The Legitimate Concerns of the Next Generation of Christians in My Denomination
I was asked by Dr. Mike Harding to deliver an address titled "The Legitimate Concerns of the Next Generation (An Objective Analysis") at the Foundations Baptist Fellowship International (FBFI) annual meeting in Troy, Michigan, June 12–13, 2018. A few prefatory comments: this is inside baseball that readers who do not share my background will not understand; the FBFI is my "denomination." It is one of the institutions that is trying to preserve the heritage I was handed. And I've had legitimate...
Paul’s Positive Religious Affections
Someone recently asked me for an abstract of my dissertation, Paul’s Positive Religious Affections, and I realized I’d never written one up. Here goes. Six times in the NT the Spirit of the Lord led Paul to tell his readers to imitate him (2 Thess 3:7; 1 Cor 4:16; 11:1; Phil 3:17; 4:9; 2 Tim 1:13), and two times to praise his readers for doing so (1 Thess 1:6; 2 Tim 3:10; cf. 1 Thess 2:14). His emotional life, insofar as the NT reveals it, is a significant but overlooked portion of his...
I Looked for a Musician to Stand in the Gap
I’m the music director at my church, my wife is one of our pianists. We and another pianist, a very dedicated and skillful lady, recently attended a Majesty Music Conference in order to gain instruction and, frankly, inspiration for a church music program (our own!) we felt was flagging. It’s my fault entirely, of course, that this was the case. But we all needed help. We were not disappointed. I came away proud of my alma mater, because almost every person teaching sessions was a graduate of...
Survey for Foundations Baptist Fellowship Talk
I have been asked to address the Annual Fellowship of the Foundations Baptist Fellowship International in June, 2018, in Troy, Michigan, on this topic: "The Legitimate Concerns of the Next Generation (An Objective Analysis)." Now, every Christian worships within some tradition or other, even if some don't like to admit it because it threatens their claim to be the only true tradition! The tradition I was handed in God's providence has often been one such tradition, but I don't think it has to...
Take That, Arrogant American English Speakers
This was utterly, absolutely fascinating. I laughed out loud with joy to hear these residents of Mumbai defend their English and criticize ours (see especially starting around 1:10). Why did I find this so funny/interesting? Because it overturns American expectations in an extremely healthy way, linguistically speaking. The truth is, even though Americans now know we’re not supposed to say it out loud, we tend to regard Indian English (and Kenyan English and Singaporean English, if we ever...