Welch College Graduate Breakfast Charge: Fools for Christ
This past week Welch College graduates participated in commencement exercises. It was a time of celebration and excitement. I was deeply appreciative of and honored by the opportunity to issue the charge at the graduate breakfast. What follows is the manuscript of that charge. Graduates: Thank you for the opportunity to give to you the senior challenge. Through the years, I’ve had most of you in class, I’ve seen many of you in my...
Job 31 and Countercultural Integrity
by Gowdy Cannon There are not many chapters like Job 31 in our Bible. This beaten down and defensive man with nothing left, backed into a theological corner about God’s justice, spends forty verses defending his integrity. I suppose this is understandable, considering what Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar had driven him to with their simplistic view on suffering and God; yet it still smacks of pride. We know that Job did not consider...
The Church’s Response to the Opioid Epidemic: An Interview with Daniel Edwards
From 1999 to 2017, more than 700,000 people died from drug overdoses. In 2017, the number of overdose deaths involving opioids (including prescription opioids and illegal opioids like heroin and illicitly manufactured Fentanyl) was six times higher than it was in 1999. On average, 130 Americans die every day from an opioid overdose. To put these numbers in perspective, opioid-related deaths outnumber car crashes and gun-related deaths...
The Fourth Strand of the Reformation: A Review
Evangelicals exist along a spectrum concerning their interest in ecclesiology. Some are largely disinterested in what the Bible says about how to structure the local church. Yet others express a revived interest in ecclesiology, which ministries such as 9Marks have deeply influenced in the Baptist world. Where we fall on this spectrum isn’t driven entirely by our soteriology either. We might be tempted to think that the interest in...
Book Review: Reset by David Murray
by Zach Vickery We live in a culture that is constantly pushing us to more productivity. There’s never a shortage of self-help books and blogs full of hacks to make life easier and more productive. In some ways, this push is a good thing since it encourages us to be good stewards of the time God has given us. Since the Garden of Eden, God intended for humans to work. Scripture, especially the wisdom literature, gives us instruction on...
Hope, Love, and Transcendence: An Analysis of Interstellar
Some months ago I re-watched a film that was released five years ago: Interstellar. Director Christopher Nolan’s film is about hope, love, and transcendence. Amid a broader film culture that celebrates decadence and meaninglessness, this film’s vision is refreshing. Interstellar released in 2014, earning approximately $677.5 million worldwide and receiving five Academy Award nominations. Since I first viewed the film, I’ve continued...
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