Recently Al Mohler (president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kentucky) posted an entry on his blog that addressed both (1) his hope for the church because of the young ministers entering and preparing for ministry, and (2) challenges/issues that are on the (near) horizon that demand careful response and attention by the church.

This article was one of those pieces of writing that kept me thinking for a while even after I read it, so I figured it was worth referring along.  Here are some (brief) excerpts from Mohler’s post that will give you a sense of what he’s covering (and hopefully whet your appetite to reading his whole article – we’ve provided a link to it at the end):

First, Mohler mentions the hope he has in the emerging generation of ministers: “When asked about my hope for the future of the church, I point immediately to the corps of young ministers now entering and preparing for ministry.  One of the great counter-intuitive developments of our times is the rise of a generation of young ministers who are committed to the faith ‘once for all delivered to the saints,’ and who are eager to run the race to God’s glory.”

Then, Mohler turns his attention to the challenge facing this emerging generation in the church:  Mohler mentions five such challenges, each of which demand “the highest level of biblical fidelity and theological courage, matched to keen cultural sensitivity and a deep love for human beings caught in the maelstrom of late modernity.”  Here are the challenges:

• The Question of Truth: “…this generation will face the continual challenge of making clear that the gospel is not merely interesting, not merely meaningful, but true.”

• The Gospel and the Church’s Mission: “The church is charged with one central mission – the gospel and the making of disciples from all nations.  But those disciples are to be taught all that Christ commands, and that requires the demonstration of the gospel in acts of justice and righteousness that reveal the presence of Christ’s kingdom.”

• The Necessity of Getting the Story Right, Right from the Start: “The Apostle Paul makes the historicity of Adam…central to our understanding of the gospel.  Those who insist that evangelicals must accommodate the gospel to the prevailing evolutionary dogma are actually insisting that the gospel be denied.”

• The Binding Authority of Biblical Sexuality: “…the church has to learn to speak honestly and courageously about sexual morality, but also to speak with true gospel humility.  In other words, we must make clear that we are not moral superiors speaking to moral inferiors, but those who have been redeemed by God’s grace pointing others to his grace to us in Christ.”

• The Exclusivity of the Gospel:  “In this age, few are offended by the claim that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  The problem comes when those last words of Jesus are cited: ‘no one comes to the Father, but by Me.’ [John 14:6]“

Click here to read Mohler’s full post for yourself.