December 6, 2024

The SEND U Blog

Reflections and Resources for Lifelong Learning for Missionaries

Author: Gary Ridley

Education: BA Gordon College 1973; M.Div. Trinity Evangelical Divinity School 1977; DMiss Trinity Evangelical Divinity School 1990. Ministry: SEND Missionary 1977-present. Faculty at Alaska Bible College 1978-2013. SEND U Missiologist 2013-present. Family: Married, 3 children, 6 grandchildren.
Meditations on the Work of Christ
Christ, Doctrinal Statement

Meditations on the Work of Christ

As we continue in our meditations on the SEND Doctrinal Statement we are taking our second look at the third section: “We believe in Jesus Christ, God the Son, the world’s only Savior; in His pre-incarnation, virgin birth, sinless life, vicarious death, burial, and bodily resurrection, and in His personal, visible return to earth;” In a previous post we looked at  the person of Christ, in this post we will meditate on the work of Christ. How does our belief in Christ’s “sinless life, vicarious death, burial, and bodily resurrection, and in His personal, visible return to earth” hold our thoughts, affections and will, and actions?… Read the whole post
Gary Ridley1 min read
Meditation on the Person of Christ
Christ, Doctrinal Statement

Meditation on the Person of Christ

As we continue in our meditations on the SEND Doctrinal Statement we come to the third section: “We believe in Jesus Christ, God the Son, the world’s only Savior; in His pre-incarnation, virgin birth, sinless life, vicarious death, burial, and bodily resurrection, and in His personal, visible return to earth;” I am dividing this into two posts; this one focusing on the person of Christ and a second post on the work of Christ. The person of Christ is described in our statement as God the Son, the world’s only savior, pre-existent before the incarnation, and virgin born.… Read the whole post
Gary Ridley1 min read
Meditations on the Doctrine of the Trinity
Doctrinal Statement

Meditations on the Doctrine of the Trinity

As we work our way through the SEND International Statement of Faith, we come to the triune nature of God. The doctrine of the Trinity distinguishes Christianity from all other religions. The second point in SEND International’s Statement of Faith says that we believe “that there is only one true God, eternally existing in three Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.” The central question of this series is: how does the statement of faith hold us? 1. How does this statement hold our thinking? Millard J. Erickson writes, “A powerful evangelistic and missionary implication is involved in this doctrine” (Erickson, Making Sense of the Trinity, Baker, 2000, 77). While we are walking in the foothills of mystery, there is no Christianity and no salvation apart from the doctrine of the Trinity. Religious systems which do not affirm the Trinity are false in their statements about God. The doctrine of the… Read the whole post
Gary Ridley1 min read
Meditations on SEND International’s Statement of Faith #1
Missiology, Doctrinal Statement

Meditations on SEND International’s Statement of Faith #1

I have been convicted recently about neglecting our statement of faith. No, I have not changed my belief in it but I just don’t think about it that much. I tend to sign it when required but then file it away and go about my business. So, in the coming months my blog posts will focus on the eight statements of SEND International’s Statement of Faith. The Opening line in our statement reads, “Based on our understanding of Scripture, the members of SEND International hold to the following Statement of Faith.” This is the statement that we hold, but the question that comes to my mind is, ‘Does it hold us?’ I will use a little help from my Puritan friends as I reflect on each statement. Puritan meditation (see my blog post on 4/30/15) engaged the mind, the heart, and action. So, we will ask: 1. How does this… Read the whole post
Gary Ridley1 min read
Training

Confident Proclamation in a Pluralistic Age

Is there any place for confident proclamation of the gospel anymore? Robert Bellah’s book, The Good Society (1991) quotes a graduate student’s comment of his experience at Harvard: They tell us it’s heresy to suggest the superiority of some value, fantasy to believe in moral argument, slavery to submit to a judgment sounder than your own. The freedom of our day is the freedom to devote yourself to any value we please, on the mere condition that we do not believe them to be true.” (quoted in D. A. Carson, The Intolerance of Tolerance, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2012, 97)… Read the whole post
Gary Ridley1 min read
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