Bethlehem College and Seminary

What a joy it was to welcome incoming students and their families today at move-in! See you at orientation in the morning!

The staff and faculty spent a portion of our planning day today praying over each of our incoming students by name. Would you join us in covering the community in prayer as we start a new school year?

Join Dr. Andy Naselli this Fall at Godward Life for his plenary session, “The Steadfastness of Job.” In this session, Dr. Naselli will explore four questions:
– "What is the synopsis of the book of Job?"
– "What is the theological message of the book of Job?"
– "Did Job sin?"
– "How should we remain steadfast like Job?"
Registration is open at godwardlife.com or through the link in our bio.

The Bethlehem College Summer Intensive "Foundations of Christian Worldview" is taking place this week! Today students learned about the Great Commission, asking the question, "How do I know if I am called to missions?"

Join Mike Schutt, executive director of Worldview Academy this Fall at Godward Life for his workshop "Work and Leisure in Christian Perspective." Also, join us for a Worldview Academy sponsored lunch on Saturday at the conference.

In this workshop, Mike Schutt will explore how Paul's call "to do good works" relates to our "work," and how it is possible to have a variety of “vocations.” He will also address how to faithfully “not-work”— to play, to engage the world, to contemplate—to God’s glory.

Learn more about Godward Life and register at godwardlife.com. Learn more about Worldview Academy at worldview.org.

"By the grace of God manifested as your personal generosity, we are now able to focus on delivering Bethlehem’s Bible-saturated, academically rigorous seminary education in-country among the theologically famished peoples of the world whose joy in God has long been our mission." VP Rick Segal

Read more in this week's prayer letter at: https://bcsmn.edu/steddom-fund-re-focused/.

Steddom Fund Re-Focused - Bethlehem College and Seminary We are writing to make you aware of an exciting reframing of the work of the Alex Steddom International Student Fund at Bethlehem College and Seminary. By the grace of God manifested as your personal generosity, we are now able to focus on delivering Bethlehem’s Bible-saturated, academically rigor...

“This hymn will make you want to wear a sword instead of a walking stick, to explore mountains perilous and great. It reminds us that the story is still being written, that souls still need saving, that we face a task unfinished — one that our Lord calls us to complete.” Greg Morse, M.Div. '17

Read more at: https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/facing-a-task-unfinished.

Facing a Task Unfinished: A Battle-Hymn for Mission The Great Commission remains an unfinished task, and yet how many feel any urgency to see it completed?

Newly Refocused on In-Country Seminary Education | The Alex Steddom International Student Fund will now be supporting students, on the ground, in-country, activating immediate gospel ministry where it’s needed.

Learn more at: bcsmn.edu/steddom.

Alex Steddom International Student Fund - Bethlehem College and Seminary The Alex Steddom International Student Fund was originally conceived to support the financial needs of as many as four seminarians annually from theologically famished regions of the world at our Minneapolis campus.

"As discontentment plagues our culture, God has called us to Christian contentment, a satisfaction in God alone. This plenary will meditate on The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment, a collection of eleven sermons by the English Puritan pastor Jeremiah Burroughs. Burroughs’ work has been a source of blessing and encouragement to Christians ever since its publication in 1648. We will consider the source of Christian contentment, the pursuit of contentment, and the possession of contentment in adversity and affliction. Christians can and must live in contentment, because it is 'the duty, glory, and excellence of a Christian.'"

Join Dr. Brian Hanson in his plenary session "On Christian Contentment: Meditating on a Puritan Classic" this Fall at Godward Life. Registration is open at godwardlife.com or through the link in our bio.

"At Bethlehem College and Seminary we seek to teach students to do just that: to take a book, an essay, or any other piece of writing, as the author originally intended it to be taken. This is especially true in reading and studying the Bible." Dr. James McGlothlin

Read more in this week's prayer letter at: https://bcsmn.edu/tolkien-on-taking-a-book-as-the-original-author-intended/.

Tolkien On Taking a Book as the Original Author Intended In 1936 J. R. R. Tolkien gave a lecture to the British Academy on the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf. The primary point of this lecture, and its subsequent publication as “The Monsters and the Critics,” was to offer a defense of studying the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf as a poetic work. That proposition ...

"A detective, a cowboy, and an astronaut walked into… a chivalric romance. This workshop examines the Renaissance genre of the chivalric romance through Sir Philip Sidney and Edmund Spenser’s defenses of faerielands and the ways they serve moral formation. In the second half of this workshop, we will consider with G.K. Chesterton, Leif Enger, and C.S. Lewis in the twentieth century how the genres of the western, detective fiction, and science fiction take up and advance the narrative priorities (over and against the plot) of the errant knight."

Join Dr. Betsy Howard at Godward Life this Fall for her workshop, "From Camelot to Sherlock: Story-Forming the Moral Imagination." Registration is open at godwardlife.com or through the link in our bio.

"We care about our children and future generations because we care about Christ. We care about our last names because we want a household to serve the name of Jesus Christ. What we labor to build is no Babel to either of our names, but a spiritual legacy to his." Greg Morse, M.Div. '17

Read more at: https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/forget-your-first-name.

Forget Your First Name: How to Live for Legacy We are a generation of first names, of forgotten pasts and rootless family trees. But in Christ, God empowers us to live for something bigger, greater, and far longer lasting.

Join John Piper this Sept. 27-28 for an interactive, intergenerational, church-based weekend of teaching, fellowship, and worship at Godward Life. This year's theme is "The Steadfast Soul: Enjoying Peace in an Anxious Age."

Learn more and register at godwardlife.com.

"The Bible’s meaning is intrinsic to the biblical text, reading it closely elicits the same lines of inquiry, no matter the reader’s cultural or ethnic background." Prof. Joshua Greever

Read more in this week's prayer letter at: https://bcsmn.edu/privilege-and-task-of-theological-education/.

The Privilege and Task of Theological Education - Bethlehem College and Seminary This summer I had the opportunity to train pastors in Southeast Asia. These pastors had very little formal theological education, and they were eager learners. Some of them traveled hours through the countryside to spend a week together with other pastors discussing 1 Thessalonians. During and after...

"There are different ways to be motivated, and God did not create them equal. Different ways are better for different types of actions. This workshop will explore types of motivation for work, learning, and life."

Join Prof. Jonathan Worthington at Godward Life this Sept. 27-28 for his workshop, "Motivate Me Rightly, Not More." Registration is open at godwardlife.com

"God does not simply tolerate creation as if it were an unsavory means to a good end; he takes divine delight in the worlds he has made." Prof. Clinton Manley

Read more at: https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/gods-beloved-sun.

God’s Beloved Sun: Enjoying His Pleasure in Creation What might living in this world feel like if we were convinced that God delights in the world that he has made?

"There is no space for sloth, half-heartedness, mediocrity, or carelessness in the life of a follower of Christ." Prof. Brian Hanson

Read more at: https://bcsmn.edu/a-call-to-christian-faithfulness/.

A Call to Christian Faithfulness - Bethlehem College and Seminary Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. – Colossians 3:23–24 Last October, while on my research sabbatical, conducting archival research in England, I encountered...

"What is the peace of God? How do we experience it? How does it become a sentinel at the gate of our heart and the gate of our mind? Is there any 'good anxiety'? How is the pursuit of joy and gentleness part of our battle against worry? And what does it mean that all this is 'in Christ'? The treasure chest of riches in Philippians 4:4–7 is bottomless."

Join Chancellor John Piper in his plenary session "Guarded by God's Grace" this Sept. 27-28 at Godward Life. Registration is open at godwardlife.com.

"So how do we avoid both the idol of digital vanity and the idol of pushing God out of the picture as irrelevant to Silicon Valley? The balance requires a whole new way of thinking about God, his creation, and the gadgets we use every day."

Join Tony Reinke this Sept. 27-28 at Godward Life for his workshop, "Escaping Both Idols of Technology."

Register at godwardlife.com or through the link in our bio.

The Fall 2024 semester begins in just over a month! Would you join us in praying for our incoming students, returning students, staff, and faculty as they prepare to enter another school year for the glory of God and the joy of his people?

“The particular affinity I have felt with the Bagginses comes from their peculiarity — a peculiarity I share as someone who has been ‘there and back again,’ or what some have called a ‘Third-Culture Kid.’” Seth Porch, Th.M. '23

Read more at: https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/hobbits-and-third-culture-kids.

Hobbits and Third-Culture Kids: Befriending the Strangers Among Us Children who grow up overseas often feel out of place everywhere, like Hobbits without a home. How can churches seek out these strangers in our midst?

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:6-7

Join Marshall Segal, President and CEO of Desiring God this Sept. 27-28 at Godward Life as he addresses anxiety, peace, and prayer in his plenary session "Do Not Be Anxious."

Register today at www.godwardlife.com

"The Giver has been faithful. So, we here issue a receipt of praise and thanksgiving for these good things—all expected, but none presumed." Rick Segal, Vice President of Advancement

We praise God for his steadfast faithfulness as we wrapped up the 2023-2024 school year with the full funding of The Serious Joy Scholarships for the year. By his grace, our college and seminary students were once again able to receive $10,000 in scholarship support that kept their tuition remarkably low—about $8,000 a year. Those who graduated in May launched into life, ministry, vocation, and citizenship without an onerous burden of federal student loan debt. May he be praised!

Read about God's kindness and faithfulness to our school in this week's prayer letter: https://bcsmn.edu/good-things/.

A Receipt. For Good Things. - Bethlehem College and Seminary If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him! — Matthew 7:11 ESV We asked. On every day of every week of the school year just passed, we asked the Lord to …