Crashing Customs and Breaking Boundaries Acts 10 Affirms That God’S Word Applies to All Cultures and Nations
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SPRING 2017 www.rts.edu Accreditation approval pending. Crashing Customs and Breaking Boundaries Acts 10 affirms that God’s Word applies to all cultures and nations. by Blair Smith RTS IS NOW IN DALLAS Prepare for a lifetime of ministry in a community of truth and grace, close to home. Also in This Issue: Dr. Ligon Duncan on Why Seminaries Still Matter Apply Now for Fall 2017 • rts.edu/apply A New Campus in Dallas JACKSON • ORLANDO • CHARLOTTE • ATLANTA • WASHINGTON D.C. • NEW YORK CITY • HOUSTON • MEMPHIS • GLOBAL Dr. John Frame Retiring A MIND FOR TRUTH. A HEART FOR GOD. A LIFE FOR MINISTRY. JACKSON / ORLANDO / CHARLOTTE / ATLANTA / WASHINGTON / MEMPHIS / HOUSTON / NEW YORK CITY / GLOBAL VISIT US AT RTS.EDU TABLE OF CONTENTS Ministry & Leadership Spring 2017 STAFF Publisher Dr. Ligon Duncan Editor in Chief 4 Brad Tisdale Chancellor’s Message Managing Editor Dr. Ligon Duncan explains why seminaries still matter. Paul Schwarz Art Director 6 Bill Henderson News Photography Director Learn about the retirement of Dr. John Frame MattMcQuade and other happenings across RTS. Editorial Assistants Catherine Bruce Stephanie Hartley 12 Crashing Customs and Breaking Boundaries by Blair Smith Who We Are Reformed Theological Seminary exists to serve the church by preparing its leaders through a globally accessible program of 18 theological education based on the authority Agent of Awakening of the inerrant Word of God and committed Tial Thanga leads church planting efforts in his native Myanmar. to the Reformed faith. This program A MIND FOR TRUTH. promotes biblical fidelity, confessional integrity and academic excellence, and seeks to prepare students marked by “A mind for 22 truth. A heart for God. A life for ministry.” Called to Serve As such, Ministry & Leadership seeks to An RTS alumnus has become coordinator of the PCA Mission to show how God is working through the A HEART FOR GOD. North America. ministries of RTS graduates, faculty members and students. Our goal is that readers will become partners with RTS through prayer, 26 financial giving, educational experience Counting the Cost and student referral, as well as providing A Japanese economics professor studies with the RTS Global placement opportunities. A LIFE FOR MINISTRY. campus. Copyright 2017 Reformed Theological Seminary. All rights reserved. For reprint permission, 28 please call 601-923-1600 or email shartley@ Celebrating 50 Years of RTS rts.edu. All Scripture references from the English Standard Version except where noted. 30 Read the digital version of the magazine at Deeper in the Heart of Texas www.rts.edu/MandL. RTS responds to an invitation to launch a new campus in Dallas. Reformed Theological Seminary Atlanta • Charlotte • Houston • Jackson • Memphis • New York City • Orlando • JACKSON / ORLANDO / CHARLOTTE / ATLANTA / WASHINGTON / MEMPHIS / HOUSTON / NEW YORK CITY / GLOBAL 32 Washington, D.C. • Global VISIT US AT RTS.EDU RTS at Work 800-543-2703 • [email protected] • www.rts.edu www.rts.edu 3 CHANCELLOR’S MESSAGE by Dr. Ligon Duncan Why Do We Still Need Seminaries? hat are semi- preparation in a seminary that naries for? Do fully embraces inerrancy and Re- we still need formed theology, in combination them? A lot with the experience of and service of questions in a healthy local church, simply are swirl- have irreplaceable advantages over ing around those who don’t. theological And this is one of the great ad- education to- vantages of RTS’s multi-campus day, and since system. Our students are able to you are read- serve in more churches while pur- ing this, you suing their theological education clearly care because of our multiple campus- I would argue that about preparing pastors and es. There are simply more healthy church leaders who believe God’s churches for us to partner with and Word and embrace sound, biblical participate in than if we were only the need for sound Christian theology, so perhaps we in one location. should reflect together on these What about those who ques- things. Today, many people are tion the need for seminary? Well, theological education looking at other options rather than I would argue that the need for residential theological education, sound theological education at the and for a variety of reasons: the seminary level is greater than ever at the seminary level high cost of residential theological before. We live in a culture that education, the desire to stay con- considers itself intellectually and nected to a ministry in the local morally superior to Christianity. is greater than ever church, or even the view that sem- It is cynical and skeptical of the inary isn’t the best way to prepare truth claims of the Bible and the for ministr y. message of the gospel. It is dismis- before. We live in a I assure you that theological ed- sive of Christian public discourse. ucators are thinking about these It thinks it has moved on. Sadly, kinds of things, and hear them all many Christian pastors and lead- culture that considers the time. What is our answer at ers are utterly unequipped to speak RTS? into such a situation because they Well, to begin with, at RTS we have been academically, theolog- itself intellectually believe that the best preparation ically and spiritually under-pre- for a lifetime of ministry is the pared to engage in such a context. combination of a solid seminary This makes what we are doing and morally superior theological education along with at RTS more important than ever, membership, mentoring and min- because pastors don’t need to know istry in a healthy local church. Stu- less; they need to know more. We to Christianity. dents who have both the grounding offer mentoring of future pastors of rigorous and reverent academic and church leaders by experienced 4 Ministry & Leadership @ligonduncan and committed pastor-theologians; ration of the church’s future pastors rigorous academic education; and and leaders often only experience the cultivation of students’ spiritu- an indirect benefit. Yet their invest- al life and character formation in ment is often far more important SPRING 2017 www.rts.edu the context of a loving community than those who get an instant re- Accreditation approval pending. Crashing Customs and committed to Jesus, the gospel, the turn. Breaking Boundaries Acts 10 affirms that God’s church, the truth and a life of ser- We are eternally grateful for your Word applies to all cultures and nations. vice to others. partnership, and determined to by Blair Smith This is a tremendous need in our work for eternal results fromRTS IS NOW your IN time. And seminary is also a more generosity. DALLAS efficient way to go about addressing Prepare for a lifetime of ministry in a community of truth and grace, close to home. Also in This Issue: it. Simply put, because of our re- Dr. Ligon Duncan on Why Seminaries Still Matter Apply Now for Fall 2017 • rts.edu/apply A New Campus in Dallas Dr. John Frame Retiring sources, we are able to provide this JACKSON • ORLANDO • CHARLOTTE • ATLANTA • WASHINGTON D.C. • NEW YORK CITY • HOUSTON • MEMPHIS • GLOBAL kind of comprehensive preparation far more rapidly and effectively than it can be done in other ways. Digital Bonus These are just some of the rea- Read the digital version sons that your investment and of this issue at prayers for RTS are so important. www.rts.edu/MandL We fully appreciate how remark- for an introduction to the able your support for this work is. newly redesigned Frankly, most Christians give to Ministry & Leadership. things that directly benefit them. But people who invest in the prepa- Join our RTS faculty members and friends of the seminary as they address relevant Wismdaotmte rWs eodf ntheesd Cahyr ist aia wn efaeiktlhy w seitrhie tsr uotfh v, icdaenodso wr haenrde gRrTaSc efa. cCuhletyc km beamckb earsc han wde ferkie antd s of the seminaryrt asd.eddreus/s irteel/ewvaisndto mmawttedrsn oefs tdhaey C fhori sthtiea nla ftaeistth v widiteho t frruotmh, RcTaSn.dor and grace. Check back each week at rts.edu/site/wisdomwednesday for a video from RTS. A weekly video series presented by Reformed Theological Seminary NEWS DR. JOHN FRAME RETIRING by Dr. Michael Allen n May, Dr. John Van Til, his corpus and his teaching ranged much more widely. Frame will The insightfulness of his work and the breadth of his influence I teach his final was on display in a festschrift titled Speaking the Truth in Love. theology class Indeed, Dr. Frame has regularly spoken of theology as the at RTS-Orlando, application of the Bible to all of life. bringing to In addition, when the Evangelical Theological Society sought conclusion 49 a systematic theologian to address the doctrine of biblical years of service inerrancy at a recent national meeting, no one was surprised to theological that they turned to Dr. Frame. His fidelity to biblical authority education. He and his concern that we understand the reasons for Scripture’s joined the role in Christian faith and practice have been instilled in many RTS-Orlando pastors and professors, elders and laypeople. faculty in 2001, It is not rare to encounter students from around the globe having served as who have flocked to learn from Dr. Frame at RTS-Orlando. the John Dyer He insistently commends the task of always learning at Jesus’ Trimble Professor FRAZIER feet. His books have been studied by laypeople and scholars of Systematic JASON alike in many countries and cited by many scholars. Day by Theology and day, he arrives early to work and responds thoroughly to Apologetics. The RTS Board of Trustees and faculty honor email inquiries from former students and strangers all over.