Issue #106 | May 17, 2011 |
| BOARD APPROVES BAPTIST STUDIES INSTITUTE AT RTS/ORLANDO | |
 | The RTS Board of Trustees has just approved the Nicole Institute of Baptist Studies (NIBS) at RTS/Orlando. The first cohort will begin in Fall 2011. The institute honors the late renowned reformed Baptist theologian, Dr. Roger Nicole, emeritus professor of theology (pictured to the left of Chancellor Ric Cannada), at RTS/Orlando. The institute will provide unique preparation for Baptist and independent students who desire an M.Div. degree program with an emphasis in Baptist history, polity and ecclesiology. Prospective students can contact RTS/Orlando Admissions Director Tom Nelson at tnelson@rts.edu for more information. |
RTS ELECTS NEW CHAIRMAN
It is our pleasure to announce that the board of trustees at their meeting May 13, 2011, elected Mr. Richard Ridgway, Esq. as chairman of the board of Reformed Theological Seminary, effective June 1, 2011. Mr. Ridgway follows Mr. James (Jim) Moore who served as chairman for 11 years. Mr. Ridgway is the fourth chairman of the board since the founding of RTS as the Reformed Theological Institute in 1964. Rev. Sam Patterson served from 1964-1975, Mr. Robert (Bob) Cannada, Sr. 1975-2000 and Mr. James Moore 2000 – 2011. Click here for more information on this announcement.
NEW DOWNLOAD AVAILABLE ON iTUNES
Download or subscribe to free content from "A Seminar on Expository Preaching" by Alistair Begg, given at the spring lecture series at RTS/Charlotte. Click here to link to the seminar. Dr. Begg is the senior pastor of Parkside Church in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, and author of several books. He is the voice behind the Truth for Life Christian radio preaching and teaching ministry.
RTS/ORLANDO'S 100TH AND 101ST DOCTORAL GRADUATES
Congratulations to RTS/Orlando's 100th and 101st doctoral students. During the May 20th graduation, five D.Min. students will walk in the graduation ceremony. Joachim Joachius Emmanuel, wrote his dissertation on"Coaching Caribbean Pastors for Church Revitalization." David Manuel Correa (Lopez) is a pastor in Mexico and his dissertation title was "Kingdom Builders Preparing Church Youth to Embrace God’s Call to Build His Kingdom."
Three of the four other doctoral students who finished in December 2010 will also participate in the graduation ceremony:
Robert Clanton (La.), LarryReid Hensarling, (Fla.), and Peter W. Smith (Penn.)
Willem Jacobus Petrus Van Der Merwe of Namibia, Africa, will not be attending the ceremony.
SIGN UP FOR A CLASS AT RTS THIS SUMMER
Dr. Mark Ross, professor of Systematic Theology at Erskine Theological Seminary, will teach ST502 "Introduction to Pastoral & Theological Studies" from July 18-22 at RTS/Charlotte. Choose a campus online at www.rts.edu and you will find many classes to choose from.
SUNDAY SCHOOL PLANS TO UPDATE PLAYGROUND AT CLINTON TOWNHOMES OF RTS
David Turner, contractor and member of First Presbyterian Church of Jackson, Miss., spoke to Dr. Guy Richardson, president of RTS/Jackson about an idea to help build a better playground for the children of the students at the Clinton townhomes of RTS/Jackson, which were badly damaged by the recent tornado. Also involved in the planning are Joe Morris, RTS director of facilities and Mike Lathem, a private maintenance consultant and landscaper for RTS. The students will help with the manual labor to help alongside men from three Sunday school classes who have agreed to install the equipment. The plans include reworking both play areas at the townhouses and installing a covered canopy area beside the pool. RTS/Jackson is pleased with the suggested plan, and grateful that the Sunday School classes want to do this for the children of the students. Each class will need to raise $1,000 in contributions. They are planning for a blitz build for possibly June 18. If you would like to contribute, please give here and designate playground at townhomes.
| DR. JAMES ANDERSON TO TEACH CLE N.C. BAR APPROVED ETHICS COURSE | |
 | Do you know any lawyers in the Charlotte area? Please let them know that Dr. James Anderson will teach a continuing legal education (CLE) N.C. Bar approved ethics course (which lawyers need to meet their CLE requirements). The one-hour course titled "Written on the Heart" will be held at the Charlotte City Club on May 25, 2011, from 12:00 p.m. until 1:30 p.m. The cost of the course is $14 which includes lunch.This one-hour course will explore the natural law tradition and how it offers one framework for understanding and developing legal ethics (of which the Rules of Conduct are one expression). The notion of natural law is both intellectually defensible and has genuine relevance to everyday legal practice. To the scholar, the Rules of Conduct include a number of ethical concepts that depend on natural law, or are at least consistent with it. |
Respond to cle@summalaw.com
RTS PROFESSOR GIVES HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE OF PCUSA DECISION ON GAY ORDINATION
Dr. Don Fortson, associate professor of church history and practical theology at RTS/Charlotte, wrote an article that was published online at ChristianityToday.com. He wrote, "On Tuesday May 10, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) joined a group of mainline churches that has opened the door to gay ordination. The new PC(USA) constitutional change, which has now received the necessary votes, will officially take effect in July and is widely interpreted to allow for gay ordination. The amendment will remove constitutional language that had required clergy to live in 'fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman, or chastity in singleness.' It appears that regional presbyteries will now have the local option of ordaining practicing homosexuals to Christian ministry. Anticipating this day, 120 PC(USA) congregations have over the last four years departed and affiliated with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. After Tuesday more Presbyterian congregations are likely to separate. And so the story of Protestant schism continues." Fortson says the battle has been culminating for three decades but says "The long view that church history offers is often the clearest perspective of all." Read more here.
UPDATE ON DANNY IVERSON'S RELIEF EFFORT TEAM THAT WENT TO JAPAN
In our March RTS E-Newsletter we reported on a group headed up by RTS/Orlando M.Div. student Danny Iverson, IV, that went to Japan from RTS. You may be keeping up with his Web site www.spendyourself.org. If you missed these updates, the story continues. Danny and his team were able to raise $115,000, which is being invested in assisting and empowering the local churches they partnered with while they were in Japan. They are helping those churches help their communities and bear witness to the Gospel. He says the global church must now seek to empower and assist the local church in Japan to serve their community.
Click here to view a video of teams from Mission to the World (MTW) partnering with Japanese churches to serve people of the devastated areas. Click here to see Grace City Church of Tokyo assisting needy people. Click here to hear Rev. Mori of Global Mission Chapel talk about the radiation in his area of Japan (Iwaki). These videos were done by videographer Shane Burgett from Shane Burgett Productions in Sanford, Fla., who is also a team member. Click here to find out what's next for the team.
CAMPUS EVENTS
Final exams are in progress on many of our campuses. Please continue to keep our students in your prayers.
RTS/ATLANTA
The campus family is excited to hold the first commencement in its new building on Saturday, May 21 at 10 a.m. Rev. Steve Wallace, RTS chief operations officer, is the speaker.
Dr. Steve Brown will teach “The Christian Life” at RTS/Atlanta this summer.
| RTS/CHARLOTTE | |
| Senior Banquet (below) The senior banquet was held May 6, and Dr. Don Fortson (pictured left, standing), wasthe master of ceremonies. (Michael Brown, M.Div. senior, is pictured front center, with his wife on the right in red and Dr. Richard Belcher's wife Lu is seated beside her. Behind the projector is Cathy Culbertson, the wife of new exec dir, Dr. Rod Culbertson who is seated to the left of her).
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| Women Women of RTS (below) RTS Charlotte's Women of RTS held their "Women to Women" conference in April 2011 on campus. (Pictured are students and student wives.)
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RTS/HOUSTON
Summer Class - Register now for ST504 “History of Philosophy & Christian Thought,” taught by Dr. Robert Malcolm Ferguson (M.Div. '81). He received his Ph.D. from Fuller. The class begins June 3, 2011. Classes meet at Christ Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Houston. Contact Tim McKeown here admissions.houston@rts.edu for more information about classes, or click here or call 800-752-4382.
RTS/JACKSON
The senior banquet will be held on May 20 in Miller Hall at First Presbyterian Church in Jackson at 6:30pm.
Commencement will be held on Saturday, May 21 at 10 a.m. at First Presbyterian Church in Jackson, Miss. Dr. Paul B. Long, Sr., professor of missions emeritus at RTS/Jackson will speak.
| RTS/MEMPHIS | |
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| Dr. Miles Van Pelt taught at RTS/Memphis in the fall. Dr. Bruce Baugus will teach Apologetics this summer. For more information on RTS/Memphis, click here. To stay informed of our class offerings and schedule please contact memphis@rts.edu or call the campus at 901-507-4490. | |
RTS/ORLANDO
The president’s reception will be held May 19 at 5:30 p.m. on campus for seniors and their families.
The graduation banquet will be held May 19 at 6:30 p.m. in the fellowship hall for seniors, their families and friends. Purchase tickets at the front desk.
Commencement will be held on May 20 at First Presbyterian Church in Orlando at 7:30 p.m. Chancellor Ric Cannada will speak.
A Theology of Work is a 2011 Summer Elective (with a special feature) - It is a two-credit course elective that will be taught by our RTS Orlando alumnus, Orlando Rivera (1992/M.Div.). The special feature of this course is that it ends with a 9 am - 5 pm seminar on Saturday, August 20. As a service to the Orlando community, this seminar will also be open to the general public at no cost. Click here for more info.
RTS/VIRTUAL
Upcoming dates for orientation seminars are --June 20-22, 2011
Hebrew Basic I and II will be offered this summer online with Dr. Mark Futato. Please contact Alice Hathaway at 800-227-2013, ext. 235, to register for these courses.
Hebrew I/Basic - May 30 - June 10;
Hebrew II/Basic - June 20 - July 1
ALUMNI SNIPPETS
Do you have an alumni snippet to share? Have you published a new book? Send it to the editor, here.
| Brad Beier (M.Div.M. '01) is the pastor of Living Hope Church in Chicago (formerly Bethel Christian Church). | ||||
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| Lindy Davidson (M.Div. '01) is collecting medical supplies for a short-term mission trip to Nicaragua in July. Supplies will be donated to Velez Pais, the only government women and children's hospital in the country. Because of her medically needy son, Will, Lindy wishes to bless this very poor hospital with some of the abundance of medical supplies we have here in the U.S. For more information or to donate, please contact her here. | ||||
| Omari Hill (M.Div. '09) is the campus minister for Reformed University Fellowship (RUF) at UNC-Charlotte. He and his wife Cherise have a daughter Mia (2). They ask for your prayers as they await the birth of their son, Preston, who is due May 25th. This Spring Break, they took six students up to Boone discussing the gospel and their work, and enjoying God’s creation especially one another. Hill says, "Muslim students are engaging us more with dialogue about Jesus." He asks for prayer that the students will be bold and compassionate as they engage with Muslim students.This semester two small groups began and are going through the book of James. The initial group that meets on Thursday evenings has grown. They continue to meet upperclassmen from various denominations that are interested in a Christian community that will love both them and the campus for the sake of the gospel. | ||||
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