Dr. Jason Allen Speaks in DBU Chapel

On Monday, September 30, DBU was pleased to host Dr. Jason Allen to share the chapel message. On October 15, 2012, he was elected president of the Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Missouri. He was one of the youngest presidents recorded in American higher education. During his presidency, the seminary has grown to be one of the largest in America, with 5,500 students currently studying there. He is also a professor, pastor, and author. He and his wife, Karen, have five children.

Dr. Allen began his message, titled The Wisdom of Embracing the Foolishness of the Cross, by reading 1 Corinthians 1:18-31. He discussed the church established by the apostle Paul in a city in Greece called Corinth, a place of evil. "The church is to impact the city and to influence the culture, but the city, in fact, impacted the culture of the church. The church had trouble after trouble," said Dr. Allen. The church was rife with sexual sin, factionalism, division, litigation, and false doctrines, and Dr. Allen even went as far as to say that the church of Corinth might be the "most troubled church in all the Bible." Paul wrote the church a letter—1 Corinthians, "not by detailing all that they had done wrong, but by setting forth the promise of the cross." Dr. Allen noted how Paul stresses the reality that "the Gospel is the sinners only hope," as it says in verse 18: "For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." Dr. Allen noted how Paul "clarifies the message of the gospel… and does so in a way that strengthens our convictions and gives God greater glory."

Dr. Allen challenged the students to "see anew the glory of the cross and to choose to embrace the foolishness of the preaching and teaching of the cross." Dr. Allen does not mean that the cross is truly a foolish matter, but to those in disbelief of the power and truth found in the Gospel, it is "mysterious, and perhaps even fictitious in their ears, and it registers as foolishness in their hearts." Recalling a personal experience, Dr. Allen told the story of a man who once said to him that "religion is like a mountain, and God is at the top… with many roads winding up that mountain to God. Your religion is one road, and mine is another; all religions are different roads, and we are all going to arrive at the top of this mountain and find the same God at the top of it." Christianity is pure foolishness to the world, but that idea is the true folly.

Dr. Allen closed with an encouraging statement: "The foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the wisdom of God is stronger than men. We live in a noisy world where everyone fights for your attention and devotion…. But here we seek Christ and the cross standing down as a beacon of hope and life through all the haze and darkness, a word of truth and life in a world of confusion and death. What you must have is a firm commitment for Christ and Him crucified and knowing that this message is the only one that will truly transform a sinner from darkness to light."