Blogs

Let the Children Come to Jesus | Credo Mag
The latest issue of online publication, Credo Mag, deals with children’s ministry.

What I learned from my gay co-worker | TGC
With so many Christians in similar positions every day, here’s an encouraging approach that has yielded positive results.

Books for Building Great Sentences | Tony Reinke
Advice for writers with some enticing book recommendations.

“So” is the new “Um” | Decker Communications
Find out what your fillers are. You can’t change a habit until you realize it’s there. Record a voicemail to yourself and then play it back. Take notes on what fillers you hear. Common fillers to watch for: “like,” “just,” “um,” “uh,” “actually,” “you know,” “honestly,” “literally,” and – of course – “so.”

America’s Growing Pessimism | The Atlantic
Americans are positive about the digital revolution and racial/ethnic diversity. But they’re negative about the education system, the rising number of seniors, big business, and political incompetence.

Biblical Counselors And State Regulations | BCC: Ed Welch

Recommended New Book

Transforming Homosexuality: What the Bible Says about Sexual Orientation and Change by Denny Burk and Heath Lambert. Such an important book for pastors.

Kindle Books

Keeping the Ten Commandments by J I Packer $2.99.

The Atonement by John Murray $0.99.

God’s Battalions by Rodney Stark $4.99. In God’s Battalions, distinguished scholar Rodney Stark argue that the Crusades were a justified war waged against Muslim terror and aggression.

Video

J I Packer Interview
Here’s a good way to spend 15 minutes. Subjects covered include, cultivating Awe, Christian meditation and knowing Christ. See Mark’s new book, Knowing Christ.

Fascinating Fact #1: The five points of Calvinism did not originate with John Calvin, and do not provide a comprehensive summary of his teaching.

Although it can be argued that John Calvin believed all of the five points of Calvinism, they were first formulated more than 50 years after his death in 1564. 

In the early 1600’s, some Dutch protestants, including Jacobus Arminius (1560-1609), began to question election, predestination, and so on. Arminius died in 1609, but in 1610 his supporters presented a remonstrance to the states of Holland and Friesland, with five objections to Reformed theology.

In 1619, the Synod of Dort not only rejected these five points of Arminianism, but also re-asserted classic reformed theology by issuing 93 canonical rules (the Canons of Dort). The Synod also confirmed the Belgic Confession and the Heidelberg Catechism.

Although the Synod affirmed five points of doctrine as opposed to the five points of remonstrance, it never intended that anyone would limit Reformed theology or Calvinism to these five points. That would be like taking one court case and regarding it as definitive of the entire American justice system. As J. I. Packer said in his Introductory Essay to Owen’s Death of Death:

It would not be correct simply to equate Calvinism with the five points…the five points present Calvinistic soteriology in a negative and polemical form.

There is much more to Reformed Theology, and to Calvinism, than these five points.

Fascinating Fact #2:  TULIP was not used as an acronym for Calvinism until the middle of the 20^th century.

TULIP’s history is much more recent, first appearing in Loraine Boettner’s 1932 book The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination. The acronym was further popularized by the 1963 book(let), The Five Points of Calvinism Defined, Defended and Documented by David Steele and Curtis Thomas. 

If you’re a seminarian or pastor and you’re thinking of doing a PhD, you should read Should I Apply For A PhD Program?

And if you want to  weigh up the pros and cons further, you can work your way through these articles:

PhDs Build Character More than Careers |The Gospel Coalition

Should You be a Pastor or a Professor? Thinking Through the Options | Canon Fodder

Scholarship in Service of the Church | Justin Taylor

The Painful Realities of the Adjunct Life | Everyday Theology

Things I wish I knew when I started my PhD | Between a rock and a hard place

How PhD students actually do their research, writing, teaching, changing diapers, cooking, babysitting, etc. | Abbey House Sojourner

Why Am I Pursuing a PhD in Hebrew? | Reformation21 Blog

The Perils of Doing a Ph.D.: Be Forewarned | Reclaiming the Mission

Will the Job Market Drive PhD Graduates into the Pulpit? | Hopeful Realism 

Why We Need More Doctorates in the Pastorate | Euangelion

Should you quit your PhD? | The Thesis Whisperer

Brothers, We Are Not Professors | Desiring God

PhD Survival Guide | Crux Sola

The Problem with PhDs | The Bible and Culture

Pastors Pursuing the PhD? | Meet The Puritans

How bad is the job market for PhDs? | Everyday Theology

More Bad News on the Ph.D. Job Market | Everyday Theology

Blogs

Kevin DeYoung’s Series on Sanctification | TGC
Kevin answers five vital questions about sanctification

1. How does sanctification differ from justification?
2. Can we fulfill the law absolutely in this life?
3. Are good works necessary to salvation?
4. Can justified believers do that which is truly good?
5. Do good works merit eternal life?

The Major Life Decision That Put My Theology To The Test | Tim Challies
I loved the way Tim turned his pastoral resignation into a valuable teaching opportunity. And in About That Tim Challies Guy, you’ll get the same story from Tim’s pastor’s side.

75 Incorrectly Used Words That Can Make You Look Dumb | Inc
Gulp!

Is there Difference Between Happiness and Joy | Randy Alcorn
I agree with Randy, “an ungrounded, dangerous separation of joy from happiness has infiltrated the Christian community.” You can read his book, Happiness, for more details or get a summary version of the book here.

How To Introduce a Speaker: 16 Essential Tips for Success
And for balance here’s 8 Common Guest Speaker Mistakes.

Arguments for the Creator Point To Inconsistent Worldviews | The Exchange
A former atheist comments on LifeWay Research on how Christians, and all Americans, think about the existence of a creator.

Recommended New Book

Gospel Conversations: How to Care Like Christ by Bob Kellemen. If you’ve never read any of Bob’s books before, this would be a great starter. If you have, you’ll find quite a bit of overlap with this book, but still sufficient new material to make it worthwhile.

Kindle Books

Axiom: Powerful Leadership Proverbs by Bill Hybels $1.99. I like to skim a book like this now and again. I don’t expect to read all of it or agree with most of it, but still hope I can pick up at least $1.99 worth of wisdom.

The Aviators: Eddie Rickenbacker, Jimmy Doolittle, Charles Lindbergh, and the Epic Age of Flight $3.03. When I see a book like this I think not only of reading about how God enabled the godless to create and invent such amazing machines that have been such a blessing to us all, but I’m also looking for sermon illustrations.

A Philosophy of Walking $2.51. Christianity is often portrayed as a journey, as a pilgrimage, or as walking with God. A book like this can provide a ton of illustrative and anecdotal material for sermons and Bible studies on such subjects.

The Pastor’s Kid: Finding Your Own Faith and Identity by Barnabas Piper $1.99. This is not just for pastors kids, but can help pastors and their wives shepherd their children better. Also a good book for elders who have a care for their pastor’s family.

Video

For 10 years everyone thought he was in a coma. They were wrong.

You can read his story in Ghost Boy: The Miraculous Escape of a Misdiagnosed Boy Trapped Inside His Own Body.

Blogs

Science Confirms Technology is Ruining Your Love Life | The Federalist
“Not only are we wrecking our love lives, we are literally injuring ourselves all the time because we can’t kick our cell phone habit.”

Saving Souls Takes Toll on Pastors’ Health | Ledger
“Turns out full-time church ministry actually can kill the people who do it – but it does so slowly.”

5 Warning Signs for the Church in a Facebook Culture | Michael Kruger
“What effect does “social media” technology have on the way we view the church? On the way we conceive of life in Christ’s body?”

Why Digitizing Classrooms Won’t Work | The Federalist
“Research supports the notion that educators should increase the use of handwriting and cursive writing to boost cognition and increase performance.”

My Resignation Letter to my Congregation | TGC
“Though it’s quite difficult to admit our limitations and vulnerabilities when it comes to our vocations, Russ opens up to his church family about their growing pastoral needs and his evolving sense of call.”

Teachable Teachers | R C Sproul
“It is bad enough when students or parishioners are not teachable, but there is something even worse. I’m talking about teachers who are not teachable.”

Kindle Books

Answering Your Kids’ Toughest Questions: Helping Them Understand Loss, Sin, Tragedies, and Other Hard Topics by Elyse Fitzpatrick $1.99.

On Guard: Preventing and Responding to Child Abuse at Church by Deepak Reju $3.03.

You, Your Family and the Internet: What every Christian in the digital age ought to know by David Clark $3.99.

Video

5 Things Pastors Should Ask Themselves Before Sunday | WTS Faculty Blog

The Association of Theological Schools, the main accrediting agency for North American Seminaries, has just issued its annual report on how 2015 graduates from theological schools are doing.  Here’s a summary of the most important statistics:

Demographics

Increase in older students, decrease in younger students. Since 2011, the percentage of students over 55 has increased from 11 percent to 16 percent in 2015. This increase in older students has been matched by a significant decrease in students under 25, which dropped from 11 percent to 5 percent  between 2011 and 2014–2015.

Increase in diversity of students. While students identifying as white (non-international) have dropped from 75 percent in 2008–2009 to 63 percent in 2014–2015, the percentage of respondents identifying as black (nonHispanic) has risen from 13 percent to 17 percent. Hispanic and Asian graduates have remained steady.

Educational Debt

45% of students graduate without debt.

50% have more than $10,000 of seminary debt.

80% of black students accrue debt with 30% hitting $60,000 plus.

MDiv students accrue more seminary debt than academic or professional MA programs, partly due to the longer MDiv degree.

Vocational Goals

70% in local congregations. 70 percent of all MDiv graduates indicated that they would be seeking or have already attained positions in local congregations.

58% want to be pastors. 58% of male MDiv students intend to take leadership roles as pastors, priests, or associate pastors in local congregations.

31% bivocational. About 31 percent of graduates are or expect to be bivocational, and another 18 percent report considering bivocational ministry after graduation. Only 20 percent of 20–25 year olds planning on bivocational ministry versus 35 to 36 percent of 40–55 year olds.

Satisfaction

The most important influencers of educational satisfaction are:

• Experience in ministry
• Personal life experiences
• Interactions with students
• Accessibility of Faculty
• Quality of teaching
• Class size
• Quality of library

Satisfaction ratings showed significant similarities between traditional, on-campus and online graduates.

Anything surprise you here? Any action that seminaries should take in response to such research?

You can read the whole report here.