This past week, I posted a book notice about Doug Coleman’s fine new book, A Theological Analysis of the Insider’s Movement.[1] Because the book notice prompted some vigorous discussion, I thought it might be helpful to post an excerpt from an essay I am writing on theological method. In the essay, I try to show how significant one’s theological method is for ministry and mission in general. In the excerpted portion, below, I try to … [Read More]
The Mission of the Church: An Ecclesiological Question
We were pleased to host Christopher J.H. Wright at Southeastern Seminary last week as he delivered the annual Page Lectures. His theme for the lectures was “The Bible and the Mission of God,” which is an important and somewhat controversial topic among evangelicals. His two lectures were titled “Reading the Whole Bible for Mission: What Happens When We do?” and “God, Israel, and the Nations: The Old Testament and Christian Mission.” Both of his excellent lectures … [Read More]
The Gospel and Baptist Identity Series
Over at my personal blog, Christian Thought & Tradition, I recently concluded a nine-part series titled The Gospel and Baptist Identity. In that series, I attempted to offer a constructive proposal about what I think is a healthy way to articulate Baptist identity in the early years of the twenty-first century. I received some helpful feedback, for which I’m very thankful. This is an expansion of what I’ve been teaching my Southeastern Seminary students for … [Read More]
Is Baptism a Secondary Doctrine?
Several years ago, Southern Seminary president Albert Mohler wrote an influential essay titled “A Call for Theological Triage and Christian Maturity.” In that essay, Mohler argues that a key to spiritual maturity is being able to distinguish between primary, secondary, and tertiary doctrines. According to Mohler, primary or first-order doctrines are those that are essential to the faith—you cannot reject these beliefs and still be Christian in the biblical sense of the term. Mohler’s examples … [Read More]
Kenneth Starr, Church Membership, and the Baylor Presidency
As many readers know, it was announced this week that Kenneth Starr has been selected as the next president of Baylor University. Not surprisingly, the announcement generated quite a bit of buzz in the blogosphere, Twitterverse, and on message boards. Baylor has of course been embroiled in significant controversy during the past decade over leadership, vision, and academic matters, which followed on the heels of two decades of controversy over governance, theology, and denominational matters. … [Read More]
An Open Letter to Closed Communionists: A Report from the Field, Part 2
This is the second part of a series I drafted while visiting overseas workers in the month of January. In my first post I offered a challenge to the SBC regarding our support of the IMB. This post gets at an entirely different issue upon which I reflected in the international context.
A colleague and I were recently overseas and on the Lord’s day we gathered with a group of believers who meet in a … [Read More]
And Since We’re Talking about the Church
Yesterday my wife pointed me to an excellent article written by Jeff Purswell titled “Don’t Go to Church?” Purswell serves as the Dean of the Sovereign Grace Pastor’s College. In his article, Purswell criticizes the false dichotomy between “being” the church and gathering as the church. I sometimes hear this type of thinking from some of my students who either were very involved in collegiate parachurch ministries or have been influenced by churches that embrace the very … [Read More]
Further Thoughts on the Marks of a True Church
This is a follow-up to my earlier article “On the Marks of a True Church: A Question.” Thanks to everyone who offered a comment. What follow are my own thoughts on this issue.
I first began to think deeply about this question during my doctoral studies. During my college and seminary days, I unhesitatingly embraced the so-called Reformation definition of a true church. But there was a problem: as a Baptist, I am honestly convinced that … [Read More]
On the Marks of a True Church: A Question
Ever since the Reformation era, it has been common to define a “true church” as a congregation where the gospel is rightly preached and the sacraments/ordinances are rightly administered. (Some would also include the practice of church discipline as a third mark.) Christians in a variety of traditions use this terminology all the time, but I suspect some have not thought through the implications of adopting this schema. Other Christians, however, have clearly thought through … [Read More]
