Church Involvement

Welcome to my church involvement page, which will tell you a bit about my personal religious life. I have no intention of “doing acts of righteousness before people, to be seen by them” with this page, but students and their parents are often interested in this sort of information about Bible professors. I provide this page as a courtesy to them, and to anyone else who finds this information helpful.

Stone-Campbell Heritage

“Stone-Campbell heritage” is a broad way of referring to the cluster of churches that trace some of their characteristic emphases back to the work of Barton W. Stone and Alexander Campbell in nineteenth century. Stone and Campbell emphasized a “back to the Bible” approach to church doctrine and practice. The “Stone-Campbell heritage” originally started as a unity movement intended to erase distinctions between Christians, but is now best known through three distinct groups: the Disciples of Christ, the Churches of Christ, and the Christian Churches. I am a lifelong participant in the Stone-Campbell heritage, having grown up attending a capella Churches of Christ. I also teach at Pepperdine University, a University affiliated with the Churches of Christ, and maintain my membership in the Disciples of Christ Historical Society.

Congregational Involvement

Rene, Nathan, Nicholas, are currently members of the Conejo Valley Church of Christ in Thousand Oaks, California, just a few miles from our home. Since moving to southern California, I have taught one short class (four weeks) for the “young adults” and spoken (at Fillmore Church of Christ and at Canyon View Church of Christ [San Diego]) on two “Christian Education Sundays” sponsored by Pepperdine’s Office of Church Relations. I frequently take my turn at “speaking parts” in the worship assembly (prayers, scripture readings, communion meditations) and recently taught a one-shot class on the whole "Jesus tomb" hype.

Until moving from Johnson City to Malibu, Rene, Nathan, and I attended Northeast Church of Christ in Kingsport, Tennessee.

During the summer of 2002 I taught an adult Bible class at Northeast Church of Christ in Kingsport, Tennessee dealing with “Questions You’ve Asked about the Old Testament.”

Some visitors to this site might be interested in these sermons or short talks:

Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken (Psalm 87)

No Time Like the Present (Revelation 21-22)

WORLD BIBLE TRANSLATION CENTER

I serve as a “back translation evaluator” for the World Bible Translation Center, based in Fort Worth, Texas. I am currently evaluating the back-translation of the Romanian version of 2 Kings.