Directives, Collectives, and Adaptives in a Changing World

David R. Sawyer
Professor of Ministry
Director of Lifelong Learning and Advanced Degrees

November 13, 2009
Nehemiah 13:15-20
Mark 1:39
Sirach 38 :34b-39:3

Sawyer looks at the present reality of Louisville Seminary in the light of the post-exilic period of the era of Ezra and Nehemiah, finding two different groups, world views, theological positions, and educational models. One group he calls the “Directives,” who hold responsibility and control for the seminary’s life; the second group are the “Collectives” who see the seminary as a free sharing of knowledge and power. He suggests we need to seek a third way, which he calls “Adaptive” which responds to change and loss with experiments, new discoveries and adjustments. He hopes to start a conversation about these differences in the community. Listen to the sermon. Read the sermon in PDF.

After the Whirlwind

Christopher Elwood
Professor of Historical Theology

October 16, 2009
Text: Job 23, 24, 40, 41 (selections); 42:1-6

After the whirlwind encounter with God—vividly depicted in the story of Job—how do we live? Is it appropriate to expect a victim of disaster to repent? How can we interpret the winds of life that shake us to the core, and live with faith and integrity responding to God’s close involvement with us and with all of creation? Listen to the sermon.

The Edwards-Pressler Lectures

A New Mission?

Dr. Terry C. Muck
Dean of the E. Stanley Jones School of World Mission and Evangelism
Professor of Missions and World Religions, Asbury Theological Seminary

October 22, 2009

So-called “new missions” come about because of new contexts, not because of a new gospel. It is the demands of a new context that drives us back to Scripture for a fresh look at what God is calling us to be and do in this place and this time. Read the lecture in PDF.

The New Mission Worker

Dr. Frances S. Adeney
William A. Benfield Jr. Professor of Evangelism & Global Missions, Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary

October 22, 2009

What are the characteristics of the new mission workers? First they perceive the world differently. Second, they see the contradictions of current mission models and why they are not working, and third, they develop new ways of interacting with their context—new methods that bring the gospel alive in their setting. Read the lecture in PDF.

Muck and Adeney are co-authors of Christianity Encountering World Religions: The Practice of Mission in the Twenty-first Century (Baker 2009).

Psalm 65--World Communion

J. Bradley Wigger
Second Presbyterian Church Professor of Christian Education

October 22, 2009
Psalm 65

Biblical texts and geological texts differ in many ways but both have a way of rearranging our minds, shifting our sense of time and place if not our sense of home and community. When it comes to the world community, the communion of creation, there is of course a lot of work to be done, a lot of rearranging to do. Borders and boundaries are configured in terrible ways and the earth’s thermostat is out of whack. Our proclivities and transgressions overwhelm us. Listen to the sermon. Read the sermon in PDF.