Many children are known for their drawing prowess. Nearly all parents could recall a time when they discovered a mural constructed by their child with red, yellow and blue crayon on a bedroom wall.

With Melissa Konemann, however, things were different. Konemann says she “remembers always painting and drawing,” just not on bedroom walls. Konemann said her grandfather has a piece of art saved that she made at age three.

For Konemann, a sophomore at Boyce College, art is a ministry. During the month of July, four of Konemann’s charcoal portraits were on display on the walls of Java Brewing Company’s Frankfort Ave. location. The drawings depict orphans from four different countries, with
Konemann planning on donating the proceeds from the sale of the pieces to a non-profit adoption organization.

“I have a heart for adoption and missions,” said Konemann, a biblical and theological studies major. “I see a need for adoption, especially for us in America who are so blessed. I would love to see people in the United States bring kids into their homes.

“I know financially adoption is a challenge, so I want to do whatever I can to help. I see it as a Gospel mission, not just adopting a kid because you can’t have any, but also bringing them in to share the Gospel with them. There is just so much need.”

Konemann said the four drawings represent orphans from Romania, Armenia, Korea and India. Using pictures of children from those different countries for inspiration, Konemann said she particularly focused on the eyes in her portraits.

“They are close-up pictures,” she said. “I wanted to give it up an up close and personal view of the orphans, something that jumped out from the page and grabbed people’s attention. A lot of focus is on the eyes, which I thought was important because we express a lot through the eyes.”

With each portrait, Konemann posted a Bible verse related to orphans, such as James 1:27, which tells believers to look after widows and orphans in their distress.

While Konemann said she grew up doing artwork, she began to take drawing and painting seriously at age 14. Konemann said she took a few classes at a local art store, but has no formal training otherwise. Konemann does a variety of art -- including Sumi-e, a Japanese art style -- but said she particularly enjoys composing oil paintings and charcoal drawings.

Konemann’s father Robert is a master of divinity student at Southern Seminary. Robert Konemann came to Southern in the fall of 2007 after pastoring 12 years in a church he planted in Jacksonville, Fla.

Melissa said she had been looking for inspiration for her artwork for quite a while before she had the idea of donating her earnings to a non-profit organization.

Konemann said she would like for these four drawings to be the start of something bigger, a lifelong ministry.

“I would like to expand on the orphans. I want to do some more drawings and paintings,” she said. “I want to do very real, very personal pictures depicting missions, whether that is people groups, missionaries or converts. I would like to do several different aspects and several different series of people from different countries. That would be non-profit as well, with the money going to missions.”

Ideally, Konemann said she would be able to generate enough income from some of her pieces to enable her to create a good number of non-profit items.

From an early age, Konemann began creating art that lasted, a talent she is glad to use.

“It is exciting for me to do a piece and watch it come alive,” she said.

The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary held its first ever graduate-level course on “ethnodoxology” last month.

A collaborative team from the International Council of Ethnodoxologists (ICE) developed and taught the historic course May 31-June 6. Attendees included students from multiple universities, worship leaders from across the nation, and musicians and missionaries from three different continents.

The ICE team crafted the course in consultation with Esther Crookshank, associate dean for professional studies in the School of Church Music and Worship at Southern.

“The instructional resources, passionate vision and networking connections that this teaching team brought to our campus was phenomenal,” said Crookshank, who is also the Ollie Hale Chiles professor of church music at Southern. “I can think of no better investment of our energies at Southern Seminary than to equip musicians, pastors and missionaries to facilitate biblical worship that connects with God’s people at the deepest level possible, whatever their cultural context.”

Ethnodoxology is a term coined by Dave Hall, a founder of ICE and founder of Worship From The Nations, a ministry of Pioneers. The term refers to the theological and anthropological study, and practical application, of how every cultural group uses its unique and diverse artistic expressions appropriately to worship the God of the Bible, according to the ICE website.

Paul Neeley, president of ICE, said ethnodoxology is important because it examines people’s worship and thus affects every area of their lives.

“Worship intersects with culture constantly: in congregational life, in our individual lives and in the way we live in our social settings. Ethnodoxology helps us think through some of these things,” said Neeley, who serves as teacher of ethnomusicology at Bethel University and Dallas Baptist University.

“What are some ways for biblical worship to be fleshed out in particular cultural forms that are appropriate, relevant and meaningful? Whether we are involved with worship ministries in multicultural congregations in North America or doing church planting among unreached people groups, we need to ask these questions and see the types of answers which those before us have reached.”

Chad Helmer, a recent M.Div. graduate from Southern Seminary, noted that many institutions offer classes in ethnomusicology, examining the music of different cultures, but no course has ever studied the musical worship of other cultures. Helmer said the class helped him identify the Western background and presuppositions he takes into musical worship.

“The class really helped to bring out a level of ethnocentrism that I had,” Helmer said. “I really believed that the things I was trying to do in our church (musically) were the best things we could be doing or at least that they were neutral. But music and the arts are never really neutral. It just depends on what context they are in and what they communicate.

“We often heard people singing in class, and we also watched several videos of different churches around the world. My first reaction, because it was so different, was resistance, but by the end of the week I was able to see that they were worshipping out of their hearts and instead of having a reflex of resistance I was much more excited to see people actually worshipping God in a place where they were once no people worshipping Him.”
Helmer and his wife are pursuing appointment with the

International Mission Board, and he said the class helped calm some of his fears about foreign missions.

“My wife and I are preparing to go overseas soon and one of the things I was scared of was how different the culture is going to be,” he said. “I may never become like the other people, but I still may have joy in seeing them worship God in the way that He has made them.”

In addition to teaching sessions, students participated in group projects, watched videos and participated in a global hymn festival, led by Southern graduate C. Michael Hawn, a well-known author and worship leader in world congregational song. The festival included music from several cultures -- including South America, Africa and Asia -- set to the theme of the Lord’s Prayer.

Chuck Steddom, pastor for worship and music at Bethlehem Baptist Church where John Piper serves as pastor, was one of the students in the class. Helmer said Steddom shared what Bethlehem Baptist is doing to encourage ethnically diverse worship.

A leader of the creative arts strategy team for IMB in the South Asia region, also took the class. Other attendees included students and/or professors from Liberty University, Asbury Seminary and Kentucky Mountain Bible College, Crookshank said, adding that the ethnodoxology course is designed to aid ministers in a variety of contexts.

“The course is geared toward anyone will be part of short-term missions, specifically the worship leadership in a church,” she said. “That would involve church planters, who very much need this training to know how to grow mature Christians in their cultural context. It is also geared toward anyone in a multi-cultural church here in the United States.”

Crookshank said the idea for the ethnodoxology class developed through Southern’s Institute for Christian Worship lectures, which has featured several ICE faculty. She said Southern is looking at the possibility of adding applied ethnomusicology as a degree emphasis in the School of Church Music and Worship beginning with the fall semester.

The First Baptist Church of West Palm Beach, Fla., voted to call Jimmy Scroggins, dean of Boyce College, as its senior pastor earlier this month.

Scroggins has served as dean of Boyce, the undergraduate institution of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, since January 2004 and Southern President R. Albert Mohler Jr. said the news is bittersweet.

“This is a sad day for Southern Seminary in that it will bring to a close Dr. Scroggins’ outstanding leadership as Dean of Boyce College,” he said. “But, in reality, this is in every way reason for our pride in Dr. Scroggins and our excitement to see what God will do through his pastoral leadership of that great congregation.”

Scroggins earned both his master of divinity and Ph.D. from Southern and his bachelor’s degree from Jacksonville University in Florida. Scroggins vacates a teaching pastor position at Highview Baptist Church in Louisville, where he has served since 1997.

Mohler said though the departure of Scroggins is a loss on both a professional and personal level, the position he is filling is an excellent ministry opportunity.

“At the personal level, I just can’t express how much I will miss him,” he said. “He is a great friend as well as a cherished colleague. Many others will share this loss.

But, even more than this, I am just so proud of him. Right now the best thing we can do is to congratulate him and pray for God’s blessings on his new ministry.”
Mohler said he has begun the search for Scroggins’ replacement at Boyce.

“I invite you to send me any suggestion as we get this important search underway. God made provision for First Baptist West Palm, and He will make a wonderful provision for Boyce College as well.”

As The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary approaches its 150th year of existence, its goal continues to be passing on the faith once for all delivered to the saints in service to the churches of the Southern Baptist Convention, said R. Albert Mohler Jr. at the SBC annual meeting June 11.

Delivering Southern’s annual report, Mohler referenced the question posed in Luke 18:8: “When the Son of Man comes will He find faith on the earth?” Mohler said the question is not if Christ will have a church, but if that church will be faithful.

“Will He find a demonstration of faith? Will He find the faith once for all delivered to the saints embraced, taught, articulated, handed down?,” he said. “Just look at the New Testament and how much of the emphasis, the imperative of the New Testament is about handing down the faith intact, in full, in joy to successive generations.”

Mohler said the purpose of theological education, and thus the purpose of Southern Seminary, is to follow Paul’s exhortation to pass on the treasure of the Christian faith.

“We take as our mission exactly what Paul instructed Timothy [to do],” he said. “We take as our charge being able to give an answer to the Lord when He asks ‘when the Son of Man comes will He find faith on the earth?’”

Southern is devoted to training men and women sent from local churches whom God has called to ministry, Mohler said, and he exhorted church leaders to continue sending out such persons.

“I want to thank you for exercising the ministry of your church,” he said. “I want to encourage you in that ministry to understand that in a fully thriving, fully faithful ministry God is going to be calling out those who will be the servants of the Gospel, those who will be the preachers of the Word, those who will be church planters and missionaries. If that is not happening in your church I want to urge you to ask why?”

Mohler said Southern is grateful for the opportunity to train the more than 4,400 students currently enrolled at the seminary. Southern prioritizes theological scholarship among its faculty and in its ministry training, Mohler said.

“We have an emphasis on our campus on scholarship for the cause of the Gospel,” he said. “We want to make sure that those men who have the assignment to teach and preach the Word of God will do so faithfully and will hand down the faith in tact, in full, in joy.”

Mohler said Southern also exhorts its students to have fervor for evangelism.

“Right now, there are student groups with [Southern Seminary] faculty all over the world employed in student missionary efforts this summer and that happens all around the calendar year at Southern Seminary,” he said. “I am glad to tell you that right now we have graduates of Southern Seminary serving in places the names of which we can not even identify for cause of safety.”

The next generation will be either increasingly deeply and convictionally pagan or deeply and convictionally Christian, Mohler said, and he prays that the churches of the SBC will foster the latter.

“In this post-Christian secular age we now face the challenge of recognizing that we are going to know who the Christians are and we are going to know that pretty quickly,” he said. “We are going to know where the faithful churches are and we are going to know that pretty quickly. We are going to know where the faithful denominations are and we are going to know that pretty quickly. I pray that when the Lord comes He will find the churches of this denomination faithful.”

For nearly 150 years Southern Seminary has served local churches, which Mohler said could only be so because of the mercy and grace of God. He said it is the seminary’s goal and joy to train the next generation to defend the faith once for all delivered to the saints.

“I am glad to tell you that there are thousands of students on the campus of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, the vast majority of them studying to be pastors of your churches,” he said. “They are filled with biblical conviction because they have been swimming against the tide. They are taught from the full treasure of Christian truth because they deserve nothing less. And they are aimed toward the world to see the glory of God demonstrated and the name of Christ declared among the nations.”

Chuck Lawless, dean of the Billy Graham School of Missions and Evangelism at Southern, reminded attendees of the Missional Church Planting conference at Sojourn Community Church that spiritual warfare is a central component of all Gospel ministry, including church planting.

‘Every time we share the Gospel with a lost person, we have engaged in war,’ he said. ‘And we are on the offensive, marching against hell with the Gospel. But if we do not wear the armor of God as we do this, the enemy will shut us down before we ever get started.’

Lawless said Paul makes it clear that the enemy of all believers, particularly those actively engaged in Gospel ministry, is a spiritual one: the devil and his forces. The enemy’s goals are simple: to cause Christians to mess up, give up and/or get puffed up.

Lawless identified several danger areas peculiar to church planting through which the devil seeks to work. One danger was aloneness and a lack of accountability. Church planters often work alone when starting a church, which can leave them vulnerable to the enemy’s attacks, Lawless said.

Another danger Lawless identified was bitterness. Lawless noted that church planters often have an innate frustration with the established church, which can be one of the reasons they plant. He warned that Satan will probably try to establish a root of bitterness in church planters.

‘If we find ourselves bitter against some kind of strategy or approach to church, we need to get over it because the enemy is winning there,’ he said.

Self-dependence, often expressed in a lack of prayer, is another danger Satan uses to try and derail church planters, Lawless said.

‘I am convinced that most of us who are leaders in God’s church can do most of what we do in our own power without the church ever even noticing,’ he said. ‘In our churches, we usually start praying when we face a mountain we cannot climb. If we can climb the mountain on our own, then we don’t pray.’

Lawless said church planters must combat these, and other, tactics of the enemy by putting on the full armor of God. Putting on God’s armor does not mean praying an ‘ethereal prayer’ every morning, ‘Lord help me put on your armor,’ Lawless said. Instead, Paul is saying that if you want to win the war you have to wear the full armor of God, i.e., be characterized by those traits.

“Are you known as one who tells the Word, who proclaims the good news?” Lawless asked. “Are you a person who is living in the Word? Are you a person who has time alone with God, so that when you step into a pulpit, God is the overflow of your life You have to know the Truth, Jesus, you have to read the truth, the Word, and you have to live the truth.”

To read the live blog of Lawless’ presentation, visit news.sbts.edu/?p=712.

A record 272 students received degrees from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary during its spring commencement service May 16.

The seminary’s 201st commencement was held outdoors on the seminary lawn for the third straight year in order to accommodate the crowd.

Brian Vickers, assistant professor of New Testament Interpretation, received the Findley B. and Louvenia Edge Faculty Award for Teaching Excellence.

During his commencement address, Southern Seminary President R. Albert Mohler Jr. used the example of Apollos to remind the graduates that a central part of their calling is to be mighty in the Scriptures.

“We are told that Apollos was an eloquent or learned man, and we are told that he came to Ephesus and was mighty in the Scriptures,” he said. “Of all the things we might want said of us, of all the things we would want said of these graduates could we possibly imagine any words that could be a more significant ambition than these: to be known as mighty in the Scriptures.”

Being mighty in the Scriptures represents the ultimate goal of theological education, Mohler said.

“The motto of this institution is taken from Paul’s second letter to Timothy: that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly furnished unto all good works and that the man of God might rightly divide the Word of truth,” he said.

“We know very little about Apollos, but what we know of him is most significant -- that this man who spoke boldly and publicly did so because he was grounded in the Scriptures in which he found his power and authority.”

Apollos is an example of what the late Martin Lloyd Jones called “logic on fire,” Mohler pointed out, as his knowledge of Scripture poured forth in fervent proclamation.

“Apollos was mighty in the Scriptures because he had been instructed in the way of the Lord. We also understand that this produced a spirit and attitude, a commitment in him: he was being fervent in spirit,” Mohler said. “And it produced activity: he was speaking and teaching accurately the things concerning Jesus.

“The purpose of theological education comes down to this: that knowledge and learning would be invested in these graduates, not in order that it would simply reside in them, but that knowledge of the Scriptures would come out of them, [so] that being mighty in the Scriptures they would teach and preach the Word of God with a boldness, learning, and fervency of spirit equal to that of Apollos.”

The story of Apollos also underscores the reality that learning is a lifetime pursuit for the minister, Mohler said. In Acts 18, Apollos was preaching mightily, but the content of his teaching was not entirely accurate. Priscilla and Aquila heard Apollos’ teaching and took him aside to explain privately how he could more accurately proclaim Scripture.

Mohler reminded graduates that they have much more to learn, and that such knowledge might well come from the people to whom they minister.

“We need to admit something: your theological education, graduates, is incomplete,” he said. “Apollos was a man who was mighty in the Scriptures. He was accurately teaching and speaking the things concerning Jesus, but there were gaps in his theological education.

“I can honestly say that I have learned far more since I graduated than I knew when I graduated. You will learn a great deal from the people to whom you minister. Be ready to learn far more than you know now in the actual crucible of ministry. Be prepared to learn, even as you teach and preach and minister.”

Finally, Mohler said Apollos’ ministry centered on the Gospel and on Christ, and he exhorted graduates to make both the core of their ministries.

“We are told that Apollos was powerfully demonstrating by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ. We pray that this would be true of your ministry as well,” he said. “The purpose of theological education is well summarized in this very text. That all that you have learned, all the learning that has been invested in you and comes to a culmination in this day with the awarding of degrees, will be in order that you would powerfully demonstrate by the Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ.

“Your task in Christian ministry is to call people through the Gospel to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and to assure those to whom you preach and teach and share the Gospel that all who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

Hugh T. McElrath, longtime music professor at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, died May 8 at his winter home in Penney Farms, Fla. McElrath was 86.

McElrath retired from Southern in 1992 as the V.V. Cooke Professor of Church Music, having served at the seminary since 1948 when he began as a voice instructor. After retiring, McElrath continued teaching hymnology classes through 1998.

A funeral service for McElrath was held in Alumni Memorial Chapel at Southern on Wednesday, May 14. Various family members, friends and former colleagues spoke warmly of McElrath, celebrating his ministry as a gift to the church and his life as one well-lived.

R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Seminary, recalled McElrath’s crucial and enduring contribution to the seminary: its music school.

“Dr. McElrath was in the choir that dedicated this chapel in the very year he was elected to the faculty,” Mohler said. “There is no School of Church Music at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary without the history of Hugh Thomas McElrath. He and his dear wife Ruth were among the first students enrolled in this school.

“He was on its very first faculty, elected in 1949 before the trustees ever even knew what to call a professor of church music. The title would have to wait, but he did not wait to teach and from 1949 through many successive decades he invested in countless lives on this campus.”

Wayne Ward, who served alongside McElrath for many years on the Southern Seminary faculty, pointed out that, in the early years of McElrath’s ministry, he was as renowned for his speaking and preaching as for his music. One of McElrath’s greatest gifts was the uncommon strength and unforgettable tone of his voice, Ward said.

“We had no electronic amplification when we met in the old chapel,” Ward said. “Without amplification he would stand up and speak or lead and his voice would bounce off the walls and rattle the windows. He had a magnificent voice and he used it to carry this Gospel all around the planet. That voice is still going and ringing.”

In 1992, McElrath became the first music professor to receive Southern’s Findley B. and Louvenia Edge Award for Teaching Excellence, the highest teaching honor the seminary awards.

From 1987-1989, McElrath served as president of the Southern Baptist Church Music Conference. He was a member of the theology/doctrine committee for the current, edition of the Baptist Hymnal (1991) and also served as editor of the handbook accompanying that work.

McElrath served as minister of music at three Louisville churches, Victory Memorial Baptist Church, Hazelwood Baptist Church and Beechwood Baptist Church. He served at Beechwood for 22 years.

McElrath co-authored Singing With Understanding, a music textbook, with Harry Eskew, longtime music professor at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. McElrath also wrote several hymns, including “We Praise You With Our Minds, O Lord.”

McElrath earned bachelor of sacred music and master of sacred music degrees from Southern in 1947 and 1948, respectively. In 1967, he completed a Ph.D. in musicology from the Eastman School of Music at the University of
Rochester.

Born in Murray, Ky., McElrath was the eldest of four children. In 1943, he graduated with a bachelor of arts degree from Murray State University with an English major and minors in history, French, education and music.

After his retirement, McElrath and his wife, Ruth, split time each year residing in Penney Farms and in Louisville.

A work celebrating McElrath’s life and contributions to church music, Minds and Hearts in Praise of God: Hymns and Essays in Church Music in Honor of Hugh T. McElrath, was published in December 2006.

McElrath is survived by his wife, Ruth, and three children: Hugh Donald McElrath, Douglas McElrath and Margaret Partridge.

The only true spirituality is one that centers on Jesus Christ, who is the way, the truth and the life, Donald Whitney said last week on Nancy Leigh DeMoss’ radio program, “Revive Our Hearts.”

Whitney, who serves as senior associate dean of the School of Theology and associate professor of biblical spirituality at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, joined Erwin Lutzer, senior pastor of Moody Church in Chicago, on DeMoss’ program May 1 and May 2 as part of her “Learn to Discern” series.

Whitney and Lutzer examined Oprah Winfrey’s embrace of New Age philosopher Eckhart Tolle’s book A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose, providing a biblical critique of the best-seller’s philosophy.

Asked to distinguish between the spirituality of Tolle and Winfrey and biblical spirituality, Whitney said the Christian spirituality is Trinitarian in nature and is shaped by Scripture.

“I assume by spirituality what a lot of people mean is a more inward kind of [focus with] principles and not so much external and materialistic motivations and so forth,” he said. “Spirituality in the Bible is the pursuit of God and the things of God through Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit in accordance with God’s self-revelation — that is, the Bible.”

Lutzer said Tolle’s prescription for peace is to walk away from one’s past memories, hurts and pains -- which he calls one’s ego -- and embrace the present.

“In his book, Tolle indicates that he was about to commit suicide. Once he (Tolle) was able to leave the ‘ego’ behind and go into a new state of consciousness of awareness, suddenly in that new zone, so to speak, he found peace,” Lutzer said.

“He found a sense of rest. He discovered that if you live moment-by-moment in that particular state of consciousness, always being aware of this other dimension, it is then that peace could be attained.

“So in the book he encourages other people to do the same thing with the hope that they will be changed and eventually the whole world will be.”

Whitney said Tolle’s message appeals to people because everyone faces hurt and loss, and wants to experience something that transcends such realities.

“People are looking for something that will give them hope. They are looking to deal with some of the pain in their lives,” Whitney said. “Being made in the image of God, we all have this inward sense we’re made for something better, bigger, greater than the world we live in now — the fallen world with all of its problems.

“So here comes someone who says, ‘Here’s something that will be an antidote or a balm to the hurts of your life. Here’s something that will give you a sense of transcendence beyond the mundane.’ Those things are beating in the heart of everyone. Especially if it’s on a program as popular as the Oprah Winfrey show.”

Whitney said Christians should respond to such aberrant teaching with the only message that brings lasting peace, the Gospel.

“Charles Spurgeon, that great British Baptist preacher of the 1800s, one time said, ‘I’d rather speak with someone who believes something, and who talks about spiritual things to some degree, even if they’re wrong, than someone who never thinks about anything,’” Whitney said.

Winfrey is in the midst of a 10-week online course that centers on Tolle’s book. DeMoss played audio clips where the acclaimed talk show host said she is a “free-thinking Christian” who doesn’t believe Christianity is the only way to God with six billion people on the planet.

In his book, Tolle twists Jesus’s statement in John 14:6 that He is the only way to the Father and applies them to all mankind, Whitney notes.

“Tolle says that (each) person is god,” Whitney said. “He says on page 71, ‘Yes, you are the Truth. If you look for it elsewhere, you will be deceived every time. The very being that you are is truth. Jesus tried to convey this when He said, ‘I am the way, the truth and the life,’ and these words, if understood correctly, speak of every person.

Whitney noted that the resurrection of Jesus sets Him apart as the only one who can claim to be the way to the Father.

“Jesus said He was the only way, and He rose from the dead,” Whitney said. “Any of us could claim to be the way to God. Any of us could claim to be God Himself, but Jesus verified His claims by doing something no one else has ever done, will ever do, could do. He rose from the dead, and that’s what gives validity to His claim.

“This is a great open door for the Gospel, where we can talk about spiritual things, and where the name of Jesus is part of the conversation. It will take no more grace for God to open the eyes of an Eckhart Tolle, or anyone else in this world, than it took for Don Whitney, and it will be the same message. It will be the Gospel that God will use to open the eyes of people.”

To listen to either of the radio programs that addressed this topic, visit www.reviveourhearts.com.

Confidence in the steadfast love of God enables Christians to worship amid suffering through lament that turns to praise, noted Christian music artist Michael Card during lectures at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, April 1.

Card delivered two lectures through Southern’s Institute for Christian Worship and performed a concert as the featured artist at Southern’s annual Gheens Banquet.
During his lecture titled “The Lost Language of Lament,” Card noted that honestly lamenting before the Lord allows us to walk in fellowship with Him.

“We should be totally honest in prayer,” he said. “One of the things we will learn as we look through laments is what we ask for in prayer is almost never what we need. We often don’t ask for what we really need in prayer, and God often shows us what we really need, part of which is to experience His presence.”

An accomplished songwriter and author, Card has been the recipient of five Dove Awards, including songwriter of the year and song of the year for “El Shaddai” in 1983. Card also hosts a radio program, “In the Studio with Michael Card,” that features music, commentary and guest interviews.

Card earned awards for his books “Scribbling in the Sand” (IVP 2002) and “A Sacred Sorrow” (NavPress 2005). His albums include “The Hidden Face of God,” “The Final Word” and “Known by the Scars.” In 1997, Card was honored as a distinguished alumnus of Western Kentucky University.

During his lecture on lament, Card read an article about Vincent Van Gogh, the renowned Impressionist painter who committed suicide in the late 1800s.

“He wrote of a guilty desire to learn to suffer without complaint,” Card said. “His final self-portraits lend credence to this suppression. Vincent’s eyes in such portraits reveal a silent, simmering confusion. Perhaps suffering without complaint, keeping the tears of his emotional pain under control was simply another one of those things Vincent was forever working on.”

Many people believe there will never be another painter like Van Gogh, Card noted, however, there are a countless number of people who are like him emotionally.

“If their (such people) portraits could be painted they too would reveal eyes that were incapable of weeping their own tears,” said Card, reading the article. “The most we could hope to see spattered across a thousand canvases are expressions of a hollow happiness, a self-manufactured stoicism, a simpering ‘I’m okay,’ ‘you’re okay.’”

Van Gogh’s brother reported the artist’s last words to be “the sadness will last forever,” Card said, adding that the discipline of lament was missing from the great artist’s life as it is missing from the lives of many today.

“I have to come believe and trust and hope that tears of lament are the missing door, the way into an experience with God, with a God whose depth of compassion we could never have imagined,” Card said.

Card spoke of the nature of hesed, a Hebrew word most commonly translated as steadfast love, mercy or loving-kindness. Card called hesed “the defining characteristic of God” and defined it as “the person from whom I have a right to expect nothing giving me everything.” This characteristic of God gives the different psalmists in Scripture confidence to approach the Lord with laments, he said.

Card defined lament as the biblical invitation to come to God with our confusion, sorrow, anger and hatred and offer them up as an act of worship. Such emotions often arise when people see wicked people prospering while God’s people suffer, Card said.

“Good people are being punished? And bad people are prospering? And you are a God of hesed? This confusion needs to be offered up as an act of worship,” Card said.

“We have a problem. This is where a lot of the world is struggling. ‘The problem of evil,’ they call it. Most of the time, God does not answer people’s questions. People don’t get answers, but they get the presence of God and that is what they need.”

Reflection on the Lord’s undeserved kindness enables the psalmists to turn their laments into praise even in dire circumstances, Card pointed out.

“If God defines Himself by hesed then why does (SBTS professor) Chip [Stam] get cancer? Why do my 18-year-old nephew and my best friend die of cancer at age 62?” he said. “If God is hesed, then I have a real problem. We have to work something out. This is where laments come from.

“This is the problem, but it is also the solution. What tends to happen in the Psalms is that the lamenter will lament, lament, lament and then the lament will turn to praise. It is all worship, both the lament and the praise. Frequently, the lamenter remembers that hesed is God’s defining characteristic and everything becomes praise.”
Card’s lectures are available here in audio format.

Major General Douglas Carver, Chief of Chaplains for the United States Army, challenged students to faithfully pray for America’s service members and passionately serve the Lord in all circumstances at a chapel service March 25 at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Carver said if God matters to a person it should show through passionate pray, praise and service.

“Does God matter to you? If He matters to us we need to always recommit ourselves to be passionate for Him in the good times and bad,” he said. “All of the seasons of our life are in His hands. We must praise Him with a pure and holy heart. We must love Him intently, with our mind, body, spirit, soul and strength. And may we never forget to pray for others.

“Let’s continue to pray for our brave men and women in uniform. They faithfully protect and defend the freedom of our great nation, standing watch 24/7.”

Carver was appointed the Army’s 22nd Chief of Chaplains on July 12, 2007. A native of Rome, Ga., Carver earned a master of divinity from Southern Seminary, bachelor of arts in religious studies from the University of Tennessee and a master of science in strategic studies from the Army War College in Carlisle, Pa.

R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Seminary, welcomed Carver back to the seminary and thanked him for his faithful ministry of the Gospel.

“I am very glad to welcome General Carver to Southern Seminary this morning with the words ‘welcome home,’” he said. “He represents thousands of military chaplains serving around the world. With so much on our minds and hearts, with so many hundreds of thousands of United States military personnel serving all over the world, with millions of men and women in uniform ... what a debt we owe General Carver [and other military chaplains] as he represents today those who serve on that mission field.”

In June 1973, Carver was recognized as a distinguished military graduate and appointed as a regular Army officer in the field artillery branch of the United States Army. After serving on active duty for six years, he resigned his commission to enter the ministry. He was subsequently commissioned as an Army chaplain in June 1984. An ordained Southern Baptist minister, Carver has pastored churches in Kentucky, Colorado and Virginia.

Carver’s military awards include the Legion of Merit, Bronze Star, Meritorious Service Medal and Ranger Tab. He received the Clyde T. Francisco Preaching Award in 1982 from Southern. In 1995, he received the Witherspoon Chaplain’s Award from the Layman’s National Bible
Association for outstanding service rendered by a military chaplain in the promotion of Bible reading and study among military families.

Carver noted that he was in the Middle East five years ago at the commencement of the war in Iraq. The United States recently lost its 4,000th service member in the war, and Carver said he is often asked about the morale of troops serving in the conflict overseas.

“Having made frequent trips to Afghanistan and Iraq, I can honestly make this simple statement: God matters to our service members,” he said. “God matters so much to soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and coastguardsmen.
They are not shy about their faith. They are not afraid or prevented from praying in Jesus’ name or the name of their particular choice. They are not bashful about their faith.”

Mohler prayed for chaplains, military servicemen and servicewomen and the families of military personnel, and noted that each of the 4,000 service members who have died in the war willingly sacrificed their lives.

“This past Sunday (March 23) marked the fifth anniversary of the war in Iraq and the 4,000th casualty was recently reported,” he said. “I was very frustrated that on the television news programs all day Sunday it (the war) was instantly turned into a political question and I wondered when someone was going to stop and say ‘those are 4,000 human beings made in the image of God who gave their lives willingly.’ It seems incomprehensible that something like this could happen without a nation saying ‘thank you,’ especially to the families and loved ones of those who have fallen in battle.

“One of my humble reflections this morning is that I have never been in a bunker. And I realized this morning how many thousands of our fellow citizens -- brothers and sisters and fathers and cousins -- are facing thing we never have to face. I’m sure no words can fully express [what they are going through].”

Carver said when we pray to God and praise Him in every circumstance and situation it changes us.

“It is kind of sad and pathetic that we wait until those ‘concrete bunker moments’ to cry out to God,” he said. “The Lord would want us to have that same sort of passion all the time.”