August 17, 2023

The Sin of Talking about Sin

By Elie Haddad In ABTS’s latest blog post, Walid Zailaa expressed his concern for the church to remain faithful to its theological convictions amid a society that does not subscribe to a unified metanarrative. Walid argued that being tolerant should not mean that the Church remains silent on issues it […]
February 2, 2023

A House Divided Against Itself Will Fall

by Elie Haddad Jesus taught His disciples an important principle in Luke 11:17: “Any kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and a house divided against itself will fall.” In the following verse, Jesus applied this principle to Satan: “If Satan is divided against himself, how can his kingdom stand?” […]
June 16, 2022

“In Christ” in Crisis: Lessons from Paul

by Elie Haddad The New Testament expression in Christ, which was heavily used by the Apostle Paul, has always intrigued me. It is a curious way of describing our relationship to Christ, or to God in Christ. These days, living in a perpetual crisis in Lebanon, the notion of in […]
February 3, 2022

Was Our Ministry Successful Last Year?

By Elie Haddad Another year has gone by. It has become a practice for many churches and ministries to publish an end-of-year report highlighting the activities and accomplishments of the previous year. This is mostly a sincere attempt to quantify impact and measure success. We even do this at ABTS. […]
November 4, 2021

Middle East Consultation 2021 Recap Series: Leadership Development

by Elie Haddad From September 30 to October 2, ABTS hosted the Middle East Consultation 2021 entitled “Towards a Dynamic Church: Making Disciples, Developing Leaders, and Engaging Society in Lebanon and Beyond.” During the three-day online event, we invited local, regional, and global voices to consider urgent matters of faith […]
August 19, 2021

The ABTS Blog: A New Brand for a Long-Established Platform

By Elie Haddad The stated purpose of our blog is to “provide theological reflections by ABTS voices about pressing matters of faith and witness in the Middle East and beyond.” There is no shortage of high-quality theological reflections on pressing matters of faith and witness around the globe. We read […]
January 28, 2021

Church Post-Pandemic: Back to Normal?

By Elie Haddad The pandemic has been disruptive to our normal lives in so many ways. All of us around the world have taken measures to adapt at this time of disruption. We have changed the way we do things. This raises many questions. Is this change permanent? Do we […]
June 10, 2020

Pandemic and the Body of Christ: Rethinking the Local Church

by Elie Haddad This COVID-19 pandemic is forcing us to question many things in our lives that we deemed as sacred. At ABTS, given our role of theological education and leadership formation, we are having to question the very essence of education and formation, especially for the purpose of effective […]