Urban Faith has an interesting 30-minute discussion of Evangelicalism in Black and White Communities with Dr. William Pannell of Fuller Theological Seminary. For those new to him, William Pannell…

was the first African-American to serve on Fuller’s Board of Trustees. In 1992 he was appointed as the Arthur DeKruyter/Christ Church Oak Brook Professor of Preaching, served as dean of the Chapel from 1992 to 1998, and also served as director of the African-American Studies Program. A gifted preacher and professor of homiletics, Pannell has nurtured several generations of Fuller students from the classroom to the pulpit. He currently serves on the board of Taylor University in Indiana and is the author of numerous articles and books, including The Coming Race Wars? A Cry for Reconciliation (1993); Evangelism from the Bottom Up (1992); and My Friend, the Enemy (1968). [From the Fuller website]

Here is the video:

Here are the interview questions and their time frames:
1. What is Black Evangelicalism? [00:03]
2. What was your relationship with the late Tom Skinner and the rise of Black Evangelicalism? [2:05]

3. Why did you write My Friend, The Enemy (1968)? [7:55]
4. What is the Obsidian Society? [12:53]
5. What are the challenges facing young black evangelical scholars? [14:17]
6. What is the state of preaching as we move deeper into the 21st century? [16:46]
7. What lead to the development of your book, The Coming Race Wars, published in 1993? [20:00]
8. Dr. Pannell on President Barack Obama [23:38]
9. What implications does race in America have on President Obama? [25:48]
10. Dr. Pannell on the Tea Party [27:35]

Books mentioned in the interview:

Tom Skinner, Black and Free
William Pannell, My Friend, the Enemy (1968)
William Pannell, The Coming Race Wars: A Cry for Reconciliation (1993)

HT: Mic

I don’t know the group Too Hot to Handel, but I love this piano solo JT just sent to me! Give it a listen and tell me how many tunes you recognize in this melody, and tell me if Mr. Waddles ain’t workin’ those keys!!

Seriously, these guys keep puttin’ it down for the King. This is not only poetry; it’s theater. Enjoy!

HT: Mic

A little commercial humor.

Yesterday, there must have been three people who independently of one another pointed me to the 116 Clique project, Man Up! This morning I peeped the video for the title track. I’m feelin’ it. I thought you might, too.

So, here are the thoughts I had as I watched this:
1. Gotta listen to this album.
2. So needed.
3. So encouraging. Hopeful.
4. Artistically speaking… nicely done. Head bobbin’.
5. Feels like this Christian generations’ version of Stop the Violence, only more complete in its message.
6. Gotta go play with my little boy.
7. Only thing missing: a couple older men represented. But that’s what happens when entire generations of men abdicate; they vanish from the scene.

Man up.

HT: Shane

Mrs. Blair Linne lights it up!

My wife sent me this video. I think I would be a little unnerved the rest of the day if I were Mukhtar, the bus driver in this video.

Ever wonder what it would be like to be part of a Bible translation committee? Or, what the discussions look like as teams of scholars wrestle with difficult texts and issues?

Justin Taylor has posted this 4-minute video of the ESV translation committee wrestling with the issue of how to translate Hebrew and Greek words that could be rendered “slave” or “servant” or “bondservant.”

You can see how essentially literal translation gets complicated by cultural and historical settings and considerations. “Slave” in one ear meant something different in another era. Meaning and connotations are not static, and understanding the Bible properly requires at least two things:

1. Knowing how the original author used the word and what they intended; and
2. Being aware of how the contemporary audience hears the word and what meanings they freight it with.

So, reading the Bible well becomes a task not just in reading the words, but also of reading the contexts. Reading the bible well requires not that we read culture (singular) but cultures (plural). Moreover, reading the Bible well means allowing the Bible to read the reader, exposing our assumptions and the predispositions we bring to the text. Makes me want to read the Bible and to be read by the Bible!

She sent me this video of a father-daughter dance and said learn the moves before I return home on Monday! This is fun, but I think I’d need physiotherapy afterward

I give ol’ school points for courage in this video. Actually, I think I can probably do “tha stanky leg,” the “shag,” the “robot,” and “da butt.” Not sure I could pull of Beyonce! Laugh out loud–it’s Thursday!