Reintroducing: Said @ Southern

I almost forgot. Today is the official re-launch of Said @ Southern Seminary. The biggest move is from Blogger to its own domain, and a neat new template has been installed. At last count, S@S was compiling 85+ feeds from the blogs of students, faculty, and alumni of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. The writings of some of the best theological minds in the world (our faculty) and those whom they have taught (our students and alumni) can be perused there. A brief sampling of the Southern blogosphere (mostly off the top of my head) includes:

Students:
Timmy Brister
Tony Kummer
Rick Mansfield
Owen Strachan
Andrew Lindsey
Trevin Wax
Matthew Perry

Alumni:
Yours truly, Stephen Newell
Joe Thorn
Steve McCoy
Denny Burk
Nathan Finn
Steve Weaver
Scott Slayton

Faculty
Albert Mohler
Hershael York
Russell Moore
Michael Haykin
David Sills

And that, dear readers, is a pretty big nutshell, spanning at least three generations of Southern Baptists.

There is one faculty member that I wish would blog. His blog would likely be one of the most read in the “Christ-blogging” world. The professor of whom I speak is none other than Dr. Bruce Ware. If he would condescend to seriously blog, even if it was just two or three times a month, I wholeheartedly believe they would be the most-read blogposts in the Southern Seminary blogosphere. And I use the word condescend purposefully. In this day and age when everyone has an opinion and seeks to publish it, the wise blogger recognizes that when men like Dr. Ware speak, the only God-honoring recourse is to listen. And learn. And repent.

And with that on my wish list for Said @ Southern, I invite you to peruse the feeds and be encouraged and inspired by some of the best and brightest young (and older) minds our flagship seminary has to offer.

Introducing Said @ Southern Seminary

About a month or so ago, the SBTS Metablog went kaput. No word from the administrator as to what was going on. Tony Kummer then seems to have taken it upon himself to create a new, better metablog for Southern Seminary professors, students, and alumni, entitled Said @ Southern Seminary. To date it has been the best metablog I have seen.Tony assembled a team of colleagues to manage the blog, and this week they have posted user expectations for all who wish to be linked by or contribute to Said @ Southern. We who are linked by/contribute to the metablog have agreed to abide by this document for purposes of encouragement and accountability. This document will help to guide my blogging in the future. I have reproduced the agreement below.

The Said At Southern team has written this list of expectations to define how our blog works.

You can think of this as a user agreement or blogger covenant. Either way - we want to clarify how our blog works, who gets linked, how we moderate comments and how you can participate in this project.

Said At Southern User Expectations

1. We insist that all participants maintain their personal blogs in a way that honors Christ. We want to only write in a way that is appropriate for Christian witnesses. “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” Ephesians 4:29 ESV
2. We insist that all participants clearly identify their real name on comments and on their personal blogs. We want you to avoid anonymous opinions. We do not encourage bloggers to have an autonomous virtual identity. For example I use “Tony Kummer” or “T. Kummer.” It is not acceptable to use initials only or an assumed nickname “Super Seminary Smarty” unless your blogger profile or personal blog clearly states your real identity.
3. We insist that all participants be willing to receive and give correction when these expectations are not met. As believers in Christ we are responsible to confront one anther when our blogs do not honor Christ.
4. We insist that all participants avoid useless conversations. There are many topics and opinions that are out of bounds for Christians. “Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels.” 2 Timothy 2:23 ESV
5. We invite all participants to fully support and contribute to Said at Southern. We have structured our blog to allow multiple levels of participation.
   1. Open Comments: We encourage humble, relevant and thoughtful comments by anyone who reads this blog. This extends beyond the SBTS blogging community. We want to interact with readers from diverse backgrounds.
   2. Linked Bloggers: This is the entry level of participation. These blogs get linked from the aggregator boxes. We request that all linked bloggers reciprocate by linking us on their blogs.
   3. Contributing Bloggers: In addition to linking Said At Southern, these bloggers contribute via comments and backlinked posts. On our sidebar we will display the last several posts from our contributing bloggers. They are invited to submit guest posts for Said At Southern.
   4. Featured Bloggers: At its core Said At Southern is an echo-chamber for what SBTS bloggers are saying. On our sidebar we will display the last several posts from our featured bloggers. Our design is to give better exposure to better content. This group of students, faculty and alumni are increasingly important voices in the blogosphere. Inclusion in the “Featured Bloggers” category is by the discretion of the Said At Southern team.

If you have suggestions on how we can improve these expectations please contribute them to the comment section on this post.

Said @ Southern is going to be an influential part of Southern Baptist life in the next few years, especially as young seminary students leave school and move out into the world of pastoral ministry. We will need each other more than ever before. Blogging will help to fill a void that otherwise would make encouragement and accountability difficult. Pray for the success of this endeavor!

Musings on Frank Page’s Chapel Message and An $1800 Book

UPDATE: Timmy Brister has posted on Dr. Page’s message here. He also captured for all eternity Dr. Page signing my copy of Trouble With The TULIP! But if anything, he’s captured for all eternity that I need to get back in shape. ;-p

Southern Baptist Convention president Frank Page spoke at Southern Seminary’s Tuesday chapel. I made a point of getting up early to go hear him. It was well worth setting the alarm. President Page preached a very convicting sermon entitled “Changing That Which We Can Change” from Philippians 1:12-20.

I say it was convicting because I wish I’d heard that sermon about 4 years ago, shortly before beginning my struggles with burnout. It is also convicting in light of the current political silliness in the SBC, as well as the theological silliness going around about Calvinism.

What follows are my impressions from his message. I am sure there are others who can offer something more indepth and of more substance, and I encourage you to read theirs as well, should they post. But here are my gleanings.

When our circumstances in life appear difficult, can we change them? When we face difficult circumstances, more likely than not we cannot change them, precisely because they have been brought upon us by the Lord. Page drew from Paul’s account in this passage three things. What we can change, and ought to change, is our mindset, our motivation, and our methodology.

Mindset

Our mindset, Page said, must be one that sees all circumstances as an opportunity to glorify God. Instead of taking mindsets of despair, jealousy, etc., Paul was encouraged that he had the opportunity to glorify God in the Roman jail in which he was held. His attitude, Page said, was one that said “I will proclaim the Gospel no matter my circumstances.” We ought have the same mindset as Paul–no matter my situation, I will proclaim the Gospel.

Motivation

Our motives must constantly be checked, Page stressed. Why are we doing what we are doing? Are we doing it to feel good about ourselves? Are we doing it to push an agenda? Are we doing it because we are aligned with a faction? All these motives are sinful and unbiblical. Page here made a proclamation that brought several “amens:” We are all on the same team. Southern Baptists have got to understand this.

Let me write that out with the proper emphasis he gave, in pulpit pounding: “We are all (pound) on (pound) the same (pound) team (pound). Southern Baptists have GOT (POUND) to understand this!”

Page went on to say that it is not about our feelings, factions, or agendas, because we are all on the same team. Therefore our motivation must be for His kingdom and for His glory. Paul didn’t care about the “whys” and “wherefores” of his opponents. The only thing Paul cared about was that they were preaching the Gospel, though their motives were not pure. We must have the same motivation as Paul, one that simply seeks to see God and His kingdom lifted up through the proclamation of the Gospel.

Methodology

I think this point brought the greatest agreement among the audience. Does what we do in our ministry bring shame and reproach upon the Gospel? If it does we must not do it. We must continually ask ourselves, “Is what we are doing pure and right, and does it bring glory to God?” If it is not and does not, we must get rid of it.

The entire point is that we must have first and foremost the glory of God as our goal.

Page closed his message with a good summary: “Though our circumstances in life may never change, we can change the way we face them by checking our mindset, motivation, and methodology.”

Dr. Mohler, after a few remarks, most of which I was unable to follow, led the student in a time of silent prayer which I can only assume was meant for us to reflect and meditate on Page’s message to us. I prayed that the Lord would forgive me for the times in which I had not kept His glory as the main thing. I prayed that He would ever lead me to seek His glory in all things, that He would keep me on the path that He has prepared for me.

Trouble With The TULIP

Afterwards, I found Guillaume McDowell and walked out with him. For those of you wondering if he’s been thrown in jail for the illegal possession of the bottle of Welch’s Grape Juice I gave him, you may rest easy. Blogger has been acting up, as he attempted to switch to Blogger Beta, and it seems the folks at Blogger have royally screwed up his blog access.

But anyway, I walked out with him, and mentioned that I was going to get Dr. Page to sign my copy of Trouble With The Tulip. He was tickled to death and so was I! As I reached the end of the greeting line, I thanked Dr. Page for a convicting message and made sure he knew that our church was praying for him. Then he graciously consented to sign my copy of TWTT! That’s right, I got a signed copy now!

Just a little while ago, I went to enter TWTT into my catalog, and discovered something interesting. Amazon.com still lists TWTT as “out-of-print,” but they only have one used copy. That in and of itself is nothing, but it was listed as $1,842.54! A used copy! That is one expensive book! I got a real steal at $14.50 from Lifeway.

Other Stuff

Well, that about wraps up my day. Tricia and I finally bought a bookshelf, and the bulk of my books are now put away, praise the Lord. We also took my desktop computer in for diagnostics and an estimate on the repairs. It mysteriously went kerfuffle back in March or April, maybe even as far back as February, and I’ve delayed getting it fixed due to finances and that little thing I had to do called getting married. Please pray that I don’t lose anything, because I have a year and a half’s worth of sermons on it as well as two years of schoolwork and other ministry work that I’d like to save.

Southern Baptist Legalistic Seminary?

Steve McCoy, in the comments section to his “Open Letter to SBC Seminary Students,” claims that some of us are in fear of getting “blacklisted” around here and in the SBC due to legalism at SBTS (specifically regarding the alcohol issue) and other SBC seminaries as well.

Now, while I really don’t want to start a tempest in a blogpost, let me just say that the incredulity of this claim is staggering to me. Maybe I’m a little insulated from “seminary politics” because I belong to an isolated community (the Deaf community), but even so I find it extremely difficult to believe this is true. Are Southern Seminary students really on the chopping block if they exercise their right to have a differing viewpoint from the administration? And over an issue that really is silly when you get down to it?

For his sake, I hope Steve sheds a little light on this claim. I understand that he’s apparently been asked not to name names, but that just makes the claim more suspect to me. Do you guys have any opinion on this? Is this really the atmosphere we learn, study, and fellowship in? If it truly is, things have certainly changed since I first enrolled, and it will make me happy to be graduating soon. A top-notch education tarnished (in my mind and in the mind of others) over something stupid.

To Jason Doty: sorry about the rules, I completely forgot once I woke up and got busy doing church things. There’s a Weird-O-Cron™ with your name on it in the works by dinnertime. Just so you know, I work in Building 1.

Rock and Roll Baptist Theological Seminary

*Cheering, screaming crowds chanting “Jedi! Jedi! Jedi! Jedi!*Announcer: Ladies and Gentlemen, Baptists of all ages, we at Alumni Memorial Chapel are proud to present, for the first time ever in concert, The Deaf Jedi and the Calminian Sithlords!

*Crowd now works itself into a frenzy*

Deaf Jedi: Hey hey hey, time for us to play! Good to see y’all tonight! We’ll open the show with our #1 hit from our debut album The Funny Book, “I Wanna Be Al Mohler!”

*Crowd erupts into a deafening roar. Thankfully the Deaf Jedi is already deaf.*

Lead guitarist erupts into a spectacular riff on a custom Gibson Les Paul classic. The crowd quiets down and begins to clap along with the drumbeat. The Deaf Jedi walks up to the microphone, strikes a rock star pose, and belts out:

“I wanna be Al Mohler, baby
With the jocks left back and the chessboard shinin’
Al Mohler, baby
Riverfront chillin’ with sweet tea o’ mine
I wanna be Al Mohler, baby
Writin’ at night cause I sleep all day
Al Mohler, baby
I can smell a pomo from a theology away”

*Crowd explodes into a moshing frenzy*

Okay, that was great. Even the lame Fat Albert line was cheesy enough to make me laugh. I might actually write that song later!

What’s the occasion of this post? Ex Quo has introduced me to yet another interesting tidbit: Southern Seminary is guilty of Rock and Roll Christianity! Click on the two links to see the hubbub. “Ex Quo” links to his post, “Rock and Roll Christianity” links to the article in question.

This is one of the better humor articles I’ve read lately. And the funny thing is, it is a serious article written by an independent fundamental Baptist minister. It is high-larious. There are lots of errors, inconsistencies, and out and out misrepresentations all throughout this article. Not to mention a lot of things taken entirely out of context.

Basically, it’s like this. My college was what I’d describe as a moderate Baptist institution, and they felt and taught (or at least told or implied to) their students that places like Southern were places where we were not taught to think, or not allowed to think. This guy’s article is claiming that students at Southern are, essentially, taught to think too much!

I feel like I’ve finally come full circle. I’ve gone from being “too open minded” to being “too closed minded” back to being “too open minded.” And all this time I thought I was supposed to be “Scripture minded” or “Jesus minded.” Yes, indeed, I’ve come full circle.

The Veggie Tales Gospel

While flipping channels before supper yesterday, I ran across channel 19. Yeah, for those of you who know and those of you that don’t, that’s the local religion channel. They show primarily Christian stuff–a mixture of Southern Seminary offerings as well as church services and a good deal of Catholic offerings. It’s an okay channel–would be better if it was captioned for the Deaf. I don’t watch it–I have a policy of not watching religious channels due to the “TBN factor.”

But this evening was different. They were showing a Southern Seminary chapel service, and I had come in just as Dr. Russell Moore was preaching. And I could understand every word he said, without captions. How providential.

Now, say what you want about Russ Moore, but this man can preach. I have never really liked the guy ever since I had him in my very first semester at Southern way back in 1999 (dang I’m getting old), when he was a mere doctoral student and was Dr. Mohler’s personal assistant. He came across then as callous, unsympathetic, and just plain mean. You might want to see the below post with my The Doctrines of Grace review to get the terminology I’m gonna use for these types from now on. But I’ve never been able to shake that impression of him since.

But anyway, as I said, this man can preach. And he didn’t just preach, he freakin’ preached. I loved this message. It gave me quite a few ideas for teaching at the Deaf church, where I’ve been touching on providence lately (but not explicitly). The subtitle said it all: “The Bones of Joseph, The Kingdom of Christ, and the Story We Tell.” He talked about a “Veggie Tales gospel,” which unfortunately I came in a little too late to hear how he worked in Veggie Tales, but apparently it is about focusing too much on the little picture instead of the Big Picture of God’s plan for ourselves and humanity. He illustrated this by preaching about the patriarch Joseph. How true. We get so focused on our problems, our struggles, our successes and failures that we forget entirely about God’s sovereign, providential Will. We forget about God’s vision. And we can’t preach about God’s will because we’re too focused on our own will and cannot understand God’s will.

You know, I never get tired of listening to Russ Moore preach, personal impressions of him notwithstanding. I feel privileged to be in a school with such great preachers as models.

Let me see if I can link the audio of the sermon for those of you who are hearing-inclined…aha! Beyond a Veggie Tales Gospel: The Bones of Joseph, the Kingdom of Christ, and the Story We Tell

That will play an mp3 on the SBTS website. If you wanna download it, you’ll need to go to this page on Southern’s website to download it. I really wish there was a downloadable video of this so I could refer to it again, WITH understanding.

The Southern Seminary Dating Game

Ex Quo has an interesting take on how single guys around here prove they’re Pimp Daddies:

Girl in the bookstore is looking at CDs.

Guy: So how are you doing?
Girl: I’m fine. Just looking at CDs.
Guy: Ah, that’s cool. Say, can I ask you a question?
Girl: Sure.
Guy: Well, I was praying about this last night, and I really felt that God was leading me towards asking you out. So, I was wondering if we could go out some night to get to know each other better.
Girl: Well, I really don’t want to be in a relationship right now.
Guy: Oh, that’s cool. I just wanted to hang out and get to know you better.
Girl: Well, let me pray about it and see.
Guy: OK, well, I’ll see ya around.

GUY turns and leaves. GUY 2 enters.

GUY2: Hey, how’s it going?
Girl: Oh, I’m fine. Hey, guess what? Some guy just pulled out the God card on me when he asked me out.

Isn’t that hilarious? For the full post, click on Ex Quo’s name at the beginning of this post.

Now, seriously, I’m so glad I didn’t really try dating any Southern Seminary girls in my time here. Not that I wasn’t attracted to the ladies or didn’t want to date any of them (this just in: Southern girls are HOT), but you know what, you never knew if a particular girl was attached. I would say that until the past couple of years, at least 75% of the female population here were married or fixing to be. That’s not good odds for a young, single first or second year seminary student. So it was not as good a use of my time to find an available girl. I must say, it paid off–when I finally did attempt to date a seminary girl, she introduced me to my fiancee, who is NOT a student here! In fact, she’s a former Catholic, to boot. Take THAT, ladies! (Removes tongue from cheek)

Every time I’ve heard a female student discuss the men in this place it’s always been in a negative context. For example: “They’re just looking for a wife because the church won’t hire them unless they’re married. They play the God card. I just want a man who wants me for me, not for my theological value. They’re socially inept nerds.” Yes, I actually did hear those last two.

The moral of this story? If you really think you’re gonna find a “trophy wife” at Southern, think again–God’s Will is what happens when you’re making other plans. Just let it happen, guys. You don’t need to get your Mack on. We can’t all be like Will Smith in Hitch.

SBTS - Speed Bump Terrorism Seminary

For those of you who, like me, thought those ungodly massive speed bumps the seminary built were moments to thank God you were still alive, here’s more ammo for our anti-speed bump guns: Bus Passenger Paralyzed By Speed Bump