Christmas is about the Incarnation
Christmas is about the Incarnation, the reality that God entered history in flesh as Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah. John, the Evangelist wrote, “…and the Word became flesh and ‘tabernacled’ among us.” (John 1:18) Jesus was the living presence of God who lived with us like God dwelt among his people in the Tabernacle, the place of meeting between Moses and Yahweh in the wilderness. Christmas is “God with us,” “the Word in flesh among us.”
The ministry of B. H. Carroll is the work of incarnation. Our challenge is to “incarnate” the living Word of Jesus, the Christ, into the lives of our students through theological education and practical training. If what we teach never results in “in flesh” living and ministry, then we have not done our job. As you celebrate the coming of God in person at Christmas, continue your prayers and support of the faculty and staff of Carroll who seek to live and teach incarnationally.
I traveled with Dr. Dao Tran of Vietnamese Baptist Theological School the first week of December to Vietnam where only 2% of the population claims to be followers of Jesus Christ. I taught a Leadership in Ministry class for our Vietnam Master’s students from the Hanoi Bible College, which was broadcast via the Internet to four other teaching sites in the country. This first cohort of students completed their sixth class with me and will continue their work next year.
Students in participating in remote video instruction
Dr. Dao and I then made a trip with Bill Holmes, the Director of Vietnamese Bible, Inc. , another partner with Carroll, to Da Nang where we met with a group of pastors and church leaders. We then traveled to Ho Chi Minh City to hold seminars for about sixty church leaders. In each city we met the men and women who were enrolled in the Master of Arts courses we had provided for them. We also held meal meetings with leaders of churches and key denominations throughout the country. God has opened the door to train church leaders in this strategic country in South East Asia, and we have walked through it in faith. If you would like to donate to this critical, global ministry, you may donate to our Vietnam Fund here.
Our Vietnam partnerships, which include First Baptist Church, Midland are what make it possible for us to offer accredited theological education in the contexts of our students where they live and serve. Our partnerships that form the Carroll Nexus are the only way we are able to respond to the needs and opportunities we encounter throughout the global church. You end-of-year donation to Carroll makes these partnerships possible. Please prayerfully consider making a secure, tax-deductible donation to Carroll .
The Senior Fellows, Board of Governors, our faculty and staff are grateful to you for your ongoing prayers and support of our shared mission as B. H. Carroll. We consider you one of our ministry partners with whom we live out God’s call on our lives.
As I stood before the Vietnamese church leaders, I was overwhelmed at what God had done in our lives. I graduated from college the year the war between our countries ended. I never dreamed I would visit the three key cities of the country except as a member of the US Armed Forces in combat. God had other plans for our lives and before each group I reminded them of the work of God in Christ Jesus that made it possible for us to be together. I read,
For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility… So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God…(Ephesians 2:14, 19; ESV)
May the Peace of Christ truly unite God’s people in order to tell the Good News and build up the church wherever Christ Followers live and serve.
