Books at a Glance

For a number of years, I served in the apologetics section of Books at a Glance, writing reviews and summaries and enlisting others to do so. And on a number of occasions, the editor Fred Zaspel interviewed me regarding something I'd written. Along the way, I learned of his interest in B. B. Warfield, and, once I had read Fred's main volume on Warfield, which I much enjoyed, I suggested that I might turn the tables and interview him on his book. He acquiesced, and here's our conversation.

Zoom, September 6, 2022

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Acts 20:17-38: Spiritual Heroism

When our daughter Chesed married Jeremy Broggi, she found herself connected to an extraordinary extended family, including Jeremy’s parents, Carl and Audrey. Carl is the longtime pastor of the prominent Community Bible Church in Beaufort, South Carolina, and Audrey is a popular blogger with a radio presence as well (http://audreybroggi.com). Through the years, we’ve enjoyed our time with the Broggis and our four mutual granddaughters—Chesed’s and Jeremy’s kids, Lois, Ruth, Dorothy, and Agnes. We’ve found ourselves together with Carl and Audrey in the Oval Office with President Bush #2 (for whom Jeremy worked) and in Annapolis, Maryland, where we enjoyed dinner and a walkaround. This July, Carl was kind enough to invite me to preach in his pulpit, introducing me with words of commendation for my new book If Christianity Is So Good, Why Are Christians So Bad? Beaufort is in a beautiful, historic, Low Country setting, on one of the Atlantic Sea Islands. Ante-bellum homes, shrimp boats, and long graceful bridges are all about. And Marines are plentiful in the area, either going through basic training on Parris Island or serving at the nearby air base (cf. The Great Santini). In this connection, the Broggis have ministered to a good many Marines and their families as well as to a great mix of “natives” and transplants. It was such a privilege to preach this message there . . . and to have Sharon present, whom they were gracious to bring down with me

Beaufort, South Carolina, July 24, 2022

History and Future of the SBC

Voddie Baucham was slated to teach an IOPT course on culture apologetics in the days before Founders Ministries national conference in Cape Coral, Florida (just west of Fort Myers). But airline difficulties in Africa delayed his arrival, so Tom Ascol asked me to cover a couple of days, giving Voddie time to arrive and teach the bulk of the course. It was a joy and privilege to meet with the twenty or so young men in attendance, and also to "tape" this conversation with Tom.

Cape Coral, Florida, January 25, 2022

Christianity and the Arts

Richard Henry was my student at SBTS, and now he’s a pastor in Kentucky. He’s been a joy to talk with through the years. Now he has a video blog named Contra Mundum Pro Mundo, and he came to our house to tape an episode. Here we converse on a couch in our basement. This post focuses on the arts, but we touched on other items as well.

My House, Aug 7, 2021

Resolved To Get Cookin’: Overdue Diligence

At the Founders Ministries pre-Convention conference in Nashville, June 2021, the theme was “Resolution,” playing off opposition to the ill-conceived Resolution 9 (on critical race theory and intersectionality), hustled through a vote in 2019 in Birmingham, before messengers knew what was happening. The bulk of the talks at the Nashville conference were keyed toward the folly of that particular resolution and the cultural/theological crisis it represented. With those concerns laid out by the time I got up to speak mid-afternoon, I addressed the need to be diligent in our ministries—a work-ethic message. Granting the need to unstring the bow, to rest and restore ourselves, I suggested that the greater issue today was the one laid out in Alistair Begg’s book, Crazy Lazy, rather than the one in Kevin DeYoung’s excellent book, Crazy Busy. And so I offered a dozen or so suggestions, drawing on my experience in the pastorate, the army, academia, and denominational service.

Nashville, Tennessee, June 14, 2021

1989 Resolutions Committee Report

SBC President Jerry Vines asked me to chair the Resolutions Committee at the Las Vegas convention in 1989. The other committee members were David Allen, Jerry Brown, Joy Dorsett, Ken Hemphill, David McAlpin, James Merritt, Linda Shrewsbury, Jerry Sutton, and Walt Tomme. The resolutions at the previous year’s convention in San Antonio generated some serious furor, especially one on “the priesthood of the believer.” It cautioned that this doctrine should not be used to justify misinterpreting, demythologizing, and otherwise misusing the Bible. When it passed, two hundred messengers turned in their ballots and marched to the Alamo in protest, where they got glowing coverage in the secular press, such as what you find in this piece by the Los Angeles Times. (https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-06-18-me-4652-story.html) With that background, I floated the idea of having a year’s moratorium on resolutions, to let things cool down a bit. President Vines (who’d won election narrowly over Richard Jackson in 1988, in a contest involving 30,000 messengers at the height of the Conservative Resurgence) said we should go ahead and do our work as usual, and he was so right. It turns out that SBC entities, particularly the CLC (now the ERLC), used those resolutions to do their work, a fact I would fully understand two years later when I went to work as Vice President for Public Relations for the SBC Executive Committee. In relating to the press, I constantly drew on resolutions to explain our thinking on various issues. I should add that the entities now only ask for resolution-tools, but also sometimes urge us to not speak on things. I think, for example, of a request from the FMB (now the IMB) to refrain from presenting one on a political conflict overseas, in that it could stir up difficulties for their personnel working there. And so we complied.

Las Vegas, Nevada, 1989

Our Blessings in Christ

In January of 2013, I led a Saturday workshop on aesthetics at Evangelical Community Church in Bloomington, Indiana, and then stayed over to preach a Sunday morning sermon on “Our Blessings in Christ” from Isaiah 61.

Bloomington, Indiana, January 20, 2013

Wield he Sword: Aesthetics

Founders Ministries asked me to talk on aesthetics for the Wield The Sword series, so I traveled to Cape Coral, Florida, to tape these comments. The video is crafted and image-salted by the gifted artists of The Chocolate Knox.

Cape Coral, Florida, May 17, 2021

Mammas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Ethicists

In the spring of 2017, I delivered the annual C.W. Scudder Lectures at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City. The lectureship was established "to explore the biblical basis for dealing with contemporary challenges and ethical issues." The first day, I spoke under the theme, "Mammas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Ethicists" (playing off the old Willie Nelson song about cowboys). The next day, I followed up with "Mammas, Encourage Your Babies to Grow Up To Be Ethicists." The trials came first, and then the resources and rewards. You can find the second video at: https://vimeo.com/207198452

Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, February 28, 2017