2010 Conference On Ministry ♦ Sept. 20—22, 2010

The Life Enrichment Center ♦ near Leesburg, Fl

Mark Allen Powell

Robert and Phyllis Leatherman
Professor of New Testament
Trinity Lutheran Seminary

“What is true of the testimonies we find in the Bible is true also of our own experiences. As we share our faith stories and listen to the faith stories of others… we come to understand our own experience of God better, and we come to recognize new possibilities for the life of faith.” MAPowell

Dr Powell will speak Monday evening, Tuesday afternoon, and Wednesday morning.

Mark Allen Powell is an ordained minister of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, but he has also held lectureships internationally at schools in Estonia, Tanzania, and Russia, as well as at such American universities as Berkeley and the University of Chicago. Currently, Dr. Powell is Professor of New Testament at Trinity Lutheran Seminary.

In addition to his academic works, Powell has produced voluminous materials for churches including biblical commentaries, preaching guides, Sunday School curricula and devotional material.

Dr. Powell has done groundbreaking work with regard to understanding the Bible as literature and using methods derived from modern literary criticism to enhance biblical interpretation. He was a principal \ architect in the development of “narrative criticism” in biblical studies and his book What Is Narrative Criticism? is still viewed as a standard work for introducing students to this exegetical method.

Powell is recognized as a leading scholar in the study of the Gospel of Matthew. He is author of the Harper Collins commentary on Matthew and has written several other books and articles focusing on the first Gospel. For ten years, he served as Chair of The Matthew Group for the Society of Biblical Literature. He has signed a contract with Eerdmans to produce a comprehendsive critical commentary on Matthew by 2018.

Powell has been a primary researcher in the scholarly discipline of understanding Jesus as a figure in world history and is the author of a widely used text book on this subject. He served for eight years as chair of the Society of Biblical Literature’s primary study group devoted to this topic.

His current academic project involves serving as General Editor for the forthcoming third edition of the HarperCollins Bible Dictionary, the world’s best-selling dictionary of the Bible.

Powell–who began his journalistic career in the ‘70s as a rock critic for The Houston Post–is also regarded as a leading expert on the subject of “contemporary Christian music.” He has published over 1900 reviews and articles on popular music in general and is the author of a 1000-page encyclopedia on Christian pop artists.