PREPARED REMARKS AT WVSOP BIBLE LECTURESHIP ON OCCASION OF LECTURESHIP BOOK DEDICATION DINNER

The Kenney family with Don R. Cooper

The plaque presented to David & Annette Kenney in
dedication of the 2017 WVSOP Lectureship Book

Andy Robison, Director of West Virginia School of Preaching,
Annette & David Kenney, and Donald R. Cooper

 PREPARED REMARKS AT WVSOP BIBLE LECTURESHIP ON OCCASION OF LECTURESHIP BOOK DEDICATION DINNER

October 24, 2017, at 4:30 PM

Moundsville, West Virginia

I want to express my appreciation to Andy Robison, Scott Judge, the faculty, lectureship committee, and eldership for this honor.  When Andy Robison became the director of the school, I did not know him very well, and the same is true of Scott Judge.  I have come to get to know, respect, admire and love these two men. I also want to express my appreciation to the elders at Hillview Terrace for their support and guidance for the school.  It certainly is an honor to be in charge of a school of preaching; however, some elderships would rather not do so.  I salute this eldership and the congregation in this noble and vital work!  I see a very bright future for the West Virginia School of Preaching. 

When Andy Robison told me that they planned to honor Annette and me with this wonderful dinner and lectureship book dedication, I was stunned. In fact, my first reaction was to decline, but then I thought:  “Annette certainly deserves to be honored.” Andy was correct when he likened Annette to the virtuous woman of Proverbs 31.  As I reflect on the words: “Her husband is known in the gates, when he sits among the elders of the land.” (Proverbs 31:23 NKJV), I cannot help but praise her because I would not have been able to do the things I do, as well as I do them if it were not for Annette.  Truly, I am known in “these gates” and among you “elders of the land” because of her love, support, and encouragement. I am very blessed to have two wonderful children, James & Deborah, and they are truly a joy to us both!

Don Cooper, thank you for such a wonderful tribute. I have described Don with the phrase: “If you cannot run with the big dogs, then you had better stay on the porch.” Well, Don is a “big dog” to me, but he has never been satisfied to allow me to sit on the porch! Not everyone is a good mentor. Some do not have the temperament. Don has been a mentor to me for several years. Some time ago, dad was re-telling a story where he pranked his wife Jan by calling her stating he was from the Wadsworth Police Department. He said he was following up on a domestic disturbance call. He really had Jan going! All in the group laughed at the re-telling (at Jan’s request), and I overheard Jan say to someone “I want him to tell that story at my funeral.” Well, my beloved father was unable to fulfill that request, but I am thankful I was able to fulfill that request for Don and his beloved wife Jan.  I am truly grateful that Don is able to be with us tonight!

I am thankful to the congregation of Wadsworth for giving me the opportunity to be a preacher of the gospel! They needed a preacher, and I needed a place to preach. The work that we do together is also financially supported by others for which I am thankful too! The congregation at Streetsboro has also been a great blessing to our lives. They were among our first financial supporters for the work! 

I am truly honored and humbled by your tribute.  I would much rather be in attendance to see others honored whom I have admired.  Such as the previous directors of WVSOP: Emanuel Daugherty or Denver Cooper; or faithful preachers of the gospel who have been doing it for many more years—those who have “have borne the burden and the heat of the day.” (Matthew 20:12 NKJV)  My first preference would be to see my father and mother honored, Warren and Kay Kenney; however, that is no longer possible. All that I am able to accomplish, I truly owe to my parents.  I wish they could be here tonight to share this evening with us.  To quote President Lyndon Johnson, “My father would have enjoyed what you have so generously said of me, and my mother would have believed it.” Dad once asked Mom what he should say in introducing me for a lectureship. She said, “Make sure you let them know that he is my son too!”

                                                                                       

I would like to express appreciation to some others. Probably most of you know me through the pages of The West Virginia Christian edited by Albert Farley.  My dad suggested to Albert that I would make a good writer of book reviews.  Brother Farley agreed and insisted I send him some of my book reviews.  He also sent me the “Writer’s Guidelines” and some work in revising to do!  Albert has honored me with printing numerous of my book reviews and other articles. Albert and Nancy Farley are among the kindest and generous people I know. I am also thankful to the late Basil Overton for printing my first article and encouraging me for additional writings.

The idea of interviewing a preaching student and allowing them to present their own lesson was not mine, but I enthusiastically embraced it.  The idea came from Mark Weaver, one of this school’s alumni.  He called me and wanted me to do this with Dale Babinsky.  He was persistently convincing.  Now, Mark Weaver is a great preacher, but he is also a bit camera adverse.  So, I told him I would do this on one condition—that I interview him and he does a lesson too!  Mark Weaver has been a great encouragement to me for which I am thankful to him and the Weaver family.  I am thankful to Andy Robison, Scott Judge, and all the students who have worked to make this happen each year.

I prefer to consider myself more of a student than a scholar.  Another person I would like to mention and express appreciation for is E. Claude Gardner who was responsible for getting me to come to Freed-Hardeman College back in 1987.  I am in the Masters of Divinity program at the FHU School of Theology because of his awarding me the “E. Claude & Delorese Gardner Scholarship.”  Many of my successes are because of Freed-Hardeman University!

To the graduates, students, and prospective students of the West Virginia School of Preaching, let me say a few words. My father is known by many for his sense of humor, but be sure to know he viewed preaching as serious business. He emphasized on more than one occasion that being a preacher of the gospel of Christ required the most serious mind, deepest commitment, and a pursuit of excellence. While others may minimize, criticize, or marginalize your work, remember you work for the Lord and He deserves the very best! You have chosen this noble profession, and I salute your efforts!

I am reminded of the words of the apostle Paul–“But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” (Galatians 6:14 NKJV) May all that we say and do bring glory to Him! Because without Him we would be of all men the most pitiful!

May God richly bless you all!

David R. Kenney

Book Dedication

David & Annette Kenney

David and Annette Kenney are tireless laborers for the Lord.  First, they take with great seriousness coupled with joy the responsibility of raising their good children, James and Deborah.  They are careful to make sure they receive instruction and guidance in nurturing love. 

Then, Annette supports David in ways that are behind the scenes and sometimes unnoticeable to the outside observer.  She is the definition of a virtuous wife and helper to him.  She is a godly mother and a constantly busy worker.  I’m pretty sure David would say she is the glue of the household. 

David is the son of Warren and Kay Kenney; Warren preached the Gospel for over forty-five  years.  Both David and Annette are alumni of Freed-Hardeman University.  While laboring at the Wadsworth (Ohio) church of Christ, the work has borne fruits in perhaps non-conventional areas.  David has done a great service to the brotherhood with his technological and video work.  He has edited and produced a highly regarded documentary on the life of Alexander Campbell.  He produces a weekly television show, Light from Above, that airs locally in the Wadsworth area, and globally on the Gospel Broadcasting Network.  He has produced videos of Bible Readings and Hymns for GBN and for anyone who would like to just listen to the text of the Bible and enjoy some good singing.  David is active in blogging in The Bully Pulpit and in much writing, including frequent book reviews published in West Virginia Christian.  He is called upon to speak on lectureships near and far.  Frankly, the amount of work he accomplishes is amazing. 

David has always been and continues to be a big help to West Virginia School of Preaching.  Each year, our second year students have the opportunity to be introduced to television work through David’s assistance.  He interviews each student for one Light from Above show, and has them preach a sermon for another.  David frequently helps with our Future Preacher Training Camp.  He is a supporter of us in many ways. 

To David and Annette, we lovingly and gratefully dedicate this 2017 volume of the WVSOP Victory Lectures.  We appreciate you both so very, very deeply.

Andy Robison

9 Aug. 2017

2012 Bully Pulpit Traffic Recap

Here is a chart showing the reader activity on the Bully Pulpit as of January 4, 2013.  This chart is from StatCounter.  As you can see, the 2012 numbers surpassed 2011 numbers in every category. 

I have not posted as consistently lately which probably explains the lower numbers in 2011 since I began a full time work which took away from my time to post as much as I could have done so.

I am going back an posting some of my articles that have not appeared on the blog prior.  For example, if you read the last two posting prior to this you can read two of my articles in the Gospel Advocate. 

I am very thankful to Albert Farley, Editor of The West Virginia Christian, for giving me the opportunity to write numerous book reviews for the paper.  The bulk of the material relating to book reviews is because of Albert and my father's encouragement to write these.

I am thankful for your continued interest in the blog. May 2013 be a wonderful New Year for us all!

David R. Kenney

One Year Anniversary, 100 Book Reviews & 3,000 Hits

The Bully Pulpit was launched a year ago on February 25, 2008. The site is dedicated primarily to reviews of religious books that churches, preachers and members should consider adding to their reading libraries. The foundation for the launch of the site comes from the book reviews printed by Albert Farley in The West Virginia Christian. I am very appreciative to brother Farley for publishing my articles. While the paper is a monthly publication, I am able to publish book reviews on the blog at a more rapid rate. In fact, I have also completed publishing approximately 100 book reviews within this year. Now if I could read at least 100 books a year!

Here is a breakdown of visitors to The Bully Pulpit since inception:

Thanks to a program provided by Statcounter.com, I was able to learn some very interesting facts about visitors including:

• Predominantly visitors are from the United States; however, there have been visitors from the following countries: Canada, Mexico, Australia, United Kingdom, India, Portugal, Germany, Singapore, Hong Kong, Jamaica, Republic of Korea, South Africa, Russian Federation, Philippines and Denmark.
• The number of visitors to the site exceeded 3,100 as of February 2009. Since computers often change IP addresses, it is impossible to state that this means 3,000 different people have visited the site. Statcounter provided me the ability to remove my IP address from the count. Regardless, I am very gratified that the numbers reflect this level of activity and hope that it continues to grow exponentially.

I selected the term “bully pulpit” for a very explicit reason. Some are quizzical about the name “Bully Pulpit”. I even had one or two suggest I might change the name because it might give someone the wrong impression. With no intention of being arrogant, I have refused to give into this suggestion. The term “bully” is from Theodore Roosevelt who would use it to describe things that are superb and excellent. The term “pulpit” refers to a platform from which communication is delivered. Often you hear that the President of the United States should use the “bully pulpit”. What that means is the President should use his authority to deliver important themes to the country directly rather than through media outlets. So, the Bully Pulpit, as I use it, is a platform to speak about books that deal with the most sublime, excellent, superb, bully subject—religion. Sure, the term may be provocative to some unfamiliar with it, but I deliberately chose it to be provocative! It prompts curious and sincere people to ask me about it which gives me the opportunity to get to know them.

As we continue to move into 2009, I would like to encourage others to tell people about the Blog. With a year’s worth of material to see the subject matter, I hope this provides you a degree of confidence to recommend the site to others. I also would appreciate more comments to the individual posts that have been made. If you know the authors and would like to tell a story about them, I would especially appreciate your comments. If you have read the book and would like to make an additional point about it, then please add a comment to that effect. All comments come to me for review prior to posting. To date, I have posted all comments without alteration for which I am thankful. If you do much on the Internet you realize that some become profane and vulgar. So, I review the comments to make sure such is not being posted here. I also will not tolerate evil speaking of others. As I have stated before, I have not had a single case of that thus far. That does not mean I will not post comments from those who have a disagreement. For example, I received a comment from a self-proclaimed atheist who commented on an apologetics book about God. His comment was neither profane nor vulgar so I had no hesitation in publishing it.

In closing, I would just like to say thank you to all those who have visited this site and told others about it. I hope it will be a reference to young Christians looking to build a library of quality reading material.

1,000 Hits + To The Bully Pulpit

Just a post to call attention to the fact that the tracker this blog uses to track visitors, Statcounter.com, shows that we have surpassed the 1,000 number of visits to The Bully Pulpit. Attempts have been made to make this an accurate assessment; however, Statcounter did have some technical problems that made the number of visits lower than actually reflected in the count. So, we have possibly have had more visits to the site than the counter reflects. We are very pleased since this blog was just launched on February 25, 2008.

A good friend of mine who was unfamiliar with the term "Bully Pulpit" thought it might sound not sound Christian. For those unfamiliar with the term, "pulpit" is the platform used for the communication (the blog) and "bully" means superb or excellent (what can be more excellent that religious books that help us better understand the will of God?).

We trust the materials here will be of interest to you and want to share them with others. Feel free to post a comment to any post on the blog. Your feedback, thoughts about a book, or personal stories about the author would be most appreciated.

Thank you to all those who visit the blog and spread the word about the materials here.

How To Find Recommended Books

Book Sources


Disclaimer: The author does not source books; however, he is interested in helping members of the church. Here are suggestions and possible sources that may be beneficial. These organizations are all owned and operated by members of the church of Christ.


For books in print,
Freed-Hardeman University Bible Bookstore
Web Site: http://www.fhu.edu/
Phone: (800)-342-1869
Email: bbs@fhu.edu


For books reprinted,
Hester Publications
Web Site: http://www.hesterpublications.com/
Phone: (731)-989-6625
Email: orders@samsbookfactory.com


For books out of print,
Bargain Bookfinders
Phone: (731)-989-4954

The Value of Church Libraries

A few years ago I preached at a congregation that had existed for over 100 years. One of the things that I asked this congregation was to see the church library thinking it would have some very interesting books. I was saddened to find only a couple of old pew Bibles and a torn up incomplete set of Adam Clarke’s commentaries. When I returned home, I immediately requested permission to purchase books for the church library. When I approached the leadership of the congregation about the proposal of expanding the library it was enthusiastically supported. Even though the funds were limited, the main hindrance was someone willing to make the effort. We were convinced that even purchasing a book a month is a step in the right direction. That was over three years and far more than thirty-six volumes ago. Interest in the library by those seeking to study, but either not having the resources or lack of knowledge of sound biblical reference materials, grew. The library grew incrementally as did the interest of others in utilizing the library. Today, there are resources available on many bible subjects in the library. One of the results of the library program we found is that people’s enthusiasm blossomed to where they purchased the same books for their personal library that were put in the church library.

There are a few things to keep in mind relating to the church library. First, no book made by man is perfect. As my father was told by the senior Tom W. Butterfield in reference to the use of religious books, “You must have the sense of a chicken--to pick out what is food and what is not.” The book called a “commentary” is not necessarily as bad as some think. I have seen negative attitudes against commentaries as if they were equivalent to creeds. Why some would think it is any different to go ask a preacher a question rather than look in a commentary for an answer puzzles me. When you consult a commentary you are consulting the study of the one who wrote the commentary. The commentary is no better than the one who prepared it. Not all of us can get doctorates in every field of religious study. Why not study from those who have specialized in an area? Second, emphasis is on the term “church” library. This reflects the fact that it does not include the books of the preacher’s library. A preacher’s books are his tools and are needful to him. We must respect the preacher’s personal property as we would our own (Luke 6:31). Also, we should be careful that what is the “church’s” library does not become part of “our” library. It is sad that such would need to be said, but problems in these areas have been known to occur. Third, just because the books may be purchased out of the church’s treasury does not mean you cannot purchase a book for the library, provided the leaders of the congregation approve it. Consider purchasing a book for the library in honor or in memory of someone. It is a simple gesture, but a high honor. Fourth, not all works in a library necessarily have to teach the truth. Some books may be from a false teaching (Book of Mormon). No one who is true to the Bible can be true to the Book of Mormon, but it may be in a church library for reference.

Since I am procurer of books for the library, under the oversight of the elders, I have certain goals for the church library. The first is to provide an adult-level reference center. Second is the purchase of religious books of value. Third is to provide a reference source on a variety of topics. Many books exist on any given subject, and some are better than others are. Guy N. Woods estimated that there are over 3,000 books on Romans alone. We want a flexible and strong library. Fourth is to get the input of the congregation. The church can buy a book and put it in the library, but if you do not feel the need for it you may not read it. Fifth is to get the congregation to read and study for themselves. You will never learn all there is to know from a preacher and teacher, no matter how good they are. Consider this appropriate thought from Leaves of Gold:

A reading church is an informed church.
An informed church is an interested church.
An interested church is an acting church.
An acting church is a serving church.
A serving church is a Christian church.

No column such as this would be complete without recommending the Book of books - The Holy Bible. The Bible is the only book I can recommend without reservation (provided a good translation is being used). It is complete, authoritative, and furnishes us unto every good work (Jude 3; 2 Peter 1:3; 2 Timothy 3:16-17). The Bible will be the test of the truthfulness of every other book. Read Psalm 119 for the correct attitude we should have toward this wondrous book, its timeless themes, and its eternal message.

Originally printed in West Virginia Christian, Vol. 7, No. 2, February 2000, p. 8. Reprinted by permission..

Welcome

Welcome to my new blog! I plan to post book reviews and various articles I have written. Plus, I probably will have items that fit under the category of, as Dr. Laura says, "In My Not So Humble Opinion" too.


For those of you unfamiliar with blogs you are in good company...I am learning too. From what I understand, a blog is basically like a web page, but it allows you to make comments to each post that can be seen by all.


If you have a personal anecdote about the author or book reviewed, then please feel free to comment on it. I have organized the book reviews using labels. The author of each book reviewed has their own label. If you would like to see all the postings relating to book reviews, then I have a label titled "Book Reviews" that you can select. In the top left of the screen is a seach engine for my blog as well. For example, if you would like to see all postings that have reference to Alexander Campbell then type in his name, hit Search Blog, and all the postings will come up with his name in it.

Welcome!