This is the story of one student in the M.A. (Biblical Studies) program we sponsor with scholarships at The University of The Gambia. We are helping teach students to be Christian teachers in their country. … More Student Profile: Sang Gomez, The Gambia, Bible Teacher in Training
Notes from my visit to Sierra Leone, West Africa. I give specific details from the first meeting of Christian scholars interested in working together across the country in league with the international Society of Christian Scholars, with which Global Scholars is a partner. … More The Christian Scholar’s Role in an International Academic Movement: Sierra Leone’s Scholars Unite!
Here I give my first impressions of life in Banjul, The Gambia. The Muslim context is readily apparent, and I reflect on what Christian education can mean in a place like this. … More Notes from Gambia: The Islamic Context of Christian Education
A meditation by Pastor Carel Geleynse urging Christians to imitate their Lord and restore the reputation of the church in an age of startling abuse and cultural polarization. … More After Abuse, Still the Sanctuary: Living Stones of the Spiritual House Whose Cornerstone Never Fails
We give thanks to God and to a persistent scholar whose faithfulness in the task of book-making has opened up channels for the expansion of Christian ministry in Africa – through the training of new ministry leaders. This is the story of the development of a Greek language textbook for Africans to learn the original language of the New Testament. … More An Arduous Journey: The Making of an Appropriate Tool for Biblical Literacy in Africa
Many Christians live with a distorted understanding of death and heaven, and it is mostly because we get our cues from near-death experiences and other Platonic stories of the after-life. Here I explore some Reformed, Biblical teaching on “the new heaven and the new earth.” … More Eschatology 101: The Problem with Saying “We Go to Heaven When We Die”
The novel Catcher in the Rye was written by American author J. D. Salinger in 1951 and has been standard high school fare since, with a million books still sold each year and a place on the top 100 books of the century. But it has been one of the most censored books in America and I think it is time to put it on the shelf. … More Holden Caufield vs Holling Hoodhood: Teens as Alienated or Mentored into Adulthood?
A few notes from our vacation in Hilton Head, South Carolina and our education in the history of racism. The kids were out of school, but learning in a different way about their world and our calling as Christians. … More A Holiday of Racism: Education Beyond the Classroom
Music is a common conflict source within congregations, but worship wars are not the only reason for Sunday morning to be tense. How can we work toward reconciliation through music and other parts of our worship services? In a world so torn by conflict, can the church model some peace-making? … More Church Music, Conflict and Reconciliation: Scriptural, Spiritual, Sonic, and Symbolic Implications
This Reformation Day, I’m thinking about reformation as a form of deconstruction. “Always reforming” can too easily feel like it’s about re-shaping something, renovating it, giving it a make-over. It sounds too clean, maybe even bureaucratic — like a policy change. But if reformation is like deconstruction, it can be messy. … More Reformation Day Math: Dividing, Subtracting, and Adding as God’s Messy Arithmetic
Sensus Divinitatis 