The Future of Practical Theology Among Free Will Baptists
We can identify much of what we seek to do in everyday life as “practical theology.” We’ve grown accustomed to various mantras and assertions that “all of life is theological”—and it is. We cannot avoid thinking, feeling, and behaving in theological ways. All of life is under the lordship of Christ, and thus it is all, ultimately, of theological significance. Yet, if all of theology is not only Christ-centered and biblically-based but...
Balancing Family and Education
I have attended school for about twenty-five years now. I had the average K-12 grade schedule, with no hiccups along the way. I graduated on time from Tecumseh High School back home in southeast Michigan. I then took five-and-a-half years to finish my four-year bachelor’s degree at Welch College (beginning with a semester at a community college back home). During the last two years of my undergraduate education, I worked full-time in...
Book Review: The Apologetics of Leroy Forlines
In my work as a teacher I have noticed a recent surge in Free Will Baptist students who are interested in apologetics. Anecdotally, I can count a handful of students who have graduated recently from Welch College and have gone on to earn (or are earning) master’s degrees in apologetics. While a number of variables may contribute to this sudden interest, these students are heirs to a certain kind of theological thinking concerning...
Free Will Baptists and the “Mind-body Problem”
Who are we? Who are you? Who am I? These questions of identity rank among Leroy Forlines’s “inescapable questions of life.”[1] And as Forlines notes, these inquiries are not the result of mere curiosity; they are instead our entire beings’ profound cry for answers.[2] Understanding who we are, both in body and in soul, is essential to understanding our purposes and perceptions in and of the world. Much of the foundation of our lives...
Ministering to High-risk Teenagers
I’ve had the privilege of serving on staff in three different churches. In many ways, the churches couldn’t be more different. The first was a growing congregation in northern Alabama that ministers largely to middle-class families. The second was in eastern North Carolina. By many standards, this church is large and continues to grow. The make-up of the church is middle-to-upper middle class. Because of various Christian schools in...
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