Just before Thanksgiving, I was in San Francisco at the annual meeting of the Near East Archaeological Society. Serving as the group’s Program Chairman, I shepherd the process of scholars submitting proposals for presentation and then coordinate and moderate at the meetings.
I believe God gave me this job to encourage and support young scholars. So, for the past five years, it has been my privilege to facilitate participation for many of them into our program. Hopefully helpful to them, this has been personally rewarding to me.
Yet, to present a scholarly research paper in an academic setting should not be seen as an end in itself. Our job is not really done until we have made this important and interesting information accessible and meaningful to society. That’s the other job I believe God has given me to do – use archaeology to make the Bible relevant to both the spiritual and secular communities. It is sort of my ministry of archaeology.
After all, if we can trust the Bible for the Past (History), then we can trust it for the Future (Eternity). And if we can do that, we should also learn to trust it for the Present – One Day at a Time.
Working on it One Day at a Time,
Pastor Gary Byers
Spiritual Life Director