The Sola Panel | Help Lionel do a PhD in the UK

08 May 2009 | 10 comments | 818 words |

Help Lionel do a PhD in the UK Paul Grimmond

Lionel Windsor, beloved Sola Panellist and general all-round nice guy has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to move from Wollongong, which is located just south of Sydney, to Durham in the UK.

Let's weigh up his options: he could stay in one of the most beautiful places on earth located within 10 minutes of the beach where the average temperature for the year is 21.8 degrees Celsius, or he could move to a place where the average temperature for the year is 12.5 degrees Celsius and where, in spite of being near the coast, nobody ever goes to the beach for obvious reasons. Oh, and it costs twice as much to live there!

Why would he do it? For the sake of the gospel. Why should we care? Because it will be for the good of God's kingdom if he goes.

God grants his people a massive variety of gifts to be employed in growing his kingdom. One of Lionel's great gifts is his brain. He's clever and he can remember lots of stuff that the rest of us can't! Lionel and his family have been planning for further education for a while so that he can use this gift to help equip others for ministry (either in Australia or Malaysia). And it seems that God has decided that now is the right time.

A scholarship has become available that would help the Windsors (he's going to work so well in the UK with a name like that!) go to Durham so that Lionel can work on a PhD in New Testament studies under the direction of Professor FB Watson. The PhD will mean studying in an environment that will challenge his convictions and stretch his thinking. But it is an excellent opportunity that many of Lionel's friends and mentors would love to see him undertake.

The main problem is that it's all happened a few years earlier than expected, and it's very expensive to live and study in the UK (especially given the hopeless exchange rate on the Aussie dollar). We wanted our Sola Panel readers to know about the opportunity and to hear more about what Lionel's doing. We would love you to pray for him and his family as they work out how to make the most of the opportunity. We also encourage those who know and love him to help provide the money for him to go. All the details (including how to support him financially) are supplied on his website (lionelwindsor.net). We encourage all our readers to check out what he's going to do and why he wants to go.

For those wanting some more information, here are a few of Lionel's thoughts about the opportunity:

Preaching the unchanging gospel is always done in the context of changing cultural beliefs and theological currents. The preachers of the future need to be able to know their Bibles very, very well, and they also need to be able to understand the kinds of beliefs that shape the hearts and minds of their congregations. Durham is presently a world-class centre for theological study. That means it's a place where I would be able to spend time face-to-face with influential theologians and biblical interpreters. And that means I will be exposed in great depth both to the Bible and to the kinds of theological currents that will affect the average Aussie (or Malaysian) Christian in the future. That should help me immensely as I plan to train and equip future gospel ministers. That's why it's worth going all the way to the far north of England for this kind of study (as opposed to studying here in the Aussie sunshine).

What am I actually going to be studying? In essence, I want to look at how the Bible shapes (or should shape) Christian ministry. 2 Timothy 3:15-17 tells us that the Bible (actually, the Old Testament, in particular) can do two things. Firstly, it can make us wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Secondly, it can equip us for ministry. In my particular study programme, I want to read the Apostle Paul in depth, and to understand how the Old Testament Scriptures affected his own apostolic ministry. This is an area of research that will touch on current debates about biblical theology and the place of Jew and Gentile in the New Testament. God-willing, it should also prove to be immensely practical for training and equipping Christian ministers in the future. My precise research topic is “How does Paul's Israelite identity inform his apostolic ministry (with special reference to 2 Corinthians)?”

There is no magical organization out there that automatically funds this kind of thing, especially during a financial crisis. I have applied for a few scholarships, and we've been saving for some time for this possibility. But to be able to take up this opportunity in 2009, we are also asking for help from the individual generosity of God's people.

Find out more.

10 Comments »

Philip Griffin08/05/2009 05:12 AM

I’m delighted the Lord has given Lionel this opportunity. I for one have benefitted from Lionel’s articles and I’ve enjoyed talking with him by phone or e-mail to explore some issues further.

I am particularly glad that the place of the Jew/gentile be further explored. Donald Robinson’s work in this field was seminal, but very few have worked in this area of New Testament Biblical Theology since, and we have new issues to confront now, not least the New Perspective movement.

So then, I will be supporting Lionel in this move for the sake of the gospel. And who knows, maybe he’ll take up surfing in freezing water!

Finally, I want to endorse Lionel’s comments that we will need to know our Bibles really well in our current climate; this is a time for serious theological study on the part of any would be pastors and church planters. It is NOT the time to send out men to pastor churches, but who are not adequately theologically trained.

Bec Malcolm08/05/2009 12:57 PM

Firstly, it’s great to hear of another Aussie family with the same sort of vision as we have to equip the saints in this way (We too are in the UK for my husband to pursue a Pauline PhD). May God bless you as you undertake to serve him in this way and give you every good gift you need.

“especially given the hopeless exchange rate on the Aussie dollar” - Actually, at the moment the Aussie dollar is doing very well (50p per dollar). Six months or so ago it was very bad (about 38p per dollar) but now is a good time to capitalise on a good exchange rate.

Daniel Kong08/05/2009 06:43 PM

I’m really excited to hear this opportunity has been opened up to Lionel. I want to second Paul’s claims of Lionel’s gift of being clever, and I’m very encouraged to learn that Lionel is using it for furthering the Kingdom.

Gordon Cheng09/05/2009 02:11 PM

May God bless this time of study, Lionel—for you, your family and for those who will benefit from your work.

Steve Grose10/05/2009 06:52 AM

G’day mate.. have you considered a ersearch PhD doing the sme stuff a little closer to home? Newcastle Uni offers this for free. you can do it part time over 8 years if you want.

Lionel Windsor11/05/2009 04:12 AM

Thanks everybody for your kind support and comments! Steve - I appreciate your willingness to offer further advice; I’ve considered all sorts of options, especially options that involve studying closer to home! If you’d like to read in more detail my reasons for choosing Durham, you can check out my site. God bless, Lionel.

David Ould13/05/2009 05:09 PM

not sure whether I want to hurrah the mention of Lionel’s phd or take you to task for the anglophobia

Can do nothing but commend Lionel to you all. We think so much of he and his wife that we got them to make big promises when we baptised our little boy.

Sandy Grant14/05/2009 06:42 AM

I wanted to share this quote with Lionel, my colleague not only in this blog, but in local ministry. But it was so good I share it with you, with thanks to Justin Taylor for the tip.

It’s from Carl Trueman, and by the way, I do not think Lionel is in danger of what’s warned off here. Nevertheless, he must still guard against the temptation… Here’s the quote…

I have always been amazed at the infatuation of so many orthodox academics with their reputation in the secular universities and liberal departments. A few years back, I edited a book with Paul Helm on the doctrine of scripture. At the time I was on faculty at the University of Aberdeen. One colleague - a friend but one of distinctly liberal leanings - referred matter-of-factly in a public lecture to the upcoming book as representing the tradition of Warfield, of which he himself did not approve; but the comment was not a sneer; rather it was a simple statement of his impression of the book. Within a couple of days I received an email from one of the contributors, asking if this was the case and saying that, if so, he wanted to withdraw from participation. Now, it was not actually the case: the book addressed the issue of scripture from a different direction to the concerns of Warfield; but what puzzled me - no, what disappointed me, for I understood exactly what was going on - was that this person was so terrified of being associated with Warfield. I wonder to this day if he would have been so concerned if he had been invited to contribute to a collection of essays that someone said pointed in a Barthian or Bultmannian direction. Probably not - because those options would not be so embarrassing to mention to friends at cocktail parties in the Senior Common Room or at the next meeting of the Society for Biblical Literature.

Now I worked in secular universities long enough to know that liberal colleagues are bright enough to spot a conservative at five hundred feet. Just because you avoid contributing to certain volumes or using certain words, or because you choose to laugh when certain people to the right of you are mocked, does not win you respect from the secular academy. It is a sad fact but, as far as biblical studies and theology go, only giving up all that is distinctive about the Christian faith will ultimately do that for you. The individual to whom I referred above no doubt liked to think he was taken seriously by mainstream colleagues, but I sat as a junior faculty in enough coffee room discussions to know the real thoughts of liberal colleagues about conservatives who try to fly under the radar. They despise them for their theology; and they despise them for the fact they try to hide or minimize it. A double whammy. Given the choice - and there is always a choice - I’d rather just be despised for being a brazen conservative with looney theology, than a duplicitous conservative with looney theology. That way one can still be of use to the church and still look in the mirror with some degree of self-respect.

Sandy Grant19/05/2009 01:59 PM

Just finished reading Carson on ‘The Scholar as Pastor’ and Piper on ‘The Pastor as Scholar’. Thanks to Justin Taylor for the tip. Reading both papers was interesting for people reflecting on how one might decide to embark on a ministry as a theological educator. Carson went from pastor to this. Piper went from this to pastor! Carson also warns of the danger of playing to the academic crowd for approval, identified by Trueman above. However, as Justin Taylor highlighted, he also warned that…

The second direction seductive from which applause may come is the conservative constituency of your friends, a narrower peer group but one that, for some people, is equally ensnaring. Scholarship is then for sale: you constantly work on things to bolster the self-identity of your group, to show they are right, to answer all who disagree with them. Some scholars who are very indignant with colleagues who, in their estimation, are far too attracted by the applause of unbelieving academic peers, remain blissfully unaware of how much they have become addicted to the applause of conservative bastions that egg them on. On the last day we stand or fall on the approval of one Person, one Master, the Lord Jesus.

Yes, how true that can be too, and something to watch here on SP. I loved the way Carson identified the different gifts and different styles of Christian theological scholarship. What sort of scholar-pastor will Lionel be? Small or large output? Specialist? Generalist? Populariser? We’ll miss his preaching here, but will his writing or research or teaching be even better? Also loved Carson’s encouragement to the theological educator never to totally abandon front line ministry in evangelism and the local church. Ditto for the need to pastor as well as to teach students, as people for whom Christ died. Ditto for the importance of keeping the main thing (the gospel) the main thing in theological education, and not forgetting ever to open the Bible in class! A last quote for Lionel and us all…

Nothing is quite as deceitful as an evangelical scholarly mind that thinks it is especially close to God because of its scholarship rather than because of Jesus.

Lionel Windsor20/05/2009 03:43 AM

Sandy’s comments are spot-on, and indeed these potential dangers for a pastor/scholar are primary reasons why I covet your prayers.

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