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Church Security Conference

Tony Reinke spurgeon

Violence against Christians, pastors, and local churches has been a problem from since the first Christians, pastors, and local churches appeared on the scene. And while church security is always a concern, from my vantage point it has not been a common topic of conversation. The concern now has a voice and a venue–the SBTS Vigilance conference (July 20–22).

From the conference website: “The Vigilance Conference will equip pastors, leaders, administrators, as well as safety and security staff to think biblically about their role as shepherds and providing for the physical security of their flock. Southern Seminary invites you to join the top names in safety and security to address crucial topics such as executive protection, risk management, and security systems.”

My friend Brian Gallagher, a security professional who directs security for national conferences like Together for the Gospel and NEXT, will be leading one of the seminars. And if all the speakers know half as much about security as Brian does the Vigilance conference will be a dandy.

Or not

Tony Reinke spurgeon

From NTW’s book The New Testament and the People of God (1992), page xvii:

“I frequently tell my students that quite a high proportion of what I say is probably wrong, or at least flawed or skewed in some way which I do not at the moment realize. The only problem is that I do not know which bits are wrong; if I did I might do something about it.”

Union with Christ

Tony Reinke spurgeon, Union with Christ

One of the largest theological brains that you can siphon information from through the blogotubes is attached to the neck of Phil Gons. While searching online for stuff I came across his exhaustive bibliography of books on the topic of “Union with Christ.” It’s a very helpful and comprehensive list. Phil has divided the bibliography into 9 categories:

  1. Top Picks
  2. Dictionary and Encyclopedia Articles
  3. Chapters or Sections in Systematic Theologies
  4. Chapters or Sections in Biblical Theologies
  5. Chapters or Sections in Other Books
  6. Books
  7. Journal and Magazine Articles
  8. Conference Papers
  9. Dissertations and Theses

See his full bibliography here.

Reformed Learning

Tony Reinke Academics, Education, Reading, spurgeon ,

I doubt I’ve read a better-articulated summary of the Calvinist approach to learning than the one I recently came across while reading Scholarship and Christian Faith by Douglas Jacobsen and Rhonda Hustedt Jacobsen (Oxford, 2004). On page 26 they write:

“…the academic disciplines are, for the most part, expressions of humanity’s sinful revolt against God. They are manifestations of human arrogance, symbols of humanity’s prideful claim that it can fully understand the world without any reference to God. But Calvinists know there is always room for surprise. Even the most mature Christians still harbor the seeds of sin within them and thus can be mistaken. What is more, God can, through the gift of common grace, sometimes allow the unregenerate to see truths that the righteous have ignored, overlooked, or misconstrued. Because that is the case, Reformed Christian scholars must be ready to be tutored on occasion by both their non-Reformed fellow believers and by their secular academic peers. This will surely be the case with matters of fact and sometimes even with regard to issues of philosophy and faith. Still, the assumption is that on most matters of scholarship Christians will see things more clearly than their non-Christian colleagues.”

Mark Twain

Tony Reinke spurgeon

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

Twain died 100 years ago today.