Posts Tagged ‘Culture’

For me, October 15th marks seven completed years as president of Midwestern Seminary and Spurgeon College. Annually, this season prompts personal and institutional reflection and thanksgiving. This year, it’s been doubly so. Read more

As an expositor, one must assess both the culture and the congregation in order to determine whether or not to engage certain concerns that arise. Clarity in this matter is essential. How does the preacher gain clarity in his assessment? Let’s consider these nine questions, which will serve as indicators for the expositor—helping him discern the extent of the concern and whether or not it should impact his upcoming sermon: Read more

In John Stott’s classic Between Two Worlds, he depicted the preacher as a man positioned between two civilizations—tasked to bridge the ancient world with the modern one, and the ancient text with modern hearers. Stott argued that the preacher is a bridge, and if he is to be effective, he must be firmly grounded on both sides of the canyon. The preacher must be a careful student of both worlds; exegeting both his text and his times. Read more

Theological conversations often occur in unlikely settings. In the fall of 1994, as a 17-year-old aspiring college athlete on a recruiting visit to a college I was considering, I found myself thrust into a theological conversation that I did not anticipate and for which I was not equipped.

There I was, seated on a stool in a dark, mildew-encrusted locker room receiving theological instruction from another stool-seated gentleman many, many years my senior. This elderly gentleman was a recruiter for the college’s basketball team. He supposed I might be reluctant to sign with his college since I was a Southern Baptist, especially since the college was theologically far to the left.

Though I was ill equipped at the time for a theological conversation, I was confronted that day with religious pluralism—the idea that there are many ways to God. Read more

This week Midwestern Seminary was privileged to host Dr. Grant Wacker, the Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Christian History at Duke University Divinity School. Dr. Wacker lectured on Billy Graham and the life of the mind: a thematic excerpt from his newly released biography on the famed evangelist, America’s Pastor: Billy Graham and the Making of a Nation. Read more