Publications

On my first visit to Southern Seminary, I thought, “This library is worn.” The floors were worn. The desks were worn. The books were worn. The campus, professors, and legacy were top notch, but the library . . . underwhelming. My perspective has since changed. If I had voiced my impression of a worn library to James Petigru Boyce he would have responded, “Yes, as it should be.” Tattered floors and desks revealed that the faithful and educated ministers Boyce envisioned to lead Southern Baptists shared his convictions.

From its inception in 1859, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary has existed primarily to educate, train, and prepare pastors for a lifetime of ministry faithfulness. Over the past 160 years, the commitment of Southern Seminary to train pastors, under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, has not changed. However, the context in which pastors are called to minister continues to change rapidly. Today, pastors face challenges such as the rise of secularism, the decline of religious participation, and the increasing complexity of social issues.

Come see what God is doing at Southern Seminary as the next generation of “soldiers of Christ, in truth arrayed” is readied for deployment. These students are serious, convictional, devotional, and joyful. They know the landscape of the post-modern world and they are determined to preach Christ and lead gospel churches. They match seriousness with sweetness. God is doing something marvelous in this generation and right here at Southern Seminary and Boyce College. Come see it for ourself, pray for us, and thank God for calling out the called in this generation. How kind of God to let us be a part of all this.

If you are responsible for preaching to an assembly, make it your goal to serve them from both the Old and New Testaments. The Lord has inspired sixty-six canonical books for the nourishment of his people.

When God raised up human leaders as shepherds, he was calling them to participate in his work of rescuing his people, remaining with them, and providing for them. This calling did not elevate leaders to positions of sovereign lordship over the people; instead, it placed them in positions of sacrificial stewardship among the people of Israel.

Life and ministry have changed rapidly and radically over the past forty years. Reared in a pastor’s home, I was not, on the one hand, totally unprepared for the complexities and complications that awaited me when I accepted my first full-time ministry assignment at only twenty years old. On the other hand, no one was prepared for the sweeping changes that the next four decades would produce.

No one prepares you for how strange ministry is. How could they? To be strange is to be unexpected, odd, out of the norm. And personal ministry in particular traffics in the unknowns. It occurs at the heart of strange.