Dean Stanley's Blog

Bible Conference 2009

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 04:00:00 GMT

We have been enjoying a wonderful Bible Conference this week here on the campus of Trinity Baptist Church and College. Speakers have included Dr. George Grace, Dr. Jerry Vines, and Dr. Steve Roberson. The services will conclude tonight with a sermon from Dr. Junior Hill.

The sermons have been great and God has worked in the lives of our students in a powerful way. It has been refreshing to witness the attention of our students to the preaching and their response has been excellent as well. It is such a blessing to have a student body that is excited about the things of God and is attentive to the preaching of His Word.

Many of our students have been involved in ministering in a wide range of areas throughout the conference. Several of the students have played instruments or used their vocal talents for God this week. We have had others volunteer as ushers or serve in other helpful support roles as well. Their desire to serve and be a blessing to others has been evident. In the service this morning our men's quartet, Higher Calling, sang and did a fabulous job. They were a blessing to all of us.

Please continue to pray for our students as Mid-Term exams will begin on October 12th. God is definitely at work here and we are excited about witnessing what He will do in the lives of our students as the semester continues.

Privatization- A New Look at an Old Term

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 04:00:00 GMT

While writing some class lectures this summer I came across a term that was new to me. I was reading Os Guinness's book Dining with the Devil (Hourglass Books, 1993) and he mentioned a word that I had never heard used in the context in which he framed it. The word was "Privatization" and the way in which the word was used dealt with the question of how much our "private" religious beliefs should affect our public actions, decisions, and behaviors.

There is a school of thought that is much alive today which reflects the idea that your religious views ought to be personal and private and should in no way be allowed to influence or sway your political or moral decisions let alone be proselyted or discussed in a polemical sense with others. This is a very rudimentary description for the word "Privatization" as used by Guinness who, by the way, vehemently disagreed with this viewpoint.

In summary, a distinguishing mark of mainstream culture today would be the idea that what you choose to believe in the privacy of your own home is fine so long as you keep it to yourself and understand that politics, personal behavior, and morality should not be shaped by these beliefs.

My desire is to teach the students of Trinity Baptist college that the Scriptures explicitly teach that our beliefs must dictate every aspect of our personal lives. Our political views, our morality, our decision making, and our overall worldview must be channeled through the lens of God's clear revelation to us which can be found in the Scriptures. (Phill 1:27, 2Peter 3:11, Rom.12:1)

I agree with Guinness that this concept of "Privatization", that we should so compartmentalize our lives that our Christian beliefs in no way bleed over into our actions, flies in the face of clear biblical teaching and is something that believers must guard against.

Labor Day Retreat

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 04:00:00 GMT

Our annual Labor Day Retreat is coming up this weekend and we have some exciting things planned for this years event. This event is held at the Trinity Youth Camp and is primarily aimed at providing our freshmen students an opportunity to spend some time getting to know each other and also building a sense of community amongst our student body. Many of our upper classmen will also attend this event which helps them get to know our new students as well.

This retreat also serves as a great time for spiritual decisions to be made and we will conduct two different services while we are there. Music will be provided by our students and this year we are honored to have a special guest speaker join us for the retreat. Joel Travis, his wife Tahona, and their two children (Daniel and Serenity) are a godly couple and are currently involved in foreign missions. They are home on a brief furlough after being out of the country for (4) years and have graciously agreed to be our special guests for the weekend.

I spent one year at a bible college back in the midwest which Joel and Tahona also attended and that is where our friendship began. We have stayed in contact over the years and I am amazed at how God has used them in accomplishing His work. Joel will be our speaker for the two services and is also highly interested in talking to our students about his passion for missions.

We are looking forward to a great weekend and our prayer is that God will use this time to accomplish a great work amongst our students.