Chapel Lectures
Our chapel week has been unusual. We haven’t had any preaching this week for one thing. We have had four lectures. While the underlying bedrock of chapel is the exposition of the Word of God, we also enjoy the opportunity hear from various speakers about applying what we learn from the Word to specific issues in our world.
I won’t do justice to the lecturers this week, but here are some highlights.
Dr. Kathleen Nielson spoke to us in chapel Monday about abortion. She challenged us on the importance of bringing the light of the gospel to the subject of abortion. She asked us to consider three ways of doing this: First, by seeing. She encouraged us that the light of truth is always good. And we should seek to know the truth about abortion, from the numbers, to the lives impacted, to the details of the laws in place, its recent history as well as its far-reaching past, to its future. Second, by telling. By telling the stories of those who have been affected by abortions, who have been victims, both men and women. By listening to those stories, too, we are encouraging the telling of them. Finally, by welcoming children. As the church, we should be active in welcoming children, not only through marrying and having children, but through caring for orphans, welcoming foster children, adopting, mentoring. She encouraged the students particularly to look for ways to welcome and interact with children regularly. Getting involved in a local church is one great way to do this. Another is through outreach to children and young people in the city of Chattanooga.
Dr. Kelly Kapic spoke on Wednesday about Books That Changed My Life. He didn’t choose just one book, but spoke about numerous books that impacted him from his early days as a Christian until age 22. He mentioned that he never liked reading before he became a Christian in high school, and that reading the Bible really taught him how to read. He shared several books and how they impacted him at different stages of his spiritual growth (The Gospel according to Jesus, When Being Good Isn’t Good Enough, Passionate Reason: Making Sense of Kierkegaard’s Philosophical Fragments, Certainty of Faith, The Emotional Life of Our Lord) but he also made the important point that it wasn’t just the book itself, but the environment in which he read the book that changed him. he also talked about reading and interacting with theologian Donald Bloesch as a formative experience. He challenged us to read and encounter authors outside our own traditions, to read authors we disagree with, to understand that our Christian family tree is a very large one, and that we may have a good deal to learn from its branches.
We finished up our week with two lectures from Dr. Craig Gay on the importance of words and our attitudes towards them. His chapel talks were in addition to the three lectures he gave to a class of students as part of our WIC Lecture Series. These are made possible by a generous gift from Women in the Church. His talks were taken mainly from the thesis of his book Dialogue, Catalogue & Monologue:
Personal, Impersonal And Depersonalizing Ways To Use Words.
Next week, we are looking forward to having Dr. Paul Tripp speak five times for our Marriage, Family, and Community Conference. The public is welcome to all sessions.
Published on 15 Feb 2008 by Christiana Fitzpatrick at 3:29 pm.
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