In an article today at “Between the Times,” Danny Akin and Bruce Ashford remind us that the calling of SBC seminaries is “to serve the churches of the SBC.” They issue four challenges to that end, but it was number two that caught my eye as an educator in an SBC school: “A second challenge for the seminaries is to produce ministry-minded graduates instead of seminary eggheads. The brutal fact is that seminaries sometimes produce students who can discourse on theological abstractions but who are detached from real-life ministry.”
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Desiring God’s 1% Campaign
If you’ve benefitted from Desiring God’s free online resources over the years (as I have), then I encourage you to consider giving a monthly donation. They are having a “1% Campaign” right now to encourage users to contribute. Here’s a message from Executive Director Jon Bloom explaining the rationale for the campaign. This is a wonderful ministry, and I hope you’ll take time to check it out.
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GCR in a Nutshell
Trevin Wax has a helpful primer defining the issues surrounding the SBC’s “Great Commission Resurgence.” In particular, he summarizes the report from the Great Commission Task Force and how the debate has shaken-out heading into the convention in Orlando in a couple of weeks. Here it is: “GCR in a Nutshell.”
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Ligonier’s 2010 National Conference
Ligonier’s 2010 National Conference is going to be held in Orlando right after the SBC, and they are offering a discounted rate to attendees of the SBC. More info here.
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Gulf Oil Spill and the Evangelical Conscience
Be sure to read Russell Moore’s latest on the Gulf oil spill, “Ecological Catastrophe and the Uneasy Evangelical Conscience.” Here’s an excerpt: “I’ve left my hometown lots of times. But never like this. Sure, I’ve teared up as I’ve left family and friends for a while, knowing I’d see them again the next time around. And, yes, I cried every day for almost a year in the aftermath of a hurricane that almost wiped my hometown off the map. But I’ve never left like this, wondering if I’ll ever see it again, if my children’s children will ever know what Biloxi was.”
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Was Shakespeare Christian?
Anthony Esolen makes the case in First Things that Shakespeare was a profoundly Christian playwrite. He writes: “There is an abundance of evidence to show that Shakespeare was a profoundly Christian playwright—and far more thoroughly concerned with the theology of grace, repentance, and redemption than any of his contemporaries. Here I should like to note one characteristic of his view of the world that seems to spring from his Christian faith—for it certainly does not spring from any recrudescence of paganism in the Renaissance, nor from the worldly laxity that sets in with the fading of western man’s assurance of Christian dogma and morals. For Shakespeare, chastity is as near…
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Lady Gaga and Spirituality
David Mills has a few things to say about Lady Gaga and spirituality at First Things. In particular, he deconstructs the trend toward “spirituality” as an alternative to “religion.” He writes, ‘It’s a great and self-serving mess, this claim to be “spiritual but not religious,” which we hear from almost anyone who talks about religion in public… So we find Lady Gaga, the pornographic songstress, telling a reporter for The Times that she has a new spirituality just before taking her out for a night at a Berlin sex club. Asked by the reporter, “You were raised a Catholic — so when you say ‘God,’ do you mean the Catholic…
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Miss USA, Feminism, and the Pornification of Women
Mary Kassian has an exhortation to young women who are being influenced by feminism and its pornification of women in our culture. She uses the recent Miss USA contest as a case in point. She writes: ‘It’s the ultimate irony that the foundational beliefs of feminism have contributed to the increased sexual objectification and pornographication of women.
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Marcus “Flame†Gray
He’s a grammy nominated hip-hop artist, and he’s also a 2010 graduate of Boyce College. Watch above to see Marcus “Flame” Gray share about his experience as a student at Boyce College. It will be worth your time. If you or someone you know wants a Christian undergraduate education that has an intense focus on the Bible and theology, there is no better place than Boyce College. Learn more about us here.
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Does the Dalai Lama follow Jesus?
In yesterday’s New York Times, the Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, called on religious believers of all stripes to “respect, admire and appreciate other traditions.” In doing so, he explained how he has learned from and been inspired by Christianity. He writes: “In my readings of the New Testament, I find myself inspired by Jesus’ acts of compassion. His miracle of the loaves and fishes, his healing and his teaching are all motivated by the desire to relieve suffering.”