Midwestern Magazine - Issue 31

M I D W E S T E R N B A P T I S T T H E O L O G I C A L S E M I N A RY A N D C O L L E G E

Equipping the next generation for the Church

ISSUE 31

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CO NTENTS

Midwestern Magazine Issue 31

AT A G L A N C E

22

5 QUESTIONS WITH

Dr. Owen Strachan

30

ALUMNI HIGHLIGHT

Brian Key

32 33

IN FOCUS Liberty Baptist Church STUDENT HIGHLIGHT

Nathan Rose

34

40

FROM THE PRESIDENT

BOOKS IN BRIEF

Recently published books by Midwestern faculty and staff

6 Past, Present, and Future Ministry training in the Southern Baptist Convention

AROUND CAMPUS A review of news and events at Midwestern Seminary

42

RESOURCES FOR THE CHURCH

A selection of articles from the For The Church resources site at ftc.co

ACADEMICS

C U LT U R E W A R S

ON MISSION

14 Replanting an Oak

18 Your neopagan neighbor and the gospel

26 To Cities of Refuge

Why seeing the M.Div. revitalized in the new century means a counterintuitive pruning.

Effective gospel mission today requires a basic understanding of the cultural worldview du jour.

In environments of terror and trial, Midwestern’s Fusion team is planting seeds of gospel hope.

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Dear Friends: Greetings from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and thank you for reading the latest edition of Midwestern Magazine! Within these pages, you will find articles, interviews, profiles and book reviews all focusing on the theme: “FORWARD: Equipping the next generation for the Church.” And, indeed, this is exactly what Midwestern Seminary, and its mission of existing For the Church, is all about.

Admittedly, predicting the future of theological education—and higher education in general—is daunting. Theological education, if anything, is fluid, and mission can easily be swayed to the source of an institution’s funding. This is the reason that the mission of Midwestern Seminary must remain clear and uncompromised: to train pastors, missionaries, and ministers for Southern Baptist churches and for the mission field.

This is exactly what each faculty, staff, and leadership team member strives to do daily – focus every ounce of institutional energy and resources to training the next generation of ministry leaders to serve the local church, both in America and abroad.

Southern Baptist seminaries exist to serve Southern Baptist churches. As long as Southern Baptist churches exist they will need prepared ministers. Therefore, the mandate for theological education will persist as long there is a Southern Baptist Convention. The seminary most conscious of the New Testament understands it has a right to exist inasmuch as it serves the local church. Out of mission, opportunity, and necessity, now is the time for theological education to be wedded to local churches. The decades ahead should be a season of great partnership between the seminaries and the church.

Theological education, at its core, is timeless. In many ways, theological education in the 21st century should resemble theological education in any century—transmitting the classic disciplines to pastors, ministers, and evangelists for the church.

In this issue, I make the claim that Southern Baptists are enjoying a golden era in theological education. However, this present health does not guarantee future health. The 21st century demands seminaries be strategic with resources, intentional in serving their constituency, and unquestionably faithful to the Word of God and the classic disciplines of theological education. As we are strategic and faithful, our churches will be strengthened and our golden era will be extended.

Let me encourage you to come to Kansas City and take in all the Lord is doing at this great institution like significant and encouraging enrollment growth, experiencing a faculty that is second-to-none, attending incredible conferences and events like the For the Church Conference and the Spurgeon Lectures, or visiting our newly-dedicated Spurgeon Library.

Until then, let me encourage you to enjoy this edition of Midwestern Magazine to gain a perspective of the myriad ways the Lord has shown favor on this institution.

May God richly bless you in all you do for His sake, and many thanks for your ongoing support, prayers, and financial contributions.

Sincerely,

Jason K. Allen, Ph.D. President Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary

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Readers can visit DR. JASON K. ALLEN’S BLOG at jasonkallen.com.

EDITOR’S NOTE ISSUE 31

ADMINISTRATION Jason K. Allen PRESIDENT

Gary Crutcher

VICE PRESIDENT FOR

INSTITUTIONAL ADMINISTRATION

Jason G. Duesing PROVOST

Charles W. Smith, Jr.

I am very pleased to present this newest edition of Midwestern Magazine, especially since it gives the institution a great opportunity to showcase with our content how eagerly we bring the truth of the gospel to the mounting challenges facing our culture today. The theme of our issue is Forward—forward in ministry, forward in education, forward in mission—because we are committed as an academic community and as a hotbed of spiritual formation to training leaders who are For The Church as she navigates the 21st century.

VICE PRESIDENT FOR

INSTITUTIONAL RELATIONS

EDITORIAL Jared C. Wilson CHIEF EDITOR

ART Dave Wright

LAYOUT & DESIGN

Liz Stack

PHOTOGRAPHER

Special thanks to:

JASON MUIR

WYATT BURY

KEVIN STRATTON

In this installment each of our major features will survey respective aspects of the gospel’s forward progress. Our president, Jason K. Allen, writes about the new golden era in theological education and proposes some steps we might take to prolong it. Our academic provost, Jason G. Duesing, presents a history of the central seminary degree—the Master of Divinity—and explains Midwestern’s strategic “pruning” of the program to better equip the next generation of ministry leaders. Our faculty spotlight features 5 questions with Owen Strachan, professor of theology and director of the new Center for Public Theology, poised to help the Church think biblically about our increasingly post-Christian culture. In our alumni spotlight, we interview Pastor Brian Key about the need for churches to embrace the ethnic diversity inherent to Christ’s Body. And our church and student spotlight also feature a stirring story of gospel renewal close to home.

PAT HUDSON

© 2016 Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is strictly prohibited.

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Yes, we are looking Forward. We know not to discard the past! Indeed, learning from the past is one of the primary hallmarks of Christian theological education. But we know we cannot dwell there. The mission field is changing in quick and seismic ways, and so we are committed to seeing the “old, old story” of Jesus and his love break new ground through the next generation of gospel ministry. I trust these pages ahead of you will help you think through your own mission and ministry, as well.

For the glory of Christ, and, thus, For The Church,

@JAREDCWILSON

Jared C. Wilson Chief Editor, Midwestern Magazine Managing Editor, For The Church

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Past Present and Future i n i n g i n t heen t i o n a r T y r t s i n i M ptist Conv Southern Ba M I DW E S T E R N M A G A Z I N E

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. ALLEN

by J A S O N K

FROM THE PRESIDENT

R

ecently I had the honor of delivering presentations at the Midwest Leadership Summit in Springfield, Illinois on: “What Hath the Seminary to Do with the Local Church?” and “Theological Education in the 21st Century.” I reflected on the broad narrative of theological education in the SBC and argued that we are currently enjoying the Golden Era.

By the mid to late 1850s, Boyce had arisen as the effort’s most prominent and successful leader. Boyce’s “Three Changes in Theological Institutions,” delivered as his inaugural faculty address at Furman University in 1856, called for a dramatic reconceptualization of theological education that would produce a clergy abundant in number, well learned, and doctrinally sound.

Boyce’s vision was realized in three short years with the founding of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1859.

For nearly 50 years Southern Seminary enjoyed sole status within the SBC. Given its uniqueness as the only Southern Baptist seminary and the celebrated status of its faculty, it is difficult to overestimate Southern Seminary’s influence on the SBC during the first 50 years of its existence.

But how can we extend this golden era? I propose we begin by looking at its genesis.

Yet, even in the early decades an uneasy relationship existed between SBC churches and their seminary. An intuitive suspicion of higher education in general—common in the 19th century agrarian South—intensified when concerns related to higher criticism, Baptist origins, and, into the 20th century, the fundamentalist/modernist controversy arose. By the early decades of the 20th century, modern biblical criticism had moved from occasional occurrence to more common acceptance by Southern Seminary’s faculty.

A SEMINARY IS FOUNDED

SOUTHERN BAPTISTS MOVE WESTWARD

Since the SBC’s founding in 1845, the convention’s primary—and most unifying—effort has been collaborative missionary efforts. That was our raison d’etre in 1845, and it remains so today.

Yet, even during the SBC’s earliest years, theological education was an accompanying concern.

Early SBC luminaries such as R. B. C. Howell, W. B. Johnson, Basil Manly, Sr., Basil Manly, Jr., and, most especially, James P. Boyce called for a common theological institution in the South.

Nearly 50 years after Southern Seminary’s founding, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary was birthed. Under B. H. Carroll’s leadership, Southwestern Seminary emerged out of Baylor University. Carroll, the pastor of the prominent First Baptist Church of Waco, was a titanic figure in Texas and Southern Baptist life.

Southern Baptists, like the rest of the country, had moved westward, and by the early 20th century the need for a complementing institution

As I made the Golden Era assertion, I—and those in attendance—realized the magnitude of the claim. My assertion, and the dialogue it generated, prompted me to further reflection.

After doing so, I am all the more convinced of the validity of my claim.

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S OU TH E R N S EM I N A RY

1859

S O UT H W E S T E R N SEM I N A RY

1908

was apparent. Texas Baptists—and their financial and demographic strength—were more than ready to support Southern Baptists’ second seminary.

During the interwar years in Southern Baptist life, the SBC morphed from a loose collection of churches into a more functioning denomination, as witnessed through the establishment of the Cooperative Program, the adoption of the first convention-wide confessional statement, and the formation of the Executive Committee. This era also saw the more formal engrafting of Southern and Southwestern Seminaries into the SBC, wherein they reaped the benefits of the Cooperative Program and came under more direct SBC control.

Under Carroll’s leadership and that of his notable successor, Lee Scarborough, Southwestern Seminary’s rise was meteoric. So much so that by the 1960s its enrollment rivaled—and then surpassed—that of Southern Seminary. By the latter decades of the 20th century it was Southern Baptists most influential seminary in terms of enrollment, prominence of alumni, and broad popular appeal due to its comparatively conservative faculty.

POST WAR EXPANSION

The post War era, especially from 1945–1960, was a period of dramatic denominational expansion. By now the SBC had congealed into a more structured, operationally mature, and nationally ambitious denomination. SBC annuals from this period reveal a sense of

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N EW OR LEA N S SEM I N A RY

1946

near-unbounded optimism.

During these 15 years, Southern Baptists added four seminaries. New Orleans seminary, which began as a Bible institute in 1917, was formally converted into Southern Baptists’ third seminary in 1946. Over the next decade, Southern Baptists would imagine and found three more theological institutions: Golden Gate Seminary (1946), Southeastern Seminary (1950), and Midwestern Seminary (1957).

Intramural theological disputes appeared almost without end in state papers throughout the SBC’s first century of existence. Yet, wide-spread theological controversy, which could potentially lead to significant schism within the SBC, occurred only episodically, most especially in the Toy Controversy, the Whitsitt Controversy, and the Fundamentalist/Modernist Controversy.

Nonetheless, by the mid-20th century theological liberalism was well entrenched—if not widely perceived—in Southern Baptist seminaries. Higher criticism, the Documentary Hypothesis, naturalistic explanations for Scripture’s miraculous events, and a denial of the historical accuracy of the Bible were all commonly held among SBC professors.

During this era, seminary leadership tended toward the managerial, not the theological. Like the SBC as a whole, programmatic and administrative concerns

GOLDE N G AT E S EMI NARY

1946

S O UT H E AS T E R N SEM I N A RY

1950

“SO NOW, THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION IN THE SBC IS IN MANY WAYS WHERE IT STARTED IN 1859, WITH UNIFORMLY CONSERVATIVE SEMINARIES SERVING THE CONVENTION’S CHURCHES. AND THAT IS, IN PART, WHY I ARGUE WE ARE NOW ENJOYING THE GOLDEN ERA OF THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION IN THE SBC.” tended to displace doctrinal ones at the seminary level. In fact, this is clearly reflected in trustee minutes from the 1950s, where enormous energy is given to the tedious, administratively mundane, all the while faculty additions occurred with little attention given to theological matters.

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1957

professors were dismissed from Southern Seminary in 1958. The establishment of Southeastern and Midwestern Seminaries provided the perfect “work needed/help wanted” scenario, leading these professors to relocate to Wake Forrest and Kansas City, thus metastasizing theological liberalism within the SBC. By the end of the 1950s, a pronounced theological divergence existed just under the surface between Southern Baptist seminaries and the churches they ostensibly served. This dissonance continued to grow in scope, public awareness, and convention-wide concern. This can be seen most especially through the Elliott Controversy of the early 1960s, the Broadman Commentary Controversy of the late 1960s, and, as an artifact, the Hollyfield Thesis of 1976.

DENOMINATIONAL CONTROVERSY & INSTITUTIONAL RECOVERY

By 1979, when the Patterson-Pressler coalition formally launched what has come to be known as the Conservative Resurgence by mustering enough votes to elect Adrian Rogers SBC president, there was undeniable dissonance between Southern Baptist seminaries and the vast majority of SBC churches.

LIBERALISM METASTASIZES

These realities, the need for faculty members at the newly launched seminaries, and Southern Seminary’s 1958 controversy coalesced to spread heterodoxy.

Dubbed the Lexington Road Massacre, 13 theology

What began in 1979 took nearly three decades to play out fully: electing conservative SBC presidents, appointing conservative trustees, securing conservative seminary presidents, and building conservative

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“THE 21ST CENTURY DEMANDS SEMINARIES BE STRATEGIC WITH RESOURCES, INTENTIONAL IN SERVING THEIR CONSTITUENCY, AND UNQUESTIONABLY FAITHFUL TO THE WORD OF GOD AND THE CLASSIC DISCIPLINES OF THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION.” faculties. The culmination of the Resurgence was the SBC’s adoption of the Baptist Faith & Message 2000.

So now, theological education in the SBC is in many ways where it started in 1859, with uniformly conservative seminaries serving the convention’s churches. And that is, in part, why I argue we are now enjoying the Golden Era of theological education in the SBC. Designations of golden eras tend to occur long in hindsight, aided by nostalgia and abetted by old souls viewing history through rose-colored glasses. This is to say, in actual terms golden eras rarely—if ever—exist.

But in relative terms, the early 21st century may well be the SBC’s Golden Era of theological education.

On what basis can one argue Southern Baptists are now enjoying a golden era of theological education? When considering the current state of theological education in the SBC, especially in light of its historical context and theological education’s broader landscape, eight particular strengths emerge that buttress the case.

First, SBC seminaries are more theologically conservative than they have been in a century. In each Southern Baptist seminary, uniformly, the professors are inerrantists. They covenant to teach in accordance with and not contrary to the Baptist Faith & Message 2000—and they in fact do just that. The BF&M 2000 is by far the most theologically conservative, convention-wide confession ever adopted by the SBC. Moreover, accompanying this confessional standard is a living, actual commitment to it by trustees, administration, and faculty.

Second, the SBC seminaries’ faculties are notably accomplished. A faculty can be theologically conservative yet scholastically unaccomplished. Thankfully, this is not the case in the SBC. Southern Baptist professors

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are a cottage industry of publishing and academic output. They are widely respected throughout, and even beyond, the broader evangelical world. For instance, SBC personalities now account for nearly 1/3 of presentations at the annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society, and often provide leadership of the same.

Third, the SBC seminaries are larger—in actual and relative numbers—than ever before. Indeed, the SBC seminaries are massive in size, with total head-count enrollment pushing 18,000 students. Each one of the six SBC seminaries ranks in the top ten largest seminaries in North America—of any and all denominations.

Even the smaller SBC institutions are some 10 times larger than the average ATS-accredited seminary in North America. Our footprint has never been larger.

Fourth, the SBC seminaries are producing high-quality graduates. Twenty years ago, when conservative SBC seminary presidents looked to fill faculty slots, they often had to hire Baptists serving in institutions outside of the SBC. In other words, we had more open professorates than qualified candidates to fill them. Now, the opposite is true. Midwestern Seminary, and each of the Southern Baptist Seminaries, has a waiting list of highly qualified graduates who desire to teach in our institutions.

Fifth, the SBC seminaries are complementing institutions. While each SBC seminary operates in alignment with the BF&M 2000, each institution has its own identity, culture, strengths, and ministry emphases. This variety is good and right, and both reflects and serves the “unity in essentials, diversity in non-essentials” nature of the SBC. Sixth, the SBC seminaries remain affordable.

Affordability is not a newly realized strength of SBC seminaries. Thanks to Southern Baptists’ relentless

generosity through the Cooperative Program, affordability has long been a mainstay. What is remarkable is how SBC institutions remain affordable in light of the relative weakening of the Cooperative Program and the escalating costs of higher education. Indeed, most comparable evangelical institutions charge more than twice what SBC seminaries charge Southern Baptist students.

Seventh, the SBC seminaries are more accessible than ever. The advent of online education, modular and hybrid class options, and the near round-the-clock scheduling of residential education means one can literally receive theological education from anywhere on the globe, anytime. Moreover, resources beyond the classroom, like conferences, intensive classes, free publications, and online content, all have forward deployed theological education.

Eighth, the SBC seminaries are on mission. The conservative redirection of the seminaries brought with it a renewed emphasis on the Great Commission and serving the local church. In the final analysis, these priorities should set a seminary’s agenda. Thankfully, for Southern Baptist seminaries these are primary, not secondary considerations.

In light of these realities, and many more, I believe the SBC is in its golden era of theological education.

But I am hoping and laboring for it to be an already/ not yet reality. I pray that our seminaries will be ever strengthening and ever expanding so this golden era is a protracted one. But for now, where does this leave us?

Let’s consider the prospect of SBC theological education into the 21st century.

unpredictability of warfare: the plan is nothing, but planning is everything. That aphorism holds true for seminaries as well: the less predictable we know theological education to be, the more we must work to predict it.

From what we know of ourselves and our past, and in as much as we can predict the future, Southern Baptist seminaries must exhibit five marks of health to flourish in the 21st century.

A SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MODEL

The escalating costs of higher education, a shrinking offering-plate dollar, tapering national demographics, diminishing confidence in the value of higher education, and a weakened Cooperative Program all coalesce to undermine the business model of the past. At the same time, affordability remains a pressing concern for prospective students.

These challenges, and more, create a consumerist and competitive context in higher education. More and more institutions are spending more and more money to recruit fewer and fewer students. These dynamics explain why a recent survey of “turn around institutions” revealed that entrepreneurial leadership is a consistent trait of successful turn-around schools.

Southern Baptist seminaries are not immune to these challenges. Will Southern Baptists renew our collaborative ministry efforts and strengthen our giving through the Cooperative Program, or will it continue to soften?

Though recent indicators are encouraging, this is an open question with significant consequences.

MISSION CLARITY

The current golden era does not guarantee an extended golden era, but it does it not preclude one either. Continuing our golden era won’t just happen—but it can if we are strategic and faithful.

Predicting the future of theological education—and higher education in general—is daunting. Theological education, if anything, is fluid. In fact, a recent study on theological education recommended an institution’s master plan should be no more than a three-year projection that will likely need updating after 18 months.

General Dwight Eisenhower once mused on the

The mission of Southern Baptist seminaries is clear: to train pastors, missionaries, and ministers for Southern Baptist churches and for the mission field. However, financial challenges tempt institutions to mission compromise, and seminaries often succumb that temptation.

In fact, many seminaries structure their curricular offerings like a shopping mall, offering nearly every program imaginable in order to cobble together a sufficient enrollment to pay the bills. In so doing, they compromise their mission and dilute their institutional emphasis. The seminary that focuses on everything focuses on nothing.

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Funding challenges have been a primary—if not the primary—propeller of mission compromise. Just as plants grow towards light, so institutions bend toward their sources of funding. Herein is an added reason for strong Cooperative Program support, for the most assured way to maintain ownership and influence is to hold the purse strings.

CONFESSIONAL INTEGRITY

Southern Baptist seminaries are more theologically conservative than they’ve been in nearly a century, with the Baptist Faith & Message 2000—the most conservative and comprehensive statement of faith ever adopted by the SBC—serving as the primary instrument of accountability. Theological trust was hard earned, but can be lost easily. SBC seminaries, and the SBC as a whole, must maintain doctrinal vigilance.

Public agitation will only intensify on the great social issues of the day, with same-sex marriage being the focal point. Accrediting agencies, the federal government, and other belligerents will likely continue to increase pressure on evangelical institutions.

Deeper into the 21st century, if acceptance of homosexuality and same-sex marriage gains momentum within SBC churches, the seminaries could find themselves out of theological alignment with the churches—being more conservative than the churches for the first time in the SBC’s history.

This scenario would present its own, unique challenges.

Nonetheless, our charge is faithfulness to our confessional expectations regardless of from where—and from whom—the agitation to compromise may come.

AGILE & ADAPTABLE

Modern delivery systems have upended traditional models of higher education. Online, modular, and hybrid delivery formats have all become conduits to distribute theological education. When these delivery means supplement residential education—forward

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deploying theological education for those who cannot travel to seminary—it is healthy and praiseworthy.

However, residential education will always be primary and preferred, and should always be most incentivized by the SBC, the seminaries, and our funding models. This prioritization is in the best interest of the students, the seminaries, the church, and the entire SBC. That being said, innovation is a wave to be ridden, not a curse to be avoided, for it can greatly extend a seminary’s reach.

SERVING THE CHURCHES

Southern Baptist seminaries exist to serve Southern Baptist churches. As long as Southern Baptist churches exist they will need prepared ministers. Therefore, the mandate for theological education will persist as long there is a Southern Baptist Convention.

The seminary most conscious of the New Testament understands it has a right to exist inasmuch as it serves the local church. Out of mission, opportunity, and necessity, now is the time for theological education to be wedded to local churches. The decades ahead should be a season of great partnership between the seminaries and the church.

Theological education, at its core, is timeless. In many ways, theological education in the 21st century should resemble theological education in any century—transmitting the classic disciplines to pastors, ministers, and evangelists for the church.

Are Southern Baptists enjoying a golden era in theological education? Absolutely. But present health does not guarantee future health. The 21st century demands seminaries be strategic with resources, intentional in serving their constituency, and unquestionably faithful to the Word of God and the classic disciplines of theological education.

As we are strategic and faithful, our churches will be strengthened and our golden era will be extended.

Replanting an Oak S EE ING THE MDIV TO TH E C E N TURY M ARK

by Jason G. Duesing

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I

n an effort to ensure the health of the types of trees that outlive most humans, often the best course of action an arborist has is counterintuitive. Instead of leaving a century old oak tree alone to weather the elements as it has for decades or attempt to survive encroaching modernity, the life of the tree is best prolonged after careful pruning or even replanting.

Yet, such preventative maintenance is sometimes misunderstood even by those who want to see the life of the tree prolonged. In communities where a tree of such age exists, the oak represents memories and experiences worth preserving, almost at any cost, but even then replanting might seem like a threat to the integrity of the tree and thus the viability is questioned.

In the last 50 years of the world of theological education, the Master of Divinity degree has served as the oak of a seminary’s curriculum— and with good reason. As Jason Allen has noted, “In it one finds the complete toolkit for ministry service: Greek and Hebrew, New Testament and Old Testament, theology, church history, preaching, pastoral care and counseling, evangelism, missions, and much, much more.”

Yet, as Allen also has shared, as the MDiv crossed the millennium, it fell on hard times.

What was once the universally agreed upon standard, now has its challengers in the form of “shorter and less rigorous Master of Arts degrees.” Thus, for this mainstay degree that has trained thousands to reach the century mark of further effective training and formation, the time has come for it to be carefully pruned and replanted. For the MDiv to have new life extended for the 21st century and function as the century’s oak, revitalization must occur.

THE MDIV: A HISTORY OF STRENGTH

For the first half of the 20th century, the standard theological degree offered by the seminaries was the Bachelor of Divinity. The term

“divinity” was chosen as it reflected for centuries the formal study of theology in the Western tradition. By design, this theological degree was conceived and offered as a second undergraduate degree for those called to ministry and in many traditions served as the basic degree required for ordination.

There were graduate degrees available, such as the ThM, but such were designed for academic preparation in research and scholarship. However, by the middle of the century, many pastors and faculty members realized that what was taught and required had migrated toward graduate level education with a professional, rather than research, focus and, further, many pastors were starting to inquire about the creation of professional educational options provided at the doctoral level.

Thus, in 1964, a committee of the American Association of Theological Schools embarked on a two year study to recommend an appropriate name for the basic theological degree offered by the seminaries. After several listening sessions and surveys, the committee drafted an 80 page study document reviewed by 5 consultants, which led to a formal recommendation at the 1966 biennial meeting of the AATS [now ATS].

The committee gave member schools the option of either retaining the Bachelor of Divinity degree or adopting what they termed the Master of Divinity degree for programs that “have genuinely raised the quality of their work to the level appropriate to a master’s degree in a reputable university.” They recognized that study at the

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graduate level should have a “curriculum flexible enough to allow for adequate education for the diverse ministries emerging in our time, while at the same time providing required discipline in the basic fields of theological study, such as biblical study, church history, theology, and arts of ministry.”

In their explanation for the selection of this nomenclature, the committee explained that (1) they did not think they should use or co-opt an established masters degree, as the ThM already indicated advanced research study and Master of Arts degrees typically focused their work in one department and were more specialized. (2) They desired that the terminology function as both useful and clear, thus adequately connecting with the contemporary trends in theological education. (3) Finally, they sought to retain the use of the term “divinity” as they wanted to maintain a connection with the long-standing tradition of the study of theology for ministry. In short, following 1966 the new Master of Divinity arose as the agreed upon term for the basic professional degree offered by seminaries.1 Many schools immediately adopted the MDiv nomenclature and among them were the seminaries of the Southern Baptist Convention. These schools offered conversion plans whereby pastors with the BDiv could change their degree to the MDiv and, in addition to the change in name, the seminaries changed the content, seeking to make the MDiv a more flexible three-year degree that “recognizes the importance of the individual student’s own choices.”2 What this meant was a reduction in the required core courses in favor of a sizable number of elective courses while maintaining roughly the same number of total hours (95-100 credit hours).

Throughout the decades that followed, schools would amend this ratio of core courses to elective courses as well as experiment by adding several MDiv concentrations that increased the total

number of required courses. By the turn of the century, there settled a common understanding that while, in theory, the MDiv is a three-year degree, rarely does one or is one able to complete it in less than four years or longer. The advent and expansion of distance education through technology that culminated in what is now online education, has aided in making a three-year completion more realistic in terms of course offerings, but the 95+ required hours continue to make a three-year graduate an exception rather than the rule.

REPLANTING THE MDIV FOR FUTURE STRENGTH

In recent years, professionals in the field of church revitalization and church planting have started to use the term “replanting” to recognize the unique work required among legacy congregations to ensure their days of ministry effectiveness continue for future decades. These churches once were highly effective for a season, but due to various factors, whether neighborhood transition, leadership dysfunction, or simple effects of longevity, these churches are no longer looking toward a future of renewed effectiveness without some kind of revitalization.

However, they are not yet in danger of closing their doors, but rather need a renewed look at their core function and purpose, perhaps some operational pruning, and a net overall replanting for a future season of ministry. When it comes to the theological degree with long standing proven effectiveness, the Master of Divinity has and should retain its place as the oak among the more specialized curriculum willows.

However, for ensured effectiveness in the 21st

[1] Report on Degree Nomenclature. AATS Bulletin 27.

[2] “Minutes of the Fall Faculty Retreat, August 24-25, 1970,” Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. See also “Southern Seminary Will Exchange Bachelor’s Degree for Master’s,” Baptist Press, June 12, 1967. http://media.sbhla.org.s3.amazonaws.com/2407,12-Jun-1967.pdf

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“These are wonderful days to pursue theological education as a tool to aid in the preparation of a call to gospel ministry.” century, a pruning and replanting of this degree is required. Rather than minimize the theological and biblical studies core, which comprise the essence, or tip of the spear, of what students training for pastoral ministry need, the replanted MDiv should prune the number of free elective courses. While elective selection is important to students wanting to gain further language study or explore areas of interest for future doctoral study, the requirement of a dozen or more elective hours can actually serve to distract and prolong the student’s preparation. Less hours does not have to mean less quality.

With the growing pressures for today’s ministry student that include incumbent educational debt, the need to work while pursuing a seminary degree, and the urgency of the ministry task, the MDiv degree needs to come with an achievable and regular three-year completion rate.

The replanted MDiv should provide the aspiring pastor with the core of theological training in the form of a professional graduate degree attainable in a window of time that keeps them from ever feeling like a professional student.

increased desire and feasibility of pastors pursuing professional or research doctorates, a three-year MDiv can both prepare them well for advanced study and help them begin that study sooner. While this pruning and replanting might appear risky or even counterintuitive to even the most ardent supporter of high quality theological education, the future viability of the MDiv planted in a world of shortened Master of Arts degrees, requires at least steps of preventative maintenance, if not more holistic revitalization.

AN OAK FOR A CENTURY

Midwestern Seminary engaged in an extensive curriculum during 2013-2014 that resulted in the pruning and replanting of the MDiv degree. The new 81 hour Midwestern MDiv retains a 72 hour core curriculum, but has reduced the number of electives to 9 hours, thus allowing students to complete the degree in 3 years while providing them with the solid theological foundation needed to engage in pastoral ministry. If students desire they can still pursue more specialized MDivs by adding an additional 9 hour concentration. The Midwestern MDiv is truly a professional masters degree replanted for the church.

These are wonderful days to pursue theological education as a tool to aid in the preparation of a call to gospel ministry. These are also days of great need and urgency for a generation of pastors equipped with the best possible academic training available. The Master of Divinity degree has served for the last 50 years as the very best degree available to aid and equip the one called to serve churches as pastor. To ensure that it remains so for another 50 years, the degree needs careful pruning and replanting. When that work is done well, this oak of a degree can stand strong and see the day when churches see it as their own healthy and thriving Century Oak.3

Further, with the

[3] Many thanks to Robert J. Matz, Assistant Director of Online Studies and Institutional Effectiveness and Assistant Professor of Christian Studies at Midwestern, for his valuable research help for this article.

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YOUR NEO-PAGAN NEIGHBOR AND THE GOSPEL

BY OWEN STRACHAN

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I

f you want to write a tsk-tsk piece on American culture, the present moment is your muse.

It’s a bit bewildering, really, not only for an evangelical like myself but for most anyone who values traditional things.

We are all our grandparents now.

I don’t watch awards shows (much), but I’m more or less aware of cultural trends and developments. I can see where things are going. It’s right as a believer to be alarmed, saddened, and discomfited by the modern trajectory of the American soul. In all seriousness, feeling these things does not make you geriatric. It signals that you have a conscience, and that it is active.

But I do not come to bury our culture (for it may well bury itself). Rather, I write to understand it.

And there are few topics that we need to understand more than how our culture is viewing sex. Some of what I say may be familiar. I’m not striving to be creative, really, so much as I am seeking to speak a true word so as to be able to engage folks around me.

Nowhere are modern sexual mores more evident than in pop music. Pop music today is not singularly occupied by sex, but nearly so. And not just sex generally, but increasingly sexual acts. I think it’s important for Christians who want to engage the culture well to know that this development is not merely owing to an aberrant way

of life, but to a different worldview. I commend Peter Jones’s The God of Sex, a prescient and underappreciated work from a few years back.

Jones helped me to see that many people today have, wittingly or unwittingly, adopted a pagan outlook on life. In our modern neo-pagan world, the body is paramount, sex is cathartic and even gives meaning to life, and there is no telos or purpose for sex and relationships.

“THIS IS WHERE PEOPLE LIVE TODAY. THEY EMBRACE A CONFUSED AND EVEN CONTRADICTING WORLDVIEW, AND IT CAN BE CONFUSING TO HANDLE THE VARIOUS FORMS OF SEXUALIZED NEO-PAGANISM.” I cannot help but think of these matters when I listen, as I infrequently do, to secular rap and R&B music. I listen mostly out of curiosity and worldview interest these days. When I hear a singer like Beyoncé rhapsodize about her sexual relationship with her husband Jay-Z, I cannot help but think of neo-paganism. This is not to say that Beyoncé would sign a neo-pagan doctrinal statement; I’m guessing she would not.

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It is remarkable, though, that a blissfully talented woman like Beyoncé would use her extraordinary vocal powers to sing about sexual activity. It is not merely her choice of topic that interests me, but the manner in which she sings about sex. Sex as she vocalizes it with such sheen and dexterity is cosmic, ethereal, all-uniting. It is delirium. It is intoxicating. It is more than everything, maximal reality. If you couldn’t understand her lyrics but could still hear her sing, you might think she was singing about the reason for living. But no, she is singing about the sexual act. In her hands, sex is the universal, the absolute truth of life.

There is a much more elemental kind of this presentation. I hear it in modern rap songs and pop songs. In these more granular presentations, there is no whimsy.

There is no space for romance. All is sex. Sex is all. One partner after another, one night after another. That’s what life is about. There are no boundaries, there are no rules, there is no script, there is no order. The act is the end of all things. Sex is the particulars, and there is no universal. There is just the details of a given encounter.

So we see that modern neo-paganism is all over the map. Depending on who’s making the music, sex can be earthy to the point of grimy or elevated to the point of life’s meaning. In a post-Christian context sex is the particulars, the dirty details, and it is also the absolute, the one truth that makes sense of it all.

This is where people live today. They embrace a confused and even contradicting worldview, and it can be confusing to handle the various forms of sexualized neo-paganism. So, let’s ask: How is a Christian to respond? What are we to say? A few thoughts come to mind:

1

CHRISTIANS HAVE TO KNOW THAT WE’RE DEALING WITH A DIFFERENT WORLDVIEW (OR MISH-MASH OF THEM).

Non-Christian friends who buy into the kind of

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sex-driven paradigm sketched above may cop to any number of religious or spiritual beliefs. Whatever else they put their trust in, they are at the very least syncretistic, believing neo-pagan ideas. They are reveling in the body and its pleasures, seeing it and them as the purpose and minute-by-minute rhythm of life. They’re not just living in sin, in other words. They are tapping into a very strong undercurrent in post-Christian American life, one that we can see from a distance but rarely name.

This is really what’s taking place in the lives of men addicted to pornography and masturbation. They’re not simply falling into certain unbiblical practices. They’re buying into a neo-pagan way of life. They are ruled by their bodies, and glorying in them, and–if a Christian– they are losing sight of their purpose and meaning in Christ.

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CHRISTIANS NEED TO BE CLEAR ABOUT THE GOODNESS AND THE LIMITS OF SEX.

If we’re ashamed by sex, I suspect we will fail to connect with folks ensnared in the thought-patterns I’m laying out here. We must not be ashamed by sex. If we have been in the past, we cannot be today. What do I mean?

Well, let’s be frank: God invented it, not Satan. God created it for our delight, not God-denying rebels from the garden. If Christians do prize modesty and chastity (two words that sound about as antiquated these days as dressing-gown and chamber-pot), we also celebrate God’s brilliant and gracious design. We’re not hedging, in other words, on the goodness of sex.

But we’re also clear: sex is not meant to give ultimate meaning to life. I would actually argue that pleasure and delight are why we’re on this earth, but pleasure and delight are preeminently found in God, not in any created thing or practice. No sensation or feeling is meant to lastingly satisfy us. In fact, sex in its very design cannot meet this natural human desire. God hard-wired it to not be a permanent reality, as much as

“WE ARE MADE FOR THE PLEASURE OF HOLINESS EXPRESSED AND EXPERIENCED THROUGH A FULL-SENSORY LIFE OF DELIGHT.”

our pop songs and rap songs tell us otherwise. Sex, after all, naturally is connected not merely to marital happiness, but to children, and thus to self-sacrifice, love for others, virtue, and a host of other behaviors and truths.

the broader framework of marriage, which points us to the reason for the cosmos: God loving his people for all eternity and being not only seen by them, but delighted in by them, as Jonathan Edwards once said.

And this is why an abortive culture is so necessary in a neo-pagan culture. If we glorify sex and pursue it without reference to virtue, teleology, or eventual care for others, then we will of necessity need to find a way to dispose of the unwanted fruit of sex (children).

Because we have fetishized and become hypnotized by the sensation, we must dispose of the offspring that sex normally creates.

This, then, is where we find the telos and purpose of sex. This is how we come to understand that there is to be form and shape to a sexual relationship. This is how we recognize, against the pagan impulses of our pre-converted hearts, that sex must have limits, for at a much greater level, Christ limited his covenant relationship to his bride. This last precept brings morality, virtue, and righteousness into the equation. Sex cannot be whatever physical act we commit with whatever partner(s) we desire. There are boundaries, holy limitations, and the church’s covenantal God sets them and keeps them. He does so both for his glory and for our health, our flourishing.

Against brilliant ethicists like Stanley Hauerwas, I would argue that the raison d’etre of abortion is not a consumptive society. The true creative force of the American abortion movement is neo-paganism. It wants sex without consequences because it sees sex and the body more broadly as, at the end of the day, that which gives meaning to life, which validates one’s existence.

CHRISTIANS MUST ALSO MAKE CLEAR THAT SEX IS INDEED INTENDED TO SPEAK A TRUTH ABOUT META-REALITY.

When we hear modern songs and encounter modern media that fits the general category of neo-pagan, we need to see that this is not simply naughty behavior being spoken of. This is a worldview in direct opposition to Christianity, one that takes a good gift of God and twists it and misunderstands it. We find ourselves among body-worshippers, and we ourselves are tempted as they are.

The loving union of a man and a woman speaks to the marriage of the atoning Christ and his atoned-for church (see Ephesians 5:22-33). In terms that might make us blush, there is a unitive power to sex, and a cosmic truth that it speaks. But this truth is not its own. The act and sensation of sex, in other words, is not the end or greatest meaning of sex. Sex is part of

How good of God to give us the gift of sex. How good of him to show us, both through human design and especially through special revelation that we are not made for ourselves and our own selfish sensations.

Instead, we are made for the pleasure of holiness expressed and experienced through a full-sensory life of delight.

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5

Questions with

OWEN STRACHAN Associate Professor of Christian Theology and Director of the new Center for Public Theology

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You are now entering your second year with Midwestern Seminary. What has encouraged you the most about serving on faculty here?

ONE:

I love the energy and convictional vision I see in abundance on this campus. It is easy to be discouraged today. I wanted to be a small part of a team that is looking to take ground from Satan, not simply defend their position. The chance to come here and be encouraged to take the time to think, read, and write was richly compelling to me. If the church is going to thrive, it needs a full banquet of sound doctrine. I see here the instinct to nurture scholars who seek to add a dish or two to the meal. I’m thrilled about that.

In addition, I sense on campus a gospel-shaped humility. That’s appealing. We’re seeking to serve others so that they can serve Christ’s kingdom. The combination of passion and humility is rare and invigorating.

What have you enjoyed the most about the classroom experience at Midwestern?

TWO:

Students at this school love the truth, are hungry to minister it, and want to be fed a full plate of biblical wisdom. Contra the stereotypes about millennials, I see in the fresh faces of MBTS students a serious interest in theology, Scripture, tradition, and holiness. These students are not asking me and my faculty colleagues to train them in the latest fads and attractional tips. They want to know the Word so that they can know the Lord and launch out into a fallen world to give him maximal glory. I

OWEN STRACHAN

see this spirit in one student after another, and this discovery is both stereotype-defying and encouraging.

Tell us about your new venture at the seminary, The Center for Public Theology (CPT).

THREE:

The CPT is a new initiative of Midwestern Seminary that aims at equipping the church, what Augustine beautifully called the “city of God,” to engage the world, the “city of man.”

This is an exercise in public theology—we’re seeking to bring truth to bear on the public square. We don’t worship a privatized Jesus. He

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wasn’t a quiet, tame Savior. He marched out into the roaring thoroughfares of the Greco-Roman world and announced the advent of his kingdom. He died a public death, which was a display to the principalities and powers of the cosmos that he ruled all things and had purchased a people for himself, a nation of priests who very soon would live with him in a world of love. He trained apostles who did likewise—they didn’t head for the hills and write mopey letters to one another about how deleterious their societal conditions were. They went into the teeth of the lion—the lion that would destroy them— in order to publicly proclaim Christ.

Today, we at the Center for Public Theology want to publicly bear witness to the glories of God. Looking to the public example of Jesus and his chosen ones, we want to go and do likewise in the power of the Spirit.

What do you think is the most pressing challenge for the church today?

FOUR:

The church is tempted to hide out today. It is tempted to retreat to the wilderness—not the actual hinterlands, because we need our craft coffee, but the wilderness of disengagement. Many of us who grew up in the era of the Religious Right now pride ourselves on not being like them, and on being unstained from political engagement, or even really taking note of politics. We’re tempted toward a spiritual high-mindedness today that would award us points for our lack of meaningful involvement.

Many people are interested in the broad themes of Christian faith and practice. I am too—I love teaching systematic theology for this reason. But I am also interested in the gaps, the cracks, and am personally unable to avoid them. Both intellectually and spiritually, I enjoy trying to fashion an approach to this fallen order. Evangelicalism has not always been a robust enterprise in terms M I DW E S T E R N M A G A Z I N E

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of the life of the mind, but I have been trained to try and think well about all of life—economics, politics, literature, drama, culture, and so on.

I grew up in a sound Baptist church and was around many intelligent Christian people, but I didn’t exactly know that you could, for fun and doxology, try to take intellectual dominion of the cosmos in the name of Christ.

The challenge, then, is for the church to see that we should not play small-ball, that we should not head for the hills, but should instead plunge into our darkened and darkening world with hearts full of love and minds full of truth. Then, we should shed our church-growth assumptions, our dreams of personal fiefdoms buoyed by a theology of glory, and embrace the theology of the cross. By this I mean: we should decrease, and Jesus should increase, and sinners should be saved, and the church should rise from the dust, a city on a hill once more.

What is your prayer for Midwestern graduates?

FIVE:

My prayer for our students, the students I train and love, is that they would not dream of worldly things, of a kingdom of their own, but would dream of something much, much bigger: a world and a cosmos renewed by God, filled with sinners now redeemed, and all by virtue of daily, hourly, anonymous labor to minister the truth in love.

As I have said, the world seems so big and scary and secular today. And so it may be. But I cannot shake what Gimli says in The Two Towers, when Helm’s Deep is a whisker from being totally overrun. “The sun is rising,” he says, almost to himself. So it is now. The darkness feels oppressive, and we worry that the walls of civilization will crumble.

But the sun is rising.

Equipping the

city of god city of man. to bear witness in the

The Center for Public Theology exists to equip the church of Jesus Christ for theological engagement in a fallen order and a secularizing public square. This mission is driven by confidence in the total truthfulness of Scripture and the transforming power of grace.

Learn more at

cpt.mbts.edu MBT S .EDU

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M IDWESTERN’S FUSION TE AM ON G L OB AL M I SSI ON

BY JASON G. DUESING

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omething akin to the Old Testament cities of refuge still exists in the world and people are fleeing to them. Those cities were once set apart for those in need of protection or at least a fair hearing so that one may “flee to one of these cities and save his life” (Deut. 4:42).

S

In 2016, many still are coming to them to save their lives, and yet, they also are finding life. I observed this dynamic recently in two major global cities, both having been in the news in recent months for acts of terror and political instability.

The first in Central Asia was teeming with young professionals and, though centered in a Muslim culture, there were signs that the younger generation in this city were not much different than many in the West in terms of their tenuous devotion to their historic and national religion. At prescribed times throughout the day, prominent mosques would erupt in amplified calls to prayer. Yet, just as in some of our Western cities where church bells ring out from massive and mostly vacant cathedrals, the normal course of business is for the people not to pause for genuflection, but to carry on with head bowed toward their smart phone.

But in the midst of this bustling and burgeoning scene of transient humanity, there is an underlying great work of God. In that city, I was visiting a team of Midwestern College students spending their spring semester serving with the International Mission Board as part of Midwestern’s Fusion program. The students live and work every day among the people and specifically are working with university students. There they are joining the IMB’s effort to reach these urban citizens through a variety

of college-focused activities. On the last night of my visit, they had an event in the basement of a community center where they regularly invite new friends to meet and practice their English.

In this center, several churches also have their meetings and it was the event that night that prompted me to think of the Old Testament cities of refuge. For here, beneath this massive city with its clamorous calls to prayer, resides a quiet center of refuge—a place where anyone can come, make friends, improve their English, and learn and hear about the gospel of Christ. Students are coming there, and they are finding life.

The second city I visited was in North Africa.

Here too, the city never sleeps or stops. Indeed, there are few traffic lights as none are needed, for the flow of cars and people lilt like tidal waves at every hour of the day and there is no rest from the tumult.

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We have two teams of Midwestern students there, enduring dust and the press and noise of the people and traffic as they make a daily trek to their place of service. Taking a combination of metro rail and a 1.5-mile hike over bridges and under overpasses along streets without sidewalks, these students are in a daily battle for survival. Yet, they joyfully take on the challenge, for at the end of their trek is another city of refuge.

In this metropolis, a displaced people from a neighboring war-torn country have sought a home. At a center for refugees, our students have admirably joined a long history of Southern Baptist work. Here they daily seek to serve the refugees by lending them aid of all kinds and particularly by teaching them English. After their formal classes, they spend extra time inquiring after their students and give them lasting words of life. At the time of my visit, they had seen two men trust Christ, and our students were now meeting with them on a regular basis for discipleship.

deep darkness, the burdened psalmist finds new eyes to see. Seeking God, he finds the truth that God still sees and knows, that God will one day act and judge—that in the end he will set all things right. This knowledge drives the psalmist back to God where he resolves, “I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all your works” (73:28).

In one sense, all of humanity is a refugee in search of cities of refuge. All of us are like sheep who have gone astray (Is. 53:6) from our Creator and deserving of judgment. Yet instead, God judged his Son so that we could no longer flee from him, but return home to him (Luke 15:20). Jesus Christ is the true City for those

FOR EVERY ACT OF TERROR IN THE WORLD TODAY, THERE ARE MULTIPLIED A THOUSAND TIMES OVER ACTS OF SACRIFICIAL SERVICE AND GOSPEL PROCLAMATION.

Strange though it may sound, I came home from these perilous and unstable cities encouraged, because I too found refuge. In these cities of great darkness and danger, God is still providing pockets of light and safety for peoples who have limited or no knowledge of the gospel. For every act of terror in the world today, there are multiplied a thousand times over acts of sacrificial service and gospel proclamation.

Often, we are like the psalmist in Psalm 73 who was discouraged and despairing at the seemingly successful state of the wicked around him to the point that he almost stumbled in disbelief. The wicked were prospering, living a life of excess and ease. They were like reckless bulldozers steamrolling over their culture with threats, violence, and bombastic speech, with apparently nothing or no one to stop them.

The people of God were faltering, questioning God’s omniscience, given that such men were achieving every end to which they set their desires—and thus many started turning to follow the wicked. At this point of

“who have fled for refuge” (Heb. 6:18). Thus, the call now is for all to take refuge in God and not fear the temporal evils of man.

These students in our Midwestern College Fusion program will tell you that the sole reason for their willingness to brave spiritual attack, daunting cultures and climates, and physical danger is that “so others may hear and live.” This is the Fusion motto, and this Christ-like motivation and action modeled so well by our International Mission Board partners throughout the world is serving to create cities of refuge for refugees of all kinds.

Whether secularized university students in Central Asia or actual displaced peoples in North Africa, I take courage; for as I saw in the very places that the world would tell us to abandon, people are finding gospel hope. As the old hymn says, in these cities full of terror and trial, our students are seeing many who “for refuge to Jesus have fled.”

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ALUMNI HIGHLIGHT

BRIAN KEY M.DIV. | 2010

For this edition’s alumni focus, we visited with Brian Key, who serves on staff at Redeemer Fellowship, a large and growing church in the heart of the Kansas City metro area. Key, a 2010 M.Div. graduate of Midwestern, serves as a Pastor of Gospel Communities, providing direction, leadership, and oversight for the church life of Redeemer’s Midtown congregation. He also serves the church through preaching, leading worship, and providing leadership in ongoing conversations on race and justice.

As a vital part of Midwestern Seminary’s determination to move ministry and mission forward, we sought some insights from Pastor Key on that latter issue specifically.

How might seminaries cultivate a better and stronger track record of minority leadership development?

A big question many minorities ask when looking at a seminary is, “Is this a place where I think I can thrive?”

A few key things I look for in seminaries is who is on leadership, who has graduated, and who speaks in chapel services, workshops, or conferences. The presence, or lack thereof, of minority voices in those spaces shows me what kind of value you place on having diverse voices be a part of shaping the culture of an institution. When I see other minorities in leadership at an institution it helps me to think that I can possibly see myself thriving there.

To get to that spot, seminaries—and churches, for that matter—have to ask questions like “What are we recruiting these candidates to? What are we going to do to make sure that cultural impediments don’t hinder them from thriving? What cultural shifts need to happen here in order to make this a place where they will feel a part of the fabric of this institution?”

How does the gospel shape our response to racial division and related cultural concerns?

Three things come to mind.

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ourselves. It is easy to view ourselves and our cultural perspectives as right and others as wrong. Sin, at its core, is a move to orient all of reality around me and for my glory. But Jesus has come to save us, and in doing so reorient our reality such that we view ourselves and God in proper relationship. Therefore, our understanding of the gospel should produce humility, which will change our posture toward others because any grounds for superiority (or inferiority, for that matter) are stripped away due to reality that we all stand in need of the same grace.

Secondly, what we see in the gospel is God’s movement toward us so that we could be reconciled to him. I think the incarnation is a powerful object lesson as we consider what it looks like to draw near to people who aren’t like us with grace. We have a boundary-crossing savior who crossed all ontological boundaries by becoming like us and drawing near to us so that we can draw near to God. Thirdly, the primary work of the life, death, and resurrection to Jesus was reconciliation. He has reconciled us to God in his sacrifice, as Paul says in Ephesians 2, and made it possible to be reconciled to other human beings. We divide ourselves from one another based on our distinctions, and then view ourselves and everyone like us as superior (or inferior) to other human beings. Under the gospel of Jesus, those distinctions are no longer a means for division. They are instead now used to show off the beautiful diversity of what it means to bear the imago dei, as well as the reconciling power of God to restore the relationships broken by the Fall.

As people who have experienced the reconciliation of relationships that have been broken by sin, we should live as agents of reconciliation—or in the case of race

“When the conversation of race comes up, we immediately go on a fact-finding search to

What are some things churches do to address perceived “race issues” that aren’t necessarily helpful or aren’t enough?

validate our perspective, rather than moving

One unhelpful response is to resort to colorblindness. God made me a black man so that you could experience through my image-bearing a distinct, beautiful aspect of the imago dei. I don’t want you to be blind to that at all. That devalues me as a person.

I want you to see my distinction and value it, just like I need to see and value yours. In fact, according to Revelation 5 and 7, our distinctions are going to be a reason for us to praise God before the throne. Also, claiming color-blindness doesn’t allow for someone to bring the pain or privilege of their cultural experience to be redeemed in community under the healing light of the gospel. Welcome the distinctions and see them in all of their beauty and brokenness.

toward someone else with compassion.” relations, toward conciliation as there wasn’t a healthy relationship in the first place. That will beautifully demonstrate the healing power of the gospel to destroy the dividing walls of hostility and draw our distinctions together into unity by his blood What are some things churches can do to embody the gospel implications this way?

First, our initial response should always begin with, “How can I move toward people of disenfranchised (whether by race or class) people with compassion and mercy, knowing that I am a recipient of mercy?”

So often I feel like when the conversation of race comes up, we immediately go on a fact-finding search to validate our perspective, rather than moving toward someone else with compassion.

But we can’t stop at compassion. We have to be willing to speak up and act on behalf of victims of injustice. Silence is not an option. Racism devalues the imago dei in others, but when we speak up, it shows our compassion, validates the pain of the victim, and affirms that they too bear the image of God, which means that they have inherent dignity and worth.

We also have to learn how to value distinctions. We get so used to living in our own culture that we fail to value what others are able to bring to the table that will help us see and understand the transforming work of God in new ways. Welcome those distinctions and give them a voice at the table. You may be surprised about what God does in you through the unique cultural lens and voice of another person.

Tied to that, I think that we need to reorient the way that we understand hospitality. The hospitality that we experience through Christ isn’t simply a welcome but a movement toward us.

Another response that may fall short if we aren’t careful is the movement toward multi-ethnicity in our churches. I think the movement of multi-ethnic churches in this country is beautiful and serve as a sort of movie trailer of what Heaven will be like. But if you are feeling the call to move in that direction, don’t just make the “diversity hire,” where in an effort to reach across racial divides and welcome new voices you hire that one minority to serve to educate your church, draw in other minorities, and speak on behalf of all minorities. Also, don’t just simply change to a more eclectic musical selection.

Lastly, you have to think through what you are going to do to help your people live more integrated lives.

Having more diversity in your church is only good if people are actually integrating their lives with others who are different from them. Otherwise, the church will look multiethnic, but the reality is that we just brought our segregated way of living into the same room.

Our awareness has to move us to action. The plan doesn’t need to be perfect, and it won’t be. But I pray that God makes us a people who are willing to courageously fall forward for the sake of his glory as we attempt to both declare and demonstrate the reconciling work of the gospel.

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IN FOCUS: LIBERTY BAPTIST CHURCH

MISSION-MINDED Liberty Baptist Church Liberty, Missouri

Kansas City is one of the fastest-growing cities in the country, but with rapid change in the metro comes many challenges for historical institutions not prepared to adapt. This could have been the case with Liberty Baptist Church (once Liberty Manor Baptist Church) situated in the Northland of Kansas City were it not for a mission-minded congregation eager for help in navigating the swiftly-changing environment around them.

In 2012, Liberty Baptist called Nathan Rose to be their pastor. Rose, who currently serves as a National Replanting Catalyst with the North American Mission Board, has since shepherded Liberty to grow by 60%.

The congregation has seen its average age decrease and the building is now loud and lively with an increasing number of young families and children.

Of course, strategically moving toward congregational health is not without challenges. “When I arrived,” Rose says, “we had approximately 120 attending each week and a membership that consisted of about 650.

Unfortunately, about 500 of these members were inactive and hadn’t visited the church in years. So I led the church in reaching out to these inactive members, and encouraged them to reconnect with our body. A few did, but most were eventually removed from our membership rolls.”

Despite the reduction on paper, however, church attendance continues to grow and the next strategic moves for Rose and his fellow ministry leaders will be figuring out how to accommodate the growth that is maxing out sanctuary space each Sunday.

Growing a big church, however, is not Liberty Baptist’s chief concern—growing a healthy one is. But with greater health spiritually and a greater focus missionally has come a steady stream of interest from people

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in the area, including many Midwestern Seminary students. David Bronson, a Biblical Studies student at the seminary’s college, serves on staff as Liberty’s worship leader. Seminary student Steven Leatherbury oversees all of the church’s community groups.

In the end, it is Liberty Baptist Church’s renewed focus on the gospel that has proved so attractive and vibrant. Rose, who regards himself as a rather unoriginal, ordinary pastor, says, “Our main objective is to make mature disciples of Jesus because we believe that God is most glorified through his redemptive plan.

Our strategy for accomplishing this begins by keeping the gospel central. The reason is because the gospel is not merely a message that changes our eternal destiny; it also transforms everything about us. All of our conduct and ministries are done as a result of the gospel. When we understand and grasp what God has done for us through his Son, our response is to live out the implications of this good news by worshipping him together, living in community together, and being on mission together.”

To LEARN MORE about Liberty Baptist Church, visit LBCLiberty.org.

STUDENT HIGHLIGHT

MEET

NATHAN ROSE

As Midwestern Seminary continues to live out its vision For The Church, there are certain students who stand out as exceptional examples of this pastoral focus. If you were to ask around the Midwestern community for a respected pastor exemplifies being “for the Church” among the academic body, you will no doubt hear from more than a few the name of Nathan Rose.

Rose, 33, received his MDiv from Midwestern in 2009 and is currently pursuing a Ph.D in Historical Theology under the supervision of Dr. Christian George. You can often find Nathan in the seminary’s academic library or in the Spurgeon Library, poring over works on the doctrine of imputation or the Zwinglian view of Scripture. But all of his academic pursuit is in ultimate service to his church. “My main incentive for pursuing this degree,” he says, “is to gain a greater understanding of church history, which, in turn, will help me better serve my church.”

Getting a better grasp on the gospel doctrine of the great Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon and his place in church history is not incidental to Rose’s pastoral ministry. A passionate and faithful expository preacher himself, the flock he shepherds—Liberty Baptist Church—is part of a revitalization effort led by Rose, who now seres as a National Replanting Catalyst with the North American Mission Board, and others.

Rose came to Christ in his early twenties. “As a child, I learned the gospel message by attending church with my family,” he says, “Although I mentally comprehended that Christ died for my sin I did not exercise repentance and faith until my senior year of college. At the age of 22, the Holy Spirit revealed my sinful condition and enabled me to trust in Jesus Christ. My profession of faith was then accompanied with evidence of that faith. My entire lifestyle changed.”

This lifestyle now includes, of course, expanding his theological education at Midwestern, shepherding a growing church, and of course leading and caring for his young family. Rose has been married to Rachel for 9 years, and they have 3 children. And after his Ph.D, then what? Rose says, “My goal is to finish the rest of my ministry serving at my current church. Obviously, the Lord can change that, but that is my prayer and desire.”

Nathan Rose is truly a doctoral student who exemplifies what it means to live “for the Church.”

It was a Midwestern Seminary professor, serving as interim pastor at Liberty, who recommended Rose for this pastoral role. At the time, he was serving as an associate pastor in Leavenworth, Kansas, but as a Kansas City native, was eager to return to the mission field of his hometown.

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AROUND CAMPUS

Midwestern Seminary trustees rejoice in gift to school, record enrollment, and faculty elections, promotions

by T. PAT R I C K H U D S O N

Assembling for its spring meeting on April 4-5, members of Midwestern Seminary’s Board of Trustees celebrated the announcement of a significant gift to the school, received reports of strong enrollment growth, passed the upcoming year’s budget, and affirmed faculty elections and promotions.

During his President’s Report, Jason Allen announced to the board an anonymous gift of $500,000 toward the institution’s student center.

“A while back, a supporter of Midwestern Seminary reached out to me expressing a desire to join in on what God is doing here and to assist us in carrying out our mission of existing for the church,” Allen said.

“The family did not want any kind of recognition for the gift, but we are

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deeply grateful for their Christian spirit and kind generosity.

“In addition to the $7 million lead gift given to Midwestern Seminary in 2015 by the Mathena family, this most recent gift positions us closer to our goal of breaking ground on a campus student center next year,” Allen added. “I am grateful to God for his kind providence on Midwestern Seminary as represented through this significant gift.”

Midwestern Seminary’s president also reported that the spring semester enrollment at Midwestern Seminary reached another record level.

“Year-to-date comparisons with the 2014-15 academic year indicates another year of robust enrollment growth,” Allen noted. “Our August

1 through April 4 total headcount last year was 1,789 students. Over the same time period this year, our unduplicated headcount rose to 2,193.

In that we’ll add more students the remainder of this academic year, we anticipate our overall headcount to rise even more. Already, though, this year we’ve realized the largest enrollment in the history of the seminary.

“Overall, we cannot be more pleased with the record enrollment growth Midwestern Seminary continues to experience,” Allen said.

“God continues to grant us his favor in this area and for this we are thoroughly grateful. Moreover, Southern Baptist churches continue to send us students—pastors, ministers, and missionaries for us to train for the

church. God has entrusted to us an incredible stewardship, and we don’t take it for granted.”

In other seminary news, Allen informed trustees about the development of a new Chinese Studies program to be launched next academic year.

Within this program, Midwestern Seminary plans to offer courses and degrees in the Chinese language as a means of serving Chinese speaking people in the U.S. and around the globe.

“With an already robust Korean Studies program, adding Chinese Studies will expand our offerings and, together, they will constitute our Asian Studies department,” Allen said. “This program will serve the church by training pastors and ministry leaders in their language and cultural context. Prayerfully, this maximizes their ability to minister the gospel to the Chinese people and furthers the reach of God’s kingdom to the nations.”

Provost Jason Duesing added, “The new Chinese Studies program is born out of a desire to serve churches around the world and to assist believers from all nations to, in turn, fulfill the Great Commission and reach the nations. To come alongside our Chinese-speaking brothers and sisters in this way is a joy and an answer to the prayers of many.”

In presenting the coming year’s budget of nearly $15 million to the Board, Allen noted that the goal of the institution’s business model is to properly steward the finances provided by God, through the SBC’s Cooperative Program and other revenue streams.

“This budget reflects our history, our present, and our future,” Allen stated. “We cannot divorce ourselves from our financial history. So, for the past 3.5 years, we’ve sought to

demonstrate fiscal health, hold down expenses and, month-by-month, build our financial strength. In summary, we are in a position of strong financial health, and we are determined, by God’s grace, to get even stronger,” he added.

In other business, during the plenary session the trustees elected, re-elected and promoted faculty members and selected board officers for the upcoming year.

In recommendations coming from the Academic Committee, the trustees re-elected Professor of Preaching, Ben Awbrey, who has served at Midwestern Seminary for more than 20 years; elected two members to the faculty— Trey Bechtold, as assistant director of online studies and assistant professor of biblical studies; and Daniel Chong, as director of Korean Graduate Studies and assistant professor of counseling, Korean Studies. Additionally, David Sundeen was promoted to dean of Online Studies, and Minsoo Sim was promoted to associate professor of Christian education and pastoral ministry, Korean Studies.

Additionally, with nominations coming from the Governance Committee, the Board re-elected its current officers to a second term for the 2016-17 year. Dwight Blankenship, pastor of Parkway Baptist Church in St. Louis, Mo., was named chairman; Ken Parker, pastor of First Baptist Church in Kearney, Mo., will serve as first vice chairman; Bill Bowyer, pastor of Wake Cross Roads Baptist Church in Raleigh, N.C., will be second vice chairman; and Ben Character, an educator from Oxford, Ala., was re-elected as secretary.

Midwestern Seminary’s Board of Trustees consists of 35 members and meets biannually in October and April. •

COMING JANUARY 2017

In 1857, Charles Spurgeon - the most popular preacher in the Victorian world - promised his readers that he would publish his earliest sermons. For almost 160 years, these sermons have been lost to history. Beginning January 2017, B&H Academic will start releasing a multi-volume set that includes full-color facsimiles, transcriptions, contextual and biographical introductions, and editorial annotations. Written for scholars, pastors, and students alike, The Lost Sermons of C.H. Spurgeon will add approximately 10% more material to Spurgeon’s body of literature and will constitute the first critical edition of any of Spurgeon’s works.

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AROUND CAMPUS

Midwestern Seminary announces Doctoral Partnership with ERLC

by T. PAT R I C K H U D S O N

Midwestern Seminary announced a partnership with The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention to equip doctoral studies students in becoming the next generation of Christian ethicists.

Beginning in May, certain modular-format seminars for Ph.D. and Doctor of Ministry degrees—both with an emphasis in Christian ethics—will be offered to Midwestern Seminary students either in Nashville or Washington, D.C. In addition to Midwestern Seminary’s ethics faculty, several of the courses will be taught

by ERLC President, Russell Moore.

“Few issues are being engaged so extensively in today’s popular culture like ones that are ethical in nature,” Allen said. “In existing for the church, Midwestern Seminary offers, through these doctoral degree programs, an opportunity for students to study at the highest level in preparation to address head-on the ethical challenges facing Christians.

“It brings me great joy to have Midwestern Seminary partner with Dr. Moore and the ERLC staff in expanding our doctoral offerings to include these ethics emphases’ seminars. As the Southern Baptist Convention’s entity that deals in these issues day in and day out, their expertise and wisdom will provide crucial insight into the field of Christian ethics and into the issues needing to be addressed within the church and broader evangelical community.”

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The 52-credit hour modular Ph.D. Biblical Studies degree with an ethics emphasis includes courses such as Biblical Ethics, Worldview and Ethical Theory, Contemporary Issues in Ethics, Marriage and Sexuality, and Bioethics.

Also, in addition to the 30-credit hour Doctor of Ministry degree with ethics emphases’ core curriculum, seminars such as Marriage & Sexuality, Bioethics, and Worldview & Ethical Theory round out the program’s requirements.

Commending the partnership with Midwestern Seminary, Moore said, “The future of Christian ethics is the future of the church. The next generation of the church needs the next generation of ethicists to be equipped to fight the good fight of the faith in the public square. That’s why the ERLC is excited to partner with Midwestern Seminary on these exciting doctoral degrees.”

Phillip Bethancourt, ERLC executive vice president, added, “The ERLC is excited to expand our SBC seminary academic partnerships with these new Midwestern Seminary

degree programs. What is unique about the new Ph.D. degree offering is that it is our first partnership on a program specifically in the classic discipline of Christian Ethics.”

Midwestern Seminary students will have the first opportunity to take the “Contemporary Issues in Ethics” Ph.D. seminar (available to D.Min. students) in Washington, D.C. on May 23-24. The deadline to enroll in this seminar is April 7.

“Partnerships like this represent the best of the cooperating nature of Southern Baptists,” said Jason Duesing, Midwestern Seminary’s provost. “I am grateful our students will have the opportunity to join others from our sister institutions as well as receive instruction from Dr. Moore and the great work he is doing at the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission.”

For more information about becoming a doctoral student, or for questions about enrolling in the Ethics Seminar, contact the MBTS Office of Doctoral Studies at docstudies@mbts.edu. •

Midwestern Seminary introduces president’s new “Preaching & Preachers” podcast on JasonKAllen.com

by T. PAT R I C K H U D S O N

Midwestern Seminary announced the addition of a new element to JasonKAllen.com today, a podcast entitled, “Preaching & Preachers.”

The podcast launched on April 18 and will serve as a platform for President Jason K. Allen to interview special guests on topics and issues from the sphere of preaching and beyond.

The first in the series, posted on April 18, is an interaction between Allen, Timothy George and Christian George entitled, “Great Preachers in Church History.”

In upcoming interviews, Allen will engage subjects relating to the task of preaching such as: “the top theological issues facing the church,” “becoming a pastor-theologian,” and “pastoring in the power of Christ.”

Among the podcast’s first guests will be leaders in the field of preaching and pastoral ministry such as Albert Mohler, Jr., on the subject, “Convictional Preaching;” Tim Challies on the topic, “The Preacher and Personal Productivity;” Paige Patterson on “Why Inerrancy Matters;” and D.A. Carson on the topic, “Avoiding Exegetical Fallacies.”

Midwestern Seminary’s president said he desires for the podcast to reach a wide constituency with thought-provoking, insightful and edifying content about a wide variety of foci within this vital calling to church pastors, teachers and ministry leaders.

“My hope for ‘Preaching and Preachers’ is to serve the church by discussing a wide range of topics that are directly related to the discipline of preaching and to those who proclaim God’s Word,” Allen said. “We’ll also, at times, reach beyond the subject of the podcast and interrelate on topics more distantly connected. Ultimately, we pray that God will be honored through these conversations.”

Additionally, Allen acknowledged deriving the show’s title from a preaching legend’s book.

“I borrowed the podcast’s title from the immortal Martyn Lloyd Jones, who wrote the book, Preaching and Preachers, because it has shaped several generations of preachers,” Allen noted. “Through the insight and wisdom obtained from the great pastoral and ministry minds of today, we pray that future generations of pastors will be encouraged to fulfill their ministry calling as well.” •

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CAMPUS LIFE

CAMPUS EVENTS: The spring semester brought the Midwestern Seminary community together for many opportunities of fun, fellowship, and service. The success of events like MBTS Serve, Spring Picnic, Ping Pong tournament, Fusion Youth Weekend, and many others are all great hallmarks of the vibrant student life and culture taking place on campus.

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For MORE CAMPUS EVENTS AND PHOTOS visit our events page at mbts.edu/events.

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RECENT PUBLICATIONS

BOOKS IN BRIEF New and Upcoming Releases from the Midwestern Seminary Community DISCERNING YOUR CALL TO MINISTRY: HOW TO KNOW FOR SURE AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT

THE SBC AND THE 21ST CENTURY: REFLECTION, RENEWAL, AND RECOMMITMENT

BORN THIS WAY?: HOMOSEXUALITY, SCIENCE, AND THE SCRIPTURES

by Jason K. Allen (Moody)

edited by Jason K. Allen (B&H Academic)

by J. Alan Branch (Weaver)

SEPTEMBER 2016 A tool for seminary students, pastors-in-training, and even current pastors, Discerning Your Call by Midwestern Seminary president Allen serves to confirm or prompt deep thought about the call to ministry through 10 probing questions.

The culmination of a landmark symposium on the campus of Midwestern Seminary, this book features contributions from President Allen, Frank Page, Ronnie Floyd, Thom Rainer, Albert Mohler, Paige Patterson, David Platt, Danny Akin, Justin Taylor, Collin Hansen, and more on the future of the SBC.

Branch, ethics professor at Midwestern, surveys the most common scientific arguments in favor of homosexuality and responds to pro-homosexual arguments in a valuable guide for every Christian in navigating this rapidly-shifting culture.

BOOK REVIEW

By Michael G. Haykin Professor of Church History, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, KY This new book by Jason Duesing, Provost of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary seeks to introduce readers to seven key figures – ‘seven summits’ to use Duesing’s mountaineering image – in the history of the church. Five of them are no surprise – Augustine, Martin Luther, John Calvin, Jonathan Edwards and William Carey. These are obvious giants.

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HUBMAIER AND HENRY The other two – Balthasar Hubmaier and Carl F. H. Henry – are more idiosyncratic to Duesing’s own faith journey and his Baptist convictions. But as he rightly stresses, Hubmaier, as the doyen of 16th-century Anabaptist theologians, has much to teach contemporary Western believers whose world is one where religious liberty is increasingly being challenged (pp.71−72, 78−79). And as Duesing notes, Henry’s firm commitment to the authority of God’s Word stands behind the remarkable ministry of Billy Graham (pp.107, 114). Given

SEVEN SUMMITS IN CHURCH HISTORY

by Jason G. Duesing (Rainer) Duesing, academic provost for Midwestern Seminary, offers a quick, yet insightful introduction to seven of the highest peaks worth climbing in church history. His biographical summaries include towering figures like Augustine, Luther, Calvin, Hubmaier, Edwards, Carey, and Henry.

THE LOST SERMONS OF C.H. SPURGEON, VOLUME 1

THE GRAND DESIGN: MALE AND FEMALE HE MADE THEM

By Christian T. George (B&H Academic)

by Owen Strachan and Gavin Peacock (Christian Focus)

JANUARY 2017 The first of a planned twelve volume series, this book represents the landmark discoveries and research of George, curator of Midwestern’s renowned Spurgeon Library. Written for scholars, pastors, and students alike, The Lost Sermons will add approximately 10% more material to Spurgeon’s body of literature and will constitute the first critical edition of any of Spurgeon’s works.

that both religious liberty and biblical authority are critical issues of our day, Duesing has good reason for including these two relatively unknown figures.

Duesing’s chapter on William Carey (pp.93−105) is typical of his treatment of each of these seven figures. After indicating Carey’s importance – he ‘changed the modern world’ and his An Enquiry Into the Obligations of Christians, to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens (1792) is a landmark book in the history of

This most recent of several original works and collaborations from the prolific Strachan, professor of theology at Midwestern and director of the seminary’s new Center for Public Theology, shows that the gospel frees us to behold the unity and distinctiveness of the sexes and helps churches struggling to understand the meaning of manhood and womanhood.

UNPARALLELED: HOW CHRISTIANITY’S UNIQUENESS MAKES IT COMPELLING

by Jared C. Wilson (Baker) This work from Midwestern’s director of content strategy and managing editor of the For The Church site is a fresh approach on apologetics.

Wilson helps Christians and non-Christians alike see the utter uniqueness of the Christian faith both in its truth claims and in its appeal, showing not just Christianity’s intellectual sense but its emotional sense, as well.

the church – Duesing tracks through Carey’s life with some lengthy extracts of his writings to give readers an idea of Carey’s radical commitment to missions.

and the recommended reading at the close of the chapter. A quote from one of Carey’s co-workers, John Fountain, helps Duesing summarize Carey’s life: ‘He keeps the grand end in view.’

CAREY’S WIFE Notably, Duesing does not shy away from discussing one key problem area of Carey’s life – the collapse of his wife Dorothy into insanity. Backing up this substantial overview is Duesing’s awareness of the latest Carey scholarship, reflected both in the footnotes

An opening chapter and conclusion defend the importance of learning church history through biography. This is an excellent tool for the novice to the history of Christianity and also a great reminder for more advanced students that God changes history through people.

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RESOURCES | FTC.CO

GOSPEL-CENTERE D R E SOUR CE S

FOR THE CHURCH Re c e n t a r t i cle s

MO RE RES O URC ES A VA I L A B LE AT F TC . C O

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10 Common Ways Churches Get Off Mission

by J A R E D C . W I L S O N

The Lord has called his people to be on gospel mission for the sake of his glory.

Most churchfolk will readily acknowledge this, and yet many churches have drifted away — often subtly — from thinking of themselves as missionaries in their respective communities and beyond. Here are some common ways churches engage in “mission drift.”

1. THEY OVER-PROGRAM.

In this way, we mistake activity for mission and busy-ness for fruitfulness.

And while Christians fellowshiping and “doing life” with each other is important, some churches fill the calendar with so many programs and meetings, etc. that their people have little to no margin to be on mission.

2. THEY POUR ALL THEIR ENERGY INTO THE WEEKEND SERVICE.

For many churches, the extent of their weekly thinking, planning, strategy, creativity, etc. is channeled into the production of the weekend gathering.

They justify this inward focus by trying to design this service as evangelistically and seeker-minded as possible, but it effectively turns the “go and tell” of mission into the “come and see” of attraction.

3. THEY USE TOO MUCH INSIDER LINGO.

The church service in particular is biblically for the Christian, but the New Testament still tells us it ought to be intelligible to “outsiders.” Some churches communicate only “inside baseball” in their services and groups so that it becomes difficult for interested unbelievers to follow and seek to understand.

4. THEY ARE JUST PLAIN UNWELCOMING.

bit about your church’s “good ol’ days.”

We all know about churches that don’t acknowledge visitors. There are also community groups that don’t have an open door for curious unbelievers and other visitors. There are people who look down their noses if someone is in their parking space or pew. Some church communities just aren’t interested in growing or reaching out.

8. THEY ARE PREOCCUPIED WITH SOCIAL JUSTICE CAUSES BUT NOT DOCTRINE.

5. THEY ARE PREOCCUPIED WITH POLITICS.

Their pastors are too busy culture-warring to be soul-winning and their people are too busy arguing about who should be President to consider how their anger and worry might (or might not) adorn the gospel.

6. THEY ARE STILL STUCK IN THE PAST, CULTURALLY SPEAKING.

Some churches look frozen in time.

While there are lots of rich things from our history and tradition worth holding onto, having a church that looks like it stepped out of a time machine in the 1970s probably isn’t it. Some churches are so committed to preserving how they’ve always been, they cannot adequately contextualize the gospel for their communities today.

7. THEY’RE TRYING TO RE-CREATE THE PAST.

Some churches have moved on from the past, but are desperate to get it back. But a church can kill its future by constantly trying to recapture “the good ol’ days,” mainly because this is an inward focus and also because outsiders, visitors, and the lost don’t care one

JARED C. WILSON is the Director of Content Strategy for Midwestern Seminary, managing editor of For The Church, and author of more than ten books, including Gospel Wakefulness, The Pastor’s Justification, and The Prodigal Church.

Meeting people’s felt needs and addressing systemic, cultural ills can be biblical and valid implications of the gospel, but a lot of churches forget the gospel part. They trade in the primary purpose of the gospel for its implications. This is a particularly deceptive mode to be in, because socially-conscious churches look like they’re on mission. But if the gospel is not at the center of what we say and do, it’s not God’s mission that we’re on.

9. THEY ARE DOCTRINALLY RIGOROUS BUT SOCIALLY WITHDRAWN.

The opposite of the above problem.

These churches are hearers of the word only. Sometimes they are so suspicious of “social justice” and the “social gospel” that they’d rather die than be caught making a concerted effort to care for the poor, the widow, and the orphan.

10. THEY ARE DIVIDED OR OTHERWISE RIDDLED WITH CONFLICT AND POWER PLAYS.

Some churches are fertile ground for power-hungry folks or divisive personalities jockeying for position. In many of these churches, the leaders may be interested in kingdom mission but find that so much of their energy is occupied in mediating arguments, managing contentious member meetings, defending themselves, or just trying to keep the peace. In these cases, people have forgotten what a church is even for.

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RESOURCES | FTC.CO

Why Christians Don’t Evangelize

by D A N I E L D A R L I N G

A recent Lifeway research survey revealed what most of us already know: Christians are reluctant to share their faith. According to Lifeway, 80% of evangelicals know they are called to evangelize, but 61% admit they’ve not had a spiritual conversation with anyone in the last six months.

This frustrates ministry leaders. If you could get any five pastors in a room, you might hear them say that one of their top frustrations is the seeming unwillingness for their people to engage the mission of God and share the good news of the gospel with those in their immediate context.

Many, much smarter than me, have offered new research and fresh strategies to motivate Christians. This is helpful.

However, I suspect that our hesitance to evangelize is less a matter of faulty methods and lack of opportunity. It goes deeper. I’d like to suggest that there are three spiritual reasons why we don’t evangelize: 1. WE’VE LOST OUR WONDER.

When I read Matthew’s account of Jesus’ Great Commission, I’m struck by the lack of guilt and manipulation in his words. Jesus’ announces the good news that He’s been granted all author-

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ity in Heaven and earth. By virtue of his death, resurrection, and ascension, Christ is reigning King. He’s defeated the powers of sin and death and has reversed the curse. And now he’s calling out a people for His name from every nation, tribe, and tongue.

When I read Jesus’ words, it seems to me that He’s not imploring his disciples to share the gospel. He’s expecting it.

And why not? These people on the hillside hearing Jesus’ words? They’d just witnessed a man brutally crucified, buried for three days, now risen. If you had met Jesus, if you’ve seen him first dead, then alive, nobody would have to convince you to go tell someone about this miracle. Jesus’ instructions were permission to not be silent, to take this gospel beyond Israel and to the nations.

Why don’t we evangelize? Not because we don’t have the right tools or the right spiel. We don’t talk about Jesus because those of us who know Jesus have lost the wonder. If you’ve been with Jesus, who was raised from the dead and has given you new life, if he’s indeed the reigning King of the Universe, if you know and love him, of course you are going to tell people about him.

This is why pastors’ first obligation isn’t to invent novel new ways for their people to communicate the gospel. A pastor’s first obligation is to lift up high the risen Christ, inviting his people into the wonder of Christ’s love.

If you do this and your people get a glimpse of Christ, you won’t be able to stop them from telling their friends and neighbors and coworkers. We are all evangelists for the things that capture our hearts. Think back to your last several conversations. Think about what animated you, what got you talking, what gave you excitement? Did anyone have to prompt you, cajole you, guilt you? No, it came naturally.

If Jesus is the center, talking about Jesus will be natural.

2. WE’VE LOST OUR LOVE FOR NEIGHBOR.

Today our world is divided along political, racial, economic lines. Every day we are tempted by the ease of social media, by the tribalization of our politics, and by racial and economic differences.

We’ve lost the art of loving people with whom we disagree. Just check your Facebook timeline. Consider the harsh and often vulgar language often used, by professing Christians, to describe politicians they don’t agree with, people

groups they are afraid of, and religions they don’t agree with.

You will not share the good news of the gospel with someone you do not genuinely love. Pastors need to teach people to love their neighbors and not just the neighbors that look like them. This means we need to teach our people what the gospel is doing in uniting people from every race, tribe, and tongue in the Church. In America, this means God is helping us obey the Great Commission by bringing the nations to our doorstep.

This means our people need to stop seeing missions as something we only do when we write checks to support missionaries. Every follower of Christ is on mission in his own community. You can’t disparage a people group on Facebook and expect that same neighbor to find the gospel message a compelling alternative to his worldview.

Pastors need to lead their people, to push back against the divisive rhetoric in the culture, and to teach what it means to see every human as created in the image of God. To nurture and build friendships with people with whom we disagree.

It could be that our evangelism must be preceded by repentance. Repentance for our hating of the people God has called us to love around us. If you love Jesus and you love your neighbor, sharing the gospel message won’t simply be something you check off your to-do list. It will be a natural outgrowth of a Christ-shaped life.

3. WE’VE FORGOTTEN OUR SOURCE OF POWER.

Lastly, we don’t evangelize because we’ve mistakenly put ourselves at the center of evangelism. For many of us, our fears, our frustrations, our inability to talk about Jesus stems from a man-centered view of salvation. We really think it is us, our ingenuity, our power, our technique that delivers a soul from death to life. But salvation is not work we accomplish, but a work of the Holy Spiri. It is God who “quickens” the dead heart (Ephesians 2:1). It is the work of the Father to draw people to his son (John 8:44).

This means that in obeying the Great Commission, we can’t fail. Our job is not to do the saving, but do the sharing.

Our job is to simply be faithful in declaring the word to those who haven’t heard. We are the ones God is using to share his message with the world.

There are no others. (Romans 10:14).

But we can rest in God’s sovereignty, motivated by the knowledge that if we share the news, people will repent and put their faith in Christ.

God uses even the worst communicators to herald his message because it is the Spirit who both empowers the communicator and opens the heart of the hearer. This is why we don’t have to evangelize like we are trying to sell someone a used car, life insurance, or a set of knives. We don’t have to close the deal and manipulate people into false conversions.

If Jesus is real in us, if Jesus is real in the people we lead, sharing Christ will be a natural outflow that will burst forward into our friendships, our neighbors, and our coworkers. The mission of God won’t be something we do on Sundays, but will be a way of life.

DANIEL DARLING is the Vice President for Communications at the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. He is a weekly contributor to Leadership Journal and the host of a weekly podcast, The Way Home. Dan is the author of several books, including The Original Jesus. He and his wife Angela have four children and live in the Nashville area.

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RESOURCES | FTC.CO

Building a Church-Planting Culture in Your Church

by L A N E H A R R I S O N

Church planting can appear overwhelming. Of all the activities that a church knows how to do, planting can seem un-doable. Isolated activities can serve good in the church, but building culture strengthens a church’s ability to impact and multiply the work. I want to encourage churches to refuse to be content to entertain activity, but press in to build a culture that multiplies mission.

Take time to invest in building a culture of church planting among your church.

if you fail to pray, your work can only amount to your ability and not a move of God’s Spirit. Prayer for church plants prioritizes the importance of gospel labors.

when requests become personal. The more you pray, the more planting will become a priority. The more planting is a priority, the more your people will pray. Prayer cultivates church planting.

Culture gets determined by what defines normality. You know something is part of your culture when people accept it as “normal.” Building a culture of church planting is simpler than it may at first appear. I want to encourage four simple priorities that enable a church to build a culture of church planting.

Church planters are dying for more prayer. I receive prayer cards from a partner organization each quarter. I pass them out to our people, ask them to adopt that planter for 1-3 months, write a note of encouragement and pray for them at least once a week. I encourage them to contact the planters to ask for any needs or requests, then to share the responses with their Community Group for prayer. I know this process begins as important because “the pastor asked us to do it.” But priorities result from training, and my role is to equip our people.

Second, give money to a church plant or planter. Every church plant needs money. Many churches hesitate to give to a church plant because they want to see if it will survive. I guarantee the plant won’t survive if no one gives. Every dollar invested in church planting matters, but not every dollar will produce the same return. A regular discipline of giving doesn’t guarantee success, but it does encourage the church plant to excel in mission. Giving to a church plant resources Kingdom mission.

First, prioritize praying for church plants, planters, and the work of planting. Prayer is the first labor in all Kingdom work. No matter what you do,

People pray over what is most important to them. Prayer raises the priority of church planting as a gospel labor.

Prayer also softens the hearts of people

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Giving, though, produces an even greater impact. The church plant serves and ministers in greater ways from partner support. But when the sponsor church sees that their dollars are making a

difference, it multiplies spiritual fruit among them as well. People give money to things that matter, and giving money makes things matter more to people.

“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matt 6:21). Give monthly or quarterly so regular giving can provide regular reminders. No matter how much you can give, give somthing. Watch God do great things through your giving. Watch God do great things in your givers.

Third, foster a conversation about church planting. If you want to give your people something to talk about, expose them to church planters.

Church planters are notorious for creating something to talk about.

And usually, it’s good. This sounds so simple yet happens so little. If you want your church to get excited or become passionate about church planting, host a planter to speak to them. Invite them to tell their stories, hear their struggles, shake their hand and meet their families. When people fall in love

with planters, planting will become a personal matter. Personal matters are what people want to talk about. Talking about and hearing from church planters fosters a conversation that encourages church planting.

Fourth, celebrate church planting regularly in the church. When you foster a conversation about planting, it becomes easy to bring celebration from the chatter. No one church can do everything, but all churches can do something.

That something that you can do will very likely be something that a planter can’t do. Celebrate what you can do in church planting, and Jesus will enable you to do more and greater things. Celebrate what you are doing in planting and point your people to see all that Jesus is doing in them, too. Take time to celebrate church planting among your people. Celebration helps us pause to recognize and praise the One, Jesus, who works in us so He can work through us.

Building a culture of church planting begins by making it personal to your people. When planting becomes personal, your people will pray for it, give to it, talk about it and celebrate it.

These priorities will build a culture of planting in your church. When a culture of planting emerges, your biggest challenge will become where to plant next.

LANE HARRISON a regular

contributor to For The Church, planted LifePoint Church, Ozark, Missouri in 2004 and has served as Lead Pastor for the past 11 years. Prior to planting LifePoint, he served in a number of ministry roles. The son of a pastor, Lane surrendered to the Gospel ministry at age 19 and has served the local church for 26 years. He is passionate about preaching the truth of God’s Word through the Gospel of Jesus Christ, leading the church on mission and raising up men to lead the church.

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Church Planter, Be A Missionary

by J O S H H E D G E R

Not only should a church planter have the heart of a pastor, he should also have the heart of a missionary.

If you look through the book of Acts, the believers went forth from Jerusalem, and everywhere believers went, the gospel went. Furthermore, everywhere the gospel went, people became believers. Everywhere people became believers, churches were planted. Everywhere churches were planted, more believers went out. The process repeated itself throughout history. Evangelism, missions, and church planting cannot be subdivided.

Simply put, church planting is missionary work. If this is true, how then does one develop the heart of a missionary?

READ THE BIBLE. You cannot truly read the Bible without seeing God as a missionary God. He sent, he came, he pursued; to save the dead. Read Acts and see how the church planting movement was birthed out of evangelism, how Paul contextualized his delivery of the gospel, and how new churches sent out more missionaries to start more churches.

TELL PEOPLE ABOUT JESUS. It’s that easy. If you begin to tell people about Jesus, you’ll begin to develop the heart of a missionary. If you do not tell people about Jesus, you will struggle to develop a missionary heart. Practice doesn’t make perfect in evangelism, but practice does make faith. As you practice evangelism, you will build faith in the one who does the work of salvation, which, will embolden and impassion you to do evangelism.

GO ON A MISSION TRIP THAT FOCUSES ON EVANGELISM. I would argue that you should go on a trip that is international. I’m amazed at the number of men who are training to be planters and

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pastors who’ve never been out of the United States. Get to a different culture, a drastically different culture. See poverty and lostness. Hear stories from missionaries in those areas of God’s faithfulness to save sinners and his faithfulness to the missionaries, whether their work is slow or fast.

BECOME A STUDENT OF YOUR COMMUNITY. Study the numbers and study the people. Ask questions such as, “What is the worldview of my community?” “What is the demographic of people in my area and how do they communicate?” “What does my community value?” “Where will I most naturally be able to have conversations with people about Jesus in my community?” “What can I do to build a reputation of trust with this community?” “Who is a person of peace that God is using to open doors in our community and how do I become friends with that person?” “Why are the schools massively more diverse than the population and what does that mean for our work of sharing the gospel?”

PRAY. Pray and ask God to give you a heart that cares more about his glory than your comfort. Ask him to give you heart that cares more about their salvation than your safety. Ask him to give you the heart of a missionary.

JOSHUA HEDGER, a regular contributor to For The Church, is a pastor at Emmaus Church (emmauskc.com) in the Kansas City metro and serves as the Director of Church Planting and Partnering at Midwestern Seminary. He is married to Tish and they have a son and a daughter.

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Since day one, we’ve been training leaders for the church The future of the church starts today. We want to see our city, our state, our nation, and the world reached for Jesus Christ. As we look around our city and our country, the need for gospel-saturated and theologically sound pastors and leaders is clear. Standing in the midst of America’s Heartland, we believe Midwestern Seminary and College will play a crucial role in the future of the Church.

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