Speechless… sorta
Sometimes, things happen… and you just don’t know what to say about those things.
Today, as we were meeting with the church, things happened… good things… pretty amazing things actually.
In fact, over the last few weeks some pretty amazing things have been happening.
But, it’s hard to know what to write or say about these things. Especially when things happen that you really didn’t expect to happen… things that show exactly how little faith you had in God to work in ways that he said he would work.
So, I haven’t really said anything… sorta… because I’m speechless… sorta. But, I want to write something… and encourage you to trust God… even when… especially when… you don’t think something could happen.
I may write about these things later as they continue to unfold. But, I may not.
Prospectus News
This afternoon, I received news that the evaluation committee passed my prospectus. (A prospectus is a detailed description and plan for writing a dissertation.) So, I am now officially working on my dissertation.
For those who may be interested, the title of my dissertation will be “Mutual Edification as the Purpose of the Assembled Church in the New Testament: A Study in Biblical Theology.”
For those who may be even more interested, here is a succinct outline:
- Introduction
- History of Interpretation
- Historical Background
- Analysis of Primary New Testament Passages
- Analysis of Secondary New Testament Passages
- Synthesis
- Conclusion
Two FullThrottle Plugins that I use on this site
FullThrottle Development, the web development company that I’m part of, has created several WordPress plugins. I use two of them on this site:
FT-FacePress (WordPress plugin page)
This is a plugin that I developed. It publishes WordPress post information (title, url, excerpt) to a Facebook profile and/or a Facebook page. While there are several plugins that do this, FacePress is different because it allows different WordPress authors on the same site to publish post information to their own Facebook profile. However, it also works for sites that only have one author – like this one.
RF-Twitterpost (WordPress plugin page)
This plugin was written by my good friend Lew. Twitterpost publishes WordPress post information (title, url) to twitter. Like FacePress, Twitterpost allows the author to choose how he or she wants the tweet to look.
If you’ve ever seen information about my blog posts on Facebook or Twitter, the information came from these two WordPress plugins.
Publishings and Presentations
Last week, I received news that my paper “Prominence in 1 Corinthians 12-14” is going to be published in the next issue of the journal FilologÃa Neotestamentaria. This is the abstract of my paper:
Linguists have provided interpreters with several tools with which to analyze the biblical texts. However, interpreters have been slow to implement many of these sets of tools. One such set of tools allows the interpreter to consider prominence within a given discourse in order to discover which words, phrases, sentences, paragraphs, and even sections of a writing the author considered to be the most important. This paper considers linguistic prominence at the colon and paragraph level within 1 Corinthians 12-14 to help the interpreter understand Paul’s purpose in writing this discourse.
A re-worked section of the paper can be found here.
I’m also preparing a presentation on the church meeting in 1 Corinthians for Dave Black’s New Testament Theology class. I’ll be making that presentation in his class on September 30.
Finally, I’m working on a few presentation proposals for SECSOR 2010. Since I’m also working on my prospectus, and then my dissertation. So, hopefully, all of my research will parallel one another.
Pray for BeckyLynn Black
Last month, I asked you to pray for Dave Black because he had contracted malaria. He is still weak, but is recovering from the malaria.
Now, I ask you to pray for his wife, BeckyLynn Black. Yesterday, on his blog (Sunday, August 9, 2009, at 6:50 pm – y0u’ll have to scroll down to find the story), Dave reported that BeckyLynn has been diagnosed with “a rare and aggressive type of uterine cancer”. You can read her report here: “To Go On Living Is Christ“. She meets with an oncologist today.
BeckyLynn writes this in her post:
Let me be very clear: I do not long to live. What I long for is that I be useful for the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus. I’m in the same position as the Apostle Paul….I am ready for Heaven, to see His face…but if I can be useful for the Kingdom, to help believers (including my own family) grow strong, to influence others for Jesus, then I am willing and happy to remain on earth a while longer.
If we all thought this way, it would help us keep life in perspective.
I’ll keep you updated whenever I hear anything.
PhD Comprehensive Exams
I passed my PhD Comprehensive exams this morning (written and oral). I took the written part of my comps a few weeks ago, and took the oral part this morning. My orals were given by Drs. Black, Beck, and Robinson. I thoroughly enjoyed my oral exams, and I’m grateful to the three men who administered it.
So, what’s left in my PhD studies? The next step is to finish my prospectus and to get it approved. (The prospectus explains what my dissertation will be about and what methodology I will use.) After my prospectus is approved, I will write my dissertation.
Update on Dave Black
Thank you for everyone who has been praying for Dave Black (see my post “Pray for Dave Black“). I appreciate everyone who contacted me since Tuesday for an update. Here is the latest update that we received this morning from his wife, BeckyLynn:
I just talked to Dave….he sounds washed out, but is doing well. He says to please pass along to everyone his special thanks for your prayers. If our Lord is willing, this afternoon I will be bringing him home. It will take another week to get “out of the woods”, so please continue to pray for him. Malaria is not often seen in US hospitals, so news of his case travelled everywhere at UNC….and this issued many opportunities to share the Gospel and the joy of working for His Kingdom. As with Paul’s imprisonment, God has already worked it for good and eternal benefit. Praise Him!
So, on behalf and Dave and BeckyLynn Black, Thank you for your prayers and please continue to pray for his recovery!
Pray for Dave Black
David Alan Black is my Ph.D. mentor and friend and the author of the recently released book The Jesus Paradigm. He became sick last week, and the doctor’s diagnosed him with Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and sent him home.
However, they have now changed their diagnosis to malaria. Apparently, he contracted malaria during a recent trip to Ethiopia. He is being treated in a local hospital. Please pray for his recovery.
An Interesting Study
Andrew (at “Paticipatory Church Gatherings“) has written a very interesting (and provocatively titled) article called “It’s Better to Preach to Your Pet than Sit Through Sermons“. The point of the article is that people retain only 5% of what they hear in a lecture. However, they often learn more from other styles of teaching and by taking part themselves.
Here is the breakdown according to the study that Andrew references:
- Lecture – 5%
- Reading – 10%
- Audio-Visual – 20%
- Demonstration – 30%
- Discussion in Groups – 50%
- Practice by Doing – 75%
- Teach Others – 90%
This is a very interesting study. (You can read Andrew’s article and follow the links for more details.) Notice that real learning begins when the person starts taking part in the learning process (discussion) and culminates when the person teaches for him or herself.
Now, I do not think we should base our church meetings on pragmatics. The fact that discussion “works” is not a good reason to allow multiple people to speak, ask questions, or give answers when the church meets.
However, from studying Scripture, I’ve come to the conclusion that the church gatherings in the New Testament were more interactive and more participatory than we normally find today. I’ve also realized that according to Scripture we were intended to interact with one another in this manner.
Thus, this study simple backs up what we already find in Scripture. Plus, this study also helps us understand why someone can sit in a church gathering listening to sermons for year with very little (if any) spiritual growth.
Do you think this is an important study for the church to consider? Why or why not?