Fiftieth Anniversary

Our fellowship celebrated its fiftieth anniversary as a local body.  It was a wonderful weekend of thanksgiving for the past, gratitude for the present and hopeful expectations for the future. 

It was good to meet people from the past.  The city of Lenexa even honored our church by a declaration of Calvary Baptist Church day.  We have had a wonderful testimony to the community fulfilling the promise of Jesus from Matthew 5:16ff.  It is an honor and joy to pastor this fellowship.  I told them yesterday one of my goals is to be at the 100^th anniversary if the Lord wills.  I pray that we would continue to be faithful until Jesus comes.

To The Garden We Go...

In my last garden post, I lamented on the poor production of my garden.  Alas, the tide has turned (on some things).  I am now picking okra everyday, and pole beans every other day.  I continue to pick my orange cherry tomatoes, but they are slowing down.  Here is a picture of Emma picking the beans among the okra.  Once again, the entire pole beans took over our small windmill, and both beans and okra are growing in a raised bed.

Also, here is part of the backside of the play tower that I built earlier this spring.  I put a pirate rope ladder on the back end to secure the platform, and give the kids another fun challenge.

Report on School

A seminar that I took back in August was known as a “Graduate Research Seminar”.  Basically it was required for all incoming PhD students (mainly).  There were about fifty of us from all over the world.  We spent three days of learning everything from the requirements and standards of PhD work, to Turabian style formatting for papers, and how to do research using librarians and library sources.  In preparation for the seminar we were required to do three book reviews with two more on the way. 

The seminar overall was helpful.  I was particularly assisted with the research librarian format.  It is truly remarkable what is available in today’s world.  I bet right now in my study, I have acquired over one hundred sources on one seminar paper I will be delivering this fall.  It truly is amazing what is available online both good and bad. 

What I am Reading

I realize for many it doesn’t seem interesting, but if you are engaged in any form of information acquiring (and we all are at some point) “The Oxford Guide to Library Research” by Thomas Mann is for you.

In particular, if you are a pastor or Bible teacher, you will find this helpful in streamlining your tools to be more effective with time.  It will also instruct you where to go to find it, and how to select good and reliable resources with those that are neither substantial nor scholarly. 

This book was required reading for one of my PhD seminars (of which I will post later).  It is one of these books that if you are a researcher of any magnitude you will find that you will utilize this book again and again.

Israel's Mission in the Old Testament

One of the courses I am taking as part of my PhD work is a History and Theology of Missions.  It has been edifying thus far.  Part of the course work is to post comments about our reading from an amazing two volume book on missions by Dr. Schnabel from Trinity.  He defines “mission” and “missions” as necessarily including the notion of a community of faith that “actively works to win other people” to its views. We post in the forum for dialogue with other colleagues.  The discussion centered on the “mission” activity of Israel in the Old Testament.  Do we find Israel being proactive in the cause of missions in the same vein that we see in the New Testament?  Here was my brief response based upon the book we were reading at the time:

“While there are some incidences in which Jews were proactive in advancing the kingdom of God to others, there were limitations in this mission (see Matthew 10:5-15).  It appears that in Old Testament Judaism we have more of a “come and see” mission rather than a “go and tell” mission.  It is clear that many of God’s people understood the unique blessing God had given Israel as His covenant people, and that they used that blessing to attract and stand out from other nations (see Exodus 19:4-6; 1 Kings 11:23-25; Psalm 67:2; Isaiah 49:6 among others).

Interestingly, Schnabel’s definition could apply to a proactive engagement within Israel when they became like pagan nations.  When Israel rebelled against God’s desires for them, God sent messengers to proclaim a message of repentance in the hope of winning His people back to them.  So from Moses to the prophets to Jesus there is a concentrated effort of mission to “win” Israel while they remained hostile toward God (1 Kings 19:10; 2 Chronicles 24:20-22; Nehemiah 9:26; Jeremiah 2:30; Matthew 5:12; 11:21-24; 21:35ff; 22:6ff; 23:29-36: Acts 7:51-52; 1 Thessalonians 2:15; Hebrews 11:37-38).  This of course was one of the central themes of Peter’s gospel message at Pentecost (Acts 2-3), and is certainly a part of Jesus preaching (Matthew 23:37-24:2).”   

Any takers bloggers and lurkers?

Mark Twain on the Gospel

“Upon arrival in heaven do not speak to St. Peter until spoken to.  It is not your place to begin.  You can ask him for his autograph.  There is no harm in that.  But be careful do not remark that it is one of the penalties of his greatness.  He has heard that before.  Do not try to Kodak him.  Hell is full of people who have tried.  When you get there, be sure to leave your dog outside.  Heaven goes by favor. If it went by merit, you would stay out and your dog would go in.”

Nuts and Bolts

My seminary vice president Russell Moore gives some sound insight on Glenn Beck on the new revivalism.

I think I am living in Bizzaro world.  Franklin Graham gets criticized for making accurate remarks about Islam.  The world is having a fit over a pastor thinking about burning the Koran.  A school exam praises Islam while misrepresenting Christianity (see article)  and all the while a mosque is being built close to the site of Ground Zero.

On a lighthearted note, this video is an ode to pastor’s wives.  As consistent pulpiteers, we have all been guilty of using our wives as illustrations without their permission.  Now they get even.