Thanks to a mission team from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and Boyce College, the Bashkortostan region of Russia has an increased passion for church planting.

Bruce Carlton, associate professor of missions at Boyce, led five Boyce students and one Southern student on a trip to the city of Ufa this summer, where he conducted a training session for Russian church planters and evangelists at the invitation of the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board.
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Readex, a company that specializes in digiting historical primary source research materials, has graciously invited me to a conference on digital research — and is even footing the bill. Vermont. October. Leaves. Crisp autumn air. Bed and Breakfast. Very gracious, indeed.

About the Institute:

Held annually since 2003 in Chester, Vermont, the Readex Digital Institute offers a casual yet intellectually challenging forum for exploring the digital research universe. Past attendees, including a diverse group of academic librarians and faculty, praise the Institute for the unique platform it provides to discuss wide-ranging issues affecting 21st-century scholarship.

So, I will be blogging the conference for those of you with an interest in research. Partial agenda:

1. Tuesday, 10/7/08: Travel, dinner, Welcome and Introduction, Postprandial Comments.
2. Wednesday
   • Keynote: “From Ponderous Perfection to the Perpetual Beta: Library Services in an Age of Superabundant Information”
   • The Collections Collaborative: Putting Content Into the Flow
   • Tour of the Readex Digitization and Editorial Facility
   • The World According to Grep: Seeing Text Through the Search Box
3. Thursday
   • Libraries and Digitization
   • A Digital Humanities Approach to Understanding the Electronic ‘Book’
   • Research Techniques in Digital Context: Beyond “Nifty” and on to “Useful”
   • LibraryOn - In Search of a Library Platform
4. Friday, 10/10/08: Travel.

Follow my Facebook status for updates as I suffer and endure the Vermont autumn. The highlight of the trip may well be the Vermont Country Store. They have everything.

Anyone who knows me well knows that I love the work of Wendell Berry. I was thrilled to see a new collection of Berry's "mad farmer" poems published by Counterpoint Press.

I picked up two copies of The Mad Farmer Poems, one for myself and one for my favorite fellow Berryphile, my colleague Don Whitney.

This edition is a beautiful large volume with engravings by illustrator Abigail Rorer. My favorite work in the collection is Berry's poem "Some Further Words," which includes these lines:

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Back in May I posted a link about the Orphan Works Bill taken up by Congress. Though it would not have provided a sorely needed recodification of the rather burdensome and vague US Copyright Code, it would have provided some measure of protection to those who desire to advance the field of knowledge by building upon the work of an author who has been either unresponsive to a researcher’s attempts at securing copyright permissions or whose location and contact information are unknown. This protection would have come in the form of limiting judicial remedies in cases where an author or other copyright owner who had been unresponsive to a diligent, good-faith effort on the part of a researcher subsequently sued.

Anyway, the Senate passed the bill but it has since died a quiet death in the House. I agree (I think) with Lawrence Lessig’s NTY argument that what constitutes a “good-faith effort” may have been too vague in this bill, but I hate to throw out the orphan with the bathwater. Lessig points out the problem:

The Congressional Research Service has estimated that just 2 percent of copyrighted works that are 55 to 75 years old retain any commercial value. Yet the system maintains no registry of copyright owners nor of entities from which permission to use a copyrighted work can be sought. The consequence has been that an extraordinary chunk of culture gets mired in unnecessary copyright regulation.

On a related note, I urge all my readers who are Members of Congress (ha!) to consider and act on the recommendations by the Section 108 Study Group sponsored by the Library of Congress.

There. I feel better getting that off my chest.

Oh, and the fastest way to kill a blog and lose readers? Begin blogging about copyright law.

 Jani Ortlund is a mother, pastor's wife and former school teacher. She is also the author of Fearlessly Feminine: Boldly Living God's Plan for Womanhood. Gender Blog recently sat down and interviewed her on issues of femininity and biblical womanhood. Her husband, Ray Ortlund, Jr., is a noted pastor and author. The Ortlunds live in Nashville, where Ray serves as pastor of Immanuel Church.

Gender Blog: What led you to write your book, Fearlessly Feminine?

Jani Ortlund: My love for women and my concern for when we were headed in those days-and that was in the late-90s. My daughter was reaching adulthood and my three sons were looking for women to marry. I was concerned that women were losing their way as women; they weren't appreciating femininity, they weren't enjoying that God had made them a woman and they were fighting for things that might be wasted energy. We only have so much energy—physical, spiritual, emotional energy—why not devote them to the things God calls us to do as women? I also wrote it for myself because I tend to be a little bit fearful. When I come up against a barricade my first response is not always faith and saying, "Wow, now I get to see what God will get to do in a situation." Oftentimes, it's, "Oh no, not now." I found myself fearful about different things and I think women do struggle with fear, yet femininity calls us not to. It calls us to be brave, courageous, strong, wise, embracing all that God has for us as women.

GB: How would you define femininity?

Ortlund: Femininity and masculinity lie at the very core of humanity. God created us male and female, so if I don't understand the difference, it is very hard for me to embrace my own uniqueness. John Piper really helps me with this. He says this: At the heart of true femininity is a freeing disposition to affirm, receive and nurture strength and leadership from worthy men in ways appropriate to a woman's differing relationships. I take those three words—affirming, receiving and nurturing—as the core of femininity. I affirm those around me. I receive leadership willingly, lovingly, joyfully. I receive others into my sphere, into my home and then I nurture them. From conception all the way through life, we as women are to be nurturers. So that to me is at the core of femininity. Beyond that, throughout all of Scripture, God paints for us a picture of what a woman looks like. From Eve all the way through the book of Revelation, we see women and he says, "This is the kind of woman I honor and lift up and this is the kind of woman I discipline"' I want to be on the honoring side, so I look to Scripture for that.

GB: How does fear play into living out womanhood for a single woman?

Ortlund: It's really strange. We fear being single and we fear being married. We fear infertility and then we fear child birth. We fear having a baby, but then fear them growing older into teenage years. Then we fear widowhood and then we fear living forever with this man. We fear financial insecurity, but we fear going out into the marketplace and earning money. Our lives are full of fear and I really think it eats at the core of our relationship to God. We find it almost threatening to our femininity to trust God. Think of Eve. The very first conversation there in the Garden of Eden where Satan sits on her shoulder and says, "Did God really say?" and he calls all of God's words into question and that's where our fears start: "Did God really say?" I can tell you that I trust in God, that He is sovereign, that He is all-powerful, but when I lay my head down on the pillow at night, if my last thought is, "How am I going to pay that bill tomorrow?" then I am not really trusting Him at the heart level. It's just a head-knowledge. That's why the subtitle of my book is "Boldly embracing God's Plan for Us." It's more than just head knowledge. That fear starts in the heart, where we are wondering, Will I be protected? Will I be cared for? Can I make it? Is it worth it? What does it mean to be a woman? Can I truly take Scripture at face value and look at these real words, words like sin, redemption, submit, respect, obey, all of those words, can I look them square in the face and ask, "How do they apply to me as a woman?" and can I embrace that? Or do I say, "No, it's too scary." Fear is a huge thing in the lives of women, because as women, we are often in vulnerable positions. It's the man who is to be the leader, even in the area of dating for younger women. We want to be called on the phone, we want to be asked out, we want to be pursued. In marriage, we want our husband to lead us. We don't want to take the leadership and have him stay at home and have him fix the meals and we go out to be the big earner. Generally speaking, we don't want to and I don't think the Bible holds that up as a worthy model. So, in a way, we have to wait and be patient. It's in that waiting and patience for godly male leadership—for us to affirm and receive and nurture—it's in that waiting that we get kind of scared.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of the interview on Monday.

Now that the economic "bailout" plan has been passed by Congress, expect all parties involved to claim credit if it appears to work and deny blame if the crisis worsens.  Though the primary problem is a crisis in the credit markets and the financial sector, the entire economy feels the crunch.  The crisis now may lie in the awareness of uncertainty -- and no one likes uncertainty when it comes to matters economic.

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Last night nearly 70 million people tuned in to watch the highly anticipated vice presidential debate between Sen. Joe Biden and Gov. Sarah Palin. Meanwhile, Dr. Moore was quoted in yesterday's issue of The Tennessean, saying: "'I think that the most exalted and glorious calling that a woman can achieve is that of wife and mother,' he said. 'I would not see any higher calling.'" (Robert E. Sagers)

Contours of a Great Commission Resurgence is a series of articles by faculty of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary that seeks to offer some definitions of what constitutes a GCR, why we believe the SBC is in need of such a movement, and what such a movement might look like in SBC life.  The series will address biblical, theological, historical and practical issues related to a GCR with the hope that God will use our finite and flawed efforts for His glory and the good of the people called Southern Baptist.

The Crisis in 21st Century Preaching: a Mandate for Biblical Exposition
Part  E

5. Effective biblical instruction will take serious and develop the implications of what Jesus said in Luke 24 about the Christological nature of Scripture.

Jesus said in John 15:26, When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father- the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father- He will testify about Me.” And in John 16:14, Jesus adds, “He [the Holy Spirit] will glorify Me.” Call it what you will, preaching that does not exalt, magnify and glorify the Lord Jesus is not Christian Preaching. Preaching that does not present the gospel and call men and women to repent of sin and place their faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is not gospel preaching. We are not Jewish rabbis or scribes, and this truth should guide us in how we handle the Old Testament. Jesus, Himself, provides the hermeneutical key in Luke 24 (cf. also John 5:39).

Good and faithful exposition will be Christological in focus, inner-canonical in context, and inter-textual in building a biblical theology. It will carefully interpret Scripture in the greater context of the grand redemptive storyline of Scripture. The near and immediate context will be honored, but the extended and canonical context also will be honored and explored as well. Such a hermeneutic and homiletic is in harmony with that which was employed by the apostles. Applying what can be called a comprehensive Christocentric hermeneutic, we will examine “the little narratives” and “pericopes” in light of the “big narrative,” the great redemptive narrative centered in Christ. As this applies to the Old Testament, we will exegete and expound Scripture recognizing that all of the Old Testament points to Christ, and as those in Christ, it points to and is applied to us mediated through Christ.
 
Jon Akin guides us when he writes, 
  

We look for clues, themes, etc. that foreshadow what will happen at the end of the story. After reading the whole story, those clues and themes make greater sense, and are read in light of the rest of the story. When reading stories like Romeo and Juliet, The Odyssey, or The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, etc. we do not dissect the earlier episodes without putting them in the context of the entire story. It would be like analyzing act two of Romeo and Juliet without seeing the clues and themes that foreshadow the tragic movement of the plot. The same must be done when reading the Old Testament, because there are “clues” and themes that point forward to fulfillment in Christ (Jon Akin, “Reading the Bible Christocentrically: Part 2,” SBC Witness, 11-08-06).

6. From beginning to end, from the study to the pulpit, the entire process of biblical exposition must take place in absolute and complete submission to the Holy Spirit.

J. H. Jowett captured the essence of what we are after when we stand to proclaim the Word of God. There is a sobering and piercing nature to what he says: “What we are after is not that folks shall say at the end of it all. ‘What an excellent sermon!’  That is a measured failure. You are there to have them say when it is over, ‘What a great God!’ It is something for men not to have been in your presence but in His” (J. H. Jowett, quoted in Context, Dec. 1, 1997, p. 2).
 
All that we do in preparation and proclamation of the Bible should take place in humble submission to the Holy Spirit. In the study, as we analyze the text, study the grammar, parse the verbs, consult commentaries, and gather the raw materials for the message, we should seek His guidance and confess our total dependence on Him.
 
When we stand to preach, to minister the Word to our people, again we must plead for His filling and direction. Word and Spirit was a hallmark of the Reformers, and it must be the same with us. Submission to the Spirit is no substitute and no excuse for shirking the hard work of the study. However, a homiletical masterpiece will be of little value without the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
 
We are not journey guides, self-help gurus, positive thinkers, entertainers, comedians, or liberal or conservative commentators, parroting the wisdom of the world, true though it sometimes may be. We are gospel preachers, Jesus-intoxicated heralds by virtue of the indwelling and filling of the Holy Spirit. Submission to the Spirit will lead to exaltation of the Son.

7. Changed lives for the glory of God is always the goal for which we strive.  Therefore it is a sin, of the most serious sort, to preach the Word of God in a boring and unattractive fashion.
  
We agree with Charles Koller who says, “It is more important clumsily to have something to say than cleverly to say nothing” (Charles Koller, Expository Preaching Without Notes, 42-43). However, in Ecclesiastes 12:9-10 Solomon says, “. . . the Preacher also taught the people knowledge; and he pondered, searched out and arranged many proverbs. The Preacher sought to find delightful words and to write words of truth correctly.”
 
In the multi-media, entertainment saturated culture in which we live, we repeatedly tell our students, “What you say is more important than how you say it, but how you say it has never been more important.” Haddon Robinson, paraphrasing a Russian proverb says, “it is the same with men as with donkeys; whoever would hold them fast must get a very good grip on their ears.”
 
We believe that we cannot improve on the 3 canons of Aristotle’s Rhetoric. In the communication event we must weave together in an attractive tapestry Logos (what), Ethos (who), and Pathos (how). Content is essential, credibility is crucial, and delivery is of no small importance. Aristotle reminds us, “it is not enough to know what to say – one must know how to say it” (Rhetoric, 182). Chuck Swindoll warns us, “If you think the gathering of Biblical facts and standing up with a Bible in your hand will automatically equip you to communicate well, you are deeply mistaken, It will not. You must work at being interesting. Boredom is a gross violation, being dull is a grave offence, and irrelevance is a disgrace to the Gospel. Too often these three crimes go unpunished and we preachers are the criminals . . . preaching is not as simple as dumping a half-ton load of religious whine, and a hodgepodge of verbs, nouns, and adjectives; but preparing the heart, sharpening the mind; delivering the goods with care, sensitivity, timing, and clarity. It’s the difference between slopping hogs and feeding sheep . . . [Therefore] study hard, pray like mad, think it through, tell the truth, then stand tall. But while you’re on your feet, don’t clothe the riches of Christ in rags.  Say it well” (Evangelical Church Of Fullerton Newsletter, date unknown.) Martyn Lloyd-Jones adds, “There is no doubt about this; effective speaking involves action; and that is why I stress that the whole person must be involved in preaching.”
 
An effective communicator will always be genuinely relevant. The wise preacher will exegete both the scriptures and the culture. He understands that he must know each equally well. Both Luther and Calvin understood this. Luther said, “If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ” (quoted in Good News, Sept/Oct 1998, p. 9).
 
Calvin adds,

What advantage would there be if we were to stay here half a day and I were to expound half a book without considering you or your profit and edification? . . . We must take into consideration those persons to whom the teaching is addressed . . . For this reason let us note well that they who have this charge to teach, when they speak to a people, are to decide which teaching will be good and profitable so that they will be able to disseminate it faithfully and with discretion to the usefulness of everyone individually” (John Calvin, quoted in Peter Adam, Speaking God’s Words, pp. 132-133).

Bad preaching will sap the life of a church. It will kill its spirit, dry up its fruit, and eventually empty it. If we would dare to be honest, we must say that bad preaching is not true preaching. It is preaching not worthy of the name. It is preaching that will stonewall a Great Commission Resurgence.

The greeting card features two male torsos in tuxedos. The message is clear—Hallmark is ready to join the celebration of same-sex marriage. According to the Associated Press, America's most prominent greeting card producer decided to roll out a line of same-sex greetings after the California Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in May. The company had released a line of "coming out" cards last year.

As the Associated Press reports:

The language inside the cards is neutral, with no mention of wedding or marriage, making them also suitable for a commitment ceremony. Hallmark says the move is a response to consumer demand, not any political pressure.

"It's our goal to be as relevant as possible to as many people as we can," Hallmark spokeswoman Sarah Gronberg Kolell said.

The fact that Hallmark has decided to publish the cards is in some ways less interesting than that statement from the company's spokeswoman. When Sarah Gronberg Kolell asserts that Hallmark wants "to be as relevant as possible to as many people as we can" she clearly intends, even now, for the public to read certain limitations on that goal.

We can safely assume that the company is not to release a line of cards intended to celebrate polygamous marriages. There has been no shortage of media attention to these polygamous unions, but don't look for a new card picturing a man in a tuxedo surrounded by women in bridal gowns.

No, the decision to market the same-sex marriage celebration cards reveals some tipping point in the culture. The normalization of homosexuality and homosexual unions is significantly enhanced when a company like Hallmark joins the revolution.

"The fact that you have someone like Hallmark going into that niche shows it's growing and signals a trend," remarked Barbara Miller, a spokeswoman for the Greeting Card Association.

But same-sex marriage is not the only trend of note in this regard. Some greeting card companies now offer lines of cards announcing and celebrating divorce. Selected card lines for heterosexual couples are designed to cover both the married and the cohabitating. One company recently released a series of Valentines greetings for adulterous partners.

Historians are not likely to look to our greeting cards as the most important documentation of these times, but they are hardly irrelevant. These cards underline what this society has decided to celebrate, allow, and announce. Hallmark is sending America a message with the release of these same-sex marriage cards. Perhaps it is high time to send a message back.

Contours of a Great Commission Resurgence is a series of articles by faculty of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary that seeks to offer some definitions of what constitutes a GCR, why we believe the SBC is in need of such a movement, and what such a movement might look like in SBC life. The series will address biblical, theological, historical and practical issues related to a GCR with the hope that God will use our finite and flawed efforts for His glory and the good of the people called Southern Baptist.

A Mandate for Biblical Exposition, Part D

4. Pulpit proclamation must affirm that the historical-grammatical-theological interpretation will best discover both the truth of the text and the theology of the text.

The modern evangelical church faces a serious danger. It is the danger of being swallowed whole by shallow and sloppy theology. If we will teach our people solid biblical theology rooted in biblical exposition, extreme theological agendas from any direction will be easily recognized and quickly set aside.

It is our conviction that biblical theology is prior to systematic theology, but that biblical theology must always proceed to systematic theology. The hesitancy on the part of some students of the Bible to follow through on this latter point is unwise and unacceptable. Allowing the priority of biblical/exegetical theology will result in a more faithful and honest interpretation, but it will also demand more tension in one’s theological system.
 
Walter Kaiser reminds us that, “the discipline of Biblical theology must be a twin of exegesis. Exegetical theology will remain incomplete and virtually barren in its results, as far as the church is concerned, without a proper input of “informing theology” (Kaiser, Toward and Exegetical Theology, 139).

Doctrinal/theological preaching is noticeably absent in the modern pulpit. Theological and biblical illiteracy is the heavy price being paid. As the preacher exegetes both his text and audience, he should be sensitive to the theological truths contained in and supported by the text. He must endeavor to develop a strategy that will allow him to convey these truths in a clear, winsome and relevant manner. A faithful minister of the Word will bombard every text with a series of questions that many preachers of the Holy Scripture never ask, questions that will inspire and equip  a congregation to become competent systematic theologians.

1. What does this text say about the Bible (and the doctrine of Revelation)?
2. What does this text say about God (also Creation, angelology)?
3. What does this text say about humanity (and sin, our falleness)?
4. What does this text say about Jesus Christ (His person and  work)?
5. What does this text say about the Holy Spirit?
6. What does this text say about Salvation?
7. What does this text say about the Church?
8. What does this text say about Last Things?

Now, we need to be honest and forthright at this point. It is impossible to preach without preaching some type of theology or doctrine. However, an unhealthy allegiance to a particular tradition of theology may give you a nice, tight, clean theological system, but it will also lead you to squeeze and twist certain texts of Scripture in order to force them into your theological mold, grid or ghetto! We believe a better way is to let your exegesis drive your theology. Let your theological system be shaped by Scripture and not the reverse. You will most certainly have more tension, more mystery, but your will be more true to the text of Holy Scripture, and you will embrace and cultivate a more healthy and balanced theology.

In this context, we would encourage every preacher to always ask of every text three questions, and to ask them in this order, 1) What does this text say about God? 2) What does this text say about fallen humanity? 3) How does this text point to Christ and His person and work? This three-fold inquiry appropriates the insight of Bryan Chappell and his “Fallen Condition Focus” (FCF). It also will guide us in having a Theocentric/Christocentric homiletic and theology. It will make sure that the real hero of the Bible is always on display: the Lord Jesus Christ. It will serve as an effective vaccine to the psychological, therapeutic, feel-good or mystical/personalistic diseases that have infected the Church. It will keep Jesus preeminent and the gospel front and center.

Warren Wiersbe has sounded a much needed warning in this area,

I don’t think the average church member realizes the extent of the theological erosion that’s taken place on the American exegetical scene since World War II, but the changes I’ve witnesses in Christian broadcasting and publishing make it very real to me. Radio programs that once majored in practical Bible teaching are now given over to man-centered interviews (”talk” radio is a popular thing) and man-centered music that sounds so much like what the world presents, you wonder if your radio is tuned to a Christian station. In so much of today’s ministry “feeling good” has replaced being good, and ‘happiness’ has replaced holiness (Wiersbe, Be Myself, 301).

Donald Bloesch adds,

[T]he church that does not take theology seriously is unwittingly encouraging understandings of the faith that are warped or unbalanced (Bloesch, Crumbling Foundations: Death And Rebirth In An Age Of Upheaval, 107).

A steady diet of exegetical theology fleshed out in expository preaching is a certain cure for the spiritual anemia that afflicts too many of our churches. 

Justin Taylor reports: "A fascinating survey out today from Beliefnet and John Green (of the Bliss Institute at University of Akron). Called The Twelve Tribes of American Politics (the first one was in 2004), it is based on the National Surveys of Religion and Politics. 'The premise: most political reporting acted as if there were two groups – the Religious Right and Everyone Else.' Their analysis divides the population into 'twelve tribes.'" (Phillip Bethancourt)

Last night, a documentary called, "My Fake Baby" detailed a company specializing in incredibly lifelike dolls--called "reborns"--some of which come with veins, a rising chest, and an artificial heartbeat. Though some are purchased (for up to $4,000) as collectibles, many are purchasing these dolls, in the words of one mother, "because they satisfy [my] maternal instinct, without all the carrying on and mess." What might this say about the way many view the prospect of new life, and how might we cultivate in our churches a mentality that celebrates children as blessing? (Daniel L. Patterson)