The studying of Divine truth as preachers rather than as Christians, or, in other words, studying it for the sake of finding out something to say to others, without so much as thinking or profiting our own souls, is a temptation to which we are more than ordinarily exposed.
(‘Character and success of a faithful minister’, Works i. 142.)
Filed under Spirituality
For all of you have been waiting with baited breath for details about the up-coming Andrew Fuller the Reader Conference at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary on August 27-28, 2007 here you go!
Please go here to download a copy of the brochure which now has all the up-to-date information regarding speakers, times, registration, and costs!
Here is the newly revised schedule:
Monday, August 27
7:30-9:15 am Breakfast & Registration
9:30 am Michael Haykin (Toronto Baptist Seminary)
Andrew Fuller the theological reader
11:00 am Jeff Jue (Westminster Theological Seminary)
Andrew Fuller: heir of the Reformation
12:30 pm Lunch
2:00 – 2:40pm Parallel sessions
a. Michael McMullen (Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary)
Editing Andrew Fuller’s diary
b. Barry Howson (Heritage College, Cambridge, ON)
Andrew Fuller and his reading of John Gill
c. Allen Mickle (University of Wales, PhD student)
Andrew Fuller and the Johnsonians: early theological reading
2:50-3:30 pm – Parallel sessions
d. Paul Brewster (Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary Ph.D. student)
Andrew Fuller as a pastor-theologian
e. Nigel Wheeler (Pretoria University Ph.D. student)
Andrew Fuller’s ordination sermons
f. Chris Chun (St.Andrews University Ph.D. student)
Andrew Fuller and the sense of the heart
6:00 pm Dinner
7:30 pm Russell Moore (Vice-President, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary)
Banquet speaker
The contemporary significance of Andrew Fuller
Tuesday, August 28
7:30-8:30 am Breakfast
9:00 am Carl Trueman (Westminster Theological Seminary)
John Owen’s influence on Andrew Fuller
10:30 am Tom Nettles (The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary)
Jonathan Edwards — theological mentor to Andrew Fuller
12:00pm A closing word
Filed under Conference
The Andrew Fuller Centre for Reformed Evangelicalism would like to present its annual lecture series. This year, Dr. Mark Coppenger will be lecturing on Art and Soul: Spirituality and the Aesthetic. It will be held June 2, 2007 at Grace Bible Church, Cambridge, ON.
Dr. Coppenger is pastor of Evanston (IL) Baptist Church and Distinguished Professor of Christian Apologetics at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He has been a Wheaton College philosophy professor, executive-director of the State Convention of Baptists in Indiana (SBC), founding editor of SBC LIFE, and president of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He has a Ph.D. from Vanderbilt and an M.Div. from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
The cost of the lectures is $30. The breakdown of the lectures is as following:
9:30 AM – 10:30 AM – “The Soul of Art”
10:30 AM – 11:00 AM – Break
11:00 AM – 12:00 PM – “The Soul of the Artist”
12:00 PM – 1:30 PM – Lunch Break
1:30 PM – 2:30 PM – “The Soul of the Viewer”
If you would like to attend please send your name, address, telephone number, e-mail and a cheque or money order for $30 (Canadian funds, made out to Toronto Baptist Seminary with “Fuller Lectures” in memo line) or VISA/Mastercard information to:
Andrew Fuller Centre for Reformed Evangelicalism
c/o Toronto Baptist Seminary and Bible College
130 Gerrard Street East
Toronto, ON M5A 3T4
416-925-3263 (phone)
416-925-8303 (fax)
allen.mickle@tbs.edu
While Fuller was a very popular preacher, it is well-known that he was perhaps not the best preacher. In doing some reading and thought into Andrew Fuller the Preacher, I came across some interesting quotes in which everyone may be interested.
“His own sermons were weighty, logical, and grave; he had not the finish of Foster not the splendor of Hall, but his simple and vigorous style expressed simple and vigorous thought; that he was an effective preacher may be inferred from the fact that when Thomas Chalmers listened to him he resolved to so far make Fuller model that he would never again read a sermon, but henceforth trust to extemporaneous delivery” (T. Harwood Pattison, The History of Christian Preaching [Philadelphia, PA: American Baptist Publication Society, 1903), p. 287.
“There is little warmth–no heat; imagination is scarcely in evidence at all; and ‘flights of eloquence’ nowhere appear. The sermons on themes are orderly, discriminating, logical; the expositions… are careful and plain, in homily form; the style is clear and even, but lacks grace, fervor, and movement. Excellent good sense and timeliness for their day characterize the writings of Fuller, and they did good and enduring service; but they have not enough literary quality to make them standards, and their adaptation to contemporary though has, or course, passed away with their own times” (Edwin Charles Dargan, A History of Preaching [New York: George H. Doran, 1912], II:333).
“As a preacher he soon became popular, without any of the ordinary means of popularity. He had none of that easy elocution, none of that graceful fluency, which melts upon the ear, and captivates the attention of an auditor. His enunciation was laborious and slow; his voice strong and heavy; occasionally plaintive, and capable of an agreeable modulation. He had none of that eloquence which consists in a felicitous selection of terms, or in the harmonious construction of periods; he had a boldness in his manner, a masculine delivery, and great force of expression. His style was often deformed by colloquialisms, and coarse provincials; but in the roughest of his deliveries, ‘the bones of a giant might be seen.’… In entering the pulpit, he studied very little decorum, and often hastened out of it with an appearance of precipitation… Not aware of its awkwardness, in the course of his delivery, he would insensibly place one hand upon his heart, or behind him, and gradually twist off a button from his coat, which some of his domestics had frequent occasion to replace…. He was not the exact model of an orator” (J. W. Morris, Memoirs of the Life and Writings of the Rev. Andrew Fuller, late Pastor of the Baptist Church in Kettering, and Secretary to the Baptist Missionary Society (n.o. High Wycomebe, 1816), pp. 81-82).
These are just a few looks at Fuller’s pulpit ability. Yet, for Fuller it was passion in the pulpit over rhetorical and oratorical skill that he rightly stressed was important for the preacher.
Filed under Preaching
The Elephant of Kettering-Andrew Fuller 