My friend Dr. Bruce Ware will be leading a bi-annual theology conference at Southern Seminary in Louisville. The following is from a release that gives the rationale behind the initiative:
The theology conference will begin after Ware’s tenure as president of the Evangelical Theological Society and will be held on the Southern Seminary campus. Ware, who formerly served as senior associate dean, will now serve as director of the conference, launching a biannual conference designed to engage contemporary issues from the standpoint of confessional conviction.
Moore said Ware is a natural choice to lead the conference because of his scholarly engagement of numerous issues within the evangelical world. Ware has opposed open theism in books such as “God’s Lesser Glory: The Diminished God of Open Theism” and “God’s Greater Glory: The Exalted God of Scripture and the Christian Faith” and has defended the historical doctrine of the Trinity in “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: Relationships, Roles and Relevance.”
"Bruce Ware is the Athanasius of contemporary evangelicalism, confronting error, be it open theism or evangelical feminism, with the glorious truth of Scripture,” Moore said.
“Professor Ware is the natural choice to lead the Southern Seminary Conference on Theology. He is respected all around as one of the most significant thinkers in American Protestantism today. He understands the issues. And he has the courage and conviction to speak to issues others may find controversial or uncomfortable. I look forward to working with Professor Ware on leading a conference that doesn't just address ideas, but changes lives."
Dr. Ware is a man that can walk within various confessional traditions and contemporary movements. I have been with him in edgier settings in Seattle and with more traditional people in Nashville and he is very effective in both. He is a guy that is gracious, winsome, humble, bold and compelling. Not to mention he is spooky smart. This is a good thing.
Now some of you are already "conference addicts" - my advice is this. Pick one or two things to be involved with to sharpen your saw - but then stay in the field doing real ministry. Conference hopping without real ministry is counterproductive. The same might be said of blogging...
Congrats Dr. Ware and godspeed.