God’s enduring faithfulness throughout 新奥尔良 浸信会神学院’s 100-year history is the inspiration behind a musical commissioned for the school’s centennial celebration.
同时记录入学人数, rapid growth and cutting-edge integration of ministry and education mark the school’s history, so also do struggles brought on by an influenza outbreak, 经济衰退, 和飓风.
我们信实的神,” written by NOBTS alumni Mike Harland and Chris and Diane Machen, debuted March 8 at NOBTS’ Leavell 教堂. Musicians from a dozen congregations from Alabama, 密西西比州, and Louisiana made up the 150-member choir and orchestra featured in the evening presentation.
Mike Harland directs LifeWay Worship. Recording artists Chris and Diane Machen, 有11张专辑的歌手, lead a worship and evangelism ministry, 硕士音乐公司. Arrangement was provided by Cliff Duren, a five-time Dove Award nominee, 还有帕梅拉·范德沃克, the 2014 Dove Award winner for Children’s Musical of the Year, 写旁白. Leading the evening worship was Scott White, music minister, Woodstock Baptist Church, Woodstock, Ga.
Chuck Kelley, NOBTS president, pointed to the school’s founding to highlight God’s faithfulness.
“一百年前, the Southern Baptist Convention decided to create a seminary from scratch and to put it in the city of 新奥尔良, a city that had very few Baptists,” Kelley said in opening remarks. “They knew 新奥尔良 would be a great laboratory to train people God was calling into ministry and service.”
Noting the event constituted the largest group of musicians ever gathered at the seminary chapel, 凯利打趣道:, “What else could we do but have a great big celebration?”
Founded as the Baptist Bible Institute, the seminary’s first president dubbed the school “a child of providence and prayer.” An influenza outbreak closed the school for weeks in 1918, 开业后几天, proving to be the first of many struggles as the seminary weathered war, 经济衰退, 和风暴.
弗雷德琴, former SBC president and pastor of 新奥尔良’ Franklin Avenue Baptist Church, was narrator and gave a theme interpretation.
“We’re here tonight to let you know no matter your plight, 无论你的情况如何, 无论你的情况如何, God has promised that He will be with you,卢特尔说. “He will never leave you, nor will He ever forsake you because He’s our Faithful God.”
A prerecorded testimony from Quell Jenkins, NOBTS/Leavell College student who was paralyzed as a teen, 播放主题曲时播放, 我们信实的神.” Shot three times at age 17, Jenkins forgave those who had hurt her after coming to faith in Christ.
“I know I have Jesus and I know that no matter where I may go or where life may take me that He is going to be there with me,詹金斯说. “I’d rather be in this wheelchair with Christ than to walk without Him, any day.”
Kelley spoke also in a prerecorded testimony of Hurricane Katrina, 2005, and watching from his hotel in Birmingham as pictures of the flooded NOBTS campus filled the television screen.
“As I sat there watching these unforgettable scenes, 旧词, ancient words from Psalm 46 began to fill my mind and my heart as God began speaking into me,凯利回忆道, 说, “‘God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear…’”
The musical’s theme song includes the line, "我们信实的上帝, true to the end; He’s been faithful before, 他会再次忠诚的.——克里斯·麦琴, 在一次采访中, said the words reflect personal lessons he and Harland learned as their wives, Diane Machen and Teresa Harland, each walked through significant health issues years ago.
“One of the things that carried us through was that the Lord’s been faithful in the past, 他会再次忠诚的,Chris Machen说. “‘Trust Him right now’ was always at the forefront of our minds.”
The NOBTS Centennial Celebration continues through the annual Founders Day, Oct. 1, 2018, marking 100 years from the day classes first began.
Kelley concluded the program by thanking the chapel audience for their prayer support and financial investments in equipping pastors and missionaries to carry out the Great Commission.
“这所学校的故事, the school of Providence and Prayer, is not simply the story of our school. It’s your story,” Kelley said. “What God has done for 和 and through NOBTS continues to be a living illustration of what God wants to do for, 和, 在你心中.”
