Science and faith to be explored in 2010 ministers’ conference

WILMORE (KENTUCKY, US) – Ministers are sometimes met by questions that may seem a galaxy away from what their training prepared them to expect.

For example, they may face questions like “Can scientists and the Bible both lead us to understand the origins of the cosmos?”, “Can our genetic makeup predispose us to conditions such as depression or alcoholism?”, and “How important to the mission of the Gospel is acknowledging the beauty of creation and caring for its goodness?”

Asbury Theological Seminary is bringing together a team of scientists, pastors and theologians to help ministers obtain biblical responses to issues of science and faith.  Through this team effort called Q3, pastors, youth workers, counsellors, educators and others in full-time ministry will profit from online resources and conference workshops.

The Q3 ministers’ conference, “Ministry Celebrates the Wonders of God’s World,” will be held from March 9 to 11, 2010, at the Asbury Seminary Wilmore, Kentucky campus.

Conference participants will discuss topics including creation and evolution, God’s providence in the world, and lessons that can be learned for ministry from the historical relationship between science and faith.

Dr Owen Gingrich, Harvard University Professor Emeritus of Astronomy and the History of Science, will be the keynote speaker.

“Q3 will aid ministers in leading the people they serve to a deeper knowledge of God as Creator and the world as God’s good creation,” said Q3 Director Dr Michael Pasquarello III, Asbury Seminary Granger E. and Anna A. Fisher Professor of Preaching. “Ministers can find help in Q3 for evangelistic outreach to people with scientific professions or aptitudes, and pastors to young adults can learn ways to guide those who sense God’s call to prepare for scientific vocations.”

“Science can help us,” added Prof Pasquarello, who has studied issues of science and faith for 30 years. “It doesn’t provide all the answers, but it can provide a more up-to-date framework that will give us more knowledge of the creation to work with, that will contribute to making our theology fresh and real for us and those whom we serve. And we can say, ‘Yes, the world is open to God’s work and presence.’”

Q3, funded by a grant from the Templeton Foundation’s Science for Ministry Initiative, is named after the “Questions” it will address on a schedule across the next “3” years.  In 2011, Q3 will turn its focus to the nature of human beings as creatures wonderfully and carefully made in God’s image and, in 2012, to the nature of the church as the new creation of God and visible sign of God’s presence in the world.

Registration, now open, is US$49 (S$69) per person before Feb 1, 2010 or US$99 after Feb 1. For groups of five or more and Asbury Seminary students, registration is US$49 per person. To register, visit aburyseminary.edu/q3, call 877-776-3646 or e-mail ginny.proctor@asburyseminary.edu