Posts by RuthAnne Irvin

Mohler emphasizes centrality of theological education in convocation address August 21, 2014

R. Albert Mohler Jr. delivers the fall 2014 convocation address, Aug. 19.
R. Albert Mohler Jr. delivers the fall 2014 convocation address, Aug. 19.

Biblical teaching and theological education that promotes it are essential to the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, said R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, in an Aug. 19 convocation address.

Seminary students are called to steward the gift of education in a way that honors God and works for the good of the world. Southern Seminary was established in order to fulfill and stand for teaching that serves the church, which “is a calling worth all that we do,” Mohler said.

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Boyce College appoints four new faculty in key academic roles August 14, 2014

Boyce College, the undergraduate school of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, has appointed four new faculty members to play key roles in leading academic programs, including the popular worldview degree and the new business management program.

Bryan Baise, 30, will oversee and direct the worldview and apologetics degrees at Boyce College and serve as assistant professor of worldview and apologetics. Baise graduated from the University of Kentucky, received his master’s degree from Southern Seminary and is a Ph.D. candidate at the seminary.

“Bryan provides an intelligent, energetic personality and a winsome voice that will excite young Christians to think carefully about their worldview and how to engage other beliefs with confidence,” said Dan DeWitt, dean of Boyce College. “I am excited for his leadership in our worldview and apologetics program.”

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Southern Seminary faculty announced as members of new ERLC Research Institute August 11, 2014

 NASHVILLE (ERLC/SBTS) — The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention announced Monday the launch of a new Research Institute under the direction of its president, Russell D. Moore, and the appointment of an array of new scholars and professionals as research fellows, including 16 faculty and doctoral students at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

“The aim of the Research Institute is to be a catalyst to connect the agenda of the gospel to the complex questions of the day—and to do so at the highest levels of academic scholarship for the good of local congregations,” said Moore. “I am thrilled to get to work together with an exceptionally gifted band of scholars and leaders as we seek to be a persuasive, prophetic witness engaging the academy and equipping the church.

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Mohler notes impact of Southern Seminary alumni on SBC during annual luncheon June 16, 2014

R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, gives an update to alumni and friends during the annual luncheon held in conjunction with the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting, June 11 in Baltimore, Maryland.
R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, gives an update to alumni and friends during the annual luncheon held in conjunction with the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting, June 11 in Baltimore, Maryland.

R. Albert Mohler Jr. noted the significant impact alumni of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary are having as leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention during the annual alumni and friends luncheon, June 11.

“Here’s the great joy: we get to reflect on how Southern Seminary, by God’s grace and to God’s glory, has made a contribution to all these many lives, to so many churches, reaching so many distant points on the globe in terms of the mission field,” said Mohler, who just completed his 21st academic year as president.

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Scott Bridger to lead Southern Seminary center for Christian Understanding of Islam

J. Scott Bridger
J. Scott Bridger

J. Scott Bridger, an evangelical scholar of Islam, will serve as the director of the Jenkins Center for the Christian Understanding of Islam and the Bill and Connie Jenkins assistant professor of Islamic studies at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, school officials announced this spring.

“I think Scott Bridger is the singular individual God has prepared to take on the leadership of the Jenkins Center at this time,” seminary president R. Albert Mohler Jr. said. “His academic preparation, his knowledge of Arabic language and Arabic culture, his deep knowledge of Islam, not only as a structure of thought but as a way of life, his experience in the Middle East, all of these serve him singularly well as the one to take on this responsibility.”

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‘The College at Southern’: Boyce launches new logo, website June 9, 2014

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Boyce College, the undergraduate school of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, launched a new logo and website to highlight its convictional leadership and distinctive spiritual atmosphere, June 9.

Founded in 1974 as Boyce Bible School, the program began offering bachelor’s degrees as James P. Boyce College of the Bible in 1998 under the leadership of R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Seminary. Later, the name of the school was changed to Boyce College. Boyce was the founder and first president of Southern Seminary.

Emphasizing the proximity and shared resources with Southern Seminary, the new logo includes the phrase “The College at Southern.” The rebranding comes just as the school prepares to move into the heart of Southern Seminary’s campus in August, when at least 240 new students are expected to arrive for the fall semester.

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‘Effectual’ prayer, SBTS support help recent graduate amidst family crisis June 5, 2014

In the midst of a three-week hospital stay for his son’s life-threatening viral encephalitis, Jamin Bailey received his master of divinity from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary over the phone. R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Seminary, conferred the degree to the Corydon, Indiana, native, and offered him encouragement and prayer through the difficult trial.

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DeWitt and Flame collaborate on Jesus or Nothing book, album June 4, 2014

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Book cover, Jesus or Nothing

Christianity offers hope and adds intrinsic value to life, while atheism offers despair, according to Dan DeWitt in his new book, Jesus or Nothing. So Christians have a choice: either Jesus, or the belief that nothing matters. DeWitt explores these two premises in the book.

Popular hip-hop artist Flame created a new album, which released with the book earlier this year.

DeWitt, dean of Boyce College, the undergraduate school of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, wrote Jesus or Nothing as an explanation of the rationality of the theistic worldview. DeWitt discusses two premises in his book: “The first proposition is if atheism is true, there’s a loss of objective meaning and intrinsic worth,” he said in a recent interview.

A theistic worldview only makes sense in light of the gospel, he said.

“Theism only takes us so far, and theism can’t make sense out of the fact that we live in a world where children are discarded and where women are raped. And not just moral evil, which is certainly horrific, but natural evil: there are tsunamis in which thousands of people die. Theism has a hard time making sense of that apart from the gospel. So theism best describes reality, the gospel best describes theism.”

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Dan DeWitt, dean of Boyce College, teaching at the May 22-23 Alumni Academy about his new book, Jesus or Nothing.

DeWitt says he hopes the book helps Christians to love those who reject Jesus.

“The way I would hope Christians use the book would be to grow in their compassion for people who don’t believe,” he said. “I hope that a Christian parent, for example, who maybe has a college student who has walked away from the faith, can empathize a bit more and understand perhaps what had led to their journey. Of course, every story is completely different, but I really do hope that’s accomplished: that believers will read it and be more empathetic and they’ll be quick to listen and slow to speak.”

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Flame performing at an event on the campus of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

In conjunction with the book, Grammy-nominated hip-hop artist Flame — Marcus Tyrone Gray, a 2010 Boyce College graduate — and Clear Sight Music productions released a 15-song album that correlates with DeWitt’s book. Each track explores questions about the meaning of life and the gospel. The album features Flame and several other hip-hop artists.

DeWitt and Flame will tour to speak and perform at various camps and conferences through the fall. Featured events include a camp at Evangel University in Springfield, Missouri,  two weeks of Southern Seminary’s D3 camp, June 23-26 and June 30-July 2; several weeks with LIFT Ministries at various camps, including one in the United Kingdom, August 4-8; and an event in the Dominican Republic, Sept. 25-29 at Iglesia Bautista Internacional.

Southern Seminary recently hosted an Alumni Academy focused around Jesus or Nothing, May 22-23. Along with lectures from DeWitt, the conference featured a panel discussion with Greg Gibson, elder at Foothills Church in Maryville, Tennessee and assistant editor of the men’s channel on the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood website; Boyce College professor Bryan Baise;  Timothy Paul Jones, Southern Seminary’s C. Edwin Gheens Professor of Christian Family Ministry; and Ted Cabal, professor of Christian philosophy and applied apologetics.

DeWitt used the “tale of two stories” to introduce how the gospel offers explanation for our existence, clarity for our confusion, grace for our guilt, meaning for our mortality and answers for our adversaries.

More information about Alumni Academy is available at sbts.edu/events. More information about Jesus or Nothing, both the book and album, is available at jesusornothing.com.

 

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Utah evangelicals on ‘vanguard’ for American believers, Mohler says March 17, 2014

R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, preaches Feb. 25 at First Baptist Church in Provo, Utah. Earlier the same day, Mohler spoke at Brigham Young University. (Courtesy Photo)
R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, preaches Feb. 25 at First Baptist Church in Provo, Utah. Earlier the same day, Mohler spoke at Brigham Young University. (Courtesy Photo)

Southern Baptists in Utah and other western states live at the forefront of a cultural change sweeping the nation at a rapid pace, R. Albert Mohler Jr. said Feb. 25 at First Baptist Church of Provo, Utah.

Mohler, president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, spoke earlier in the day at Brigham Young University in Provo owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. That evening, Russ Robinson, pastor of First Baptist Provo, invited Mohler to bring a message to area evangelicals, who travelled from as far as Winnemucca, Nev.; Twin Falls, Idaho and St. George, Utah, five hours southwest of Metro Salt Lake City.

At the conclusion of his message, Mohler answered questions from the approximately 140 people in attendance. During more than three hours at the church facility, Mohler also met with 41 pastors and church planters to dialogue further about their challenges.

“We’re watching in one generation the collapse of cultural Christianity … and it’s coming with a new velocity and a new intensity,” Mohler told the Provo congregation, noting the rapid approval of gay marriage, among other aspects of a moral revolution advancing across the world.

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SBTS Press publica Una guía para el ministerio expositivo March 14, 2014

CO-016-2012 Spanish Expositor's Guidebook_v3 revisedUna versión en español de A Guide to Expository Ministry, denominada  Una guía para el ministerio expositivo, fue lanzada en la conferencia para pastores hispanos del 27 de Febrero, realizada en conjunción con la conferencia anual para pastores 9Marks.

Este libro hace un llamado a la recuperación de la predicación expositiva en la iglesia local. Además, anima a los pastores fieles y calificados a aplicar las demandas que hace este tipo de predicación a sus vidas y a su preparación. Por último, este libro provee consejos prácticos para que el pueblo de Dios sea más efectivo en su escucha de sermones, su lectura de la Biblia y como miembros de sus congregaciones.

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