It’s About Time

A week or so ago, got an email from Curt Lamansky, likely to be group-mass mailing thingy, informing that major changes has taken place at Northland, my alma mater.  I gathered that this announcement was made during the Missions Conference.  Northland Baptist Bible College will now be under the umbrella of Northland International University.

It turns out to be an expansion of Northland’s vision and purpose to serve a larger community of believers.  A quick visit to Northland’s new website reveals major expansion plans.  One particular page shows video interviews of Dr Les Ollila, Dr Mat Olson and Dr Sam Horn, with each man explaining the purpose and direction in which Northland is heading in the coming days ahead.

With many things happening in my own church and personal lives (illness), I have yet to fully comprehend (actually digest is a more accurate word!) the implication and though some questions are floating in my mind, I am sure in coming days I’ll get some answers and understand things better.

Undoubtedly, certain segments of community will be apprehensive seeing what directions Cedarville and Grand Rapids had become over the years with the change of names.  Will post additional thoughts later.

Sarcasm is a crooked expression of self-pity and conceit,”

so writes John Stott in his book, The Preacher’s Portrait, p 90.  This is a wonderful exposition on pastoral theology.  As there are different facets to a preacher’s life and ministry, so Stott paints the portrait of preacher using biblical metaphor related to his life and ministry.

Earlier in his book, the author describes the preacher as a steward – one who is a trustee of his master’s goods and household. A steward’s task is faithful to his entrustment.  Then Stott went on to paint another stroke on the canvas of a preacher’s portrait with the herald metaphor – one who is to declare boldly the Gospel of the King; the message or decree from the Sovereign.  The herald has no right to change the message of the king so the preacher must be faithful to declare loyally the message of God’s word. Then followed by the witness metaphor which brings to mind the witness in the law court. The witness is to be truthful and must have personal experience of that which he is testifying to. In this case, the judge is the world, the one in the dock is Jesus Christ. The prosecution lawyer is none other than Satan himself.  The judge already biased towards Christ will hear of the believer’s witness to the veracity of Christ’s claim to be Lord.  The preacher thus has that task of testifying for the Lord with a personal and real knowledge of Jesus Christ.

The quotation stated at the onset of this blog, was given in the father metaphor.  In this metaphor, the preacher’s relationship is familial in its essence.  The apostle Paul reminded the Corinthians that though they have many instructors they only have one spiritual father. Paul was dealing with issue of choice that the church has – whether they want to have him come as a father with a whip – like the pedagogue carries when caring the master’s ward, or have him come as a father with tenderness. It’s their call, so to speak, 1 Cor 4:14.  Paul also reiterated this paternal relationship with the Thessalonians when describing

The context of the quotation speaks of a preacher’s need to love his congregation as a father towards his children.  Love defines how a preacher ought to treat his congregation – firstly, with understanding.  In that setting, the preacher is to minister with a father understanding of his children.  The author highlights the need for preachers to approach the ministry with understanding – of the people’s needs. the folks often come into the house of God with problems – personal, intellectual, moral, etc.  The best way is for the preacher to know them through interaction.  One means is that of personal visitation where the setting is more conducive for personal conversation.

Secondly, loving with a father’s gentleness.  Regardless of how rough or strict a disciplinarian a father might be, there is always that gentleness towards his children.  Gentleness of a father is expressed through that of realistic expectation. In other words, pastors must manage his expectation rightly as a father ought to do so with his children.  It is foolishness, says Stott, to expect a child to have an adult decorum or level of maturity. Likewise, preachers must exercise awareness in this area. Just as sometimes a child may exhibit maturity beyond his age in perceiving certain concepts, the same child might just drive us up the wall with his childish antics {at this juncture, I am reminded of my relationship with my daughter!}.

A good point raised is that sarcasm is not a weapon that love will use to achieve its objective. In fact, Stott was right to say that sarcasm is actually a “crooked expression of self-pity and conceit.” How true that is!  The key to effective pastoral ministry is to persevere, and not to lose patience or temper but to pray; also to learn not to resort to sarcasm but conduct as “… the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, 25 In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth.” (2 Tim 2:24-25). Not easy but through God’s grace, it shall and must be done.

My alma mater, Central Baptist Theological Seminary, finally obtained academic accreditation.  I’ve always felt it is solid in its theological and academic rigors and only if pursued seriously, there isn’t any reason why accreditation isn’t possible.  Well, they finally did it. 

The seminary website states this:

Central Baptist Theological Seminary of Minneapolis has received standing as an accredited institution with the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges & Schools (TRACS) on November 4, 2008.

Central Seminary’s initial contact with TRACS took the form of a visit from Dr. Jeff McCann in 2003.  During that visit Dr. McCann convinced the faculty and staff that Central Seminary was in a credible position to aim for accreditation.  After attending a seminar for potential TRACS applicants in early 2004, President Kevin T. Bauder recommended to the faculty and board that Central Seminary pursue accreditation with TRACS. In 2005, the institution wrote its first self-study and hosted its first team visit. In November of that year, Central Seminary received candidate status.

Instead of taking the normal five years to move from candidate to accredited, the administration, faculty, and staff recommended to the board that the institution aim to complete the process in three years. With board support, the whole Central Seminary family labored to attain this goal. By God’s grace and with the support from our alumni and friends, our efforts have been rewarded. Thank you for your support and prayers!

I’ve been a user of logos software since mid-90s. Initially I dislike the features as I find it rather cumbersome to meander (maybe it’s because I am not that patient nor tech savvy). Ever since libronix came on board the entire setup has been fantastic. The books that I used to own but hardly access suddenly became readily available.Having tweaked some features for personal preference, I found that it was seamless in its ability to link different books and resources and present it as one package during searches. This is helpful for pastors who just want to read and study. Of course when TJLCD was introduced, it helped boost the usage of logos.

I wished Logos would load up and then move quickly. Being owner of Bible works 7.0 I still find it a winner in terms of rate of accessing information. Speed is definitely on the side of BW. Logos’ strength is on its library of various books that are readily available. This would serve missionaries well seeing these literature could cost a huge bomb to ship to other parts of the earth. So what would I recommend? Both Logos and BW if one can afford it. Otherwise I would go for logos for its vast libraries; BW if I want to do exegesis extensively. otherwise, logos also has sufficient software and diagraming tools to help do the work. Again the speed is critical issue. I wonder why Logos doesn’t go into 32 bit or 64 bit mode of operation?