Here’s a link to a paper presented on 3/1/19 at the annual meeting of the Society for Pentecostal Studies in Washington, D.C. The immediate aim is a treatment of Ephesians 6:10-20 that’s both exegetically responsible and existentially impactful.  The ultimate goal is more church members actually actualizing Paul’s “armor of God” discussion in their everyday lives! I hope it helps!

Paul and the Whole Armor of God (Submission)

I was privileged recently to speak to the full faculty of Vanguard University of Southern California on the topic: “Spirit-Empowered Teaching.” The theme of the conference was: “Beyond: Abundantly Empowered to Serve God’s Kingdom,” and the following passage from Ephesians 3:20, 21: “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”

Presented below are links to my notes and the PowerPoint deck I used in my presentation. As you’ll see, I began by telling my faculty colleagues that I wanted to chat with them some about:

By the time the presentation was over, I had referred to the possibility of some “prophetic professoring”!

While more is always said during the course of a presentation, I trust that between looking over my notes and viewing the PowerPoint slides those interested will be able gain the gist of my proposal.

Enjoy!

I was privileged to present an updated version of my paper “From Sola Scriptura to the Sacramental Sermon: Karl Barth and the Phenomenon of Prophetic Preaching” at the Reformation 500 Conference conducted at Regent University, Virginia Beach, Virginia.

Here’s the link to this updated version of the paper which benefits from the feedback I received when I presented the paper a few months earlier at the Tyndale House in Cambridge, England:

From Sola Scriptura to the Sacramental Sermon (Regent Reformation Conference — 2017) (Submission)

Below is the link to a paper I presented 6/28/17 at the annual meeting of the Tyndale Fellowship–Christian Doctrine Study Group at Tyndale House, Cambridge, UK.

The paper’s abstract reads as follows:

Several prominent evangelical scholars have drawn attention to the pneumatological deficit at work in post-Reformation Protestant theology. Moreover, some have suggested that certain evangelical takes on the Reformation theme sola Scriptura are at least partially to blame for this Spirit-devaluing dynamic. This paper addresses the question: Is it possible to support sola Scriptura while at the same time affirming the practice of a particular type of prophetic preaching: Spirit-empowered sermons that are genuinely transformational precisely because they are sacramental (encounter-facilitating) in their effect? The first section of the paper explores the connections that do indeed seem to exist between two overly restrictive takes on sola Scriptura and a marginalization of the Spirit in contemporary evangelical theology and ministry. A second section examines the evidence for the thesis that a pneumatological realism implicit in the Scripture-based Reformed theology of Karl Barth, when combined with his distinctive takes on the nature of revelation and the three-fold form of the Word of God, provide some rather impressive (even if tacit and ironic) theological support for the type of prophetic preaching referred to above. Bringing the paper to a close is a succinct, yet substantive, Barth-sensitive reflection on what a pneumatologically real approach to the preaching task entails.

From Sola Scriptura to the Sacramental Sermon

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The PowerPoint presentation for a sermon on Acts 3 delivered at Orange County First Assembly in the fall of 2016.

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The PowerPoint presentation for a sermon on Acts 2 delivered at Orange County First Assembly in the fall of 2016.

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The PowerPoint presentation for a sermon on Acts 1 delivered at Orange County First Assembly in the fall of 2016.

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In this sermon based on John 6:35-71 I include a discussion of whether Jesus’ use of the language of election in John’s Gospel was purely dismissive in nature or missional as well. The PowerPoint is fairly thorough. I’m thinking you can piece together my proposal by working your way through it. Something to think about!

GOSPEL OF JOHN (16) — THE DANGER OF DEFECTION (Pt. 3) — PRESENTATION (OCFA)

Here’s the link to the PowerPoint presentation for my sermon on John 6:25-36.

GOSPEL OF JOHN (15) — THE DANGER OF DEFECTION (Pt. 2) — PRESENTATION (OCFA) (Final)