Gospels Class Upcoming at IRBS Seminary August 3-7, 2021

Looking forward to teaching an intensive class on the Gospels for IRBS Seminary in Mansfield, Texas, Tuesday-Saturday, August 3-7, 2021.

If you live in or near the Dallas-FW area and would like to take the class face to face, I'd love to meet you in person. You can also take the class virtually. For more info visit the IRBS Seminary website. Or, the IRBS FB page.

Check out the syllabus for the class here.

JTR

2015 John Albert Broadus Religion Award at PVCC

PVCC held its annual Academic Awards and Leadership Convocation back on Thursday, April 16, 2015.  Last year I helped establish the John Albert Broadus Award in Religion as one of the honors presented at the convocation.  This year I was able to present the second annual award to one of my students, Samuel L. Amos, III. Just last week I ran into last year's winner who is now pursuing a Religion major at the University of Virginia. 

It has been both a blessing and challenge to teach within a diverse, secular academic institution. Here's the video of the entire convocation with the Religion award at about the 21:57 mark:

2014 John Albert Broadus Religion Award at PVCC

PVCC has an informal Academic & Leadership Awards Convocation each Spring.  This year it was held on April 17th.  I was able to help get a Religion Award established for this year's convocation and to have it named the "John Albert Broadus Award."  Broadus (1827-1895) was born in Culpeper County, graduated from UVA, and then stayed in Charlottesville to become professor of ancient languages at his alma mater while also pastoring the First Baptist Church or Charlottesville (where he would baptized a young Albemarle Female Institute student from Scottsville, Virginia named Charlotte "Lottie" Moon), before leaving to become a founding faculty member, teaching NT and homiletics, at the Southern Baptist Seminary. I then had the honor of presenting the award to one of my students, Nathan Moore.  Here's a video of the entire convocation with the Religion Award at c. the 19.00 minute mark:

Some Suggestions for Writing Successful Essays

 

Note:  It's getting close to exam time.  Here are some hints I've shared with students for writing successful exam essays:

1.     Carefully read and understand the essay topic before you begin.

2.     Answer all parts of the question or essay topic.

3.     Before the exam, take notes and make an outline to help you formulate and practice how you will write the essay.

4.     Look at your lecture notes and the reading material to find specific and accurate information to use in your essay to support your argument.

5.     Take a clear position and make a reasonable argument for it.

6.     Use full paragraphs of 3-4 sentences in writing the essay.

7.      Begin each part of the essay question with a new paragraph.

8.     Write in complete, simple sentences.

9.     Avoid compound and run-on sentences.

10.  Use proper grammar.

11.  In formal writing, avoid contractions (e. g., “It is…” rather than “It’s…”, etc.).

12.  Try to use active rather than passive verbs (e. g., “Paul wrote Romans.” instead of, “Romans was written by Paul.”).

13.  Spell important terms correctly.

14.  Avoid vague, subjective, or general statements and claims that you have not proven or substantiated (e. g., “I really like Paul, because he is such an interesting writer.”).

15.  After you finish writing the essay, read over it to check for content, grammar, and spelling.