The Year In Review

The inaugural year of SE comes to a close.

We’re celebrating our first year in publication by looking back on every article we published this year. We are deeply grateful for you, our readers. We write for you; we pray for you. It is our prayer that the content we published encouraged you in your faith this year.

Photo by Roven Images on Unsplash

What We Published in 2022

We wanted to record some of the memories of the founding of Grimké Seminary and Sola Ecclesia, so we committed to a series of interviews this year.

• Interview: Bryan Laughlin on the Origin of Grimké Seminary and Sola Ecclesia

• Interview: Bryan Laughlin on His Hopes for Sola Ecclesia

• Interview: Doug Logan on How to Have a Conversation about Race

• Interview: Doug Logan on Experiencing and Responding to Racism

• Interview: Doug Logan on the Founding of Grimké Seminary

We also wanted to lay out our vision of theological education and why we believe what we are doing is so vital for the church.

• It’s Time to Reconsider Theological Education (Ponder)

• Theological Studies are Gospel Studies (Holland)

• Ecclesial Theology—The Missing Theology in an Age of Individualism (Brito)

• The Miseducation of the Pastor (Ponder)

• Irrigating Deserts: Seminary Education for Pastors (Logan)

• A Theological College in Your Church (Holland)

Our professor of spiritual formation, Mark Becton, wrote a series on Bible study.

• Why Should I Study the Bible?

• When Studying the Bible

• Why the Background of a Passage Matters

• What to Ask a Passage Before You Preach it

• Exegetical Concerns to Address Before Preaching a Passage

• Questions to Ask Yourself Before You Apply a Passage to Others

He also wrote a two-part series on recording your prayers.

• Should You Keep a Prayer List

• Using Different Types of Prayer Lists

Carl Ellis provided us with several essays.

• Baby Mama Drama to Nanny State Trauma

• Protest and Anarchy

• Social Justice: A Foot Race Paradigm

Our preaching faculty published a number of helpful essays.

• Does Preaching Even Matter for Corporate Worship? (Merida)

• Advice for Pastors Young and Old (Merida)

• How Important is Preaching in a Church Plant? (Merida)

• Interview: Tony Merida and Matt Cohen Discuss Christ-Centered Preaching

• Is Sermon Application Even Necessary? (Cohen)

• Sermon Application: Focus on Your First Loves (Cohen)

• Is Sermon Application Legalism? (Cohen)

• When Should You Start Sermon Application in Your Sermon Preparation?, (Cohen)

Justin Honaker, one of our graduates, provided a three-part series sharing his perspective as a student.

• Grimké Seminary from a Student’s Perspective

• The Coal Min and the Seminary: A Student’s Perspective

• The Grimké Brotherhood: A Seminary Family

Doug Ponder helped us ease our way into Thanksgiving by considering the biblical theme of thanksgiving with this three-part series:

• Thanksgiving and the God of All Grace

• Thanksgiving for Every Good and Perfect Gift

• Thanksgiving as the Will of God for His People

In the area of historical theology, we had a number of helpful essays.

• How Calvin Defined Friendship and Making and Keeping Friends in Ministry (Lumpkin)

• Herman Bavinck and the Pan-Babylonians: How Bavinck’s Engagement in a Creation Controversy Can Shape an Evangelical Doctrine of Creation Today (Harvey)

• How a Jail Became a Seminary (Lumpkin)

• Spurgeon’s Pastor’s College: A Model for Pastoral Training, (Lumpkin)

• Should Joining a Church Be Difficult (Lumpkin)

We also had a number of essays on various topics published to help local churches.

• Pauline Thanksgiving and Church Planting (Holland)

• Thanks for Thessalonica (Holland)

• On Choosing Tools and Why Pastors Should Cancel Their Livestream (Holland)

• Should Pastors Conferences Even Exist (Holland)

• How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Law (Ponder)

• The Power of Song and Testimony in Church Tradition (Key)

• What it Means to Endure Shame in Church Planting (Love)

• What Does it Take to End Well? Key

And this week, Brian Key wrote to encourage us to consider God’s motive in the incarnation.

• Why Did Jesus Come to Earth?

Bright Hope for Tomorrow

We’re looking forward to what we have scheduled to publish in 2023. As always, if there is a topic you want to see written about at Sola Ecclesia, reach out and let me know.

Merry Christmas and a happy New Year from all the authors at Sola Ecclesia!