The Henry Center and the Jonathan Edwards Center at TEDS apologize to everyone who tried to view the live-stream of Thabiti Anyabwile’s Jonathan Edwards and the Church lecture (and the two pastoral responses from Charlie Dates and Louis Love). Our IT team was having technical difficulties and we were thus unable to broadcast the event live. We are very sorry for the inconvenience.

The audio and video of the entire event, including the Q&A, will be posted very soon.

We announced on an earlier blog post that Michael Emerson would be visiting TEDS campus on Feb 2 to speak on “How Race Works, and Why it Matters for the Church.” Unfortunately the event has been cancelled. We just received word from Dr. Emerson that he was hospitalized because of chest pain and was just released. The doctors have told him that he needs to remain at home for the next several days “to make sure the medicine is in the correct dosage and working properly.”  So, regretfully, Dr. Emerson is not able to join us this time.

Our prayers are with Michael Emerson and his family–we wish him a speedy recovery, and hopefully he’ll be able to visit TEDS sometime in the near future.

To watch the live-stream of Thabiti Anyabwile’s lecture on Jonathan Edwards and American Racism, click here. The lecture begins at 1pm.

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February 1, 2012 | 1:00 pm | Thabiti Anyabwile | First Baptist Church of Grand Cayman, Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands

Topic: Jonathan Edwards and American Racism: Can the Theology of a Slave Owner Be Trusted by Descendants of Slaves?

Location: ATO Chapel (TEDS)

Respondents:

Pastor Charlie Dates of Progressive Baptist Church of Chicago (Chicago, IL)

Pastor Louis Love of New Life Fellowship Church (Vernon Hills, IL)

How Race Works, and Why it Matters for the Church

The Henry Center invites students, pastors, and all interested parties to join an exciting two-part conversation on the TEDS campus — “Jonathan Edwards and Race in America: Two Conversations.” In an earlier blog post, we mentioned that on Feb 1 Pastor Thabiti Anyabwile will be speaking on Jonathan Edwards and American Racism (for details, see the previous blog post).

On the following day, Feb 2, Professor Michael Emerson will continue this important conversation about race and religion. Dr. Emerson is a sociology professor at Rice University and co-director of the Kinder Institute for Urban Research. He has written important works on the relationship between race and religion. Some of his well-known books are Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America (co-authored with Christian Smith; Oxford University Press, 2000), which was named the 2001 Distinguished Book of the Year by the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion. He is also the author of People of the Dream: Multiracial Congregations in the United States, published by Princeton University Press in 2006.

Dr. Emerson will speak in the ATO chapel on Thursday, Feb 2, at 11am on: “How Race Works, and Why it Matters for the Church.” His talk will be based on Ephesians 6:12. After chapel, there will be a free luncheon for all in attendance. Dr. Peter Cha, associate professor of pastoral theology at TEDS, will moderate a conversation with Dr. Emerson and the audience. A TEDS alumnus, Rev. Peter Hong, will also be a part of that conversation. He is a second-generation Korean American who planted a multiracial church in Chicago ten years ago. The church is called New Community Covenant Church and now has about 600 members.

After the luncheon is over (1pm), interested local church pastors and other students can remain for a longer conversation with the speakers (till about 2pm).

Jonathan Edwards and American Racism:

Can the Theology of a Slave Owner Be Trusted by Descendants of Slaves?

Jonathan Edwards is arguably the most important theologian that North America has produced. He is a hero to many Christians. Yet he also owned slaves, a fact that has raised important questions about his moral credibility. Should we really be holding Edwards up as a theological role model? Should we be trying to learn from him? These are live questions here at Trinity and beyond. Pastor Thabiti Anyabwile has thought about these questions–as a pastor, an African American, and adherent to Reformed theology. We invite you to listen in as he reflects about them personally, engaging two other African-American pastors and the audience in an edifying installment of the Edwards Center series ‘Jonathan Edwards and the Church,’ moderated by Dr. Sweeney.

This event is cosponsored by the Henry Center and the Jonathan Edwards Center at TEDS. Pastor Anyabwile’s lecture will take place on Wednesday, Feb 1, 1-2:30pm in the ATO Chapel on the TEDS campus. The responses will be from Pastor Louis Love of New Life Fellowship Church, Vernon Hills, and Pastor Charlie Dates of Progressive Baptist Church of Chicago–Q&A to follow.

The Henry Center is pleased to announce that Alistair Begg’s recent Scripture & Ministry lecture and interview sessions are now posted free of charge for the viewing of the general public.

October 26, 2011 | Alistair Begg | Parkside Church, Cleveland, Ohio

“Inadequacy: The Surprising Secret to Being Useful to God”

The NBA champions this year was a team made up of fewer stars and less glitz than their opponents.  We might say that humility triumphed over hubris.  There are lessons-a-plenty in this for an evangelical church that routinely produces all-stars.  Such an approach endangers the recipients of such adulation and discourages those who are by-passed in the process.  In this lecture, Alistair Begg will consider God’s pattern of using unlikely and ordinary characters and address the possibility that what we regard as a hindrance may be the key to usefulness in God’s service.

Lecture: Audio | Video

Interview: Audio | Video

The Henry Center for Theological Understanding has posted all of the audio and video recordings from the 2011 Kantzer Lectures in Revealed Theology. Bruce McCormack delivered this year’s lecture series titled “The God Who Graciously Elects: Seven Lectures on the Doctrine of God.” All seven lectures occurred on the campus of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School from September 27 – October 4.

The “Kantzer Lectures in Revealed Theology” take an academic approach to contemporary issues in theology. Co-moderated by Thomas McCall, Douglas Sweeney, and Kevin Vanhoozer, and patterned after Scotland’s Gifford Lectures in Natural Theology, the Kantzer Lectures bring leading theologians to Trinity’s campus for learned presentations that will be published in book form by William B. Eerdmans. The Kantzer Lectures provide a platform for the kind of Christian thinking that demonstrates the pastoral function of Christian doctrine by featuring prominent theologians committed to the project of faith seeking understanding, and to making this understanding practical.

Series Title: “The God Who Graciously Elects: Seven Lectures on the Doctrine of God”

The Henry Center is pleased to announce that the Wallis-Mohler Debate is now available online. The streaming audio and video are available below.

October 27, 2011 | 7:00 pm | Is Social Justice an Essential Part of the Mission of the Church?

Participants |  Jim Wallis – “Yes”    Dr. R. Albert Mohler – “No”

Moderator | Chris Firestone

Location | ATO Chapel (TEDS)

Description:

North American Evangelicals have recently experienced a revival of interest in issues of social justice. The growing sentiment among many today is that Jesus preached “good news to the poor,” and was indeed among the poor and marginalized. These Christians believe that the implications of these facts should renew the church’s understanding of the gospel and its mission. Rightly or wrongly, this interest in social justice is transforming the blueprint and vision of ecclesial ministry.

For others, this blueprint conjures up concerns about 20th century liberal Protestantism and a watering down of the gospel’s message of salvation. The defining mission of the church, for them, continues to be the sharing of the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ to all nations, generations, and social classes. The issue of social justice, though important, is not to be considered as an essential part of the mission of the church.

A basic question at the heart of the debate is this: Is social justice an essential part of the mission of the church?

The Henry Center for Theological Understanding, in its Trinity Debates forum, is pleased to provide a public venue for addressing this question by hosting two prominent voices from competing perspectives. Jim Wallis will answer “Yes” and R. Albert Mohler will answer “No.”

Debate Media: Audio | Video

The ATO chapel of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School was filled to capacity as over 600 people attended the stimulating debate between Jim Wallis and Al Mohler on the question: Is Social Justice an Essential Part of the Mission of the Church? An even larger audience was able to view the debate through our live-stream. Dr. Chris Firestone, philosophy professor at Trinity International University, was excellent at moderating the event. Many people in attendance agreed that the discussion clarified in a helpful way the important theological and social issues that are at stake.

For those of you who missed the conversation, we’ll be posting the free audio and video of the entire event within two weeks here.

Alistair Begg is the senior pastor of Parkside Church in Cleveland, OH, and he can also be heard regularly on the radio program Truth for Life. On October 26, he will be the speaker for the Scripture and Ministry lecture series sponsored by the Carl F. H. Henry Center for Theological Understanding.

The lecture will be held in TEDS chapel. This event is free and open to the public.

Refreshments will begin at 12:45 pm, followed by the lecture at 1:00 pm (with Q&A to follow).

The topic of the lecture …

“Inadequacy: The Surprising Secret to Being Useful to God”

The NBA champions this year was a team made up of fewer stars and less glitz than their opponents. We might say that humility triumphed over hubris. There are lessons-a-plenty in this for an evangelical church that routinely produces all-stars. Such an approach endangers the recipients of such adulation and discourages those who are by-passed in the process. In this lecture, Alistair Begg will consider God’s pattern of using unlikely and ordinary characters and address the possibility that what we regard as a hindrance may be the key to usefulness in God’s service.