FIRST-PERSON: Why I admire pastors and you should too
In our age of constant news, social media, and the world’s attentiveness to pastors who have stumbled, it is easy to forget all that pastors do for the Church. Sure, we have all heard of a pastor who has not acted admirably, but they are the exception, not the rule. Most of the pastors I know garner my trust and respect and deserve my prayers and support. That, and given my own years serving churches, makes me admire pastors. You should too.
It seemed like a train ride to nowhere
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (BP) -- I had been anticipating a warm throwback to yesteryear when I boarded a train in Kansas City bound for Jefferson City, Mo., to preach at the legislative prayer service marking the opening of the state's legislative session. My trip, however, fell short of a Humphrey Bogart movie.
FIRST-PERSON: Ministry & family time
"We must protect our families, but we need not sequester them," Jason Allen, president of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, writes about the balance a minister must find between serving his church and caring for his family.
Allen: Considering year-end contributions
Jason Allen, president of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, sets forth counsel about making year-contributions. Give to your local church first, he writes, and be fully informed about ministries making an appeal for your support.
FIRST-PERSON: 5 words to improve every sermon
Jason Allen, president of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, notes five words "to improve every sermon": Bible, look, repent, you, Jesus. The words in a sermon, he notes, "come with the power of life and death; thus, the preacher must carefully choose his words."
FIRST-PERSON: Partnering with state conventions
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (BP) -- Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary's Jason Allen: SBC entities and state conventions have the same constituency -- Southern Baptist churches. "Churches founded us, they fund us and they expect us to serve them," Allen writes. "The SBC will thrive inasmuch as our state conventions thrive, and vice versa."
Whither Christian higher education?
Institutions of higher learning are facing numerous challenges: a shrinking college-age demographic, nagging questions about the value of advanced degrees, the online revolution, persistent economic sluggishness and escalating costs. Yet, for distinctly Christian institutions of higher education, this is where the challenges begin, not end.
FIRST-PERSON: Baptizing children & regenerate church membership
Jason Allen, president of Midwestern Seminary, reflects on the baptism of children in Southern Baptist churches from a biblical, pastoral, denominational and, as the father of five young children, a parental standpoint.
FIRST-PERSON: Is the SBC in golden era of theological education?
Theological education in the SBC is in many ways where it started in 1859, seminary president Jason Allen writes, "with uniformly conservative seminaries serving the convention's churches."
Living in Light of Jesus’ Return
The New Testament reveals that Jesus’ return directly impacts our lives.