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Biblical Emphasis Week to Ground New Semester

January 11th, 2011

By Sarah Pride

CONTACT:  David Halbrook
Patrick Henry College
(540) 441-8722
OfficeOfCommunications@phc.edu

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The text of Scripture must undergird intense intellectual striving.
Patrick Henry College will kick off its spring semester and first full week of chapel services with a Biblical Emphasis Week, January 17-19, following a tradition that PHC President Dr. Graham Walker has seen instituted at other Christian colleges. Guest lecturer Dr. Gareth Cockerill will present teachings from the text of the Epistle of Hebrews to both PHC and the surrounding community. The sessions will take place during Monday and Wednesday chapel sessions and Tuesday’s Christian Study Groups, as well as during two evening sessions.
 
“As a Christian college, we need to be reminded periodically of our grounding in the text of Scripture,” comments Dr. Walker.

While Patrick Henry College holds three corporate chapel sessions each week, featuring a time of worship, Scripture readings, and biblical messages, Dr. Walker notes: “We can’t assume that students are as biblically literate as we would like.  Even many churches focus their teaching more on themes of successful living than on exposition of Scripture.

“I think there is a latent hunger for real grappling with the Word of God, in a way that is spiritually fruitful and intellectually rigorous,” he continues. “I hope that at the end of Biblical Emphasis Week, we will all be stoked and fed.”

Dr. Walker has known Dr. Cockerill, author of a number of scholarly and popular works, including the upcoming commentary on Hebrews in the New International Commentary on the New Testament series, personally for fifteen years. He assures that Dr. Cockerill will present messages that are “of a high caliber, intellectually and spiritually.

“Dr. Cockerill brings erudition, combined with passionate knowledge of the God of and from whom the Scriptures speak,” endorses Dr. Walker.

The surrounding community is also invited to attend the free sessions. While students are not required to go to evening sessions Tuesday and Wednesday, they are encouraged to attend as long as it doesn’t conflict with existing classes. At least one professor has altered his own class schedule in order to accommodate Dr. Cockerill’s lectures. After each evening message, members of the faculty and administration will make themselves available to pray personally with anyone who so desires.

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Schedule

  • Monday, Jan. 17 - 10:20am-11:15am
  • Tuesday, Jan. 18 - 9:40am-10:20am
  • Tuesday, Jan. 18 - 7:30pm-9:00pm
  • Wednesday, Jan. 19 - 10:20am-11:15am
  • Wednesday, Jan. 19 - 7:30pm-9:00pm