Clarification & Purpose

In many discussions about the need for a Reformation movement within the African American church, it has become clear to me that there are at least two needs:

1) The practice of reformation within the context of the local and extended church community, properly interpreting, developing principles and appling the word of the God to our individual and corporate lives. This is the frontline struggle for sustained discipleship and glorifying Christ in our churches, and this is the pastoral mission.

2) The development of a theological "laboratory" (to quote Michael Mewborn) and forum to speak to the concerns of an African American Christian leadership class and intelligentsia. The long term program of the church's calling in our communities, and the remedying of the many challenging obstacles confronting African American progress rests on such an action. Its concerns are both scholarly and spiritual, and I need a space to think through many of the more rigorous aspect of this dialog without turning off those whose interest and needs are less scholarly.

It is my conviction that this blog cannot successfully address both of these needs, and I routinely discover that when I connect with one set of readers I invariably lose another. To that end, I will soon be commencing an additional blog on Wordpress that will have, as best I can muster, a scholarly focus on theological themes as they relate to the necessities of African American life and Christian praxis. I will probably begin with an effort to profile a theology that is informed by the African American experience and that speaks to the tradition of Black scholarship, e.g. the applicability of Liberation Theology to the Black Church calling, or the necessity of a Biblical, Reformed theology has the foundation for a renewal movement in the Black church...in fact, I think I will start with the latter.

This site, "Rock of Offense", will have more of a pastoral and devotional emphasis, focusing on the biblical text or themes that speak to the daily concerns of our Christian walk.

Please stay tuned...

What's Next?

1. The Corporate Life of the Church Around the Study of the Bible
This is my current preoccupation: what is the most effective way to teach and facilitate the study of the Bible so that its truth and immensity is opened up to those who are encountering it. At my church, Living Faith Baptist Church, we will begin at some point in the not too distant future a group study entitled "Discovering the Bible." There are other curricular offerings under that title, but we feel that this descriptor really summarizes what we're hoping to lead the membership through, i.e. a guide-led discovery of what the Bible teaches through interpretation and drawing doctrinal conclusions or "stances" from what's read.

Richard Pratt of Reformed Theological Seminary has had a big impact on my thinking here, but I'd to flesh out the framework for this more rigorously on the pages of this blog over the next several weeks. So, expect a discourse on a doctrine of Christian Education as it pertains to the discpleship program of the church. Most of my personal doctrinal and practical obsessions are centering on the necessity of the church to introduce congregants to the Bible in its totality and to establish models and guidelines for sharing the gospel of grace and living out the biblical life before a watching world.

2. Audio Bible Studies
There is a network of individuals I'm aware of that, for various reasons, are not participating in a regular, local Bible study. Having had several conversations about this with many of them, and giving it prayeful consideration, I have decided to commence an audio and PowerPoint, pre-recorded Bible study via this blog. The study will begin in the book of Ephesians and is intended to present the glorious grace of the gospel and allow those who participate to use the blog as a medium for questions and discussion. The study will be posted weekly and will begin the week of August 18th. Lord willing...

Stay tuned!