Archive for the ‘Essay’ Category
For the Church: Theological Education, the SBC & the Future of Midwestern Seminary (III)
Since Southern Baptists founded their first seminary in 1859, the denomination has experienced an uneasy relationship between her seminaries and the churches that own them. Though the year 2013 finds the seminaries very much in line with the denomination’s confessional statement—the Baptist Faith & Message 2000—such has not always been the case. Moreover, a survey of the history of theological education indicates the need for churches to keep an ever-vigilant eye on the seminaries they own. Read more
For the Church: Theological Education, the SBC & the Future of Midwestern Seminary (II)
*This post was originally published on 1 April 2013. No Man Can Serve Two Masters: Trustee Oversight, Financial Influence & a Seminary’s Resolve. No man can serve two masters. This is true, and never truer than in theological education. Individuals and groups compete for institutional influence, adding their voice and, if permitted, interjecting their hand, Read more
For the Church: Theological Education, the SBC & the Future of Midwestern Seminary (Part I)
*This post was originally published on 22 March 2013. In Arthur Schlesinger’s award-winning biography of Franklin Roosevelt, he famously labeled the economic and political malaise of the 1920s and ’30s as “the crisis of the old order.” Schlesinger argued that political, cultural and economic norms were changing so rapidly that, coupled with government inaction, they Read more
Theological Education, the Local Church & the Midwestern Training Network
In recent days, Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary launched the Midwestern Training Network, a strategic partnership with churches and individuals to train the next generation of gospel ministers. The Midwestern Training Network originally began as a St. Louis initiative with The Journey church, but quickly metastasized throughout the region. Though it is only a few days Read more
As One with Authority: The Four Pillars of Authoritative Preaching
When published in 1971, Fred Craddock’s As One without Authority landed like “a bombshell on the playground of preachers.” In it, Craddock called for a new homiletic, for preaching to start with the hearer, not the text, and for preaching to be inductive, not deductive. Craddock argued preaching was in hopeless decline and the church Read more