Sep 3, 2016

Preaching Tips from Charles Spurgeon

See this post for ten speaking tips from Charles Spurgeon.

Sep 2, 2016

The Purpose and State of Seminaries

This post examines the purpose of seminaries as it relates to training scholars and/or pastors, this interview with Ligon Duncan discusses the role of seminaries to help students discern their call, this article reports on the current state of Southern Baptist seminaries especially as it concerns the MDiv, and this piece looks at mainline seminaries.

Sep 1, 2016

Free Logos Book for September: What Is a Healthy Church Member?

The free Logos Book of the Month for September is What Is a Healthy Church Member? by Thabiti Anyabwile. You can also purchase the Mark Dever's What Is a Healthy Church or $1.99 or enter to win the entire eleven-volume 9marks series. For all these offers you can go to the Logos' Free Book of Month page here.

New Preaching Website

Those interested in preaching should check out this brand new website from the School of Preaching at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Aug 31, 2016

Interpreting Poetry and the Road Not Taken

I am teaching the poetic and wisdom books of the Bible this fall (Job– Song of Solomon). I have been reminding my students of the challenges of interpreting poetry in general. These challenge are well illustrated in an article by David Orr, "You’re Probably Misreading Robert Frost’s Most Famous Poem: On the Many Tricks and Contradictions of 'The Road Not Taken'" (here). Orr's article also highlights the importance of authorial intention in interpretation.

Aug 30, 2016

Two Posts Related to Paul's Journeys in Acts

There are a couple of posts that those interesting in Paul's journeys in Acts might want to take a peek at. Ferrell Jenkins here has a nice picture and brief description of Pamphylia and Lycia (Acts 27:5) and Carl Rasmussen here has a very interesting post here on the riot in Ephesus mentioned in Acts 19 and a painting from a house at Pompeii depicting a riot at the amphitheater at Pompeii in A.D. 59.

Sermon Quality and Choosing a New Church

The Pew Research Center recently put out this study on what Americans are looking for in choosing a new church. This study is interesting at a number of levels but I was most interested in what it had to say about preaching. For example, "Among U.S. adults who have ever looked for a new house of worship, about eight-in-ten say the quality of sermons (83%) or feeling welcomed by clergy and lay leaders (79%) played an important role in their choice." Unfortunately, this survey did not indicate what people meant by "quality sermons." Some of those surveyed also noted that they were looking for churches that offered "preaching from the Bible." Which is both encouraging and disappointing. It is encouraging in that at least some are looking for biblical preaching. It is disappointing in that biblical preaching is not a given. In any case, to borrow from Mark Twain, the reports of the death of preaching seem to have been greatly exaggerated.

Aug 29, 2016

Aug 28, 2016

Writing Tips for Pastors

This post discusses the following five tips.

1. Make Writing a Priority
2. Don’t Waste Your E-Mail
3. Send Helpful Newsletters
4. Share Your Devotions
5. Thorough Sermon Notes or Manuscripts