Dear Colleagues:
Greetings in the name of Jesus.
The summer has flown by and now most of us will be getting into the routine of the fall semester. We have made the move north and are grateful to Wheaton College for the warm reception they have given us. We look forward to a good year ahead.
My AAR/SBL Program Book arrived yesterday, which reminds me that it is time to think about flight arrangements to Philadelphia in November. Those of you who are members of SBL (which is the case with most Fellows and Associates, and many Friends of the Institute), will find the information regarding dates, times, places, and agendas of our meetings on pages 210–11, 213, and 221. If you look in the Index of Meetings, the Sunday morning worship service is listed under W for Worship, rather than along with the other meetings, which appear under I for Institute. Be sure to note this.
John Walton and his committee have lined up another great roster of speakers. I know we will all enjoy the series of plenary papers relating to biblical theology presented by Gordon Wenham, Richard Averbeck, and Rikki Watts, as well as the responses by Christopher Wright, Kenneth Mathews and Robert Yarbrough. And you won’t want to miss the worship service on Sunday planned by Wayne Johnson. Don Carson will inspire us with a word from God.
This has been a quiet year for IBR. We have almost completed the legal and business matters related to our incorporation. As promised in my February letter, you will be pleased to notice that the business meeting is scheduled to take up only 15 minutes of the Saturday morning meeting. Oral reports will be kept to a minimum, and paper copies will be available for the members. After the extended business meeting last year, this year we intend to devote our time to that which we enjoy most: fellowship and encouragement in the pursuit of the highest levels of scholarship from an evangelical perspective. If you have any suggestions for improving the organization, including ideas for the annual lectures, please let us know. In the mean time we will try to keep you posted on developments through the Web Site. Oh yes, I remind you please to get the information you want Brent Sandy to publicize in the IBR Newsletter to him by September 30.
May the Lord continue to bless us all in our work and may he bless the efforts of the Institute in the pursuit of the goals for which it has been established.
Cordially in Christ,
Daniel I. Block, President
P.S. A hard copy of this letter is being sent to all members for whom we do not have e-mail addresses or whose e-mail addresses in our files are out of date and/or non-functioning. Will you please send your correct e-mail address to Michael Holmes at the address given above? It will save us a considerable amount of money now spent on postage.