New Course--New Testament Week 1

Bro. Darrin,

I want to welcome you to this course. To start with you, you can reply to this posts and tell us something about your background.

I grew up on a farm, just three miles south of Thompsonville. In fact, I now live on the back side of the farm upon which I grew up.

My wife, Rhonda and I have four children: Rachelle, Ralanna, Rusty, and Rita Beth. All of them have children of their own. We are expecting another grandchild here in a couple of months.

I currently serve as the Dean of Academic Affairs at Morthland College, and I also pastor God's Tree of Life Church in Pittsburg, IL. We recently had a baptism. It was a gentleman about my age. We had gone to grade school and high school together, and I recently preached his brother's funeral. After that we spent some time visiting and studying the Word of God together. He said that Moses led the people and they spent 40 years wandering. He said that he had spent 62 years wondering, and he decided it was time to quit. So, that is exciting to see someone come to the Lord as part of our ministry.

Tell me a little about yourself too.

Bro. Randy

Four Views on Eternal Security

Morthland College is off to a good start for the spring semester. Since Morthland is an interdenominationsl (Bible-believing Classical Christian) college, it is interesting to view balanced presentations of various theological views.

Dr. J. Matthew Pinson, President of Free Will Baptist Bible College, is the editor of a book that presents four views on eternal security. Each representative author sets forth his position, and each of the other contributing authors then respond to each chapter as it has been presentd.

I just read the introduction to the book, and Dr. Pinson gives a great concise summary of his understanding of each of the views himself.

You might like to check out the book for yourself.

MP3 File

I am not sure this is going to work, but recently I preached at First Free Will Baptist Church in Johnston City, IL. They posted the message on their website, and I have permission to use it as I see fit.

So, I am trying to get it to work here.

If I don't get it to work here, you can view it at http://www.jc1fwb.com/2011/10/a-message-from-our-guest-speaker/.

Click Here for the attempted link to the audio file.

If it works, it might take a minute to download to your computer. The file is a little of 14 megaqbytes.

Happy listening!

Latest Update

Many of you know that I am involved in the founding of a new Christian college here in southern Illinois.
So, I am teaching Old Testament Survey at the moment, and the class will be available online this coming spring. You can go to http://Morthland.org to check out its availability.

Also, I have a speaking and writing ministry, and you can check it out at http://The-LOVING-Way.com.

As far as working with local pastors goes, I am working with one at present who is going through the process of becoming licensed as a minister. After that, he will be eligible for ordination. He is doing our study by reading and watching videos at present.

Also, I am serving as a consultant to a local church in the area that had nearly closed. We are performing some great experiements as I am their (acting) pastor at present. All the things we are doing as experiments are thoroughly biblical, so we are not afraid that we are doing something wrong.

Some of what we are doing bears some similarity to the concepts presented in Simple Church written by Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger and The Purpose Driven Church by Rick Warren. However, we are not copying any church. We are coming up with our version of how we are going to do church.

We have been blessed by the Lord sending some people to us, and we have baptized one young man three weeks into our experiment.

Last Sunday, a college student came and led our music. This Sunday, he is going to preach in the morning service.

We have a Sunday morning service, and we have started a small group that meets during the week.

Our philosophy is to: Love God. Love others. Prepare for ministry, and then engage in ministry. We have a simple church for a complex world. It is the little church with a big vision. Our main corporate focus is very simpe, but we have the opportunity to become very complex as people discover and engage in individual ministries. Future plans are to develop a network by which these individual ministries work together to accomplish larger tasks.

That's it for now.

I will update you from time to time about what is happening with this "great experiment."

Morthland College

Morthland College is indeed off to a good start here in the fall of 2011.

I am teaching an Old Testament Survey class, and I am also serving as the Department Chairperson for Biblical Studies.

The college has received authority to operate from the Illinois Board of Higher Education and has been give degree-granting authority for three programs: Biblical Studies, The Classics, and Business. These are four year degrees.

To find out more about Morthland, go to www.morthland.org.

Update

Well, you will notice that we haven't made formal posts here for a while. I want to update you on two things.

One is that we are starting a new faith-based college here in Southern Illinois. The name of it is Morthland College.You can check it out at http://www.morthland.org/mcweb/home.html.

The second thing is that a select number of local preachers have been meeting with me for coaching and live discussions on our books. That explains the absence of some of the online conversations we have been having.

This site still updates when new articles are being written

Apart from the updates, here is a new announcement. If you live in the southern Illinois area, Thompsonville First Baptist Church is holding a couples' enrichment and relationship seminar on Saturday, April 30 at 6 p.m. The evening will start with a meal, and then a program will follow from 6:45-8:45. There will be a keynote session, a breakout session, and a final 15 minute wrap-up session. Handfuls on Purpose will provide a book table. If you would like to attend, call 618-627-2228. If you get the answering machine, please leave your name and tell how many will be attending with your group. The cost is $15.00 per couple.

Until next time,

Happy Ministry!

Course 12 Week 8

If you haven't already, scroll down in the left sidebar to see the new articles on marriage that have been written during this course.

This is the final week of the course.

You may place your comments for this final week in the comments section below.

Course 12 Week 7 Main Comments Area

If you haven't noticed, most of my new material has been in the form of articles written about marriage. They have been showing up in this blog, but you have to scroll down in the left sidebar to find them. Go there and check them out. You may find some titles that interest you.

Starting Tuesday, you may post your comments below for the seventh week.

Once again, I want to commend Roger for keeping up with his studies. There really is value in being able to summarize what you read, and he has done an excellent job. Roger, Saturday, Tyler Owens mentioned (when we were meeting with him for ordination) that the book you are reading now was one that really blessed him. I hope it has been good for you too.

Course 12 Week 6 Main Comments Area

Course 12 Week 5 Main Comments Area