Posts by RuthAnne Irvin

Theology of worship exhorted at Doxology and Theology conference November 19, 2014

Songwriter Keith Getty discusses the importance of theology in worship music at the Doxology and Theology conference, Nov. 13-15.
Songwriter Keith Getty discusses the importance of theology in worship music at the Doxology and Theology conference, Nov. 13-15.

Music ministers are responsible to teach their congregations theology through song, according to songwriter Keith Getty at the Doxology and Theology conference, Nov. 13-15, hosted on campus of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Songs portraying the incredible beauty about God are what the church needs, Getty said. The conference featured well-known musicians and music ministers, including Getty, Matt Papa, Bob Kauflin, Matt Carter, Harold Best, Matt Boswell, and many others. Various bands led worship throughout the event, including the seminary’s Norton Hall Band, to Indelible Grace and others.

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Evangelical leaders urge faithful and worshipful preaching at Expositors Summit November 5, 2014

Southern Seminary President R. Albert Mohler Jr. moderates a panel discussion on expository preaching with John MacArthur and H.B. Charles Jr., Oct. 29.
Southern Seminary President R. Albert Mohler Jr. moderates a panel discussion on expository preaching with John MacArthur and H.B. Charles Jr., Oct. 29.

Leading evangelical pastors John MacArthur and H.B. Charles Jr. joined Southern Seminary President R. Albert Mohler Jr. to emphasize the primacy of preaching at the Expositors Summit at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Oct. 28-30. The plenary addresses were expository sermons with focused application for the pastors’ preaching ministry of the gospel.

“For those who are the disciples of Christ, there is one thing we simply can’t do without,” Mohler said. “And that is the teaching of Christ, the teaching of the Word.”

In the opening session of the summit, Mohler preached on “The Binding of Isaac” in Genesis 22, reading the story through the lens of gospel revelation. Mohler highlighted elements of the narrative pointing to Christ in the New Testament — the son Isaac carries the wood up the mountain himself, the sacrifice comes just when it is needed, and God himself provides the offering at the story’s climax.

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Cross-cultural value of expository preaching lauded at Southern Seminary’s African-American pastors’ conference October 30, 2014

Thabiti Anyabwile, church planting pastor at Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., defends the value of expository preaching at an African-American pastors' conference at Southern Seminary, Oct. 27.
Thabiti Anyabwile, church planting pastor at Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., defends the value of expository preaching at an African-American pastors' conference at Southern Seminary, Oct. 27.

Christ-centered expositional preaching is cross-cultural, according to speakers at Southern Seminary’s African-American pastors’ conference, Oct. 27. The conference, held in conjunction with this year’s Expositors Summit, featured African-American preachers Thabiti Anyabwile, H.B. Charles, Victor Sholar, and Curtis Woods.

“We want to preach in such a way that opens the understanding of our people so that their rejoicing is really in the truth,” said Anyabwile, church planting pastor at Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C.

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Parables are ‘salvation stories,’ says MacArthur in Southern Seminary’s Mullins Lectures October 29, 2014

John MacArthur, pastor of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, examines Gospel parables in the Mullins Lectures on Preaching at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Oct. 28.
John MacArthur, pastor of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, examines Gospel parables in the Mullins Lectures on Preaching at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Oct. 28.

Gospel parables are rich expository preaching material, but they cannot replace expository preaching, said pastor and author John MacArthur in the E.Y. Mullins Lectures on Preaching at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Oct. 28.

“Parables are Jesus’ theology of salvation in stories,” said the 75-year-old MacArthur, pastor of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California. “We can see those parables for what they are,” he added, but for unbelievers “they are nothing but riddles, stories without meaning.”

MacArthur, author and editor of more than 150 books, became the first person to deliver the prestigious Mullins Lectures for a third time. He previously participated in 2002 and 2006. The lectureship was endowed by E.Y. Mullins, the fourth president of Southern Seminary, and since 1941 has featured notable preachers such as Donald Macleod, Calvin Miller, R. Kent Hughes, and Bryan Chapell.

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Racial reconciliation at ‘pivot place’ for evangelicals, says Perkins in Julius B. Gay Lecture October 28, 2014

Civil rights leader John M. Perkins delivers the Julius Brown Gay Lecture on Christian Ethics at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Oct. 27.
Civil rights leader John M. Perkins delivers the Julius Brown Gay Lecture on Christian Ethics at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Oct. 27.

A new generation of evangelical Christians is on the verge of racial reconciliation and economic justice in its churches, said John M. Perkins in the Julius Brown Gay Lecture on Christian Ethics at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Oct. 27.

“We’re at a pivot place in history,” said Perkins, 84. “This is the first generation of people who are beginning to understand that and values diversity. There’s an underlying movement today that now people are wanting to do mission with people, and they want to learn from people, and they see human beings different as a value in life.”

The Julius Brown Gay Lectures are among Southern Seminary's most prestigious lectureships, dating back to 1895. The lectures have brought some of Christianity's most significant figures to the seminary campus, most notably Martin Luther King Jr. in 1961. Perkins said the opportunity to deliver the lecture at Southern Seminary was “one of the honors of my life” as the culmination of his life’s work.

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Scholars celebrate Whitefield’s evangelistic legacy in annual Fuller Center conference October 27, 2014

Steven J. Lawson, president of OnePassion Ministries, delivers a plenary address, "Preaching George Whitefield," at the eighth annual conference for the Andrew Fuller Center at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Oct. 21.
Steven J. Lawson, president of OnePassion Ministries, delivers a plenary address, "Preaching George Whitefield," at the eighth annual conference for the Andrew Fuller Center at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Oct. 21.

Thousands of people flocked to the Bruton Parish Church in colonial Virginia on Sunday, Dec. 16, 1739, to hear a famous young preacher they called the “heavenly comet.” Church members were joined by curious onlookers and some eager visitors who traveled a then-remarkable 14 miles to hear the powerful voice of George Whitefield proclaim the new birth.

Though he made no mention of it in his journal, the “grand itinerant” turned 25 years old that day. Despite his youth, Whitefield had already attained a level of popularity in Britain and colonial America that arguably no one has since matched. Turning to his text, Matthew 22:42, Whitefield asked the congregation a classic question: “What think ye of Christ?”

He was received with unusual warmth from the Anglican minister and faced no immediate controversy from his sermon. By the time Bruton Parish received letters from the Church of England to bar Whitefield from its pulpit, the evangelist was already on his way through the colonies for “the greatest preaching tour of any preacher since the missionary journeys of the Apostle Paul,” said Steven J. Lawson, president of OnePassion Ministries in Dallas, Texas.

Lawson, who wrote The Evangelistic Zeal of George Whitefield, delivered a plenary address at the eighth annual conference for the Andrew Fuller Center for Baptist Studies at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary on “Whitefield and the Great Awakening,” Oct. 21-22. The two-day conference honoring the tricentennial of Whitefield’s birth featured key scholars such as Thomas S. Kidd, professor of history at Baylor University and author of the recent George Whitefield: America’s Spiritual Founding Father, and David Bebbington, professor of history at the University of Stirling and author of notable works on modern evangelicalism.

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Civil rights leader John M. Perkins to deliver Oct. 27 lecture at Southern Seminary October 24, 2014

John M. Perkins
John M. Perkins

John M. Perkins, an evangelical civil rights leader on issues of racial reconciliation and community development, will deliver the Julius Brown Gay Lecture on Christian Ethics at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Oct. 27.

“For reconciliation to take place, we must create an environment that is worshipful and where God’s Word can clearly be heard,” said Perkins, 84, in a recent interview with Southern Seminary. “The gospel is only the gospel when the totality of the redemption is heard, when we proclaim the depths of God’s love and the longing of his people for change.”

Perkins will lecture on “Why We Can’t Wait: The Urgency of the Now” at 10 a.m. on Monday, Oct. 27. The lecture will be held in Legacy 303 at the seminary’s Legacy Hotel & Conference Center. The first 50 students in attendance will receive a free copy of Perkins’ book, Let Justice Roll Down.

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‘Timeless’ ministry of Spurgeon examined in Alumni Academy October 22, 2014

Thomas J. Nettles, retired professor of historical theology at Southern Seminary, lectures on the "timeless ministry of Charles Haddon Spurgeon at Alumni Academy, Oct. 9-10.
Thomas J. Nettles, who recently retired as professor of historical theology at Southern Seminary, lectures on the "timeless ministry" of Charles Haddon Spurgeon at Alumni Academy, Oct. 9-10.

His sermons are still circulated around the world through books, pamphlets, and the Internet. He is quoted by thousands of pastors across the land each Sunday. His books are read and re-read. Church historians often say Charles Haddon Spurgeon was the prince of preachers, but it may accurate to say he still is.

“The ministry of a man like Spurgeon is timeless,” said Thomas J. Nettles, who studied Spurgeon for nearly 20 years in writing Living By Revealed Truth: The Life and Pastoral Theology of Charles Haddon Spurgeon. “His attentions and affections were focused on things that were not merely ephemeral, but were eternal. The longevity of interest in him is something that certainly commends him to all of us.”

More than 125 alumni of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary attended a two-day Alumni Academy, Oct. 9-10, devoted to the life and ministry of the great British pastor.

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Mohler: American evangelicals should expect persecution October 16, 2014

R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, delivers a special Heritage Week message in Broadus Chapel, Oct. 15.
R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, delivers a special Heritage Week message in Broadus Chapel, Oct. 15.

“Opposition from the world is an opportunity to witness,” said R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, during a special Heritage Week chapel service, Oct. 15.

"The opportunity of greatest Christian witness is not when we think the world loves us, but when the world quite openly hates us."

Preaching from John 15:18-27, Mohler said, “This passage is, of course, not completely unfamiliar to us as evangelical Christians in the United States. But for most of evangelical history in America, we have not heard them as particularly addressed to us.”

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Southern Seminary trustees celebrate 20th anniversary of Billy Graham School October 15, 2014

R. Albert Mohler Jr. presents Thom Rainer with the E.Y. Mullins Distinguished Denominational Service Award in Alumni Memorial Chapel, Oct. 14.
R. Albert Mohler Jr. presents Thom Rainer with the E.Y. Mullins Distinguished Denominational Service Award in Alumni Memorial Chapel, Oct. 14.

Trustees of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Billy Graham School of Missions, Evangelism and Ministry during the fall trustee meeting, Oct. 13-14.

During an Oct. 14 special chapel service marking the occasion, Thom Rainer, the founding dean of the Billy Graham School, preached a sermon on evangelism and President R. Albert Mohler Jr. read a congratulatory letter from the Graham family.

Mohler read the letter from Will Graham, grandson of Billy Graham and vice president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, who sent greetings from the Graham family on the occasion of the BGS anniversary. The nearly 96-year-old world-renowned evangelist is “homebound, frail and weak, but confident in heart about the promises of eternity and the truth of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ,” his grandson wrote.

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