Here - Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
Here - Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
Here - Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
FALL 2007 THE TIE VOLUME 75, NUMBER 3<br />
SOUTHERN<br />
SEMINARY<br />
The Church<br />
without<br />
Compromise
PRESIDENT’S JOURNAL<br />
Compromise and Confusion<br />
in the Churches<br />
The absence of doctrinal precision and biblical<br />
preaching marks the current evangelical age. Doctrine<br />
is considered outdated by some and divisive<br />
by others. The confessional heritage of the church<br />
is neglected and, in some cases, seems even to<br />
be an embarrassment to updated evangelicals.<br />
Expository preaching — once the hallmark and<br />
distinction of the evangelical pulpit — has been<br />
replaced in many churches by motivational messages,<br />
therapeutic massaging of the self, and formulas<br />
for health, prosperity, personal integration<br />
and celestial harmony.<br />
Almost a century ago, J.C. Ryle, the great evangelical bishop,<br />
warned of such diversions from truth: “I am afraid of an inward<br />
disease which appears to be growing and spreading in all the<br />
Churches of Christ throughout the world. That disease is a disposition<br />
on the part of ministers to abstain from all sharply-cut<br />
doctrine, and a distaste on the part of professing Christians for<br />
all distinct statements of dogmatic truth.”<br />
A century later, Ryle’s diagnosis is seen as prophetic, and<br />
the disease is assuredly terminal. The various strains of the<br />
truth-relativizing virus are indicated by different symptoms and<br />
diverse signs, but the end is the same. Among the strains now<br />
threatening the evangelical churches is the temptation to find<br />
a halfway house between modernity and biblical truth. This is a<br />
road that leads to disaster and away from the faith once for all<br />
delivered to the saints.<br />
What is our proper response to all this? Again, the words<br />
of Ryle speak to our age: “Let no scorn of the world, let no<br />
ridicule of smart writers, let no sneers of liberal critics, let no<br />
secret desire to please and conciliate the public, tempt us for<br />
one moment to leave the old paths, and drop the old practice<br />
of enunciating doctrine — clear, distinct, well-defined and<br />
sharply-cut doctrine — in all utterances and teachings.”<br />
We confess that knowledge is possible, but knowledge of<br />
spiritual things is revealed. Without the Word of God we would<br />
know nothing of redemption, of Christ, of God’s sovereign provision<br />
for us. We would have no true knowledge of ourselves,<br />
of our sin, of our hopelessness but for the mercy of Christ. As<br />
Professor R. B. Kuiper reminded his students, the most direct,<br />
the simplest, and most honest answer to the question, “How<br />
do you know?” is this: “The Bible tells us so.”<br />
As Jesus reminded Peter, “Flesh and blood did not reveal<br />
this to you, but My Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 16:17). So it<br />
is with us: Our true knowledge was not revealed to us by flesh<br />
and blood, and certainly was not discovered on our own by the<br />
power of our own rationality and insight; it is revealed to us in<br />
the Word of God.<br />
For this reason, our defense of biblical inerrancy is never a<br />
diversion or distraction from our proper task. Every aspect of<br />
the theological task and every doctrinal issue is affected by the<br />
answer to this fundamental question: Is the Bible the authentic,<br />
authoritative, inspired and inerrant Word of God in written<br />
form, and thus God’s faithful witness to Himself? For the<br />
believing church, the answer must be yes. With the framers<br />
of the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy, we affirm that<br />
“The authority of Scripture is inescapably impaired if this total<br />
divine inerrancy is in any way limited or disregarded, or made<br />
relative to a view of truth contrary<br />
to the Bible’s own; and such lapses<br />
bring serious loss to both the individual<br />
and the Church. We confess and<br />
affirm the truthfulness of Scripture<br />
in every respect, and we stand under<br />
the authority of the Word of God,<br />
never over the Word. In other words,<br />
we come to the Scriptures, not with<br />
a postmodern hermeneutic of suspicion,<br />
but with a faithful hermeneutic<br />
of submission.”<br />
As our Lord stated concerning<br />
the Scriptures, “Thy Word is Truth”<br />
(John 17:17). And, as Paul wrote to<br />
Timothy, “All Scripture is inspired by<br />
God and profitable for teaching, for<br />
reproof, for correction, for training<br />
in righteousness” (2 Tim. 3:16). Made<br />
clear in this text is the inescapable<br />
truth that our task is to teach and to<br />
preach this Word; to reprove, to correct<br />
and to train in righteousness.<br />
Should our churches return in faithfulness<br />
to this fundamental charge,<br />
the secular worldview would lose its<br />
grip on the believing church.<br />
R. Albert Mohler Jr.<br />
President, The <strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Baptist</strong> <strong>Theological</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong><br />
page 36<br />
Fall 2007 | <strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong> Magazine
2<br />
CONTENTS<br />
18<br />
10<br />
16<br />
FEATURE<br />
2 Forum:<br />
Is the doctrine of the church really that important?<br />
6 Membership matters<br />
Chuck Lawless<br />
10 Are we all wet or does Baptism matter?<br />
Greg Wills<br />
12 The importance of church discipline<br />
Barry Joslin<br />
16<br />
18<br />
20<br />
21<br />
DEPARTMENTS<br />
Student focus: Carl Garvin<br />
Violent attack bears Gospel fruit for Garvins<br />
Faculty focus: Michael Haykin<br />
Fear of death led Haykin out of Marxism and onto the life-giving<br />
path of Christianity<br />
Alumni focus: Travis Fleming<br />
<strong>Southern</strong> graduate takes Gospel to New Orleans<br />
Alumni focus: Clay Layfield<br />
Ministering the Word through music<br />
22 SOUTHERN SEMINARY NEWS<br />
32 ALUMNI NEWS<br />
News from<br />
the lives of <strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong> alumni<br />
The <strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong> Magazine (The TIE) (ISSN<br />
00407232) is published four times a year by The<br />
<strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Baptist</strong> <strong>Theological</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong>, 2825 Lexington<br />
Road, Louisville, KY 40280, 1-800-626-5525.<br />
Executive Editor: Lawrence A. Smith<br />
Editors: David Roach, Peter Beck<br />
Associate Editor: Jeff Robinson<br />
Design Editor: Jared Hallal<br />
Associate Design Editor: John Rogers<br />
Contributing Writers: Chuck Lawless, Greg Wills,<br />
Barry Joslin<br />
Photography: John Gill<br />
Proofreaders: Allison Parker, Callie Nolen<br />
Fall 2007. Vol. 75, No. 3. Copyright © 2007 The<br />
<strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Baptist</strong> <strong>Theological</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong>. Periodical<br />
postage paid at Louisville, KY. Postmaster: Send address<br />
changes to: Public Relations, 2825 Lexington<br />
Road, Louisville, KY 40280, or e-mail us at publicrelations@sbts.edu.<br />
Subscription information: To receive a free subscription to The <strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong><br />
Magazine, to change your address or to cancel your subscription, you may<br />
contact us in one of the following ways:<br />
Online: www.sbts.edu/resources/publications/magazine.aspx<br />
Email: publicrelations@sbts.edu<br />
Call: 1-800-626-5525, ext. 4141<br />
Write: Public Relations, The <strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Baptist</strong> <strong>Theological</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong><br />
2825 Lexington Road, Louisville, KY 40280<br />
Under the lordship of Jesus Christ, the mission of The <strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Baptist</strong> <strong>Theological</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong><br />
is to be totally committed to the Bible as the Word of God, to the Great Commission as our mandate, and to be a servant of<br />
the churches of the <strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Baptist</strong> Convention by training, educating, and preparing ministers of the gospel for more faithful service.
Forum:<br />
Is the doctrine of<br />
the church really<br />
that important?<br />
page 2<br />
Fall 2007 | <strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong> Magazine
The <strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong> Magazine recently<br />
asked four <strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong> professors their<br />
opinions on key issues surrounding the doctrine<br />
of the church. Participating in this forum<br />
are Russell D. Moore, senior vice president<br />
for academic administration and dean of the<br />
School of Theology; Donald Whitney; senior<br />
associate dean of the School of Theology and<br />
associate professor of biblical spirituality; Gregory<br />
A. Wills, associate dean for the School of<br />
Theology’s division of theology and tradition<br />
and professor of church history; and Jim Orrick,<br />
professor of literature and culture.<br />
<strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong> Magazine | Fall 2007 page 3
Q: Assuming Dr. Mohler’s “theological triage” paradigm,<br />
which separates central Christian doctrines from tertiary<br />
issues, where does the doctrine of the church rank?<br />
Moore: In his theological triage paradigm, first-level issues<br />
are issues without which we cannot recognize one another as<br />
Christians. In that sense, I think there are some very significant<br />
divisions on the doctrine of the church in which we could<br />
still recognize one another as Christians. For example, a godly<br />
Methodist pastor, who preaches the Gospel and believes in the<br />
new birth, I would be able to receive as a brother in Christ. I<br />
probably could do door-to-door witnessing with him, but I<br />
wouldn’t be able to plant a church with him because we would<br />
have to decide whom to baptize and how. In that sense, many<br />
of the issues that we typically think of in terms of the doctrine<br />
of the church would fall into what Dr. Mohler would consider<br />
second-level issues. But that does not mean for him or for me<br />
that those issues are unimportant.<br />
Wills: Some aspects of ecclesiology are primary matters, others<br />
are secondary, still others are tertiary. All three levels deal<br />
with matters of scriptural revelation, not mere matters of taste<br />
or opinion.<br />
I would propose something like this:<br />
First-order matters of ecclesiology<br />
would include such things as: the church<br />
was established by Christ and is therefore<br />
a divinely ordained institution; the church<br />
should comprise regenerate members; the<br />
church should practice the ordinances<br />
of baptism and the Lord’s Supper; baptism<br />
does not regenerate or remit sin; the<br />
church should expel impenitent sinners.<br />
Second-order matters of ecclesiology<br />
would include such matters as: the form<br />
of church government; the ordinances as<br />
“means of grace” for sanctification; baptism<br />
being immersion of professing believers.<br />
These are matters of revelation, and Jesus<br />
has given the churches stewardship over<br />
them as precious truths and holy ordinances. To stray from<br />
them is grave error. As a result, these are matters that tend to<br />
divide orthodox evangelicals into denominational families.<br />
Third-tier matters of ecclesiology include such things as: frequency<br />
of communion; use of musical instruments; or plurality<br />
of elders. The Scripture speaks to such matters but not with<br />
that definiteness that would preclude toleration of disagreement<br />
or difference in the fellowship.<br />
Orrick: I believe ecclesiology to be a first-order issue because<br />
local churches are the vehicles for the preservation and execution<br />
of the Christian religion. As useful as Bible colleges and<br />
seminaries are, the Lord Jesus established, not a seminary, but<br />
a church, and it is the church that is the pillar and ground of<br />
the truth. <strong>Here</strong> at <strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong> and Boyce College we<br />
know that it is our business to serve the Lord through serving<br />
His churches. If the doctrines of the Trinity, justification by faith<br />
and Christology are “big fish” doctrines (and they are), these<br />
big fish swim in a local church pond.<br />
Orrick:<br />
“The primary<br />
concern is that we<br />
obey Christ and<br />
maintain the purity<br />
of His body.”<br />
Q: How do we counter rampant individualism in our<br />
churches with the Bible’s insistence<br />
that every member has a role to play in<br />
the body?<br />
Whitney: All reformation begins with<br />
teaching. Christians are highly unlikely to<br />
do what they’ve never been taught to do.<br />
So the starting place in countering individualism<br />
is with the faithful exposition<br />
of Scripture. Next comes the role of leadership<br />
in leading overloaded individual<br />
Christians to become committed members<br />
of the church body, the church family.<br />
This requires a lot of thought and discussion<br />
among leaders about how to do this<br />
in their specific ministry context. Hebrews<br />
10:24 comes to mind here: “And let us consider<br />
how to stimulate one another to love<br />
and good deeds.” It was, in part, to deal with this issue that I<br />
wrote “Spiritual Disciplines Within the Church” about the interpersonal<br />
spiritual disciplines we are to practice with our fellow<br />
church members.<br />
Moore: We must emphasize the necessity of the church. Jesus<br />
did not die to bring individual believers into heaven with the<br />
church as a discipleship program that’s good for them. Jesus<br />
died to bring us into the church, where we will always be the<br />
body of Christ. Those who hate the church in the New Testament<br />
are those who are lost. We have to recover the sense of<br />
the church as essential to what it means to follow Christ.<br />
We also need to cultivate true community that transcends<br />
the tribal badge markers of contemporary American culture. In<br />
Ephesians 3 the apostle Paul sees the unity of Jews and Gentiles<br />
in Christ as a sign to the principalities and powers in the<br />
heavenly places that Jesus is Lord. In our context, we shouldn’t<br />
have congregations that exist on the basis of church members’<br />
race, socioeconomic class or personal preferences in music.<br />
page 4<br />
Fall 2007 | <strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong> Magazine
Moore:<br />
“Your doctrine of the<br />
church is fundamental<br />
to what you believe<br />
about God.”<br />
Wills: Not all aspects of individualism are incorrect. We must<br />
for example respond to the Gospel individually. But unscriptural<br />
forms of individualism have grown in the past few generations.<br />
Sinful forms of individualism tend to privilege personal<br />
“fulfillment” and individual preference at the expense of the<br />
good of the family or the church.<br />
The best place to begin is to teach on the nature of the<br />
church and the role of each member in it. Every member has a<br />
role to play in the body, but we sometimes approach individual<br />
gifts as sources of self-actualization and self-esteem, rather as<br />
divinely appointed duties for the church as a body.<br />
Q: In doing church discipline should we distinguish<br />
between private offenses, as so many in our culture demand,<br />
and public offenses? Where is the line?<br />
Orrick: As a general rule, I think the discipline needs to be as public<br />
as the offence. That being said, some private offences are public<br />
knowledge, or will become public knowledge, and therefore<br />
must be dealt with publicly. Furthermore, some private offences<br />
are of such an egregious nature that they must be made public<br />
and dealt with publicly. This is especially true when the integrity<br />
of the Gospel or the purity of the church is at stake. While reclamation<br />
of the disciplined person ought always to be in view in<br />
the exercise of church discipline, I do not believe that his reclamation<br />
is the primary concern of church discipline. Rather, the primary<br />
concern is that we obey Christ and maintain the purity of<br />
His body. Christ’s church is more important than any individual. I<br />
believe that keeping this great purpose in mind will help to guide<br />
us in dealing with those sins and situations that are not specifically<br />
addressed in Scripture.<br />
Whitney: While there are specific sins mentioned in the New<br />
Testament which call for church discipline, the Bible doesn’t<br />
give us an exhaustive list. Ultimately, any sin — public or private<br />
— is a disciplinable offense if there is persistent unrepentance.<br />
For even in those matters that a church would consider<br />
relatively minor offenses, persistent unrepentance — after<br />
repeated, loving appeals — eventually turns a minor offense<br />
into a major one. For after awhile the real offense is no lon-<br />
ger the original offense, but the individual’s rejection of the<br />
church’s authority in the matter.<br />
Wills:<br />
The real question with the regard to church discipline<br />
is not<br />
whether the sin is known publicly. Adultery for example<br />
is just<br />
as heinous before it becomes public knowledge as after.<br />
The question is what sins should the church take particular<br />
notice<br />
of through church discipline procedures. This is not an<br />
easy question to answer, and in many cases we will not have<br />
absolute certainty regarding our duty. But surely the church<br />
must notice such sins as the Scriptures declare to be incompat-<br />
ible with our profession of faith in Christ and with fellowship in<br />
the church, as in 1 Cor 5:11; 6:9-10; Gal 5:19-21; and Eph. 5:3-5.<br />
Q: Is<br />
ecclesiology a doctrinal area that must be integrated<br />
within our overall framework of theology or is it an<br />
entirely separate issue? How do we counter the popular<br />
argument that insists, “God is not interested in how you<br />
worship (or govern your church). He is merely interested<br />
that you worship?”<br />
Moore: If that statement were true, we could dance around<br />
golden calves. God is intensely interested in both how and<br />
whom we worship. Your doctrine of the church is fundamental<br />
to what you believe about God. If you don’t have a robust doctrine<br />
of the church, it’s very difficult to understand the Trinity<br />
because the church is modeled after the Trinity. If you don’t<br />
have a strong view of the church, it’s very difficult to understand<br />
the doctrine of Christ when Jesus says that He is united<br />
to His church as a head to a body. Those who say, ‘I love Jesus.<br />
I’m not interested in the church,’ are very similar to a husband<br />
who would say to his wife, ‘I love you. It’s your body I can’t<br />
stand.’ That’s not an option for Christians. For me, every doctrine<br />
has to be understood through the grid of the church.<br />
Orrick: Ecclesiology must be integrated within our overall framework<br />
of theology because ecclesiology drastically affects our<br />
understanding and practice of theology. The Lord has seen fit to<br />
communicate His truth through the holy Scriptures, but it is the<br />
church that has been charged with the task of proclaiming the<br />
truth of Scripture to believers and to the world. The medium<br />
through which something is communicated affects the message<br />
of what is communicated. C.S. Lewis observed, “Every ideal of<br />
style dictates not only how we should say things but what sort<br />
of things we may say.” The second commandment (“no graven<br />
images”) does not address the issue of whom we are to worship<br />
— that is covered in the first commandment. The second commandment<br />
addresses the issue of how we are to worship the one<br />
true God. Why? Because how we worship affects our understanding<br />
of the one whom we worship. The same thing may be asserted<br />
with respect to church government.<br />
Whitney: Ecclesiology should matter to us because the biblical<br />
passages which speak of it show us that ecclesiology matters to<br />
God.<br />
In John 4:24 Jesus said that those who worship the Father<br />
“must worship in spirit and truth.” Both aspects are equally<br />
important. Acceptable worship is not only from the heart, but<br />
it must also be offered according to the truth of Scripture.<br />
<strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong> Magazine | Fall 2007 page 5
Membership<br />
matters<br />
page 6<br />
Fall 2007 | <strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong> Magazine
By Chuck Lawless<br />
As a non-believer in my early teens, I knew<br />
nothing about church. My family did not attend<br />
church, nor did I have any desire to do<br />
so. When God graciously saved me, though,<br />
He placed in my life a believer who quickly<br />
encouraged me to join the church. I did not<br />
yet understand the importance of the local<br />
church, but I did know that I wanted to do<br />
whatever God expected of me. If He required<br />
me to join a church, I was ready to be obedient.<br />
Only later did I realize just how important<br />
membership in a local church is.<br />
<strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong> Magazine | Fall 2007 page 7
What does the Bible say about membership?<br />
To argue that the Bible clearly teaches local church membership<br />
would be difficult indeed. No text indicates that believers<br />
officially “joined” a congregation. On the other hand,<br />
numerous texts imply that local churches at least knew who<br />
was a part of their congregation. For example:<br />
• Matt 18:15-17; 1 Cor 5:1, 9-13 – these and other passages<br />
concerning church discipline indicate that the<br />
church held members accountable and could exclude<br />
them; if so, they must have known officially who had<br />
been included.<br />
• Acts 6:1-6 – a particular group of followers chose<br />
from among themselves those who would minister to<br />
neglected widows.<br />
• 1 Tim 3:5; Heb 13:17; 1 Peter 5:2 – the pastoral oversight<br />
noted in these passages assumes that shepherds<br />
knew who belonged in their flock.<br />
• 1 Tim 5:3 – the church apparently kept a list of widows<br />
under their care.<br />
• Heb 10:19-25 – those who were in the church were to<br />
encourage each other to be faithful; thus, they must<br />
have known who others in the church were.<br />
At a time when church “shoppers” often attend a church for<br />
a long time without joining, we must re-emphasize these texts. 1<br />
Even if the Bible does not expressly mandate church membership,<br />
the weighty evidence in that direction suggests that we<br />
must not take membership lightly.<br />
Why does membership matter?<br />
Given that the values of church membership are too numerous<br />
to be covered in this brief article, I will address five. First,<br />
church membership is our public commitment to serve with<br />
a specific group of believers. God places members in His body<br />
as He wishes (1 Cor 12:18), mandating that we fulfill our calling<br />
and responsibilities within that local body. We thus agree<br />
through membership to use our God-given gifts alongside others<br />
who have joined the same body. This body is so connected<br />
that what happens to one member affects all other members<br />
(1 Cor 12:26). By joining a local church, we affirm that we<br />
intend to relate to other believers with this level of intimacy<br />
and responsibility.<br />
Second, church membership is our vow to be part of God’s<br />
family in a local area. The picture of the church as a family<br />
is implied in several places in the New Testament (e.g., 2 Cor<br />
6:18; Eph 3:14; 1 Tim 5:1-2). As a family of God, believers are to<br />
love, support, challenge and encourage one another. This family<br />
is to be consistent and stable, even as our families of origin<br />
are often falling apart. Brothers and sisters in Christ are sometimes<br />
closer to us than those related to us by blood. In fact,<br />
our love for one another in God’s family identifies us as followers<br />
of Christ (John 13:34-35). Through church membership, we<br />
officially commit ourselves to this family.<br />
Third, church membership is our agreement to be accountable<br />
for our Christian growth. Hebrews 10:19-25, noted above,<br />
mandates that believers spur each other on toward love and<br />
good deeds. Disciplinary passages in the New Testament<br />
(e.g., Matt 18:15-17) show that the church must hold members<br />
accountable to this righteous living. Indeed, it is through loving<br />
confrontation from other believers that we may be restored<br />
when “caught in wrongdoing” (Gal 6:1). Uniting with a church<br />
is an official step to give permission for other church members<br />
to confront us when needed — so that we might more fully<br />
experience the joy of obedience.<br />
Fourth, church membership is our pledge to get directly<br />
involved in God’s work. Many church attenders have made a<br />
habit of simply sitting in a church service, listening to a sermon<br />
and then quickly departing for lunch. These attenders<br />
are, in the words of Mark Dever, more “pampered consumers”<br />
than faithful church members. 2 When we join a church,<br />
however, we no longer have permission to sit, listen and<br />
leave. The church helps us to identify our gifts and then<br />
calls us to serve, and we must then serve. Church membership<br />
allows nothing less.<br />
Fifth, church membership is our official commitment to<br />
the work of the Great Commission. Five times in the New<br />
Testament, Jesus called His followers to the difficult work<br />
of taking the Good News to the world (Matt 28:18-20; Mark<br />
16:15; Luke 24:46-47; John 20:21; Acts 1:8). Evangelism and<br />
missions are not easy tasks, but we need not tackle these<br />
challenges alone. Church members pray for us as we develop<br />
relationships with non-believers and seek opportunities to<br />
share the Gospel with them. Others travel great distances<br />
to support missionaries who are planting seeds on difficult<br />
soil. Joining a church is thus one way to say, “I am committed<br />
to the Great Commission, and I will work with this local<br />
church to reach others for Christ.” We are undeservedly<br />
privileged to be used by God so that others might join the<br />
body of Christ.<br />
The rest of the story<br />
I did join that Ohio <strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Baptist</strong> church when God<br />
saved me over three decades ago. Looking back, I hardly<br />
appreciated all that church did for me as a young believer. A<br />
faithful bus driver picked me up every Sunday. Sunday School<br />
teachers introduced me to the Word of God. Concerned<br />
church members contacted me when I did not attend worship<br />
for two consecutive weeks. An assistant pastor challenged me<br />
to consider if God was calling me to ministry. My pastor invited<br />
me to preach as I sought confirmation of my call. This church<br />
genuinely became my Christian family.<br />
Regrettably, the church did not have a systematic discipleship<br />
plan in place, yet they gave me a strong belief in the<br />
authority of the Word of God, an intense passion for evangelism<br />
and a deep love for the <strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Baptist</strong> Convention. How<br />
grateful I am today for that believer who told me that joining a<br />
church was a non-negotiable step in my spiritual journey.<br />
Endnotes<br />
1<br />
Our Graham School study on membership classes affirmed this tendency to postpone<br />
joining a church. See my book, Membership Matters (Grand Rapids: Zondervan,<br />
2005), 93-96.<br />
2<br />
Mark Dever, Nine Marks of a Healthy Church (Wheaton: Crossway, 2004), 157.<br />
Chuck Lawless is dean of the Billy Graham School<br />
of<br />
Missions, Evangelism and Church Growth at<br />
<strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong>.<br />
page 8<br />
Fall 2007 | <strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong> Magazine
<strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong> Magazine | Fall 2007 07<br />
page 9
Are we all wet<br />
or does<br />
Baptism matter?<br />
By Greg Wills<br />
Interest in baptism has grown in recent times<br />
as dispute and disagreement over the issue has<br />
mounted. A number of questions have arisen<br />
as it relates to this doctrine. In this article, I<br />
will address three in particular.<br />
Is immersion essential to baptism?<br />
There are a number of <strong>Baptist</strong> pastors and churches<br />
that will accept sprinkling as an acceptable mode, as<br />
a valid form of baptism. Some conservative and, more<br />
commonly, moderate <strong>Baptist</strong> churches have taken this<br />
approach.<br />
May we admit persons to church membership<br />
and to the Lord’s Supper who have not<br />
been immersed or who have not been baptized<br />
according to our understanding of baptism?<br />
This is a relatively new approach. Noted pastor and<br />
author John Piper recently has argued this, and I think<br />
that is one of the reasons people are talking and thinking<br />
about it.<br />
Does the administrator matter?<br />
This relates to the traditional question of <strong>Baptist</strong>s, of what<br />
we have usually called alien immersions. This is the issue of<br />
whether a person immersed upon a profession of faith by a<br />
non-<strong>Baptist</strong> pastor has experienced a valid baptism.<br />
Before I address these questions, let me say that these<br />
issues are not as central to the Christian faith as regeneration.<br />
If we get baptism wrong it is going to do less damage<br />
to our churches and to the Gospel than if we get core<br />
issues such as justification by faith, the full inspiration and<br />
authority of Scripture or the doctrines of the person and<br />
work of Christ wrong.<br />
However, the issue of baptism is still important. Getting<br />
baptism right is not essential to salvation. But that does<br />
not mean that baptism and matters related to it are not<br />
essential to obedience, to faithful stewardship of the ordinances<br />
that Christ has committed to His churches and to<br />
the right ordering of Christ’s church. Because a matter is<br />
secondary to Gospel doctrine doesn’t mean it is a matter<br />
of indifference.<br />
Is immersion essential to baptism?<br />
The fundamental question here is what has Christ commanded?<br />
Does Christ require the mode of baptism to be<br />
immersion or is the mode a matter of indifference? The<br />
common attitude of Protestant paedobaptists is that the<br />
mode is a matter of indifference. Immersion is good, sprinkling<br />
is good, pouring is good, they believe. Traditionally,<br />
<strong>Baptist</strong>s have held that the only valid mode of baptism is<br />
immersion.<br />
page 10<br />
Fall 2007 | <strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong> Magazine
When we say mode of baptism, we are introducing<br />
redundancy. We, as <strong>Baptist</strong>s, actually don’t believe in<br />
baptism by immersion. We believe in baptism, which is<br />
immersion. Let me explain: the word baptizein in Greek<br />
means to immerse. When we begin talking about the<br />
mode of baptism, we prejudice the matter severely against<br />
Christ having revealed a specific form, the very form of<br />
the phrase there. Our word “baptize” in English is a lone<br />
Greek word, an anglicized transliteration of the Greek<br />
baptizein.<br />
We could speak of mode of baptism if we were commanded<br />
to wash persons with water. If the command<br />
were to wash, louein, then we might ask, how much water<br />
should we use to fulfill the command? Shall we wash by<br />
immersion? By pouring? By sprinkling? It would be legitimate<br />
to ask about mode of baptism in this case. But we<br />
are not commanded to wash. We are not commanded to<br />
wet, we are not commanded to soak and we are not commanded<br />
to purify; we are commanded to immerse.<br />
Are only baptized persons qualified<br />
for church membership and<br />
admission to the Lord’s Supper?<br />
My answer to this question is<br />
“yes.” The only person whom we<br />
ought to admit to the Lord’s table<br />
is one who is truly baptized, one<br />
who has obeyed the biblical command<br />
of baptism.<br />
The question before us is, What<br />
about those who profess faith? Are<br />
we to invite all persons who profess<br />
faith to the table and to church<br />
membership or only those who profess<br />
faith and have been biblically<br />
baptized, that is, immersion upon a<br />
profession of faith? Why should we<br />
deny unbaptized persons church membership and communion?<br />
Well, the basic answer, as I see it, is that they are<br />
in disobedience. They have not yet obeyed the first command<br />
of Christian discipleship, which is to be baptized.<br />
Disobedience that is unknowing and unintentional<br />
is not as bad as disobedience that is high-handed and<br />
intentional. The Lord Jesus makes this distinction. The<br />
fact that disobedience is unintentional and sincere does<br />
not turn disobedience into obedience. Only the strangest<br />
and most perverted logic can take sincere disobedience<br />
and say that because it is sincere, it is obedience. I<br />
am glad that people who have been sprinkled or poured<br />
are sincerely trying to obey God’s command to be baptized.<br />
But I must warn them that they are yet in disobedience.<br />
Unbaptized does not mean unbelieving, but a<br />
person’s belief that he is baptized does not change the<br />
character of the divine command.<br />
The commission of<br />
Christ given to the<br />
apostles determines<br />
what constitutes<br />
baptism.<br />
name of Christ, in the name of the Father, Son and Holy<br />
Spirit is a true baptism. We must recognize that a Mormon<br />
immersion is not a baptism. Not Christian baptism,<br />
anyway, for the Mormon church is not a Christian church.<br />
Eastern Orthodox immersions and Roman Catholic immersions<br />
are also not true baptisms because they are not Gospel<br />
churches. The Christian church, Churches of Christ<br />
and Disciples of Christ traditionally have believed that<br />
baptism actually accomplishes the remission of sins. That<br />
is not Christian baptism. That is an overthrow of the Bible<br />
teaching of justification by faith. <strong>Baptist</strong>s have traditionally<br />
not recognized their immersions as true baptisms.<br />
What makes a baptism true or false? The form must be<br />
correct for it to be a true baptism. We’ve already dealt with<br />
that. But is that enough? What about the meaning? Clearly,<br />
the meaning is key. Roman Catholics teach baptismal<br />
regeneration. When the immersion of a professing believer<br />
in a Roman Catholic church takes place, that baptism is<br />
held to be a regenerating baptism. That is the proclamation<br />
and doctrine of that church. That is not a biblical baptism.<br />
So, the meaning of baptism<br />
must also be right for a baptism to<br />
be valid.<br />
I would also argue that the commissioning<br />
agent of the administrator<br />
determines the meaning of a<br />
baptism. Baptism was established<br />
by Christ, in the commissioning<br />
of His apostles. That’s where baptism<br />
begins. It didn’t begin in the<br />
synagogue. It begins in Christ who<br />
established His church.<br />
Acts 19:1-7 is a key passage in<br />
helping us better understand this.<br />
<strong>Here</strong> you have the 12 disciples from<br />
Ephesus who come to Paul and he<br />
sees that they have not been filled<br />
with the Holy Spirit, that they have not yet been united to<br />
Christ through the Spirit. He asks them about their baptism:<br />
“Into what were you baptized?” It is pretty interesting<br />
the way he phrases it: “Into what were you baptized?” That<br />
implies that baptism gets its meaning from somewhere.<br />
And they respond: “The baptism of John.” And Paul says,<br />
“The baptism of John was.” He knows what John’s baptism<br />
is. It has a definite content, a definite substance, a definite<br />
meaning. John was commissioned by God to baptize for a<br />
specific purpose.<br />
The commission of Christ given to the apostles determines<br />
what constitutes baptism. If we act in that commission<br />
consistently, in Gospel doctrine, ordinances and<br />
confession, and with a faithful Gospel administrator, then<br />
we have true baptism.<br />
Does the administrator matter?<br />
Again, this is the question that deals with the question<br />
of alien immersions. Do we recognize the immersions performed<br />
by pastors of other denominations?<br />
Let’s recognize that not every immersion done in the<br />
Greg Wills is professor of church history at<br />
The <strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Baptist</strong> <strong>Theological</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong><br />
and director of the Center for the Study of the<br />
<strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Baptist</strong> Convention.<br />
<strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong> Magazine | Fall 2007 page 11
page 12<br />
Fall 2007 | <strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong> Magazine
The importance of<br />
church discipline<br />
By Barry Joslin<br />
I grew up in a small Louisiana town that was at<br />
one time known for, among other things, having<br />
more churches per capita than any other in the<br />
country. I grew up in the local First <strong>Baptist</strong> Church<br />
where my father led worship and mother taught<br />
children’s Sunday School. Like many others, I was<br />
much older before I ever heard the words “church”<br />
and “discipline” brought together. On the rare<br />
occasion when “church discipline” did come up,<br />
it was always tied to a very unsettling situation,<br />
one whose details were shrouded in secrecy.<br />
<strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong> Magazine | Fall 2007 page 13
Perhaps this is a familiar scenario. It seems that few<br />
churches teach on the issue of church discipline, and fewer<br />
still practice it. On the one hand, this is understandable<br />
since most think of “church discipline” as putting someone<br />
out of the local church. To be sure, the practice of biblical<br />
church discipline has become somewhat of a rarity in<br />
contemporary evangelical churches, yet this is most unfortunate<br />
since this demonstrates a certain negligence of a<br />
church’s purity and Gospel witness. As I teach the doctrine<br />
of the church, I ask my students to define church discipline<br />
and to provide an example when they have seen it carried<br />
out, either rightly or wrongly, in their home churches. Sadly,<br />
over time I have grown accustomed to their blank stares<br />
and silence. The absence of this biblical practice is to the<br />
church’s detriment.<br />
As <strong>Baptist</strong> theologian J. L. Dagg once contended, “When<br />
(the practice of church) discipline leaves a church, Christ goes<br />
with it.” To be sure, the practice was once common in our <strong>Baptist</strong><br />
churches. <strong>Baptist</strong> historian Greg Wills notes, “Through<br />
discipline, <strong>Baptist</strong>s sought to repristinate the apostolic church<br />
and to stake their claim to primitive Christianity. Through<br />
discipline, they would, moreover, sweep the nation, for they<br />
believed that God rewarded faithful pruning by raining down<br />
revival.” 1 After the Civil War, discipline began to fade from practice,<br />
when the pursuit of church purity began to be replaced by<br />
the quest for efficiency. <strong>Baptist</strong> churches had lost their resolve<br />
in these matters. 2<br />
What is church discipline and why is<br />
it necessary? Is it necessary? Is it merely<br />
putting an unrepentant member out of<br />
a church? Church discipline has both<br />
positive and negative aspects, and the<br />
purpose of this essay is to sketch a few<br />
answers to the questions of its nature,<br />
biblical warrant and the church’s need.<br />
The presupposition of church discipline: a committed<br />
church membership<br />
As Mark Dever argues in his helpful book 9 Marks of a<br />
Healthy Church, the reason why we see so little church discipline,<br />
with the resultant effect on the church’s purity, is<br />
because we have lost what it means to be a member of the<br />
local church. Membership matters, and one will not see the<br />
biblical practice of church discipline where there is a low view<br />
of commitment to a local body. This is why church membership<br />
is the presupposition of church discipline. If membership<br />
carries no obligations either for the church or the member,<br />
then church discipline becomes a moot point and impossible<br />
to practice. Recall that in 1 Corinthians 5, in order for Paul to<br />
tell the church to exclude the immoral man, he at first had to<br />
be included in that local body in some kind of fashion. 3<br />
As <strong>Baptist</strong>s, we acknowledge that being part of a local body<br />
of believers does matter. Being a member of a local church<br />
should mean commitment to a local church, coming together<br />
regularly for worship, as well as the taking of communion and<br />
giving to the ministries of the church. The local church is the<br />
locale where believers exercise their spiritual gifts for the glory<br />
of God and edification of Christ’s body. Membership means<br />
taking responsibility. “The practice of church membership<br />
among Christians occurs when Christians grasp hold of each<br />
other in responsibility and love.” 4 We in fact are one another’s<br />
Church<br />
membership<br />
matters.<br />
keepers in a very real sense and the only way that this kind of<br />
“keeping” occurs is in the context of the community of faith.<br />
One must be part of this community (a local church) in order<br />
for accountability to take place.<br />
This kind of accountability among believers is not strongarmed,<br />
micro-management, rather, it is one of the many practical<br />
ways that believers love one another. Jesus’ words are<br />
recorded in John 13:34-35, “A new commandment I give to<br />
you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that<br />
you also love one another. By this all men will know that you<br />
are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” Loving one<br />
another and humble accountability between committed believers<br />
demonstrates the power of the Gospel to a watching world.<br />
What does the world see? It sees a group of people committed<br />
to one another under the lordship of Jesus Christ who love<br />
one another enough to take a vested interest in one another’s<br />
ongoing commitment to Christ.<br />
The local church is the manifestation of this group of people<br />
living under the lordship of Christ in loving accountability<br />
to biblical truth. For instance, the writer of Hebrews says,<br />
Let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance<br />
of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from<br />
an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure<br />
water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope<br />
without wavering, for He who promised is faithful;<br />
and let us consider how to stimulate<br />
one another to love and good deeds,<br />
not forsaking our own assembling<br />
together, as is the habit of some, but<br />
encouraging one another; and all the<br />
more as you see the day drawing near<br />
(Heb 10:22-25).<br />
Notice that, among other important<br />
things, the writer of Hebrews emphasizes<br />
the role of the Christian community in the context of<br />
one another’s lives. They not only draw near together, but they<br />
hold fast their Christian confession together, and they are to<br />
give purposeful thought and attention as to how they might<br />
stir up each other to live Christ-honoring lives. This is to occur<br />
in the context of the local church. In addition, the little phrase<br />
“as you see the day drawing near” contains an implicit warning:<br />
Christ is coming and we all must be found faithful at His<br />
return (Heb 3:12; 4:1-2, 6, 11; 9:27-28; 10:36-39). From this text<br />
we see that we are to “draw near,” “hold fast” and “consider”<br />
within the context of a local body of believers who anticipate<br />
the Lord’s return.<br />
Further, the writer of Hebrews exhorts his readers, “But<br />
encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still<br />
called ‘Today,’ so that none of you will be hardened by the<br />
deceitfulness of sin” (Heb 3:13). The encouragement spoken<br />
of here rightly occurs in a body of believers who place great<br />
value on being committed and responsible to the Gospel<br />
and to one another. This has immediate implications for our<br />
<strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Baptist</strong> churches, where the average membership<br />
is 233, yet only an average of 70 attend on any given Sunday. 5<br />
Further, a recent Christianity Today editorial states that<br />
convention records indicate that of our 16 million reported<br />
members, fewer than 6 million people attend <strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Baptist</strong><br />
churches each week. This should not be the case. Before<br />
page 14<br />
Fall 2007 | <strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong> Magazine
iblical church discipline can be implemented, we all must<br />
first commit ourselves to an understanding of church commitment<br />
that is responsible, accountable and meaningful.<br />
Church membership matters. This is the presupposition of<br />
biblical church discipline.<br />
The biblical basis for church discipline<br />
To be sure, there is not enough space here to do a full treatment<br />
of the Bible’s teaching on church discipline, but the practice<br />
can be found in several key texts such as Matt 18:15-20; 1<br />
Cor 5:1-13; 2 Cor 6-11; Heb 12:4-14; Gal 6:1; 2 Thess 3:6-15; 1<br />
Tim 1:20, 5:19-20; and Titus 3:9-11. Matthew 18:15-20 is perhaps<br />
the chief of these, as it sets forth the paradigm for how church<br />
discipline should be carried out, step by step. Matthew records<br />
Jesus’ words:<br />
If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private;<br />
if he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he does<br />
not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the<br />
mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed.<br />
If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he<br />
refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile<br />
and a tax collector (Matt 18:15-18).<br />
As we read of the earliest churches (particularly in Paul’s letters)<br />
we see that the early church followed the pattern outlined<br />
by Christ. Paul’s Corinthian correspondence<br />
contains perhaps<br />
the most well-known example of<br />
early church discipline in 1 Cor<br />
5:1-13. In this passage, a member<br />
of the church was having a sexual<br />
relationship with his father’s<br />
wife. Paul admonishes the Corinthians<br />
for their failure to maintain<br />
the purity of the church and<br />
calls for church discipline. Sin that is not confronted will ruin a<br />
church’s witness because it is no longer pure. This is Paul’s concern<br />
when he compares sin to leaven. This man’s sin was not<br />
merely confined to himself; when the church in Corinth failed<br />
to follow the rule of Christ on this matter it called into question<br />
the purity of the entire Corinthian church. They should<br />
have grieved over this man’s sin, yet instead they boasted (v.<br />
6). Out of a love for Christ and deep concern for the purity of<br />
the church, they should have confronted the man with an eye<br />
to repentance and restoration, and been prepared to put him<br />
out of the church, if he refused to turn from his sin.<br />
The divinely-authorized punishment called for is to be<br />
inflicted by the church (Matt 18:17). Paul writes, “Sufficient<br />
for such a one is this punishment which was inflicted by the<br />
majority” (2 Cor 5:6). As Jesus said, if a brother refuses to listen<br />
to the church and repent, he is to be put out of the church<br />
and treated as an unbeliever. We see that something along this<br />
line occurred in Corinth.<br />
But we should also note that church discipline is not always<br />
negative, that is, a confrontation of sinful behavior. Even<br />
though there is positive church discipline that is preventative,<br />
“the remedial side of discipline, like the proverbial squeaky<br />
wheel, gets all the grease.” 6 We have a tendency to focus on<br />
the sensational acts in which grievous sin is committed and<br />
excommunication may occur. Yet we should more closely focus<br />
Faithful preaching of the<br />
Scriptures is one kind of<br />
preventative discipline.<br />
on preventative church discipline. Faithful preaching of the<br />
Scriptures is one kind of preventative discipline.<br />
Jay Adams, in his helpful book Handbook of Church Discipline,<br />
rightly states that the best thing that can be done in<br />
a church is for both leaders and laity to “promote good order<br />
and true belief.” 7 This is both the formal and informal responsibility<br />
of a church and its members. The teaching of truth<br />
promotes godliness and purity. The emphasis for all local<br />
churches, therefore, ought not be on “rooting out troublemakers,”<br />
but on preventative discipline that takes the form of biblical<br />
preaching, godly order and true belief. As stated above, all<br />
of this is to occur within a church whose membership soberly<br />
assesses the eternal investments each make in one another’s<br />
lives out of love for Christ and one another. As Dever rightly<br />
warns, if we can’t, as a church, “say how a Christian should not<br />
live, how can we say how a Christian should live?” 8<br />
Conclusion<br />
At least five valuable effects arise from the faithful exercise<br />
of church discipline. First, church discipline (in the corrective<br />
sense) is for the good of the one being disciplined. Second, it<br />
is good for other Christians to see the dangers of sin. Third, it<br />
promotes the health of the church as a whole. Fourth, it shows<br />
concern for the corporate witness of the church, which can<br />
either make or break a church’s evangelistic purpose. Fifth, it<br />
shows a love for the glory of God since the church’s purity and<br />
holiness should reflect God’s own<br />
holiness.<br />
Church discipline should not be<br />
an afterthought in the life of a local<br />
church. Would that all of us would<br />
think rightly about what it means to<br />
be in fellowship with other believers<br />
in a local church, since being<br />
woven into the fabric of a local<br />
church matters. Would that God<br />
help us all understand the biblical basis for church discipline in<br />
both its corrective and preventative forms. If all believers were<br />
committed to local church membership and biblical church<br />
discipline, the church would be closer to possessing the unity<br />
and purity God commands.<br />
Endnotes<br />
1<br />
Gregory A. Wills, Democratic Religion: Freedom, Authority, and Church Discipline<br />
in the <strong>Baptist</strong> South 1785-1900 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), 8.<br />
2<br />
Ibid., 9.<br />
3<br />
Mark Dever, What is a Healthy Church? (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2007), 94.<br />
4<br />
Ibid., 95.<br />
5<br />
Ibid., 96.<br />
6<br />
Jay Adams, Handbook of Church Discipline (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1974), 22.<br />
7<br />
Ibid., 25.<br />
8<br />
Mark Dever, 9 Marks of a Healthy Church, 170.<br />
Barry Joslin is assistant professor of Christian<br />
theology at Boyce College.<br />
<strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong> Magazine | Fall 2007 page 15
STUDENT FOCUS<br />
Violent attack bears<br />
Gospel fruit for Garvins<br />
By David Roach<br />
When Carl Garvin enrolled at<br />
The <strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Baptist</strong> <strong>Theological</strong><br />
<strong>Seminary</strong>, he knew he wanted<br />
to spend the rest of his life on<br />
the mission field.<br />
But he had no idea that he would<br />
nearly lose his life at the hands of brutal<br />
robbers armed with machetes and guns.<br />
Garvin, a 60-year-old student in <strong>Southern</strong><br />
<strong>Seminary</strong>’s master of arts in theological<br />
studies – intercultural leadership program,<br />
was appointed in 2005 as an International<br />
Mission Board missionary to Moshi, Tanzania,<br />
along with his wife, Kay.<br />
Before becoming a missionary, Carl was<br />
a nurse, a soldier and a pastor for more<br />
than 20 years. Kay served as a schoolteacher<br />
for 18 years. Extensive service on<br />
short-term mission trips eventually led to<br />
the Louisiana natives feeling a call to fulltime<br />
missionary service in Tanzania.<br />
This past February in Tanzania the<br />
Garvins took a break from their normal<br />
routine of leading Bible studies and<br />
teaching English as a second language to<br />
travel two hours south with some American<br />
volunteers to a small town called<br />
Nyumba ya Mungu, where they planned<br />
to assist a local pastor with Bible school<br />
classes and church work.<br />
After dinner on their first evening in<br />
the town, however, their plans were tragically<br />
interrupted. Carl and Kay returned<br />
to their room in a primitive hotel to<br />
make coffee for the pastor who was host-<br />
page 16<br />
Fall 2007 | <strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong> Magazine
STUDENT FOCUS<br />
ing them. After less than three minutes<br />
in the room, they heard screams and<br />
dishes falling.<br />
Thinking someone had fallen down,<br />
Kay looked out the door only to be<br />
greeted by a man holding an uplifted<br />
machete. After Kay closed the door, Carl<br />
threw his back against it in an attempt to<br />
keep the machete-wielding attacker out.<br />
“No sooner had I done this, the man<br />
started hitting it (the door) with great<br />
force – apparently with his shoulders,”<br />
Carl Garvin said. “The<br />
door would bulge open<br />
just enough for him to<br />
get his arm and machete<br />
through, allowing him<br />
to blindly swing at me.”<br />
That’s when gunshots<br />
began to ring out<br />
and additional shoulders<br />
began banging on<br />
the door from outside.<br />
Garvin eventually managed<br />
to wedge himself<br />
between the bed and<br />
the door, holding it closed with his feet.<br />
Yet within five minutes the door broke<br />
into three pieces and two men – one<br />
with a machete and another with a gun –<br />
stormed into the room.<br />
“The man with the machete took a<br />
hard swing at my head,” Garvin said. “I<br />
put up my left arm in defense. I felt the<br />
blow but not the pain. The wall and floor<br />
started turning red.<br />
“I said, ‘Bwana (sir), you don’t have to<br />
do this. What do you want?’ He shouted,<br />
‘Pesa’ (money).”<br />
Kay handed the man her purse,<br />
but he kept swinging wildly with the<br />
machete. When Carl blocked a hard blow<br />
aimed at his head, the machete slipped<br />
out of his attacker’s hand and onto the<br />
floor. Kay picked it up and attempted to<br />
defend herself and her husband. But the<br />
gunman turned toward her and shot her<br />
in the chest, sending her lurching back<br />
against the wall. He then turned toward<br />
Carl and pointed the gun in his face,<br />
which was becoming increasingly soaked<br />
with blood with every passing second.<br />
“I resigned to the fact that I was going<br />
to be shot,” Carl said.<br />
Then suddenly the two attackers took<br />
the Garvins’ backpacks and other personal<br />
items and left.<br />
Crawling over to his wife, Carl examined<br />
her wound.<br />
“I am a nurse and a Vietnam veteran,”<br />
he said. “I have seen gunshot wounds<br />
before. I knew this was in a critical place.<br />
… I expected her to bleed to death<br />
within about 30 seconds. I truly expected<br />
to see my wife of 37 years turn pale and<br />
breathless in seconds.”<br />
Carl began to treat both of their<br />
wounds when their host pastor and the<br />
three American volunteers who had<br />
been with them charged into the room.<br />
Within minutes they found a man who<br />
could drive them the two hours to Moshi,<br />
where the nearest medical treatment was<br />
“…Your glory has<br />
and will shine forth<br />
through it all.”<br />
available. During the drive, God miraculously<br />
provided cell phone service in an<br />
area where a cell phone signal is typically<br />
impossible to receive, Carl said, adding<br />
that they were able to arrange for medical<br />
help to meet them in Moshi.<br />
During the trip, Kay teetered on the<br />
verge of consciousness and feared she<br />
was near death.<br />
“I started singing ‘God is so good’ and<br />
the volunteers joined me,” she said. “We<br />
continued singing two or three other<br />
hymns. This helped pass the time. Most<br />
of my prayers were short sentences like,<br />
‘Thank you, God, for Your protection.’”<br />
After initial medical treatment in<br />
Moshi, the Garvins were airlifted to Nairobi<br />
for surgery. Doctors discovered that<br />
the bullet missed Kay’s aorta by half an<br />
inch, punctured her left lung and lodged<br />
in her back. However, within a day she<br />
was walking around.<br />
The machete blows had cut through<br />
the bone in Carl’s left arm, and blows to<br />
the door while he was holding it closed<br />
with his feet tore ligaments in his right<br />
knee. But surgery repaired both injuries.<br />
As soon as they recovered, the<br />
Garvins headed back to their position as<br />
missionaries in Tanzania.<br />
Some have asked them where God<br />
was during their experience.<br />
Carl tells such<br />
questioners that God<br />
was present all along<br />
and even guided the<br />
bullet by his providential<br />
care.<br />
“Satan wanted the<br />
victory through all this,<br />
but God stood as Jehovah<br />
Nissi,” he said.<br />
Back at their work,<br />
Carl and Kay continued<br />
a Bible study for men of<br />
the Massai people group<br />
that they had begun<br />
before the attack. Today<br />
the Bible study has<br />
grown to 30 people, and<br />
Carl baptized eight new<br />
believers recently.<br />
“Satan would have<br />
liked the Bible group<br />
to stop meeting, but it<br />
has only grown since we<br />
returned,” Carl said.<br />
A Muslim doctor who<br />
treated the Garvins in<br />
Moshi began referring<br />
to them as his “miracle<br />
couple” and told them, “You came back<br />
because God still has a work for you to<br />
do here.”<br />
For the indefinite future the Garvins<br />
plan to remain on the mission field,<br />
and Carl plans to remain a student at<br />
<strong>Southern</strong>. They say that only eternity<br />
will reveal all the victories God brought<br />
through their trial.<br />
On a piece of paper in his Bible, Carl<br />
wrote a prayer summarizing his thoughts<br />
on the attack.<br />
“Lord,” he wrote, “You do not have to<br />
show me why Kay and I were attacked.<br />
You do not have to show me why we<br />
returned. I do know you were with us<br />
and You saved our lives, and I know<br />
that Your glory has and will shine forth<br />
through it all.”<br />
<strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong> Magazine | Fall 2007 page 17
FACULTY FOCUS<br />
Fear of death<br />
led Haykin out of<br />
Marxism and onto<br />
the life-giving path<br />
of Christianity<br />
By Jeff Robinson<br />
It is no small irony that God<br />
used a deep-seated fear of death<br />
as a means to bring Michael A.G.<br />
Haykin to Himself.<br />
Born in Birmingham, England in<br />
1953, Haykin embraced Marxism by age<br />
14. While most of his teenage peers were<br />
discovering alcoholic beverages, team<br />
sports or the opposite sex, Haykin was<br />
imbibing books by Karl Marx and other<br />
revolutionary figures such as Vladimir<br />
Lenin, Che Guevara and Mao Tse-Tung.<br />
These men promoted a worldview<br />
built upon extreme violence. Guevara,<br />
for example, explained how to wage<br />
guerilla warfare and served as a revolutionary’s<br />
handbook for making anti-tank<br />
traps and assembling Molotov cocktails.<br />
“I and a few friends drank all of this<br />
in, and we seriously — and quite naively,<br />
I now see — prepared ourselves for the<br />
revolution we thought was coming to<br />
North America,” Haykin said.<br />
“I can even remember preparing<br />
myself for the possibility that I would<br />
have to kill people who were close to<br />
me, i.e. members of my own family, for<br />
the sake of the revolution.”<br />
Western culture in the 1960s seethed<br />
with anger, especially among Haykin’s<br />
peers, but it was not that atmosphere<br />
page 18<br />
Fall 2007 | <strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong> Magazine
alone that drove him to embrace a twofisted<br />
worldview committed to imposing<br />
intimidation and violence on innocent<br />
people.<br />
The culprits, Haykin said, were Roman<br />
Catholicism and Christian hypocrisy. His<br />
parents were Roman Catholic and he<br />
grew up attending mass, but was wholly<br />
unconvinced by the behavior he witnessed<br />
among his Roman Catholic peers.<br />
“The change in my worldview began<br />
as I observed the hypocrisy that is<br />
deeply entrenched in the Roman Catholic<br />
church,” Haykin said. “As I went to<br />
high school, I noticed that many of my<br />
classmates whom I knew led lives centered<br />
on drinking and partying, would<br />
turn up at church on Sunday and receive<br />
communion.<br />
“I soon came to the conclusion that<br />
Christianity was a hypocritical sham. I<br />
began to stop attending mass. But man<br />
is by nature a worshipping creature. I<br />
rejected the false worship embedded<br />
in Roman Catholicism only to fall into<br />
an even more heinous idolatry, that of<br />
Marxism.”<br />
Haykin, who earlier this year was<br />
appointed professor of biblical spirituality<br />
and church history at The <strong>Southern</strong><br />
<strong>Baptist</strong> <strong>Theological</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong>, remained<br />
a Marxist into his late teen years, but<br />
Marxism left him unable to shake one<br />
giant personal demon: the fear of death.<br />
“Sometimes my fears would so overwhelm<br />
me that I would call my father in<br />
the middle of the night and ask him to<br />
drive from Ancaster to London (Ontario,<br />
where he was attending the university) to<br />
come and take me home,” Haykin said. “In<br />
the face of such fears, Marxism was helpless,<br />
and could give me no comfort.”<br />
Gradually, Marxism lost its hold over<br />
him. After enrolling at the University<br />
of Western Ontario in London in 1971,<br />
Haykin began to probe into various<br />
forms of eastern mysticism: Taoism, Zen<br />
Buddhism and Transcendental Meditation.<br />
However, none of them lessened<br />
his angst over the prospect of death, and<br />
he soon cast them aside.<br />
Two major events during Haykin’s time<br />
as a student at the University of Western<br />
Ontario served as a slight spiritual awakening.<br />
The first stemmed from his growing<br />
interest in philosophy and an academic<br />
assignment related to his studies.<br />
“One day in the fall of 1971, I sat down<br />
to write out a philosophical proof for the<br />
existence of God, but before I could put<br />
pen to paper, I knew beyond a shadow of<br />
a doubt that there was a God,” he said.<br />
“One moment I was agnostic about<br />
God’s existence; the next, I knew there<br />
was a God. But believing that God exists<br />
does not necessarily entail a change of<br />
lifestyle and it certainly does not mean<br />
salvation, as I was to find out.”<br />
The second major event soon followed<br />
and arose out of a friendship he developed<br />
with Doug, a former football teammate<br />
from high school. Doug had become<br />
friendly with a group of Christians, and<br />
the believers would often be present while<br />
Haykin ate lunch with his friend.<br />
“I recall their conversation about Christ<br />
and the Holy Spirit,” he said. “I began to try<br />
to pray to God, but how can you truly persevere<br />
in prayer, if you don’t know Christ,<br />
and if His Spirit doesn’t live in you? As John<br />
“He graciously opened my<br />
eyes to know Christ and to<br />
know that in Christ there<br />
is salvation not only from<br />
sin, but also from sin’s<br />
wages, eternal death.”<br />
Bunyan put it so well, ‘When the Spirit gets<br />
into the heart, then there is prayer indeed<br />
and not until then.’”<br />
Haykin quickly forgot these two experiences<br />
after moving to the University of<br />
Toronto in 1972. As he pursued a bachelor’s<br />
degree in philosophy there, Haykin<br />
largely ignored the implications of the<br />
fact that there was a God and led a lifestyle<br />
he describes as “somewhat riotous<br />
and immoral.” Still, God would use those<br />
experiences in his conversion.<br />
The turning point came in the summer<br />
of 1973 when Haykin went to work<br />
in a pizza parlor where he met Alison, the<br />
woman whom he would eventually marry.<br />
Alison was a Christian and Haykin began<br />
to attend her <strong>Baptist</strong> church, animated<br />
mostly by a desire to be seen as a respectable,<br />
church-going member of society.<br />
Whatever Haykin’s motivations, he<br />
now knows that God was drawing the<br />
former Marxist to himself.<br />
God began to drive home the truth<br />
of Hebrews 2:14-15 which speaks of how<br />
Christ’s redeeming work at Calvary has<br />
FACULTY FOCUS<br />
destroyed the fear of death in believers.<br />
The fear of death, which had lain submerged<br />
for some time, had resurfaced,<br />
compounded by Haykin’s reading of<br />
German philosopher Martin Heidegger<br />
who posited that existence is only possible<br />
in the contemplation of one’s death.<br />
But this time, the life-giving answer to<br />
Haykin’s existential angst was close at<br />
hand. Soon, Haykin was safe in the arms<br />
of God through the Gospel.<br />
“For three nights in a row, I awoke in<br />
a cold sweat, my heart pounding, fearful<br />
that I was about to die,” he said. “The<br />
third night, to my own amazement, I<br />
found myself on my knees, praying, crying<br />
out to God for salvation, and He graciously<br />
opened my eyes to know Christ<br />
and to know that in Christ there is salvation<br />
not only from sin, but also from sin’s<br />
wages, eternal death.<br />
“And when I went home that weekend<br />
on the Greyhound bus I knew beyond<br />
a shadow of a doubt that I was no longer<br />
alone — God had graciously come<br />
into my heart, the citadel of my life, and<br />
taken possession of it by his Holy Spirit,<br />
the Spirit of Jesus.”<br />
Michael married Alison in 1976 and<br />
later surrendered to a call to ministry,<br />
which, for Haykin, as a lifelong lover of<br />
history, meant a life devoted to Christian<br />
scholarship. Since earning a doctorate’s<br />
degree in patristics from the University<br />
of Toronto in 1982, Haykin has taught<br />
church history at Heritage <strong>Theological</strong><br />
<strong>Seminary</strong> in Cambridge, Ontario, and<br />
at Central <strong>Baptist</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong> in Toronto.<br />
The Haykins have two children, Victoria<br />
and Nigel.<br />
Though more than three decades<br />
have passed since his conversion out of<br />
worldview chaos, Haykin continues to<br />
marvel at God’s mercy in rescuing a former<br />
Marxist from the fear of death. For<br />
Haykin, reading Hebrews 2:14-15 is no<br />
longer an occasion for apprehension, but<br />
for doxology.<br />
“I, who had once been a Marxist, and<br />
so committed to bringing fear and violence<br />
into the lives of innocent people,<br />
was myself brought by God face to face<br />
with fear—the fear of my own death<br />
— and so shown the inadequacy of the<br />
Marxist view of life: it has no answer to<br />
the problem of death,” he said.<br />
“But Christianity does: God has raised<br />
Jesus from the dead, and so provided a<br />
way of deliverance for those, including<br />
myself, who through fear of death were<br />
subject to lifelong bondage.”<br />
<strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong> Magazine | Fall 2007 page 19
ALUMNI FOCUS<br />
<strong>Southern</strong><br />
graduate takes<br />
Gospel to<br />
New Orleans<br />
By Garrett E. Wishall<br />
Some boys grow up dreaming<br />
of one day playing professional<br />
sports. Others set their sights<br />
on police work or being a fireman.<br />
Still others stare up at the<br />
stars, longing to walk on the<br />
moon. By age 11, Travis Fleming<br />
had other plans.<br />
Converted to Christianity at age 4,<br />
Fleming said he began to sense God leading<br />
him into full-time ministry at age 11.<br />
“Growing up, I particularly had a passion<br />
for being in the pulpit and preaching,”<br />
said Fleming, a South Carolina<br />
native. “I remember standing up a box in<br />
my basement as a podium for myself and<br />
preaching to my congregation, which at<br />
the time was my brothers and sister.”<br />
While Fleming became a Christian<br />
early in life and quickly sensed God’s<br />
call to ministry, his life was not without<br />
bumps and bruises.<br />
“My senior year of high school and<br />
freshman year of college, I tried to do<br />
my own thing for a while,” Fleming said.<br />
“I wasn’t too crazy about the ministry<br />
route, and I started making plans to be a<br />
history teacher. In my sophomore year of<br />
college, God began to draw me back [to<br />
ministry] and I ended up going to North<br />
Greenville College.”<br />
At North Greenville, Fleming met<br />
George Martin, who now serves as the<br />
associate dean of the Billy Graham<br />
School at <strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong>. Challenged<br />
by Martin’s God-centered theology,<br />
Fleming said he began to develop<br />
a greater appreciation for God’s sovereignty<br />
over salvation.<br />
Fleming graduated from North<br />
Greenville in 1996 with a bachelor of<br />
arts in religion. Martin had left North<br />
Greenville to go to <strong>Southern</strong> the same<br />
semester Fleming graduated. Before<br />
Martin left, he told Fleming to give<br />
<strong>Southern</strong> a look if he decided to enroll<br />
in seminary.<br />
“We are missionaries<br />
in this culture.”<br />
Fleming attended <strong>Southern</strong>’s fall<br />
1996 preview conference and was<br />
impressed with the seminary’s faculty<br />
and campus. Fleming said he knew<br />
<strong>Southern</strong> would challenge him spiritually<br />
and academically, and the next fall<br />
he began taking classes. In December<br />
2000, Fleming graduated with his master<br />
of divinity and in fall 2001, began<br />
his Ph.D. studies in evangelism in the<br />
Billy Graham School.<br />
Throughout his M.Div. studies, Fleming<br />
had supported himself by working<br />
with a painting company that he and<br />
another seminary student started. As he<br />
began work on his Ph.D., Fleming began<br />
searching for a ministry position. In January<br />
2002, Concord <strong>Baptist</strong> Church in Dry<br />
Ridge, Ky., called him to be their senior<br />
pastor and Fleming filled that role for a<br />
few years.<br />
In the spring of 2006, Fleming was<br />
serving as an intern at Crossing Church<br />
in Louisville, when James Welch, Crossing’s<br />
teaching pastor, approached him<br />
with a question. Welch asked Fleming if<br />
he was interested in planting a church in<br />
New Orleans with him.<br />
“I wanted to help New Orleans<br />
rebuild, especially with my construction<br />
background, but I never thought about<br />
going there to do full-time ministry,”<br />
Fleming said. “I began to think about it,<br />
and I thought, ‘man, where could I find<br />
a better place to go do ministry right<br />
now?’”<br />
Fleming accepted Welch’s offer and<br />
on September 10, 2006, entered the city<br />
that Hurricane Katrina had ravaged a<br />
year before. The church they planted,<br />
named Sojourn Church, is located in the<br />
Orleans parish in Uptown New Orleans.<br />
Fleming said little evangelical work is<br />
going on in that section of New Orleans,<br />
which is strongly postmodern.<br />
“We are missionaries in this culture,”<br />
he said. “It is a culture that can be antagonistic<br />
toward the Gospel. We set out<br />
from day one to live in the culture and<br />
engage the culture with the Gospel,<br />
believing all along that Christ is the one<br />
who can change people.”<br />
As he continues to minister in New<br />
Orleans, Fleming said he is grateful for<br />
the training he received at <strong>Southern</strong>.<br />
“<strong>Southern</strong> taught me how to preach<br />
from the pulpit,” he said. “They taught<br />
me how certain evangelistic methodologies<br />
might work in some areas, but not<br />
in others, such as suburban Atlanta, versus<br />
the neighborhoods of New Orleans.<br />
They also taught me how to contextualize<br />
the Gospel, based on the cultural setting<br />
you are in.”<br />
page 20<br />
Fall 2007 | <strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong> Magazine
ALUMNI FOCUS<br />
Ministering<br />
the Word<br />
through music:<br />
Clay Layfield<br />
By Garrett E. Wishall<br />
Three years into marriage, Clay<br />
Layfield found himself in a position<br />
that required great faith.<br />
Wed to Amy Fields in March 1995,<br />
Layfield was blessed with a good job and<br />
young child. However, Clay was not content,<br />
as he sensed the Lord leading him<br />
into full-time ministry. So, he resigned his<br />
position – turning down a good to stay in<br />
his job – and the Layfields prepared to<br />
move to Louisville, Ky., where Clay would<br />
attend <strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong>.<br />
Two weeks later, the couple learned<br />
that Amy was again pregnant.<br />
“I will never forget loading up the<br />
moving truck with a two-year-old child,<br />
a wife who was pregnant, and moving<br />
to a place where I had no job,” Layfield<br />
said. “The Lord had used that third year<br />
of marriage to show me that I needed to<br />
go to seminary. We knew that God was in<br />
our coming to <strong>Southern</strong>. Though there<br />
was a lot of uncertainty, especially financially,<br />
we knew that we were in the right<br />
place.”<br />
Growing up<br />
Layfield said his mother made sure,<br />
even at an early age, that he attended<br />
church every Sunday and Wednesday,<br />
and around age 10 he became a Christian<br />
at Vacation Bible School.<br />
“I continued to be active in the church<br />
following my conversion,” said Layfield,<br />
who was born in Macon, Ga. “When I was<br />
in seventh grade, my dad left the home<br />
and my parents divorced. The music<br />
minister at my church spent a lot of time<br />
investing in me, as well as did other men<br />
in our church.”<br />
Sensing God leading him into music<br />
ministry, Layfield majored in music education<br />
with an emphasis in percussion<br />
at Brewton-Parker College in Mount Vernon,<br />
Ga.<br />
Layfield met Amy at Brewton-Parker<br />
and they dated throughout college. During<br />
that time, Layfield said the Lord led<br />
them to a church in Hagan, Ga., where<br />
he learned the value of expositional<br />
preaching.<br />
“We need<br />
to be singing<br />
good theology.”<br />
“My eyes were opened to what it is<br />
like to sit under an expositional preaching<br />
ministry [at that church],” he said. “I<br />
really began to go deeper in my understanding<br />
of theology and developed a<br />
craving for theology. I began to see the<br />
importance of reading, and being a student<br />
of, the Word.”<br />
Preparing for ministry<br />
Layfield began taking classes at <strong>Southern</strong><br />
in fall 1998. With his wife staying<br />
home with their one child, soon to be<br />
two, Layfield knew money would be<br />
tight. However, throughout seminary the<br />
Lord met their financial needs.<br />
“We never went hungry, or without<br />
clothes and we never missed a payment<br />
on anything,” he said. “Every time we<br />
would think we didn’t have the money<br />
for something, God would provide it.<br />
There would be times when we would<br />
go to the mailbox and there would be<br />
a hundred dollars that we could use for<br />
groceries or rent. That happened multiple<br />
times and sometimes we didn’t know<br />
where the money came from.”<br />
Layfield said he chose to attend <strong>Southern</strong><br />
because of the school’s emphasis on<br />
sound theology. He views his calling as<br />
being, “a minister who happens to be a<br />
musician.” The teaching of Chip Stam,<br />
associate professor of church music and<br />
worship at <strong>Southern</strong>, was particularly formative<br />
for Layfield.<br />
“Chip Stam came to <strong>Southern</strong> in the<br />
middle of my time there,” Layfield said.<br />
“His love for leading God’s people in<br />
God-centered worship had a profound<br />
effect on me. I do a lot of the things that<br />
he taught and showed us to do. I would<br />
not be who I am today if Chip Stam had<br />
not come to <strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong>.”<br />
Layfield graduated in December 2002.<br />
In November 2005, Layfield became the<br />
minister of music and senior adults at<br />
First <strong>Baptist</strong> Church in Eastman, Ga.,<br />
where he currently serves.<br />
Layfield said as he continues in music<br />
ministry, the one thing he most wants to<br />
emphasize is that every member of the<br />
congregation should actively worship<br />
God in song.<br />
“Our aim must be for every member<br />
of the congregation, regardless of their<br />
vocal ability, to be engaged and profoundly<br />
moved as the wisdom and love<br />
of God are proclaimed through the cross<br />
of Christ,” he said. “We should strive to<br />
have our worship services as much like<br />
heaven as possible: Redeemed people<br />
singing praise to the Redeemer as we<br />
give thanks for our redemption.”<br />
<strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong> Magazine | Fall 2007 page 21
IMMORTAL<br />
COMBAT<br />
I S I T F I N I S H E D ?<br />
Give Me An Answer Conference<br />
SPEAKERS<br />
WORSHIP<br />
Register at:<br />
page 22<br />
Dr. Albert Mohler. President of The <strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Baptist</strong> <strong>Theological</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong><br />
and cultural commentator (www.albertmohler.com,<br />
and host of The Albert Mohler Radio Program)<br />
Dr. Russell Moore.<br />
Dean of The School of Theology<br />
and author of The Kingdom of Christ<br />
Dr. Chuck Lawless. Dean of The Billy Graham School<br />
of Missions, Evangelism and Church Growth and author of Spiritual<br />
Warfare<br />
Shane and Shane. God-centered and relevant, this well-known<br />
contemporary Christian duo has brought a fresh sound to timeless,<br />
unchangeable truths.<br />
***Also on Tour—Starfi eld and David Nasser<br />
Aletheia.<br />
<strong>Theological</strong>ly sound and musically gifted,<br />
this vocal ensemble from Boyce College performs<br />
and leads worship in venues around the country.<br />
www.GiveMeAnAnswer.net<br />
GIVE ME AN ANSWER<br />
CONFERENCE SCHEDULE<br />
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2008<br />
2:00 .........................................Registration<br />
4:45-5:45 ......................................... Dinner<br />
6:00-6:15 .....................................Welcome<br />
6:15-7:15............................ Shane & Shane<br />
7:15-8:15 ........................General Session I<br />
8:45-10:45 .....................................Concert<br />
8:30-10:30 .............................. The Village*<br />
* Come speak with missions organizations, play<br />
games, swim in the Recreation Center, buy some<br />
books or apparel in LifeWay or Fifth and Broadway, or<br />
meet new friends over a cup of coffee at Founder’s<br />
Cafe<br />
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2008<br />
7:30-8:30 .....................................Breakfast<br />
8:45-9:45 .......................General Session II<br />
10:00-11:00 ....................Elective Session I<br />
11:15-12:15 ....................Elective Session II<br />
12:30-1:30 ........................................Lunch<br />
1:30-2:30 ......................Elective Session III<br />
2:45-3:45 ......................General Session III<br />
3:50 .....................................Q & A Session<br />
ELECTIVE SESSIONS<br />
How Does the Holy Spirit Work Among Non-Christian Peoples?<br />
What Role Does the Supernatural Play in Missions?<br />
What Weapons Does a Christian Have in Spiritual Warfare?<br />
What Does the Qur’an Say About Jesus?<br />
Unisex Universe: Do Gender Roles Cross Cultural Barriers?<br />
How Do Global Epidemics, War and Natural Disasters Affect Missions?<br />
Coffee Shop Evangelism: How Do I Begin Spiritual Conversations?<br />
Is There an Agenda Against Jesus on the College Campus?<br />
What are the Subtle and Unsubtle Schemes of Satan? and More!<br />
Fall 2007 | <strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong> Magazine
SOUTHERN<br />
NEWS AND NOTES<br />
Mohler issues a call<br />
for confessional fidelity<br />
By Jeff Robinson<br />
The Christian faith includes essential doctrinal<br />
content that the church must believe, teach<br />
and confess, R. Albert Mohler Jr. told students<br />
and faculty members during the<br />
annual fall convocation Aug. 21 at<br />
<strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong>.<br />
Preaching from Hebrews<br />
11:1-6 and Acts 16:30-31, <strong>Southern</strong><br />
<strong>Seminary</strong>’s president said a<br />
clear articulation of central Christian<br />
doctrines in a confession<br />
of faith is more important than<br />
ever for evangelical churches and<br />
seminaries because they minister<br />
in a postmodern culture that<br />
denies the existence of objective<br />
truth.<br />
“We must understand that<br />
Christianity is not a mood,”<br />
Mohler said. “It is not an emotion.<br />
It is not a feeling. It is not<br />
an amorphous set of beliefs. It<br />
is established by the truth of<br />
God’s Word, by the saving reality<br />
of God’s deeds in Jesus Christ,<br />
around certain definite doctrines<br />
without which it is not possible<br />
to exercise the kind of faith that<br />
saves.”<br />
“The faith” of which Scripture<br />
speaks includes an irreducible<br />
body of truths such as the character<br />
and attributes of God and the person<br />
and work of Christ, Mohler said, noting that<br />
creeds and confessions are important summary<br />
statements of these truths that have a<br />
long and venerable history.<br />
“One of the problems of our contemporary<br />
age is that when people hear the word ‘faith,’<br />
they tend to think of faith in faith,” he said.<br />
“They tend to think of faith as some sort of<br />
mental or spiritual exercise. They think of faith<br />
“Christians must<br />
believe, teach<br />
and confess the<br />
central teachings<br />
of their faith.”<br />
as a mere act of the will. They are not thinking<br />
of faith that is scripturally defined in terms,<br />
first of all, of the truth that is there affirmed,<br />
the content of that faith. We are not saved by<br />
faith in faith, we are saved through faith in<br />
Christ. There is a huge difference there.”<br />
<strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong> is a confessional institution,<br />
adhering to the Abstract of Principles,<br />
a statement of faith that Basil Manly, Jr., a<br />
founding faculty member, penned and the<br />
school adopted when it opened<br />
in 1859. Professors must sign the<br />
document, agreeing to teach “in<br />
accordance with and not contrary<br />
to” its doctrines.<br />
Four members of the <strong>Southern</strong><br />
<strong>Seminary</strong> faculty signed the<br />
Abstract prior to Mohler’s sermon:<br />
T.J. Betts, assistant professor<br />
of Old Testament interpretation;<br />
Greg Brewton, associate professor<br />
of church music; Mark Coppenger,<br />
professor of Christian<br />
apologetics; and Randy Stinson,<br />
dean of the School of Leadership<br />
and Church Ministry.<br />
“It is important for us to<br />
remember that this is not an innovation,”<br />
Mohler said. “We did not<br />
come up with this.<br />
“This comes out of a tradition<br />
of confessional subscription, out<br />
of a creedal and confessional history<br />
of the church whereby God’s<br />
people, particularly churches,<br />
have received the stewardship<br />
of biblical truth and have sought<br />
to articulate that truth, to perpetuate<br />
that truth, to make that<br />
truth a matter of common accountability and<br />
common faith…It is done before a watching<br />
church by a teacher who says ‘these are the<br />
things that I believe. I take my stand upon<br />
these doctrines, defined and definite.<br />
<strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong> Magazine | Fall 2007 page 23
<strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong> beefs up<br />
biblical counseling faculty<br />
By Garrett E. Wishall<br />
<strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong> continues to bolster its<br />
biblical counseling program with the addition<br />
of several renowned authors and scholars as<br />
visiting faculty.<br />
Paul David Tripp, president of Paul Tripp<br />
Ministries and a counselor for 25 years, and<br />
David Powlison, faculty member at the Christian<br />
Counseling & Educational Foundation<br />
(CCEF), have both been added to <strong>Southern</strong>’s<br />
faculty as visiting professors.<br />
Tripp, who also serves as an adjunct professor<br />
at CCEF, said being<br />
able to impact the next<br />
generation of leaders<br />
attracted him to <strong>Southern</strong><br />
<strong>Seminary</strong>. He said he<br />
looks forward to helping<br />
students integrate God’s<br />
Word, sound theology and<br />
wise counseling into a unified<br />
whole.<br />
“I view successful ministry<br />
as building a bridge<br />
from the shore of God’s<br />
Word to the shore of everyday<br />
life,” he said. “It seems that theologians<br />
are often able to build a bridge from the<br />
shore of God’s Word and theology, but they<br />
struggle with connecting it to every day life.<br />
Counselors seem to struggle with the reverse<br />
problem. I love having the opportunity to help<br />
people build a completed bridge so that they<br />
can look at life in a fallen world from a biblical<br />
perspective.”<br />
Tripp is the author of Lost in the Middle,<br />
Age of Opportunity, War of Words and Instruments<br />
in the Redeemer’s Hands. He also<br />
serves as an adjunct professor at Westminster<br />
<strong>Theological</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong> in Philadelphia, where<br />
he earned his D.Min.<br />
David Powlison edits The Journal of Biblical<br />
Counseling, is a visiting professor at Westminster<br />
and is the author of several books,<br />
including Seeing with New Eyes and Speaking<br />
Truth in Love. He earned his master of divinity<br />
from Westminster and his Ph.D. from the University<br />
of Pennsylvania.<br />
Powlison said he looks forward to teaching<br />
at <strong>Southern</strong> and is pleased with the <strong>Seminary</strong>’s<br />
decision to center its counseling on pastoral<br />
ministry and not secular professionalism.<br />
Paul David Tripp David Powlison Robert Jones Robert Burrelli<br />
“I pray that Christian colleges, universities<br />
and seminaries will get a vision toward orienting<br />
counseling around the Gospel,” he said. “One<br />
expects pastoral training, missionary training<br />
and evangelistic training to be centered on the<br />
Gospel, but counseling has been the odd sister<br />
out. To play a role in [changing] that is a terrific<br />
opportunity and a great honor.”<br />
In addition to Tripp and Powlison, <strong>Southern</strong><br />
has added as visiting faculty Robert Jones,<br />
assistant professor of biblical counseling at<br />
Southeastern <strong>Baptist</strong> <strong>Theological</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong>,<br />
and Robert Burrelli, pastor of Grace Bible<br />
Church in Bridgewater, Mass.<br />
Jones is the author of Uprooting Anger:<br />
Biblical Help for a Common Problem and<br />
Burrelli is a certified counselor with the<br />
National Association of Nouthetic Counselors.<br />
Stuart Scott, director of the Center for Biblical<br />
Counseling at <strong>Southern</strong>, said the addition of<br />
all four men will help the seminary continue its<br />
mission of training biblical counselors.<br />
“I am very pleased that several outstanding<br />
men in the biblical counseling arena have agreed<br />
to come and teach a course or two each year<br />
here at <strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong>,” said Scott, who also<br />
serves as associate professor<br />
of biblical counseling at<br />
<strong>Southern</strong>. “Drs. Powlison,<br />
Tripp, Burrelli and Jones<br />
are fully committed to the<br />
sufficiency of God’s Word<br />
for counseling and will be<br />
invaluable assets to <strong>Southern</strong>’s<br />
growing biblical counseling<br />
program.”<br />
Tripp said applying<br />
the biblical counseling<br />
model to counseling,<br />
instead of taking a secular<br />
or integrated approach, best complements<br />
the faithful proclamation of Scripture that<br />
should take place in local churches.<br />
“If you have a person who is faithful in<br />
their attendance to church, and they are hearing<br />
good preaching that is giving them a good<br />
model of thinking about life – and they then<br />
go to a counseling office on Tuesdays that<br />
presents a different way of thinking about<br />
life, then that is very confusing,” he said. “It is<br />
helpful if people are hearing the same thing<br />
from counselors that they are hearing from<br />
the pulpit.”<br />
Over 120 people participated<br />
in the 2nd Annual 5K Walk /<br />
Run for Missions. Photos by<br />
John Gill<br />
page 24<br />
Fall 2007 | <strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong> Magazine
York squares off against<br />
former KY governor in<br />
televised gambling debate<br />
By David Roach<br />
Expanded gambling in the state of Kentucky<br />
would be a moral outrage because it involves<br />
the government attempting to cash in on sin<br />
and broken families, Hershael York said July 30<br />
Hershael York, <strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong> professor,<br />
debates former KY Governor Brereton Jones<br />
(D), July 30 on “Kentucky Tonight.”<br />
on “Kentucky Tonight,” a statewide television<br />
broadcast on KET.<br />
“Enough is enough,” York, who serves as<br />
Victor and Louise Lester Professor of Christian<br />
Preaching at <strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong> in Louisville,<br />
Ky., and pastor of Buck Run <strong>Baptist</strong> Church in<br />
Frankfort, Ky., said. “Let’s stop it where it is.<br />
It’s bad enough. Families are being destroyed.<br />
The government getting a piece of the<br />
destruction families to me is completely unacceptable.”<br />
Appearing with York were former Kentucky<br />
Governor Brereton Jones (D) and Patrick<br />
Neely, executive director of the Kentucky<br />
Equine Education Project (KEEP) who support<br />
expanded gambling. Joining York on the antigambling<br />
side was John-Mark Hack, director of<br />
Say No to Gambling.<br />
The program explored arguments for and<br />
against expanded gambling and speculated<br />
about how such expansion could affect the<br />
Bluegrass State.<br />
In the end, Christians must realize that<br />
gambling is popular because it appeals to<br />
humans’ sinful greed, York said. He noted that<br />
the remedy for gambling is for believers in<br />
Jesus Christ to follow the admonition to love<br />
their neighbors.<br />
“Let me say something to those people who<br />
call themselves Christians — and I know that’s<br />
not everyone,” he said. “But frankly, Jesus told<br />
us and the command is ‘love your neighbor as<br />
yourself.’ You cannot claim that you love your<br />
neighbor as yourself and [that] you want to take<br />
his money from him. Gambling is based on getting<br />
somebody else’s money.”<br />
Boyce College signs<br />
former Bryan assistant as<br />
Bulldogs head coach<br />
By Garrett E. Wishall<br />
Boyce College this summer signed Corey<br />
Mullins as the new head coach of the Boyce<br />
Bulldogs basketball team.<br />
Mullins served as head assistant coach of<br />
the women’s basketball team at Bryan<br />
College in Dayton, Tenn., for the past<br />
four years. During that time, Bryan<br />
won more than 20 games each season<br />
and annually qualified for the National<br />
Association of Intercollegiate Athletics<br />
(NAIA) national tournament, advancing<br />
to the round of 16 in 2006. Bryan<br />
competes in the Appalachian Athletic<br />
Conference of the NAIA.<br />
Boyce athletic director Lee Sexton<br />
said his on-court success as well as<br />
Mullins’ ministry experience made him the<br />
right man for the position.<br />
“What I saw in Mullins was someone who<br />
had been in a very successful program for<br />
the past four years as a top assistant,” he said.<br />
“The other thing I saw was a commitment to<br />
Corey Mullins<br />
ministry. He had been a youth director and<br />
a children’s minister and had a solid background<br />
in the <strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Baptist</strong> Convention.<br />
I felt like we were getting a good fit for who<br />
Boyce and <strong>Southern</strong> are.”<br />
Mullins described the position as a<br />
“unique opportunity” because every<br />
student-athlete at Boyce senses a<br />
definitive call to ministry. He said<br />
he looks forward to coaching in that<br />
environment.<br />
“I want to help continue to train<br />
Great Commission workers by using<br />
athletics,” he said. “I want to help players<br />
develop spiritually, ministerially and<br />
academically through athletics.<br />
“Success for us in the next few<br />
years will come through discipline.<br />
This means working hard in the classroom, in<br />
the community and on the court. Winning is<br />
a by-product of discipline. As we continue to<br />
build our program, we will start to win games<br />
and in three or four years, I would love to be<br />
winning 15 games a season.”<br />
<strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong><br />
Upcoming Events<br />
October 8-12<br />
Heritage Week<br />
October 12-13 <strong>Seminary</strong> Preview<br />
Conference<br />
October 19-20 Boyce College Preview<br />
Conference<br />
December 7<br />
January 22<br />
January 28<br />
<strong>Seminary</strong> Graduation<br />
Boyce College<br />
Classes Begin<br />
<strong>Seminary</strong> Classes Begin<br />
New SBJT defends<br />
classical view of<br />
atonement from<br />
contemporary attacks<br />
The cross of Christ has been under<br />
attack since the day Jesus hung between<br />
two thieves on a hill outside Jerusalem,<br />
but there is a surprising new category of<br />
opponents who are attacking the traditional<br />
view of the death of Christ: evangelical<br />
Christian scholars.<br />
Essayists in the Summer 2007 edition<br />
of The <strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Baptist</strong> Journal of Theology<br />
(SBJT) interact with both evangelical<br />
and non-evangelical scholars who reject<br />
the penal substitutionary view of the<br />
cross, and contributors defend the historic<br />
orthodox view of Christ’s atoning death in<br />
the place of wrath-deserving sinners.<br />
<strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong> Magazine | Fall 2007 page 25
School of Church Music and Worship<br />
Youngsters shine at<br />
Summerfest Pops concert<br />
By Garrett E. Wishall<br />
What do 4-year-old Sarah Beth Plummer,<br />
6-year-old Aimee Quinn and 9-year-old Knox<br />
McMillan have in common? They all participated<br />
in the 2007 Summerfest Pops concert at<br />
<strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong>.<br />
The Pops concert, held annually, featured<br />
orchestral music from “The Sound of Music”<br />
and “Phantom of the Opera” and work from<br />
Carmen Dragon, best known for his setting of<br />
“America the Beautiful.”<br />
Conductor Douglas Smith said the music<br />
in the concert is designed to be enjoyable, yet<br />
challenging for performers and familiar, yet<br />
pleasing for listeners.<br />
“The Pops concert provides an opportunity<br />
to play a large body of interesting and<br />
entertaining literature,” said Smith, Hogan<br />
professor of church music and associate dean<br />
for doctoral studies for the School of Church<br />
Music and Worship at <strong>Southern</strong>. “Often new<br />
players break into the orchestra with this<br />
experience, and also younger players are<br />
invited to participate, players who are not<br />
quite ready for the more demanding literature<br />
of the fall and spring concerts.”<br />
The orchestra in the Pops concert is comprised<br />
of some seminarians, with the majority<br />
of performers coming from other sources in the<br />
greater-Louisville area, Smith said. Several performers<br />
are Louisville orchestra retirees, Smith<br />
noted, while a smattering of particularly gifted<br />
high school players also participate.<br />
Nine-year-old McMillan stole the show<br />
with his work conducting Sousa’s “Washington<br />
Post” march. McMillan’s grandfather of<br />
the same name conducted bands and though<br />
the younger McMillan never knew his grandfather,<br />
the youngster developed early a desire<br />
to conduct, often mimicking the motions of<br />
his church music minister.<br />
Smith said the younger McMillan jumped<br />
at the chance to take part in a “real orchestra.”<br />
McMillan’s formal training was a quick<br />
lesson on checking the eyes of players and<br />
giving a strong downbeat and with this under<br />
his belt, the 9-year-old led Sousa’s march to<br />
resounding applause.<br />
Another piece performed annually at the<br />
concert is “The Radetzky March” by Johann<br />
Strauss Sr, which features sections where the<br />
audience claps with the orchestra, Smith said.<br />
Former conductor Lloyd Mims founded<br />
the <strong>Seminary</strong> orchestra in 1980. Initially, Pops<br />
concerts were performed in the Josephus<br />
Bowl, now called the <strong>Seminary</strong> Lawn, while<br />
families shared food and fellowship. Smith<br />
began his tenure with the orchestra in 2000,<br />
and the first Pops concert under his direction<br />
was moved into Alumni Chapel because of<br />
inclement weather. All Pops concerts since<br />
that time have been held inside.<br />
The 2007 concert also featured a performance<br />
by the Lynn Camp Hollow Boys,<br />
a group from a local church that Smith said<br />
sounds remarkably similar to the group featured<br />
in the movie “O Brother, Where Art<br />
Thou.” The Lynn Camp Hollow Boys played<br />
a version of the spiritual “Joshua” and “Two<br />
Coats,” a piece that Smith said draws an analogy<br />
of old and new clothing to represent conversion<br />
from a life of sin.<br />
<strong>Seminary</strong> voice major Matt Crook, from<br />
Madisonville, Ky., sang George Gershwin’s “I<br />
Got Plenty o’ Nuttin’” at the concert. <strong>Seminary</strong><br />
student Laura Patton, from Memphis,<br />
Tenn., also performed, playing a piano improvisation<br />
from two hymns, the latter called<br />
“Eternal Father, Strong to Save,” better known<br />
as “The Navy Hymn.”<br />
Biblical teaching<br />
for women<br />
“Christian Essentials is<br />
taught by real women who<br />
face real struggles and wish<br />
to share from a wealth of<br />
ministry experience.”<br />
— Mary Mohler, Director,<br />
<strong>Seminary</strong> Wives Institute<br />
Looking for in-depth biblical teaching designed just for women?<br />
Want to give your women’s ministry a doctrinal boost? “Christian<br />
Essentials” is just what you need. This unique program designed<br />
by <strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong> to prepare seminary wives for real world<br />
ministry is available for use in your home or your church. These<br />
professionally produced audio and video lessons feature some of<br />
the SBC’s greatest theologians and their wives. If you’re ready to<br />
grow closer to the Lord and deeper in your faith, let us help you<br />
with the “Christian Essentials.”<br />
Call toll free: 888.992.8277<br />
www.ChristianEssentials.com<br />
page 26<br />
Fall 2007 | <strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong> Magazine
Noted author,<br />
alumnus added to Lead School<br />
School of Leadership and Church Ministry<br />
By Garrett E. Wishall<br />
The School of Leadership and Church Ministry<br />
at <strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong> has taken another<br />
step toward building a family ministry focus<br />
in the field of Christian education with the<br />
recent hiring of Timothy Jones as assistant<br />
professor of leadership and church ministry.<br />
Randy Stinson, dean of the School of<br />
Leadership and Church Ministry, said pastoral<br />
experience and a vision for unified, family<br />
ministry make Jones the right fit for the position.<br />
Jones is a graduate of <strong>Southern</strong>, having<br />
completed his doctor of education from the<br />
seminary in 2003.<br />
“Through the interview process, it became<br />
clear to me that Dr. Jones is going to be an<br />
important part of the School of Leadership<br />
emphases in the coming decades,” he said.<br />
“He is an experienced pastor and a disciplined<br />
author. His classroom instruction will<br />
be informed by his experience and his multiple<br />
books and articles add to our academic<br />
influence and credibility. He will also be able<br />
to help us coordinate some key writing projects<br />
over the next few years.<br />
“The fact that he is a product of this<br />
seminary means he is already wholeheartedly<br />
committed to its vision and direction and will<br />
be able to hit the ground running as soon as<br />
classes start.”<br />
Jones co-authored The Da Vinci Codebreaker<br />
and has written several books,<br />
including Christian History Made Easy,<br />
Prayers Jesus Prayed, Finding God in a<br />
Galaxy Far Far Away and Misquoting Truth.<br />
Above all, Jones said he desires to help students<br />
prioritize ministering to their families<br />
and leading churches in a way that emphasizes<br />
spiritual growth.<br />
“There is a point that the people in<br />
my previous congregation heard over and<br />
over during my time there: What you do<br />
for God beyond your home will not typically<br />
be greater than what you practice with<br />
God within your home,” he said. “There is<br />
a deep need among men and women for a<br />
focus on their home lives, training them<br />
how to guide their families and how to<br />
relate to family members in constructive<br />
and godly<br />
ways.<br />
“Too often, churches have expected fami-<br />
lies somehow to become integrated at home,<br />
even as we “dis-integrate” their families at<br />
church, attempting to lead them to spiritual<br />
maturity as isolated individuals without<br />
modeling for them how to work together as<br />
families. I believe that Dr. Stinson’s familycentered<br />
focus will help to accomplish that.”<br />
Jones said lessons learned from 14 years of<br />
ministerial experience would help him equip<br />
students for local church ministry. Jones<br />
served as senior pastor of First <strong>Baptist</strong> Church<br />
of Rolling Hills in Tulsa, Okla., from 2003-<br />
2007 after serving as the church’s minister to<br />
students. Previously, he served for six years<br />
as pastor of Green Ridge <strong>Baptist</strong> Church in<br />
Green Ridge, Mo.<br />
Having enjoyed his time as a student at<br />
<strong>Southern</strong>, Jones said he looks forward to mov-<br />
ing into the<br />
role of professor at the seminary.<br />
“Ever since the first moment I set foot<br />
on this campus, I have absolutely loved this<br />
place,” Jones said. “It has been a place of<br />
joy for me and my wife. My passion is to<br />
equip students to guide church ministries<br />
in ways that are rooted first and foremost<br />
in the Scriptures and in biblical theology,<br />
then in compassion for people’s real<br />
needs and in awareness of their cultural<br />
contexts.”<br />
Jones directed the Tulsa Extension<br />
Center of Midwestern <strong>Baptist</strong> <strong>Theological</strong><br />
<strong>Seminary</strong> from 2002-2005<br />
and taught there as adjunct profes-<br />
sor of Greek.<br />
Jones completed his master of divinity at<br />
Midwestern <strong>Baptist</strong> <strong>Theological</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong><br />
in 1996. He and his wife Rayann married in<br />
1994. In 2003, they adopted Hannah Rachel<br />
Jones, who is now 11.<br />
New Orleans trip refocuses church’s mission vision<br />
By Marilyn Stewart<br />
With eleven of their fifty plus regularly attending<br />
church members on mission in New Orleans,<br />
chances are Clifton Heights <strong>Baptist</strong> Church’s<br />
vision for missions will be impacted. That’s<br />
exactly what the Louisville church is hoping for.<br />
“This mission trip has opened the world<br />
to our youth,” said Brett Gibson, the church’s<br />
youth and music minister. “I hope it will be the<br />
start of something we can do year after year.”<br />
The team of six <strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Baptist</strong> <strong>Theological</strong><br />
<strong>Seminary</strong> students, a grandmother and<br />
four youth, worked with <strong>Baptist</strong> Crossroads,<br />
a partnership of First <strong>Baptist</strong> Church of New<br />
Orleans and Habitat for Humanity. Crossroads<br />
has a five-year goal of building 300 new homes<br />
in a low-income neighborhood with forty<br />
homes completed since the summer of 2006.<br />
With Cooperative Program giving at 11%,<br />
pastor Michael Galdamez said the focus on<br />
missions in the church has broadened recently<br />
Timothy Jones<br />
as those with mission experience – including<br />
SBTS students – have encouraged others to<br />
take an active role.<br />
“As far as anyone can remember, this is the<br />
church’s first mission trip,” Paul Hudson, a<br />
retired Canadian air force navigator and a first<br />
year SBTS student said. “This trip has been<br />
as good for the church as it has been for the<br />
people in New Orleans.”<br />
Kristen Tannas, a<br />
SBTS student from<br />
Alberta, Canada, said the<br />
hurricane has encouraged<br />
Christians to put<br />
their faith in action by<br />
doing things they didn’t<br />
think possible before.<br />
“Many who had<br />
never left home before<br />
are down here building<br />
houses,” Tannas said.<br />
“They are realizing ‘I can<br />
Kristen Tannas <strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong><br />
student from Canada, works on a roof<br />
with another worker.<br />
do this.’”<br />
Galdamez said the Crossroads partnership<br />
with Habitat presents opportunities to talk<br />
to non-believers and share the gospel as they<br />
work side-by-side, adding that the trip was also<br />
an opportunity to demonstrate to the younger<br />
team members “what it means to serve others.<br />
“This trip has encouraged our team members<br />
to do more for missions,”<br />
Galdamez said.<br />
“Not only are we hoping<br />
to come here again,<br />
but are thinking about<br />
an international trip as<br />
well.”<br />
Marilyn Stewart is the<br />
New Orleans correspondent<br />
for the Louisiana<br />
<strong>Baptist</strong> Convention<br />
Communication Team,<br />
John L. Yeats, director.<br />
<strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong> Magazine | Fall 2007 page 27
New associate deans,<br />
theology conference announced<br />
School of Theology<br />
By Jeff Robinson<br />
<strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong>’s School of Theology has<br />
two new associate deans and will soon host<br />
an annual theology conference.<br />
Russell D. Moore, Dean of the School<br />
of Theology and Senior Vice President for<br />
Academic Administration, announced the<br />
appointments of Donald Whitney as senior<br />
associate dean and Gregory A. Wills as associate<br />
dean for the division of theology and tradition.<br />
Moore also announced a forthcoming<br />
<strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong> Conference of Theology,<br />
to be led by Professor Bruce Ware.<br />
The theology<br />
conference will begin<br />
after Ware’s tenure<br />
as president of the<br />
Evangelical <strong>Theological</strong><br />
Society and will be<br />
held on the <strong>Southern</strong><br />
<strong>Seminary</strong> campus.<br />
Ware, who formerly<br />
served as senior associate<br />
dean, will now<br />
serve as director of<br />
the conference,<br />
launching a biannual<br />
conference<br />
designed to engage<br />
contemporary issues<br />
from the standpoint nt<br />
of confessional<br />
conviction.<br />
Moore said Ware<br />
is a natural choice to<br />
lead the conference<br />
because of<br />
his scholarly<br />
engagement<br />
of numerous<br />
issues within the evangelical lworld. Ware has<br />
opposed open theism in books such as God’s<br />
Lesser Glory: The Diminished God of Open ism and God’s Greater Glory: The Exalted God<br />
The-<br />
of Scripture and the Christian Faith and has<br />
defended the historical doctrine of the Trinity<br />
in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: Relationships,<br />
Roles and Relevance.<br />
“Bruce Ware is the Athanasius of contemporary<br />
evangelicalism, confronting error, be it<br />
open theism or evangelical feminism, with the<br />
glorious truth of Scripture,” Moore said.<br />
“Professor Ware is the natural choice to lead<br />
the <strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong> Conference on Theology.<br />
He is respected all around as one of the<br />
most significant thinkers in American Protestantism<br />
today. He understands the issues. And<br />
he has the courage and conviction to speak to<br />
issues others may find controversial or uncomfortable.<br />
I look forward to working with Professor<br />
Ware on leading a conference that doesn’t<br />
just address ideas, but changes lives.”<br />
Donald Whitney, who serves as professor<br />
of biblical spirituality<br />
and director of applied<br />
ministry, has been promoted<br />
to senior associate<br />
dean of the school<br />
of theology. Whitney<br />
is the author of several<br />
books, including Spiritual<br />
Disciplines for the<br />
Christian Life and Ten<br />
Questions to Diagnose<br />
Your Spiritual Health.<br />
“The School of<br />
Theology is not about<br />
programs<br />
or initiatives; it is<br />
about being part of a cosmic<br />
war plan<br />
against the Serpent<br />
of Eden,” Moore said. “It is<br />
about<br />
sending out pastors of<br />
churches that are countercultural<br />
outposts of the<br />
Kingdom of Christ.<br />
“With that the case,<br />
nothing is more important<br />
than discipleship and spirituality. Don<br />
Whitney is the right man to serve with me as<br />
we lead this School toward the sending out of<br />
thousands of pastors and preachers into the<br />
mission fields of North America and around<br />
the world.<br />
“He is a seasoned pastor, a respected<br />
scholar, and the preeminent scholar among<br />
<strong>Baptist</strong>s and evangelicals<br />
on issues<br />
of spirituality and<br />
discipleship. Years<br />
before I knew him,<br />
the Lord used Don’s<br />
Spiritual Disciplines<br />
for the Christian<br />
Life to transform my<br />
own walk with Jesus.<br />
It is a joy to labor<br />
with him every day<br />
in a task in which<br />
churches, souls, and<br />
lives are at stake.”<br />
Gregory A. Wills,<br />
who serves as professor r<br />
of church history and<br />
director of the Center<br />
for the Study of the<br />
<strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Baptist</strong><br />
Convention, has<br />
been promoted to<br />
associate dean for theology<br />
and tradition in the School of Theology.<br />
He is the author of Democratic Religion:<br />
Freedom, Authority, and Church Discipline<br />
in the <strong>Baptist</strong> South 1785-1900 and is currently<br />
writing a history of <strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong>.<br />
“Greg Wills, perhaps better than any<br />
scholar alive, understands why the point of<br />
a theological education is healthy churches,”<br />
Moore said. “Professor Wills possesses a keen<br />
mind and a pastoral heart and will serve with<br />
distinction.”<br />
The <strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong> community marked<br />
the beginning of another academic year with<br />
the Fall Kickoff Festival. Photos by John Gill<br />
page 28<br />
Fall 2007 | <strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong> Magazine
Billy Graham School of Missions, Evangelism and Church Growth<br />
By David Roach<br />
Summer mission trips send<br />
SBTS students across globe<br />
Sharing the Gospel on university campuses<br />
in a country largely closed to Christianity,<br />
working with church planters in a remote<br />
area of Canada and researching Japanese<br />
immigrants in Argentina were among the<br />
ministries conducted on mission trips this<br />
summer by teams from <strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong>.<br />
Through late-July, five mission trips coordinated<br />
by the seminary’s Great Commission<br />
Center have taken students and faculty<br />
to three continents. The trips have gone to<br />
East Asia; Argentina; Quebec, Canada; Newfoundland,<br />
Canada; and South Asia.<br />
“The Great Commission Center wants to<br />
involve every student and every professor<br />
in intercultural missions, both overseas as<br />
well as among immigrants in the USA,” said<br />
David Sills, director of <strong>Southern</strong>’s Great Commission<br />
Center and associate professor of<br />
missions and cultural anthropology.<br />
Sills led a team of nine <strong>Southern</strong> students<br />
July 1-14 to conduct research on how to<br />
reach Japanese people living in Buenos Aires,<br />
Argentina. After a week of class instruction on<br />
<strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong> student Will Brooks (left)<br />
explores Scripture with a university student in<br />
Asia during one of five mission trips this summer<br />
by students and faculty.<br />
how to conduct ethnographic research, the<br />
group surveyed the Japanese population.<br />
In a trip to Gaspe, Quebec, Canada, June<br />
24-30, a team of five <strong>Southern</strong> students and one<br />
professor worked with a church-starting strategist<br />
from the Canadian Convention of <strong>Southern</strong><br />
<strong>Baptist</strong>s to prayer walk, share the Gospel and<br />
encourage a family of church planters.<br />
Trip leader J.D. Payne said there was at<br />
least one significant victory on the trip when<br />
his team showed a discouraged church<br />
planter how he could partner with other<br />
<strong>Baptist</strong>s to improve the effectiveness of his<br />
work. Payne serves as assistant professor of<br />
church planting and evangelism at <strong>Southern</strong>.<br />
The Newfoundland, Canada, team, which<br />
was also led by Payne, worked July 15-21 with<br />
the first <strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Baptist</strong> missionaries ever to<br />
serve in Newfoundland. The team, made up<br />
of 18 <strong>Southern</strong> students and faculty members,<br />
encouraged the missionaries and shared the<br />
Gospel with lost Newfoundlanders.<br />
The team in East Asia shared the Gospel<br />
on seven college campuses June 3-23<br />
through activities such as basketball, English<br />
classes and engaging people on the streets.<br />
The group of nine <strong>Southern</strong> students shared<br />
the message of Christ with at least 100 people<br />
individually and saw at least three people<br />
trust Christ as Lord and Savior. They were<br />
able to spend a large amount of time discipling<br />
each of the new believers and helped<br />
them get connected to a local church.<br />
Boyce College<br />
Boyce guides Bone to<br />
church music ministry<br />
By David Roach<br />
For Matthew Bone doing music ministry at Shively <strong>Baptist</strong> Church in Louisville, Ky., began as a<br />
part of his educational program at Boyce College. But it developed into an opportunity for him<br />
to impact hundreds of Shively members by applying his Boyce education on a continuing basis.<br />
Bone, a junior from Columbia, Tenn., went to Shively in the fall of 2005 to fulfill a Supervised<br />
Ministry Experience component of his music ministry degree. After a semester of work,<br />
however, he began talking to the church’s music minister and realized that there were needs he<br />
could help meet if he would stay at Shively as a music intern.<br />
“I was able to apply directly what I was learning at Boyce on a weekly basis to my ministry,”<br />
Bone said. “Even the music theory classes that everyone hates were able to show me new ways<br />
in which I could teach or plug in exactly what I was learning.”<br />
Among the first projects Bone undertook in his new ministry role was to start a youth<br />
choir. Approximately 40 teenagers signed up initially, and the ministry expanded both in its<br />
numbers and in its impact. Last summer he took the youth choir on a tour through Tennessee<br />
and Alabama.<br />
Today, in addition to leading the youth choir, Bone leads the music in worship services<br />
regularly, sings in the adult choir and fills in playing trumpet and guitar in the orchestra<br />
when he is needed.<br />
<strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong> Magazine | Fall 2007 page 29
With your help we can continue to build on the legacy of<br />
<strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong>’s founding fathers. By investing in the<br />
work of preparing God-called men and women for ministry,<br />
you will play a vital role in advancing the Kingdom of God.<br />
You will build a legacy.<br />
You may give to the Annual Fund or through trusts and<br />
annuities that offer tax benefits plus a lifetime income.<br />
Also you may give through your will so that your<br />
investment keeps on working for generations to come.<br />
For more information on giving to <strong>Southern</strong><br />
<strong>Seminary</strong>, contact the Office of Institutional Relations at<br />
1-800-626-5525, ext. 4143, or visit online at www.sbts.edu.<br />
Invest in tomorrow’s churches. Build a legacy today.<br />
The <strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Baptist</strong><br />
<strong>Theological</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong><br />
page 30<br />
Give online today! www.sbts.edu/alumni/giving<br />
Fall 2007 | <strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong> Magazine
<strong>Southern</strong> donors won’t<br />
regret one dime,<br />
Dooley says<br />
Bob and Patricia Dooley<br />
“You can’t come<br />
[to <strong>Southern</strong>] without being<br />
inspired and feeling like your<br />
donation is well spent. You’re<br />
giving to the Lord.”<br />
photo by Mark Kidd Studios<br />
By David Roach<br />
Anyone seeking for a reason to give to <strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong> needs only<br />
to look at the impact the seminary’s graduates are having on the world,<br />
said Bob Dooley, a seminary donor and member of the <strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong><br />
Foundation Board.<br />
“If they would just look and see and listen to the men that come<br />
out of the seminary and their passion for the ministry and for God’s<br />
love and just listen to them and see what they have in their heart and<br />
the energy they have for the Lord, they would just be so astonished,”<br />
Dooley said. “It just amazes me the people that come out of there now<br />
and the love they have for the Lord and the passion they have.”<br />
Dooley is more qualified than most people to make such an assessment<br />
because he has seen firsthand the type of ministers <strong>Southern</strong><br />
produces. His son, Nathan, graduated in 2005 with a master of divinity<br />
and currently serves as associate pastor for high school ministry at First<br />
<strong>Baptist</strong> Church in Naples, Fla. He credits much of Nathan’s success and<br />
progress in ministry to the training he received at <strong>Southern</strong>.<br />
“We had seen the progress that our son had made at the seminary,<br />
and we were so proud of that,” he said.<br />
Dooley was first introduced to the possibility of donating to the<br />
seminary between six and seven years ago when Douglas Walker, <strong>Southern</strong>’s<br />
senior vice president for institutional relations, served as interim<br />
pastor of Dooley’s church in Lexington, Ky., <strong>Southern</strong> Heights <strong>Baptist</strong><br />
Church. Information from Walker combined with Nathan’s experience<br />
to turn Dooley’s attention toward the seminary.<br />
“We had seen the turnaround in the seminary because we had seen<br />
the way the seminary had been in the past,” he said. “And to be truthful<br />
about it, we had seen some negative points about the seminary in the<br />
past. Going up there and seeing the positive points now, we were just<br />
thrilled about it.”<br />
Visiting chapel services on campus cemented in Dooley’s mind<br />
<strong>Southern</strong>’s status as a place where doctrinal orthodoxy and passion for<br />
God’s glory combined.<br />
“I don’t think anyone can come to chapel with the speakers they<br />
have there — Dr. Mohler, Dr. Moore and some of the others — and<br />
hear the singing and the choir and the orchestra and everything,” he<br />
said. “You can’t come there without being inspired and feeling like your<br />
donation is well spent. You’re giving to the Lord.”<br />
Professionally, Dooley is co-owner of Landmark Sprinkler Inc., a<br />
company that installs fire sprinkler systems in residential and commercial<br />
buildings. Some of his work has included installing sprinklers<br />
in buildings at <strong>Southern</strong>. Dooley has owned part of the company for<br />
twenty years.<br />
In addition to his work, Dooley is also an active churchman at<br />
<strong>Southern</strong> Heights. He currently serves as a deacon, as chairman of the<br />
church’s pastor search committee and works extensively with church<br />
finances.<br />
“I’ve been on the finance committee for a number of years. I’ve<br />
been treasurer since the early ‘90s. That’s been one of my major ministries,”<br />
he said, adding, “That’s probably been my main interest.”<br />
With his experience in church financial ministry and in business,<br />
Dooley has a great concern for whether ministries use donors’ money<br />
effectively and efficiently. At <strong>Southern</strong>, he said, donors can be confident<br />
that their money is used responsibly and to advance God’s kingdom.<br />
If potential donors could see the daily work of the seminary, “they<br />
would see that what money they give, they would not regret one dime<br />
of it,” Dooley said.<br />
<strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong> Magazine | Fall 2007 page 31
People<br />
and Places<br />
<strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong> has a rich history of alumni serving Christ throughout the world.<br />
The intent of this section is to help the seminary family stay close – whether that<br />
be through the news of a new ministry position, a retirement, a birth or a death. To<br />
submit information to People and Places, call 502-897-4143 or e-mail irprojects@sbts.edu.<br />
Royce McNeal is completing 10 years as<br />
assistant minister of music and senior adults at<br />
First <strong>Baptist</strong> Church of Monroe, Ga.<br />
40s<br />
Ira “Mac” McMillen, Jr. (’44)<br />
received the Ken Chaffin Award<br />
from Georgetown College at the<br />
annual Georgetown College pastors conference<br />
on April 17. Hughlan P. Richey (’47) celebrated<br />
his 65th year of ordination and his 89th<br />
birthday on Aug. 26, 2006. R. Furman Kenney<br />
(’49) is the author of “People Like M’Self ” by<br />
AuthorHouse Publishing Co. Dr. and Mrs. Kenney<br />
reside in Newport News, Va. John E. (’48)<br />
and Arlena (Smith) Hasel (’48), Clermont, Fla.,<br />
celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary on<br />
Sept. 10, 2007.<br />
50s<br />
Clyde R. Simms (’54) has retired as<br />
pastor and director of missions.<br />
Chaplain Vasten E. Zumwalt (’58)<br />
and his wife, Betty, celebrated their 53rd wedding<br />
anniversary Feb. 10. Vasten also celebrated<br />
53 years as an ordained minister Mar. 14. He is<br />
retired in Ponder, Tex. James Rice (’59) and his<br />
wife celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary<br />
last year. Rice is the pastor of Living Water <strong>Baptist</strong><br />
Church in Connelly Springs, N.C.<br />
60s<br />
Paul E. Epps (’61) recently retired<br />
as pastor of Temple <strong>Baptist</strong><br />
Church, Madison, Ill. Jerry A.<br />
Songer (’61) is the interim pastor of First <strong>Baptist</strong><br />
Church, Orangeburg, S.C. Edsel L. West<br />
(’64) retired Jan. 2000 in Harriman, Tenn. He<br />
is currently serving as chaplain and doing<br />
interim work in Knoxville, Tenn. Avery Sayer<br />
(’69) will retire after 34 years of service with<br />
the North American Mission Board (NAMB)<br />
as pastor/director of Weekday Ministries at<br />
United Trinity <strong>Baptist</strong> Church in Queens, NY.<br />
Sayer also taught for three years at Hong Kong<br />
<strong>Baptist</strong> University. He and his wife, Myra (’67)<br />
will move to Sharpsburg, Ga.<br />
70s<br />
William “Bill” P. Steeger (’70)<br />
is the pastor of First <strong>Baptist</strong><br />
Church Paragould, Ark. Kenneth<br />
H. Maahs, Sr. (’72) published his second book<br />
The John You Never Knew: Decoding the<br />
Fourth Gospel, Peter Lang Press, 2006. Maahs<br />
also occupies the Clemens Chair of Biblical<br />
Studies at Eastern University. Mark A. Stover<br />
(’75) is preaching at FBC Dixie in West Virginia.<br />
He is also hoping to start a prison ministry<br />
soon. Douglas Van Devender (’76) has recently<br />
published a book entitled PRAYER TALES:<br />
Twelve Unusual Expeditions into the Human<br />
Heart available from AuthorHouse.com.<br />
80s<br />
Isaac “Tim” Mizelle (’80) has been<br />
promoted to associate professor in<br />
educational leadership at Concordia<br />
University, Chicago. Dr. J. Stuart (’83) and C.<br />
Jeanette (’83) Cundiff celebrated their 50th wedding<br />
anniversary with a trip to Istanbul, Turkey. Dr.<br />
Cundiff retired after 18 years as director of missions<br />
in Indiana and accepted the call as director<br />
of missions with Franklin Association in Frankfort,<br />
Ky. Heidi (Bright) Parales (’83) serves as the new<br />
communications director for St. Thomas Episcopal<br />
Church in Terrace Park, Ohio. David C. Howard<br />
(’84) received his Doctor of Education in Ministry<br />
degree from New Orleans <strong>Baptist</strong> <strong>Theological</strong><br />
<strong>Seminary</strong> in May. He also serves on the Board of<br />
Trustees for Shorter College in Rome, Ga. Larry J.<br />
Brant (’89) was appointed senior chaplain of the<br />
Lincoln Chaplaincy Corps. He is also the associate<br />
pastor of worship and discipleship at Southview<br />
<strong>Baptist</strong> Church in Lincoln, Neb.<br />
90s<br />
Robert W. Bell (’90) was appointed<br />
as the Dean of Erskine<br />
<strong>Theological</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong>, July 1,<br />
2006, in Due West, S.C. Robert Segrest (’90)<br />
retired as Eastern Regional vice president of<br />
the Tennessee <strong>Baptist</strong> Children’s Homes on<br />
June 30. He and his wife, Barbara, now reside<br />
in Ooltewah, Tenn. Craig Webb (’91) is the<br />
editor of LifeWay’s Pastors Today e-Newsletter<br />
and LifeWay’s Proclaim Online. He is also the<br />
bi-vocational minister of spiritual growth at<br />
Gladeville <strong>Baptist</strong> Church in Gladeville, Tenn.<br />
Miguel A. De La Torre (’95) published a new<br />
book Liberating Jonah: Toward An Ethics<br />
of Reconciliation. Eugene Vann Burrus, Jr.<br />
(’96) is the minister of music and worship at<br />
Black Creek <strong>Baptist</strong> Church in Mechanicsville,<br />
Va. Greg Heisler (’98) accepted a position at<br />
Southeastern <strong>Baptist</strong> <strong>Theological</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong> in<br />
2005. He also published his first book, Spirit-<br />
Led Preaching, with Broadman & Holman.<br />
2000s<br />
David S. Ro (’01) was<br />
elected president of<br />
the Council of Korean<br />
<strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Baptist</strong> Churches in America at its<br />
2007 annual meeting in June. Dr. Ro has been<br />
pastor of River Dell Korean <strong>Baptist</strong> Church in<br />
River Edge, N.J. Richard F. Jones (’03) is now<br />
a Christian comedian based in Ohio. Bruce<br />
Allen (’04) is the pastor of Underwood <strong>Baptist</strong><br />
Church in Underwood, Ind. Steve Doyle (’04)<br />
recently planted a new church, Milestone<br />
Community Church, in Dacula, Ga. David<br />
Fee (’04) is the senior pastor of Summerlin<br />
Community <strong>Baptist</strong> Church in Las Vegas, Nev.<br />
Harry “Terry” Jones (’04) is the senior pastor of<br />
Christ’s Church at Tiffin in Tiffin, Ohio. Frederick<br />
“Freddy” Cardoza, II (’05) is the associate<br />
dean at Midwestern <strong>Baptist</strong> <strong>Theological</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong><br />
in Kansas City. He is also the associate<br />
pastor of First Family Church, Overland Park,<br />
Kan. Steven M. Darr (’05) is the pastor of First<br />
Congregational Church in Torrington, Conn.<br />
Jeremy R. Howard (’05) was named editor of<br />
Bible and Bible references at Band H Publishing,<br />
Nashville, Tenn., on July 1. Jim Langston<br />
(’06) serves as pastor of Roosevelt Memorial<br />
Church in Pine Mt. Valley, Ga. James Neilson<br />
(’06) serves as pastor of Edgewood <strong>Baptist</strong><br />
Church in Beaver Falls, Pa. Chap. Bryan T.<br />
Wright (’06) is a U.S. Army chaplain stationed<br />
at Fort Thomas, Ky. He received his endorsement<br />
from NAMB.<br />
BIRTHS<br />
James (’02) and Terra (’07) Santos announce<br />
the birth of their first child, Hannah Mai,<br />
born May 26. Eric Schumacher (’02) and his<br />
wife, Jenny, announce the birth of their son,<br />
Elijah Ames, born Aug. 2. Eric is also the pastor<br />
of Northbrook <strong>Baptist</strong> Church in Cedar<br />
Rapids, Iowa. Craig Wurst (’03) and his wife,<br />
Heidi, announce the birth of their new son,<br />
Jonathan Edward, born March 12. He joins<br />
his sisters Abigail (4) and Kristine (2). Craig<br />
is the pastor of Meadowbrook First <strong>Southern</strong><br />
<strong>Baptist</strong> Church in Moro, Ill. Brad King<br />
(’04) and his wife, Nicky, have two children:<br />
Jenna Grayce born Dec. 2, 2002 and Jackson<br />
Bradley born May 23. Mark Day (’04) and his<br />
wife, Angela, recently adopted two children<br />
from Ethiopia. Jamie L. Coomer (’05) and his<br />
wife announce the birth of their first child,<br />
Nehemiah Layne, born July 15, 2005. Derrick<br />
(’06) and Dawn (’03) Ousley announce the<br />
birth of their first child, Walker Ross, born<br />
Aug. 2006. Derrick is the pastor of First <strong>Baptist</strong><br />
Church Mt. Vernon, Ind.<br />
page 32<br />
Fall 2007 | <strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong> Magazine
DEATHS<br />
T. T. Crabtree (‘49, ‘53, ‘74) on<br />
Sept. 18, 2007. He pastored<br />
several churches in Kentucky,<br />
Tennessee and Oklahoma before<br />
spending 19 years at FBC Springfield,<br />
Mo. He served on <strong>Southern</strong><br />
<strong>Seminary</strong>’s board of trustees from 1959-1983<br />
including a term as chairman.<br />
Wilson Alvis Herring died April 22. He was the<br />
founding superintendent of Sunny Crest Children’s<br />
Home in Bakersfield, Calif.<br />
1940s<br />
Olivia Stephenson Lennon (’45) wife of John<br />
Lennon (’48) died June 6. Dr. E. Lowell Adams’<br />
(’45) wife died Feb. 2.<br />
1950s<br />
William Travis Bassett’s (’51) wife, Eva, died<br />
Aug. 25, 2006. The Bassetts were married<br />
for 54 years. Rev. H. Grady Jarrard, Jr. (’53)<br />
died July 3, 2005. Capt. Joseph G. Lerner<br />
(’54) died May 2, 2007 at the age of 91 after<br />
a major stroke. He had been living in<br />
Maple wood, NJ for seven years. Donations<br />
may be made in memory of Joe Lerner by<br />
making a tax-deductible gift to: The Joseph<br />
G. Lerner Memorial Visitation Ministry, c /o<br />
Morrow Memorial Church, 600 Ridgewood<br />
Road, Maplewood, New Jersey 07040. James<br />
A. Cates’ (’55) wife, Olivia, died Feb. 18.<br />
Mervin A. Brown, Jr. (’56) died April 19.<br />
V. William Tanyas (’58) died Jan. 9.<br />
1960s<br />
Monte “Tommy” Starkes (’64) died May 19 at<br />
the age of 67 in Las Vegas, Nev. James F. Walters<br />
(’64) died May 22 of a brain tumor. He<br />
was the retired pastor of First <strong>Baptist</strong> Church<br />
Mobile, Ala.<br />
1970s<br />
Eddie Ashmoore (’70) died June 18 at the age<br />
of 64. Mr. Ashmoore was an employee at<br />
<strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong> for 18 years.<br />
CORRECTION:<br />
Paul S. Carter (’50) died on Oct. 4, 2006 at<br />
the age of 85. He pastored several churches<br />
in the <strong>Baptist</strong> General Association of<br />
Virginia during his ministry of 35 years.<br />
Upon retirement he also served as interim<br />
pastor of churches within the association.<br />
<strong>Southern</strong> alum<br />
becomes<br />
college president<br />
David Olive, a 1993 master of divinity graduate,<br />
became the President of Bluefield College in Bluefield,<br />
Va., July 1.<br />
Olive served previously as an executive vice president<br />
and chief operating officer at Pfeiffer University in Charlotte,<br />
N.C. He is also an attorney and a licensed minister<br />
who served as an interim and associate pastor at First<br />
<strong>Baptist</strong> Church in Georgetown, Ky.<br />
“The educational opportunities I had at <strong>Southern</strong><br />
certainly helped shape my ministry and my theological<br />
underpinnings,” Olive said.<br />
Army Chief<br />
of Chaplains a<br />
<strong>Southern</strong> alum<br />
Douglas L. Carver was promoted to Major General during<br />
ceremonies at Fort Myer, Va., on July 12. He is the<br />
first <strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Baptist</strong> to hold the position of chief of<br />
chaplains since Chaplain (Maj. Gen.) Ivan L. Bennett<br />
held the post in 1954.<br />
“The Scripture talks about how God is the One who<br />
raises up leadership,” Carver said. “For such a time as<br />
this, it has appeared that God has raised me up as a<br />
<strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Baptist</strong> chaplain to provide spiritual leadership<br />
for our chaplains in the Army.”<br />
Carver earned an M. Div. degree from <strong>Southern</strong><br />
<strong>Seminary</strong>.<br />
NEED SOMETHING HERE!!!<br />
Interact daily with today’s theological, moral and cultural issues<br />
LINK in Dr. Mohler’s weblog and weekly commentary.<br />
Visit www.albertmohler.com<br />
Tune in daily nationwide as Dr. Mohler tackles the issues<br />
LISTEN with biblical insights, provocative guests and listener calls.<br />
Listen live at 5PM ET (local radio and XM 170)<br />
LEARN<br />
Think through today’s cutting-edge issues with a distinctly biblical<br />
worldview, responding with scriptural truth and moral clarity.<br />
Join the conversation at 1-877-893-8255<br />
<strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong> Magazine | Fall 2007 page 33
Sharper<br />
Stronger<br />
Better<br />
A DMin for<br />
the 21st Century<br />
<strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong> has a strengthened DMin degree that<br />
is practical, convenient, biblically based, and designed<br />
with your ministry in mind. DMin concentrations are<br />
available in:<br />
• Evangelism and Church Growth<br />
• Black Church Leadership<br />
• Expository Preaching<br />
• Biblical Counseling<br />
• Missions Leadership<br />
• Biblical Spirituality (Jan. 08)<br />
• Korean Church Leadership<br />
For more information about these exciting<br />
programs, visit us online at www.sbts.edu/dmin<br />
or call 1-800-626-5525, ext. 4113.<br />
The <strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Baptist</strong><br />
<strong>Theological</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong>