read more...] about Seminary President Questions #SBC15
Seminary Reports #SBC15
The seminary reports are being given - all together now. In keeping with the prayer emphasis, each president is going to pray for the next president. Looks like questions will be at the end. Chuck Kelly of NOBTS is up first. Spent a lot of time on his seminary extensions and online opportunities. That seems to be the future. He mentions a huge gift from Caskeys. The Caskey Challenge: Each Monday morning ask God to give you one opportunity to share the gospel. (Wasn't Caskey affiliated with Louisiana College at one point? What happened there? Now they've given $10,000,000 to … [Read more...] about Seminary Reports #SBC15
You can go to seminary—online!
Because I work in an office, I usually don’t have much trouble writing the correct date after New Year’s Day. Yesterday, January 6, marked the first time I wrote 2014 and then quickly changed the 4 into a 5. Even still, it’s strange to refer to December as “last year.” But last year on December 19 I got an unexpected Christmas present from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary where I am a part-time, distance student. Since this Christmas present isn’t for me only, but for all current and future SBTS students, I figured I should share it with the readership of SBC Voices. The gift … [Read more...] about You can go to seminary—online!
George Whitefield, Slavery, and Southern Seminary: Growing Baptist Recognition
Last week, (Oct. 21-22), Southern Baptist Theological Seminary held the 8th Annual Andrew Fuller Center for Baptist Studies Conference on Whitefield and the Great Awakening. This year celebrates the 300th anniversary of Whitefield's birth. Like many Evangelicals, Whitefield (1714-1770) has been a hero of mine as a leader of the First Great Awakening in the 1700s. In my seminary days at Golden Gate, I studied him for an independent study class on evangelism and compared/contrasted the Great Awakening and the Enlightenment and have been familiar with his life, ministry, and influence ever … [Read more...] about George Whitefield, Slavery, and Southern Seminary: Growing Baptist Recognition
The Rest of the Story: The FULL Annual Report from SWBTS
In 1517 Halloween, when the devils are supposed to enjoy a final fling, a courageous, frightened Augustinian monk named Martin Luther, armed with hammer and nails, took on Rome and all her advocates by nailing his theses to the door of the chapel church in Wittenburg, thus inviting serious debate. For the next few years heaven’s light burst through the shroud of human darkness. But the gospel seed needed “water” to flourish, and that was provided by the Anabaptists, whose shed blood in imitation of the sufferings of Christ watered the seed of truth planted by Luther, eventually producing the … [Read more...] about The Rest of the Story: The FULL Annual Report from SWBTS