The Bible Faculty Summit is issuing a final call for papers for the 2023 Summit, to be held at Appalachian Bible College from Tuesday, August 1 through Thursday, August 3, 2023. The paper proposal period will end Friday, May 12, 2023.

• Remember to keep papers to 30 minutes to allow for discussion time.
• Your paper need not be completed till 24 hours prior to your delivering it, but we do ask that you read a paper as opposed to giving a talk.
• This year we will again have a publications committee working to help the best papers get published.

If you have a paper proposal which might lend itself well to a response from another participant, please contact Mark Ward.

The committee has heard encouraging feedback about this year’s Summit. We continue to work to improve papers and even see some published. The Publishing Roundtable was also a success.

An important announcement: the 2023 Summit will be held at Appalachian Bible College in Mount Hope, WV, Tuesday–Thursday, August 1–3.

A few more notes:

First, the BFS committee has updated the Paper Proposal Guidelines to include the following guidance for academic papers:

In order for your paper to be properly academic while being thoroughly biblically orthodox, it should:

1. demonstrate awareness of the history (ancient and modern) of the dialogue/debate/conversation surrounding its topic.
2. engage the key participants in that dialogue respectfully; i.e., with the respect you would want someone to show your best efforts.
3. extend the conversation substantively via alternate construals, additional evidence, critique of logic and/or method, etc.
4. evidence commitment to biblical authority and theological triage.

Second, please notify Paul Himes, who keeps up our Publications page, about any publications that result from your Summit papers. Popular-level publications based on Summit papers count, too!

Third, the committee suggests that busy teachers this year consider aiming some of their lecture prep at producing an academic paper. And don’t forget some other publishing tips from the roundtable: a) be ready for two to three rejections when submitting a journal article, b) format your footnotes in advance to match the journal’s standards (thank you, Kyle Dunham), c) take a look at some of Paul Himes’ advice for journal submissions.

Fourth, enjoy this little article on the relationship between writing and expertise. I (Mark Ward) think it expresses well how a lot of us frequently feel—and provides wisdom for those of us who wish to promote scholarship in service of the church. May the Lord bless your teaching and other work this year!