Lipscomb Lectures

Many of you know that I have been involved on numerous occasions with leaders in the Churches of Christ, one of America’s largely ignored (by evangelicals and the media) but large groups of Christians. I have spoken to groups in Nashville, Dallas, Abilene, Lubbock and Malibu, and have been on the campuses of Pepperdine, Abilene Christian, Rochester, and Lipscomb in Nashville. Last Monday through Wednesday I was invited to be a speaker at the Lipscomb Lectures at the Hazelip School of Theology where I gave four lectures on Preaching and Living the Sermon on the Mount. It was, as I expected, a great time — including more time with folks like George Goldman, John York, Lee Camp, Josh Graves and Johnnie Melton.

I was so glad to get to talk about the Sermon on the Mount after our Sermon on the Mount in the Story of God Bible Commentary appeared.

It started out Monday evening with the public Prentice Meador lecture where I addressed the moral theory at work in the Sermon on the Mount, then I did three lectures for the conference — one on divorce, one on pacifism, and one on the christology of the Sermon on the Mount. Great time of interaction after each session.

I enjoyed listening to lectures by John Mark Hicks, Terry Briley, who focused on the glorious visions of Isaiah, and Leslie Chapman — which focused on preaching eschatology. A common theme was at work: the work of NT Wright in eschatology is reshaping both what folks are thinking about and how these themes need to be addressed in churches.

I cannot thank George Goldman, Ken Durham, Mark Black, Earl Lavender, Phil Camp, John Strahan, David Fleer, and Mark and Rhonda Lowry enough for the kind invitation to be with the good CofC folks at Lipscomb.