A Weekend With Dr. Ben Witherington

This weekend Dr. Ben Witherington was in town to speak at my church. If you are not familiar with Witherington, he is considered to be one of the world's leading New Testament scholars. On Saturday he taught from 10:00-3:00 on issues related to the birth of Jesus. He showed several different chuncks of the movie The Nativity Story while at the same time weaving in insights about the story from Matthew 1-2 and Luke 1-2. While I enjoyed his teachings, something else was the highlight of the afternoon for me. During the scene of the movie in which Mary gives birth to Jesus, I noticed an older man who was probably in his 80s that began to weep. Normally I would think it was somewhat cheesy for someone to cry during a film like this, but not this time. It was a very powerful moment for me because I began to think about how big of an impact Jesus must have had in him over the course of the life. It excites me to think of the richness and depth my relationship with the Lord could be by the time I reach that age.

With all the said, the best part of the weekend was getting to go to lunch with Dr. Witherington today. Megan and I are friends with our Senior Pastor's daugher and son-in-law. Wade (our pastor) knows of my interest in attending seminary, so he was kind enough to invite us to lunch with them. Our lunch conversation covered a variety of different topics. We talked about everything from sports to politics to his experiences on various TV programs.

At one point, I asked him what his opinion was of the Emerging Church. He actually had quite a few good things to say. The first person he brought up was Rob Bell. While he has some concerns about some of his theology, he is impressed with how creative he is in his teachings. He also likes the ecumenical nature of the Emerging Church is. One other thing that excites him about it is the youthful leadership. He seemed to have only a few major concerns. The first was a slip by some in biblical sexual ethics. Secondly, he worries about a lack of accountability for many of these churches. He thinks it is necessary for churches to have accountability beyond their own members. A final point of concern to him is the devaluing of orthodoxy by some. Other than Rob Bell we did not discuss specific individuals. One thing that we both agreed on is that the Emerging Church is something that can be very difficult to define.

Overall, it was an excellent weekend. If I end up choosing to attend Asbury for seminary, I am excited to take some classes from him.