As iron sharpens iron,
one person sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17)
A few hours ago, I carefully listened to an MP3 in which Joe Zichterman, former Bible professor at Northland Baptist Bible College (Dunbar, WI), discusses his reasons for joining the Church-Growth Movement (CGM) in general and
Forty years ago, sociologists triumphantly crowed that in a very short time the last vestiges of religion would be found only in small pockets of disaffected people pining for the glory days of yore. Religious adherence in a society, so they thought, decreased in direct proportion to a society’s modernization. Secularization, the process whereby religion and its influences 
are gradually pushed to the margins of society, was a relentless force that could not be resisted.
Most conservative churches are struggling in the area of evangelism. The leaders will readily admit it. Most pastors are discouraged by the fact that we seem to be doing a pretty lousy job of spreading the Gospel message to the lost. I believe that conversion is God’s job, but evangelism is our job. And it seems we’re pretty anemic at doing our job.
I am by nature an angry person. Most people who know me well would deny that. In fact, my friend Jason Janz often tells people, “Brian’s a lover.” That statement is true now, but it is true only by the grace of God working in my life. Anger, incidentally, serves me well when it comes to the protection of the Gospel or to 
the defense of those I love. I can harness that energy and express it under control, hopefully for the glory of God.
I consider myself a good friend of Joel Tetreau’s. He’s only five years my junior, and we graduated from the same high school and college. In 1997, when I was the Associate Pastor of Tri-City Baptist Church, Joel and I spent many hours in private discussion concerning the church Dr.
Dr. Sam Harbin is the new president of Calvary Baptist Theological Seminary (Lansdale, PA). He was a pastor for a number of years before joining the faculty at Calvary. We sat down with him to hear his personal testimony and his vision for the seminary. Joining me on the interview were Joel Tetreau, Bob Bixby, Tom Pryde, and Greg Linscott.
Jason Janz
Dave Burggraff served as president of Calvary Baptist Theological Seminary (Lansdale, PA). One year ago, he made a transition to oversee spiritual formation at Clearwater Christian College (Clearwater, FL). SharperIron sat down with Sam Harbin, the new president of the seminary, and Dr. Burggraff to ask them about this transition.
Note: This article was written in response to Fundamentalists and Theater: Act Three, Say What? by Dr. Kevin Bauder. It is not intended as a general response to all of Dr. Bauder’s theater articles to date.
Discussion