Jeff Brawner: Baptizing in the Mississippi

Island Community Church has a membership of less than 100, but is a church with the potential to impact the world through its congregation of primarily medical students, graduate students, and young professionals from all over the globe. Dr. Jeff Brawner, the newest facility member at MABTS, pastors this body of believers that is not only unique because its members, but also in the fact that the baptismal waters are the Mississippi river. Click here to listen to more about this fascinating church and Dr. Brawner's desire to bring people to Christ.

Bryan Loritts and Ricky Jenkins: Moving past the racial barrier.

“We must face the sad fact that at 11 o’clock on Sunday morning, when we stand to sing… we stand in the most segregated hour in America.”

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The idea of a multicultural church appeals to me on so many levels, but I have found very few churches that can truly say they are multicultural. One local body in Memphis holds this distinction: Fellowship Memphis. This summer Bryan Loritts, lead pastor and son of Crawford Loritts, and Ricky Jenkins, pastor of Fellowship Downtown and MABTS Student, sat down with me to discuss how they lead a fellowship of believers from different races and with roots in various Christian traditions.

The interview with Ricky and Bryan can be found here on Itunes.

Ryan Bush returns . . . sort of.

The truth is we recorded two interviews with Ryan back to back in one day, but the best way to keep people at your house for hours on end is to promise a delectable dessert and not serve it until three hours after the original meal. If you doubt me try it sometime. Instead of asking, "Would you like dessert now, or would you like to wait?" say, "I made a tremendous trifle with chocolate, caramel, and walnuts that we will eat later." I am sure your guests will stay in anticipation no matter how lame your jokes are. I must add, this may not work if the guests mentioned above have had your trifle and it was neither delectable nor tremendous. So, never promise an untremendous trifle as a tremendous trifle to anyone who has already tried the trifle.

Well, listening to Ryan and I talk about mission work and fun times at seminary housing may not be a trifle, but thanks for staying for dessert.

Part 2 of Rick Melick

Dr. Rick Melick from Golden Gate Baptist Seminary did a second interview with me while he was here on campus. I enjoyed hearing stories about his working along side his son at a church plant in North Califorina. The podcast can be heard here.

Ryan Bush

Missiology student Ryan Bush and I had a conversation last week about his experience planting a Hispanic church in the Memphis area.

Ryan and I worked on staff at a church together in Little Rock before he and his wife Amanda served in Peru as ISC missionaries with the International Mission Board. He is one of the most genuine men you will ever meet. I believe you will enjoy hearing him tell about his experiences on the podcast which can be found here.

Dr. Rick Melick

Last week Dr. Rick Melick from Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary delivered the Scholar's Lectures here at MABTS. I had the opportunity to interview him about his role in the translation of the Holman Christian Standard Bible and his thoughts on translation theory. He also briefly discussed his new book coming out Teaching That Transforms.
You can hear the podcast here http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/ten-minutes-with/id347345024?i=82464467

Video of Interview with Dr. Spradlin

Here is the video footage from my interview with Dr. Spradlin back in February.