The Creation Project
Beholding the Mighty Acts of Our Lord
The John Stott Award for Pastoral Engagement
Third Avenue Baptist Church has been selected, along 6 other churches in the United States, as one of the recipients of the John Stott Award for Pastoral Engagement.
What is The John Stott Award for Pastoral Engagement: It is a congregational grant that provides the opportunity for churches to grow in their understanding, teaching, and proclamation of the Christian doctrine of creation.
Each year of the Creation Project focuses on a distinct aspect of the doctrine of creation. These themes provide the general parameters for the intended focus of the Stott Award, as well as the other programs of the Creation Project.
2010-2020 Theme: “God said . . . and it was so”: Divine Action, Contingency, and Modern Science
The whole of the Christian tradition has affirmed that God freely acts in the world; that he created and continually sustains it, that it is subject to his providential care and miraculous intervention—and most importantly, that God acted decisively in the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Christ. Yet, in spite of this commonly held belief, there is no clear consensus among evangelicals— theologians and scientists alike—about what it means to affirm that God act in the world. This simple affirmation is taken by some to either support or rule out various scientific proposals. More often, the affirmation is taken for granted, and the implications of affirming divine action for our theological and scientific beliefs goes unexplored. This year of the Creation Project explores how these classical affirmations bear on issues and questions raised by the natural sciences.
As part of our efforts to think better about the doctrine of divine action, Third Avenue will host a series of mini-conferences on Beholding the Mighty Acts of Our Lord.
Mini Conferences
All of these events will take place at Third Avenue Baptist Church.
The Trinity and Contemplation
Sunday, August 25 at 2:30 p.m.
Rafael N. Bello (PhD, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) is the Academic Consultant for Fiel Publishing House. He is married to Josie and they are parents of Clara, Natalia, and are expecting a boy.
Creation and Contingency
Saturday, September 7, at 5 p.m.
Steven J. Duby (PhD, University of St Andrews) is associate professor of theology at Grand Canyon University. He is the author of Divine Simplicity: A Dogmatic Account. He lives in Phoenix, Arizona, with his wife, Jodi, and their four children.
The Incarnation and the Challenges of Methodological Modernism
Friday, October 4, at 7 p.m.
Michael Allen (PhD, Wheaton College) serves as John Dyer Trimble Professor of Systematic Theology and Academic Dean of the Orlando campus of the Reformed Theological Seminary. He teaches core courses related to systematic theology and historical theology.
Divine Interjections (Divine action via Divine Speech)
Friday, November 22, at 7 p.m.
Kevin Vanhoozer (PhD, Cambridge University) is the Research Professor of Systematic Theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (TEDS) in Deerfield, Illinois. He is the author of many books including The Drama of Doctrine: A Canonical-Linguistic Approach to Christian Theology (Westminster John Knox, 2005 - named best theology book of 2006 by Christianity Today) and Remythologizing Theology: Divine Action, Passion, and Authorship (Cambridge University Press, 2010)