I’m looking forward to a new year! In addition to kicking off the new School of Preaching at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary on August 1, I will be working on several writing projects.

1. B&H Publishing is scheduled to release my The Extent of the Atonement: History and Critique in digital form by June 1 and then in print form (hardback) by November 1. This work will present the history of the issue within and without Reformed theology over the question: Did Jesus die for the sins of all people? The first section will treat the subject in the early church, medieval period, the Reformation, post-Reformation, and modern period. Section two will consist of three chapters covering the issue in Baptist history. A final section will include a critique of each chapter of From Heaven He Came and Sought Her, followed by a concluding chapter on why unlimited atonement matters biblically, theologically, and practically in preaching, evangelism, and missions. The manuscript has been in production for 8 years and B&H estimates the book will be approximately 850 pages.

2. Job in the Christ Centered Exposition Commentary series, edited by David Platt, Danny Akin, and Tony Merida (B&H Publishing). I have preached from this great Old Testament book, but I have never preached the entire book. I am excited about the opportunity to write a basic expositional and practical commentary on Job that will help preachers expound this book.

Atonement in the new Baptist Thesaurus: The Riches of a Baptist Heritage series (B&H Publishing). This series is edited by Dr. Paige Patterson, President of Southwestern Seminary and Dr. Jason Duesing, Vice President and Provost of Midwestern Baptist Seminary, and will be approximately 25 volumes to be released over the next 5 to 7 years. I have been asked to write the volume dealing with the atonement of Christ.

4. In this same Baptist Thesaurus series, Dr. Deron Biles is editor of a work on pastoral ministry entitled The Ministry of a Shepherd. This will be volume 1 of the new series. I have been asked to contribute a chapter entitled “Feeding the Sheep,” on the subject of preaching.

5. “Andrew Fuller and the Extent of the Atonement.” This past November at the Evangelical Theological Society, I delivered a paper in the Baptist Studies group entitled “Andrew Fuller: Particular Redemptionist who Held to Universal Atonement.” Dr. Nathan Finn and Shane Shaddix are editing a collection of essays on the great Baptist Andrew Fuller for the Baptist Studies Series, published by Pickwick Press. The tentative title is Perspectives on Andrew Fuller (1754-1815): Life, Thought, and Legacies. They have asked me to contribute this chapter on Fuller’s view of the extent of the atonement.

6. New Orleans Baptist Seminary is releasing a two-volume series on Expository Preaching in their Journal for Baptist Theology and Ministry in 2016. I will be writing an article for this series which will consist of an essay and sample sermon on the Pauline and General letters from the Greek New Testament. Text-driven preaching demands work in the original Greek of the New Testament if at all possible.

7. Liberty University Press is publishing a 3-volume Legacy of Preaching: Historical and Theological Introductions, co-edited by Bill Curtis, Benjamin Forrest, Kevin King, and Dwayne Milioni. I will be writing the chapter on the preaching of W. A. Criswell, the famed pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, for 50 years.

Francis Bacon said: “Reading makes a broad man, . . . writing an exact man.” He also added if one writes little, he needs to be really smart, and if he reads little, he will need to have much cunning to seem to know what he does not know!

Guess I’ll find out if he is right or not in 2016.