Monthly lecture days are held on the second Saturday of each month, except June, when the seminar is held on the first Saturday, and April, July, August and September, when there are no seminars. They begin at 10.30 am and conclude at 4.00 pm. These lecture days focus on parts of the syllabus not effectively treated by available books, together with homiletical studies.
The reading course, extending over four years, consists of a reading plan coupled with monthly lecture days. Seminarians are prescribed the best available books for study, extending to some eighty titles. The arrangement of the teaching and reading order is such that students may join the course at any time during the year. They will study in fellowship with those continuing from previous years, in the knowledge that the entire programme will be repeated in cycle.
Pastors, church officers and others often request to join the lecture course without completing assignments. If this option is desired please apply for auditor status.
Formal certification on completion of the course of studies is granted in the form of an LRBS Diploma in Theology and Pastoral Studies.The Diploma is awarded to course members who have pursued the course for four years and have submitted satisfactory assignments. Seminarians are required to return five assignments each year, involving the writing of brief critiques of certain theological stances, reviews of books, and the preparation of exegetical assignments. A nominal annual enrolment fee covers all Saturday seminars. (A very modest charge is made for midday meals.) No enrolment fee is charged to men in whole or part-time pastoral ministry.
Applications: Please contact the LRBS Course Administrator for an application form for either full enrolment or auditor status. LRBS@metropolitantabernacle.org
PART-TIME COURSE: OCTOBER 2010 - JUNE 2011
- During the Autumn, Dr James Grier, Emeritus Dean of Grand Rapids Theological Seminary will lecture on: The glorious doctrine of the Trinity – and its implications for all doctrine and Christian living.
During the coming session Dr Masters’ lectures will include:
- The biblical concept of the local church, its scriptural policy and ideals, its labours, its ministry and government, its officers and their appointment and functions, common church problems, their causes and solutions.
- The regulative and normative principles, and the biblical limits imposed on 'contextualisation' (ie – when is it wrong to adjust apparent biblical commands to suit culture?).
- Subjective spiritual experience in the Christian life correctly understood and pursued, together with the quest for divine guidance in the major turning points of life.
- Do’s and don’ts of personal Christian conduct – teaching biblical standards concerning possessions and pursuits, without legalism on the one hand, or lawlessness (‘evangelical libertinism’) on the other.
- Preparatory stages of biblical exposition for teaching ministry, with special reference to parallelism, sensus plenior, and dual or multiple senses in prophecy.
- A compendium of evangelistic arguments and illustrations – in Ecclesiastes a great range of illustrated ideas for seeking salvation are presented, all of them frequently preached by the worthies of more evangelistic days, but now virtually unknown.
Next Seminar: