AN UPWARD SHIFT?

I have never made no secret about this fact: I love my Alma Mater, KNOX Theological Seminary. It is--as one of my friends put it--a "diamond in the rough" as far as good, biblically sound seminaries go.
And I have been blessed to be able to audit a class this semester on Thursday nights entitled Evangelism and Church Health, which basically deals with how to present the Gospel (in all of its components) in your sermon preparation and delivery.

And while the class is really stimulating and convicting, the real excitement that I experienced at KNOX last night was meeting several black students at the school. In fact, in this class alone, there are five. When I graduated from KNOX last year, I noticed that a lot more blacks were attending the seminary than when I first started. For example, in the Worship class that I took in Fall of 2006, the blacks out numbered all other races in the class--something absolutely unprecedented at KNOX at the time.

I was privileged to talk with some of these students and I saw in many of them a passion to take what they are learning and use it to reform the black church to where it needs to be. These students are not only hearing about the Doctrines of Grace (some for the very first time), but also why they need to be preached within our culture. I am excited to see God put fires in the bellies of these wonderful brothers and sisters, and it makes me believe that God is truly bringing light out of darkness.

And while other ministries, in their actions, will discourage us in thinking that African-American Theology is still heading downward we, as African-Americans who adhere to Reformed Theology, need to praise God for the remnant He has placed in Seminaries like KNOX, Westminster, RTS, Greenville, Southern Baptist, and others. Equally, we need to not only pray for our churches, but also these men and women for their studies, their callings, and their encouragement as they will (more than likely) face persecution for standing on the Word of Truth.