Today, we celebrate commencement. It is a day that we have looked forward to for many months, indeed many years for so many of us. Today we also have many guests and friends in the room and, for them, this commencement ceremony will appear somewhat indecipherable. What is Christian ministry? Why these hymns? Why this Bible from which we speak and from which these men and women are being commissioned to minister from? What do these things mean? More broadly, beyond the seminary context within the academic community, why robes? Why regalia? Why the formality of the hour? Read more