Creation: A Call to Care

This weekend Lee University with the Harvard Center for Health and the Global Environment sponsored a symposium, Creation: A Call to Care [News]. In other words, Cheryl has been doing her thing, networking. She arranged and moderated the event which is quite interesting since we teach at the Pentecostal Theological Seminary and not the university. The symposium is the result of her involvement with a group of Evangelical leaders and scientists working together to promote care for the environment. The event was coordinated by the School of Religion at Lee. The University did a phenominal job hosting and promoting the event. It was great for me to be with friends: Terry Cross (Dean), Jerome Boone, Rickie Moore, Bob O'Bannon, Ollie Lee, etc.

We were privileged to have Dr. Paul Epstein and Meg Thomsen of the Harvard Center stay with us Friday night. Paul was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. He and Meg were such pleasant house guests. We were honord to have them.


I must say it was also an honor to have dinner last evening with Dr. Joel Hunter, pastor of the 12,000 member Northland Church in Orlando and author of A New Kind of Conservative. Cheryl keeps introducing me to the most wonderful people.

Another Busy Week

Last week was a little more busy than usual. I taught a Doctor of Ministry course (class from 8 to 5). On Thursday we inducted Dr. James Beaty into the Hall of Prophets at the Seminary. It was my privilege at the request of Brother and Sister Beaty to be one of the speakers. I deeply love and respect this couple. I will always cherish Virginia's comment to me after the service, "Thank you, I knew you were the one to speak." Those words mean more to me than I can express.

Friday evening and Saturday Cheryl and I participated in "Shalom 2009," the annual conference of Pentecostals and Charismatics for Peace and Justice (PCPJ). The conference ended by joining us at New Covenant for worship on Sunday morning. Cheryl preached a wonderful sermon on "The Knock at Mid-night" inspired by, and a tribute to, a famous sermon by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. We hosted a Love Feast for our guests (and to raise funds for a couple of missions projects). Pictured here with Cheryl is Dr. Paul Alexander the executive director of PCPJ, a dear friend of ours.

Josh and Bethany Visit

This weekend was a family reunion for my mother's family (O'Quinn). I really wanted to go but I had to stay in town for a community meeting. I hope somebody posts a lot of pictures.

Our church youth group is having their annual retreat at Cohutta Springs Conference Center in north Georgia this weekend. Cheryl's nephew Joshua Bridges was the guest speaker last evening. He gave a powerful challenge to the youth that "There is More in Christ." Josh and his wife Bethany spent the evening and morning with us. Josh is the Youth Pastor at the Pentecostal Holiness church in Clinton, South Carolina. We are very proud of the two of them. God is using them to touch a community for Christ.

Check out his blog at http://www.sjbridges.blogspot.com/

Flu, guest, travel

I have struggled to get over the flu for the past couple of weeks. It just seems to hold on. Last week Larry McQueen stayed with us for a few days. It's always good to see him. On Thursday I flew to Minneapolis for the Evangelical/Catholic Dialogue. I got home last evening feeling quite poorly. I spent today resting and reading.

The dialogue was interesting and frustrating. The topic was “salvation.” We focused on the central point of division during the reformation, “justification.” The frustrating part is that the evangelical team (there were seven of us) was trying to dialogue out of very diverse traditions while the Catholic team has a well established script of doctrines from which to speak. The 1999 Joint Declaration on Justification issued by Lutherans and the Catholic Church was a starting point but it was the declarations of the Council of Trent that governed the Catholic positions.

The main sticking point is that out of the reformed traditions Evangelicals understand justification as a forensic (legal) act of grace whereby God declares the sinner righteous, i.e., imputes righteousness to the unrighteous. It is a gift from God (grace) and is received by faith alone. Justification is the bases for regeneration and sanctification. For the Catholics justification embraces all of life in Christ and focuses on the transformation of the believer rather than the declaration by God. There is also a sticky point on the concept of “merit,” i.e., in what sense are the saved made worthy of life in the presence of God.

We came up with a brief and I think insightful statement of points of divergence and convergence. I will post it when I get the final copy. However, as a Pentecostal I find the Reformed forensic position somewhat stilted.