Weekly Whinings
October 27th, 2007 by tempe
Those of you who know me well might guess that I’m in a GREAT mood tonight, consider the University of Georgia polished off the hated Florida Gators, 42-30. Well, I am pretty elated, but I do have a few things to get off my chest from this week. So, to coincide with the Monday Musings idea, I’ve decided to offer a new feature: Weekly Whinings. I have three such opportunities to whine to present to you, gentle reader.
Whine # 1 – While I am thankful for the rain that was sent to Louisville on Monday and Tuesday, 10″ created a few problems at the manse. These included a leaky roof (fixed today) and a leaky basement (which required a window to be sealed with hydraulic cement — not too difficult — and water to be bailed from a window compartment that I can’t really describe too well to you; I might post a picture later this week and ask someone to tell me what it is, since this is the first house I’ve lived in with a basement). However, let me soothe the tone of this whine by adding that I am incredibly thankful to our Lord that He has mercifully provided housing for my wife and me; last May, I wasn’t sure where the next roof over our heads would come from. So even a leaky (or formerly leaky) roof and basement are blessings!
Whine # 2 — You all know how I feel about Starbucks Churches. Today, my wife and I attended an adoption seminar held at a local megachurch (technically, that name isn’t correct anymore; churches with over 10,000 members — and this one, which is the 6th largest in the nation, has over 18,000 — are properly called “gigachurches”). I was surprised to find, as I entered the door of this monstrosity (one of several buildings on an enormous campus), that there was no Starbucks here. That’s because they have their own coffee shop! During one of the breaks, I decided to stop by to grab a cup (yes, we all have our weaknesses), but I was disappointed to find … they were closed. On Saturdays, they don’t open the coffee shop until 4 pm. I’m just guessing, but that’s probably because their Saturday evening worship service starts at 5.
Whine # 3 — Some of you might know that one of the opportunities I’ve looked forward to in Louisville is working on another theology degree. I was really excited to see that Southern Baptist Theological Seminary has a Ph.D. program in Apologetics and Worldview, an area in which I’m interested. I haven’t been too impressed with SBTS’ recruitment, as they’ve been very slow to respond to the various requests I’ve made; it took two weeks to get a catalog from them (they’re 5 miles away, and it wasn’t anything I couldn’t have gotten online), they generally respond with form letters and emails, and they even got my first and last names confused on one particular correspondence. However, they did have a nice student give me a call this past week and ask if I had any questions. I did, he didn’t know most of the answers, and he quickly gave me the name and number of someone who did. All things considered, I think I’m going to look into an M.Th. program at another local school (no, I am NOT going to the liberal Presbyterian seminary here!!!).
However, that’s not my main whine. SBTS managed to get me on their mailing list for the seminary’s magazine (very nice-looking publication, btw) . I was not impressed, however, that the theme of this particular issue was “The Church without Compromise”, and included on that same list with things like church membership and discipline, was (drum roll, please) baptism. I understand this is probably a concern for Southern Baptists, and I would not expect in the slightest that they would be anything but true to their spiritual convictions. My problem is that they have a professor of church history writing an article in which he says the following:
When we say the mode of baptism, we are introducing redundancy. We, as Baptists, actually don’t believe in baptism by immersion. We believe in baptism, which is immersion. Let me explain: the word baptizein in Greek means to immerse. When we begin talking about the mode of baptism, we prejudice the matter severely against Christ having revealed the specific form…
I understand the gentleman’s expertise is in church history (as opposed to NT or Greek), but that’s a bit irresponsible. He is misleading his readership but suggesting that “baptize” only means “to immerse” (in fact, it has a much wider semantic range, which I suspect he knows). The case is not nearly as clear as he seems to think it is, and that is partly because the emphasis in the NT is not on the mode, but on the change of which baptism is a sign and seal. I guess this wouldn’t have bothered me so much if the issue hadn’t been on the subject of compromise in churches (the implication being that anything short of immersion is “compromise”). In the President’s Journal at the beginning of the issue, Al Mohler quotes from both J.C. Ryle and R.B. Kuiper on the subject of compromise within the church; neither Ryle nor Kuiper was an immersionist. Whoops.
In another article, the same professor, when asked which doctrines he considers to be primary, secondary, and tertiary in the church, includes baptism by immersion as a secondary matter (though he adds “to stray away from [secondary doctrines] is a grave matter”). He then includes as third-tier matters the following: “frequency of communion, use of musical instruments, [and] plurality of elders.” This would seem to suggest that the professor would relegate issues of worship (frequency of communion and musical instruments being the only things “worship related” that he mentions) as being “less important” than baptism by a particular mode. At least one of his colleagues gets something about worship right, though: when asked how one counters the argument that “God is not interested in how we worship, as long as we worship”, he responds: “If that statement were true, we could dance around golden calves.”
Hmmm, maybe I should sign up for that guy’s classes… 
I don’t have a real comment, but I want you to know that I am reading.
Have you considered undertaking research at a British school and using LPTS/SBTS libraries? Stellenbosch has an exceptional MPhil / DPhil in Biblical Hermeneutics that is available entirely by papers (i.e., no class-room time).
As a graduate of the liberal Presbyterian seminary in Louisville, I can confirm your suspicions. While the NT department is very good, the rest of the place is exactly what you would expect. Actually…it’s probably worse.
Chris, thanks for the recommendation. Do such Brit schools (I will research online) require any sort of “on-campus” attendance at all?
One of the reasons SBTS interested me is their Apologetics/Worldview program, which is of particular interest to me. I’m actually looking right now at getting an M.Th. through another local school (Campbellsville University has a satellite campus in L’ville) and then looking at some sort of doctorate (their M.Th. program is taught mostly Tuesday evenings and Saturdays, which would be great as not to interfere too much with pastoral ministry) after that. But thanks again, Chris, and I will look into this.
Thanks for commenting on the blog!!!
The Campbellsville M.Th. isn’t really suited to post-MDiv/BD work. Take a look at the courses. I have a friend on staff at Campbellsville. When I asked him about the program, he said to skip it. It’s not ATS accredited, and it’s not post-grad.
Many of the British universities will supervise your research “part time” (i.e., not on campus) so long as you can either travel there once a year, or at least twice in the program (for initial study week and your viva voce). The British universities in South Africa have the advantage of being very experienced in long-distance supervision and extremely low cost.
For instance, an MPhil & DPhil at Stellenbosch would cost less than $5K (US). It’s a fine school, as SBL regularly publishes monographs by their graduands. Pretoria offers a number of attractive options, and has a delightfully archaic winsomeness when it comes to degree names (they’re in Latin, and an earned DD is still available through them)!
I’ve checked with faculty friends from several theological institutions of various leanings. All of them have attested to the quality of the program and the staff at these schools. They are Reformed and ecumenical. You can have a genuine cross-cultural experience that is deeply rooted in Biblical Calvinism without having to resort to the pablum of diversity doctrines on US campuses.
I’m still in town, so maybe we can be a cohort! I should visit your congregation. I’ve always been interested in those cantankerous Covenanters! Are you exclusively psalm-singers?
Chris, thanks for the info on Campbellsville. I went to an open house last week and there didn’t seem to be any issues with the fact that I had an M.Div. (in fact, some of my M.Div. work could be applied to the degree, they seemed to think, but that would go to your point I guess). The guy I spoke with did slip and call the program a M.A.T.S. instead of an M.Th.; I guess I should have followed up on that. Also, I didn’t realize they were not ATS accredited (I believe they are SACS accredited, but I guess I assumed the ATS as well). At this point, though, I haven’t ventured much aside from $10 to mail in one of my transcripts. Now, I might just be giving SBTS another phone call…
Feel free to visit at Midlane Park Presbyterian Church! Covenanter might be stretching it a little (ARPs come from both the Covenanter and Seceder traditions). Most ARP churches have (sadly) departed from psalm singing (and by that, I mean they not only are they not exclusive psalmady, then are often no psalmady). I have only been here a couple of months, so one of the things I’m trying to do is to gently nudge them back in that direction (i.e., singing at least one psalm per worship service). So far, it’s slow going (we’re limited by the hymn book, but I’m working on that!). The church’s website is http://www.midlaneparkarp.org, and if you’d like to speak via phone, email me at tjparp at gmail.com (trying to avoid spammers with that).
If you do not mind me “butting in” on the conversation thanks Chris for turning me onto this program in South Africa. Looks like an interesting option.
I don’t think you’re “butting in”, Benjamin. Actually, I think Chris’ post (btw, check out his blog — it’s pretty good! I need to link it) is very informative. Just for the record, I decided to contact SBTS again yesterday and got someone who could answer all my questions. I have an appt. to speak with him in a couple of weeks. I think I’m going to send in an application for the M.Th. program (at least to get the ball rolling) in Worldview/Apologetics (my main interest right now), with possibly looking at something Doctoral based in the future. SBTS wants two modern languages (though, thankfully, they teach them) for a Ph.D., and I know NONE (though I am trying to learn theological German on my own). But, I am very thankful for Chris’s providentially-appropriate comments!
For learning German, you can take the “quickie” classes offered for reading comprehension at SBTS or UofL. Another option would be to check with the Louisville Free Public Library. They host a free audio download (30 day license?) of Pimsleur German. The Foreign Service Institute also has some free materials. Buy either Cassell’s or Langenscheidt’s dictionary, but also get Ziefle’s Dictionary of Modern Theological German. Mosse and Manton’s stuff, while newer, is less substantive.
Chris, my brother, you are a regular fount of information! Thanks for the links (and going to the trouble of actually inserting them in the comment). I already have Manton’s Intro to Theological German (not the dictionary, though). Now, if I could just muster the time to get past the first two lessons…
Thanks again!