I promise to….
By BlackCalvinist | March 24, 2008
I promise to update my layout in the coming days. 
Seriously.
I promise to start posting all the stuff I’ve been putting out over on HCR that may be helpful to other believers who don’t visit message boards, but live off of the blogsphere.
So far, I’ve done posts on exegesis, why Calvin didn’t kill Servetus, a few things on election and predestination and much more. I *need* to refocus my energies beyond that one message board.
Of course, being an admin over there, I stay busy.
On the good side of things, though, there’s a lot of fruit from my interactions with folks over there….
I promise to get my blogpost on the Holiness of God done soon.
I promise to get COTC Ep. 3 on the Holy Trinity done as well as Ep. 4 on the Trinity.
I promise to get to speaking on Calvinism soon.
I promise to get to the latest TBC on Unity in the Church (Part III). I have more than enough material now to have written it TWICE.
I promise to hijack Mike and re-do the original HHI video.
Don’t count me out yet. I’ll probably start unloading stuff right before I leave for T4G (driving again….).
Topics: from the pen and mind | No Comments »
T4G 2008 and Band of Bloggers 08′
By BlackCalvinist | March 9, 2008
I’ve been buried underneath of grad school stuff so much recently that I haven’t had a chance to even talk about my anticipation of attending Together for the Gospel 08‘ and Band of Bloggers 08‘. They’ve added Thabiti Anyabwile as a speaker, which was (in my opinion) an excellent choice. I don’t think they would’ve went wrong with either Sherard Burns, Voddie Bachum or Anthony Carter as well.
I’m currently reading Thabiti’s latest work, The Decline of African-American Theology. If you haven’t seen it, check out the links to reviews for it on Thabiti’s site. Nice historical overview of how the black church has ended up where it currently is as well as a good review (historical and theological) of where it came from. I’m not that far into the book yet, but it is excellent and easy reading for whatever level of understanding you’re at in terms of theological discussion.
Off to sleep for a bit. The days are running shorter (especially since I *LOSE* an hour with daylight savings time this weekend….).
Topics: blogwatching!, conferences and gatherings | 2 Comments »
Announcing: Fourth Friday Fundamentals!
By BlackCalvinist | February 18, 2008
Blending Christ-centered lyrics and rhyme schemes, expositional preaching, sound Biblical doctrine and fellowship among the saints, a few dedicated brothers have banded together to bring Fourth Friday Fundamentals to the Baltimore area. The site is available at FourthFridayFundamentals.com.
Roughly patterned after First Friday Fundamentals (sponsored by Epiphany Fellowship in Philly), FFF stresses four things:
1. The Holiness of God
2. The Sinfulness of Man
3. The Problem of Man’s Sinfulness in Light of God’s Holiness
4. The Solution to the Problem: The Gospel
Hit the media page up, check the first two messages (which actually cover these first two topics!).
If you’re in the Baltimore area on this coming Friday ( 2/22/08), drop in. We’d LOVE to have you. Directions to the event (held at Believers’ Chapel in Baltimore, MD) are on the site.
Pass the word and tell some friends!
Topics: Theological, conferences and gatherings, fellowship, holy hip hop, speaking ministry | No Comments »
Internet Usage In Research
By BlackCalvinist | February 18, 2008
Internet Usage in Research
by Kerry Gilliard
February 2, 2008
Grand Canyon University
EDU 550
Internet Usage in Research and the Classroom
As technology has grown and developed, many individuals including myself have began to turn more to the internet as an additional source of information in the course of research. The advantages to this have been plentiful.tFirst, research on the internet is not limited by the amount of hours a physical library is open, so as a researcher, I have been able to gather information at various hours according to a time convenient to me. Many professional journals have become available online, and while access to some of them may require a fee, many articles germane to my subject area are available free. In addition, the sheer variety of references available on the internet can, in some cases, dwarf what a particular library may have on hand regarding the subject.
To be sure, many the internet presents its’ fair share of disadvantages as well. The number one problem is always finding a way to wade through the deluge of links that appear during a keyword search on a subject in any search engine. The process of transitioning all formats of media to digital is still “uncertain and incomplete” according to two authors in the business of transitioning media from physical to digital format (Oestreicher-Singer & Sundarajan, 2005). Thus, many older resources and some current resources are not available in digital format for access through the internet either because of copyright issues, licensing issues, or lack of ability to immediately make the resource available over the internet. This can, in some cases, limit the amount of legitimate resources available to a student or researcher, despite there being thousands of links available on the internet on a particular subject. The issue of verified and trustworthy material is also an issue as sites such as Wikipedia ( http://www.wikipedia.org ) and similar ‘wiki’ sites may have legitimate information on a particular subject, but may also have spurious information, as these sites allow anyone to edit the articles contained therein.
In this paper, I will discuss three primary ways that I have used the internet for research purposes and give specific examples. I will also discuss the concepts necessary for discerning reputable websites and accurate information versus non-verifiable websites and inaccurate sources of information. The paper will conclude by addressing the use of the internet in the classroom by students in the course of them completing research.
The Internet as Biographical Resource
The internet has a plethora of biographical information on various individuals across a myriad of professions. As a musician, my primary concern has been on finding complete or semi-complete information on the early lives and careers of musicians from various eras. Entries for older classical musicians such as Bach, Beethoven and others tend to be very accurate on most sites such as Wikipedia ( http://www.wikipedia.org ), Classical Music Archives (http://www.classicalarchives.com) and also HyperMusic (http://www.hypermusic.ca). A general rule I have found to be true in this endeavor is that information on some individuals closer to the current era of music (such as Billie Holiday) may be inaccurate. Indeed, Holiday’s own autobiography states that her parents were married when independent researchers and reporters (such as Hamlin, 2006) have pointed out that they were not. Another major issue in the process of researching via the internet is that many sites simply duplicate information they have received from other websites. . In the interest of time, it may become very tedious to sort through some thirty or forty links per page of information on a topic only to find minor differences even the wording of the information presented. Extended experience with researching through the internet has allowed me to grow as a researcher in finding solid resources in a more timely fashion than in the past, so I can say that my experience in this area of internet usage is usually positive.
The Internet Message Board: Surveys, Discussions and Research
Many message boards geared toward musicians and band directors have proven helpful to me in finding out how other school systems operate and how other directors run their programs. Sites like Bandlink (http://www.bandlink.org) and The Fifth Quarter (http://the5thquarter.com) have sections dedicated specifically to discussion of music and music-related topics for teachers. These message boards have the option for members to start up unscientific polls/surveys in order to gather general information as well as to start up discussion topics that board members can discuss in detail beyond selecting a simple response selection in a poll. The effectiveness and reliability of the poll’s results will depend primarily on the follow up questions asked by the person starting the poll, the depth of answer needed (simple yes or no questions) and the sample size (enough people must participate). While results can vary and in some cases, questions must be refined to gather precise information, the message board can be a good tool for interaction with colleagues in other areas of the country/world that may be able to point a researcher to other professional resources for use in the course of research. Collaboration among colleagues in other localities is greatly enhanced by the use of the internet.
The Internet as Virtual Library
Many websites such as Google™ are in the process of digitizing printed materials. Google’s book website Google Books (http://books.google.com) the Digital Book Index (http://www.digitalbookindex.org) and the University of Pennsylvania’s Online Books page (http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu) have made thousands of books available online for use by students, faculty, researchers and the general public. Google is currently specializing in many out of print books. All of these things, in addition to professional journals such as the MENC’s the Journal of Music Teacher Education or the American Psychological Associations’ Developmental Psychology, are made available to members of their respective organizations for research and educational purposes. Some articles from education-related publications such as Education Week (http://www.edweek.org) are available for free. The ability to work at any hour of the morning or evening without the need to be present in a physical library has been a great benefit to me in the course of research and learning over the years.
Discerning Fact from Fiction
With all of these resources available for the researcher on the internet, the next major question (which I touched on earlier) still remains: By what process do we discern reliable web-based information from the unreliable? The answer to that question depends on the type of information one is looking for. Over the years, I have developed a few general guidelines that aid the process of research on the internet for me.
1. As a general rule, websites of personal individuals and hobbyists are usually not the most accurate places to seek reliable web-based information. There are definitely exceptions to this rule. For example, if Dr. William P. Foster (Director of Bands, Emeritus, Florida A&M University) had a personal site up, because of his reputation, decades of experience (50+ years), accomplishments and qualifications in the field of music, I would not hesitate to quote him as a verified and accurate authority.
2. Check the qualifications of the individual writing the article if it appears on a personal or non-educational website. Educational background and school credentials can say a lot about a persons’ qualifications in many cases.
3. Professional organization and educational institution websites usually provide the most reliable sources of information. If you’re a musician, you head to MENC’s website, for example.
4. When possible, check references immediately. This applies especially to articles from user-edited sites such as Wikipedia. In many cases, individuals writing articles are truly seeking to provide accurate information and will provide references to journals, articles and other information used to compile the article.
5. Compare the information against verified sources that you are already familiar with. As a music major in college, I purchased many texts which dealt with my subject area and retain them to this day to check against things I find on the internet.
6. Discussion among colleagues can also provide verification of information found on the internet. At times, some of the information found on the internet may be discussed among colleagues and a researcher may find that another educator in their field has heard of the reference or information and can give me a proper resource to quote from in regard to it.
7. Collaborative websites organized by several professionals in a given field can also be a reliable source of information. Multiple authorship and review among peers reduces the opportunity for error and inaccuracy to creep into the process of presenting information and resources.
8. While there is no such thing as ‘neutral’ in writing and presenting information, I seek out and weigh information within the perspective that it is written, paying close attention to the motivations (or seeming motivations) behind the information that was written. For example, when discussing the reasons for the puritans rejected the use of instruments in worship, I keep their theological presuppositions in mind as well as the cultural milieu and what they were specifically writing against so that I can better understand their position. Though their exegesis of certain texts of scripture in relation to musical instruments may be correct, it may be guided more by the culture of their day than consistent biblical exegesis.
Much of the process I use is similar to that used by Emory University in evaluating internet resources (Busch & Pucket, 2005). I do not believe there is much new that I bring to the table in this discussion other than my own personal experiences.
Teaching Students to Use the Internet
I am currently compiling a process by which students may learn to properly use and cite internet resources in the process of their research. In the past, because of plagiarism and outright laziness, I have forbid students from using the internet as a referenced and heavily penalized them when I have discovered sufficient evidence of plagiarism. However, with the increase of the use of technology and the need for students to be able to use something on the internet, other than use a search engine and, cut and paste in order to complete a project, I will be teaching my students how to properly do internet research (and also suggesting to the principal and the language arts teachers how to do the same).
Implementation would not be too difficult. A handout with a simple numbered process of things for a student to do along with a short introduction from myself on how to go about each step would be their basic introduction to the topic. I would schedule library computer lab time for the students to use the computers for this exercise.
In the beginning, I would simply ask them how they would normally go about finding information on the internet. Most of them will say that they will type in the keywords or subject they are looking for information on in a search engine. My follow-up question (once they click on the link to Wikipedia, which is what most will do) is to ask them exactly how they know that the information on Wikipedia is true, since anyone can edit it. I will then proceed to walk through a set of guidelines (roughly based on what I have already written in this paper) to guide students to reputable resources of information on the internet and how to discern them from unreliable resources. Each of the guidelines used above would be reduced to a one-sentence bullet point that students can write notes next to. When discussing the issue of plagiarism, I have found several university websites that will prove to be helpful in showing students the severity of what can happen to them for plagiarizing. The University of Kentucky’s Chemistry Department website, for example, tells students that the minimum penalty for plagiarism is a failing grade in the course (University of Kentucky, 1998). This page and others that I will use provide students with demonstrate the severity of the act and how it is viewed outside of the local school system, helping to shape their minds (hopefully) on the subject. The activity would be reinforced over several class periods, with home assignments, which requested students research certain pieces of information germane to the classroom material currently being taught. The students’ final project would involve the use of the internet and books for obtaining information on a famous composer in music prior to the year 1990. Students would also be taught proper citation format (APA) for their work, and graded accordingly.
References
Oestreicher-Singer, Gail & Arun Sundararajan, Arun (2005). Digital Rights and Wrongs.
STERNbusiness, Fall/Winter 2005 (online edition). Retrieved February 1, 2008, from http://www.stern.nyu.edu/Sternbusiness/fall_2005/digitalRights.html.
Busch, Lloyd & Puckett, Jason (August 23, 2005). Internet Critical Evaluation.
Retrieved January 31, 2008 from
http://web.library.emory.edu/services/ressvcs/howguides/internet.html.
Hamlin, Jesse (September 18, 2006). Billie Holiday’s bio, ‘Lady Sings the Blues,’ may be
full of lies, but it gets at jazz great’s core. San Francisco Chronicle (online
edition). Retrieved February 1, 2008 from http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-
bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/09/18/DDG2VL68691.DTL .
Plagiarism: Definitions, Examples and Penalties (December 12, 1998). University of
Kentucky, Department of Chemistry. Retrieved January 31, 2008 from
http://www.chem.uky.edu/Courses/common/plagiarism.html .
Topics: Grad School Stuff | No Comments »
Alive
By BlackCalvinist | January 21, 2008
Hi folks,
Short update. It’s been a bit silent here and on the front page of the site, but I’ve got some things cooking. Grad school has been eating up my time like crazy, but I’ll live.
In the meantime, I’d like to commend John Piper’s series on The Pleasures of God to you for your listening. I’m currently listening to The Pleasures of God in His Son and it’s an excellent, God-centered sermon on the highest thing or Person in God’s affections and what effect that should have on the Christian. Of course, I’m not doing it justice – read it or listen to it here:
http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/BySeries/43/
On another note:
So what does the doctrine of Total Depravity have to do with every day life for the believer ?
Coming soon.
Topics: life, theology | No Comments »
2008
By BlackCalvinist | January 1, 2008
Well, this is probably the most non-2008 celebrating or acknowledging I’ve done since I was around 10-12 and fell asleep through the New Year. I played Spider-Man 2 on GameCube longer than expected (I finally started figuring out how to do certain controls and things) – Oh yeah, for those who I haven’t had a chance to talk to, I finally got a gaming system (the last one I had was a Super-Nintendo….so you KNOW it’s been a while for me….).
Anyway, I got a GameCube for $30 from GameStop (yep, they’ve really went down in price), 2 controllers (one came with it) and I’ve bought about 10 games. I actually think that aside from one game (super mario kart double dash), I have all the games I plan on buying for the thing. I may buy a Wii later on if I have the right amount of money available.
Anyway, off of that tangent. The GameCube is actually supposed to be not just for me, but as something else additional for when I open up my home to fellowship for a game night.
A few things have ‘clicked’ for me during the past year. Some within the past few days.
More and more, the words “God doesn’t care how you feel about it, your job is to make yourself feel the right way about it and to be obedient to doing it” – these words have stuck in my head and have made me rethink how I conduct myself in terms of some of my relationships to folks in the body of Christ.
So one of my first tasks this year is to establish relationships with my brothers and my sister. Yes, you heard right – 3 brothers and a sister. Only one is a full blood brother. We’ve actually started communicating more as of late. You may recall me mentioning that last year, my grandmother’s death opened up a line of communication between he and mother that previously hadn’t existed.
Praise God for that. My mother had my brother, his wife and my niece and nephew over for Christmas….and things went VERY well. I was happy about it, but more importantly, I could see how much it really meant to my mother and my brother that they were all able to have a real dinner together as family. Yes, I was there. I really enjoyed seeing my niece and nephew, though my nephew could use a few strokes to the behind to teach him some self-control.
So I realize that I have a responsibility to my immediate family to build and establish stronger relationships to my blood relatives.
I missed seeing my dad today (got in the house late, but I’ll try again later today). I have a MacArthur daily devotional for him that I got him as a Christmas present. I pray that he will read through it daily. My dad’s not saved.
I talked to my younger brother (yes, I have one of those!) earlier today. We had a good convo about music. My older brother has been in regular contact with him, but passed my number on to him. His birthday’s coming up – it’s strange – he’s been in the US since 94 and I have yet to meet him in person. My sister too.
Then there’s my other younger brother Nigel up in NYC.
Yeah, see…there’s a lot people don’t know about me.
Anyway, just contemplating the entire thing, there’s a lot that I need to do on my end of the fence to build some relationships with the people I already have around me. God will hold me responsible for that.
Speaking of relationships, there’s a few old ones that need mending….so I’m starting to put in some work there as well. I realize that I must change my thinking and my presuppositions about people in order to properly seek reconciliation and building with them.
Needless to say….I have some work to do in my personal life.
In the area of my finances, I have some work to do with being consistent about putting away money. My goal is a house by the end of this year. I’m well on my way there so far – I actually have enough in the bank to take care of a decent down payment.
My pastor made a point a few days back about slaves in OT times. I’ve taken too many ‘anal glaucoma’ days at work.
For those who don’t know, anal glaucoma is the condition where you wake up in the morning and you just can’t see your behind goin’ into work, so you call in sick. *cough cough*
Sometimes, you do need a ‘mental health’ day. But maybe that’s just an American thing. I know large parts of it came from the stress that accompanied going into work because I felt nothing was getting done around the school by those in charge…. and even in one of our staff meetings, someone (God bless her!) brought up the fact that 10 people a day call out from the place because they don’t feel supported and they don’t feel like the administration is going to support them on discipline….so a disorderly school environment doesn’t make one feel good about work NOR coming into work.
Prayerfully, things will be much different the second half of the year.
My Bible reading has fallen off a bit. I’m about to pick that back up along with some other ‘disciplines’ that helped to keep me on track. One of which is my staying in the scriptures and working through the issue of God’s holiness and my own sinfulness. I’ll be redoubling my efforts to stay consistent with things.
Thankfully, the Lord has granted me the favor of having brothers in the Lord like Mike and Derek.
The engagement thing is getting a bit nearer. I feel it. But I’m going to have to work for it. My eHarmony subscription ends next month. Let’s see what becomes of it all……..
*jumps into the fray of 2008 with swords drawn and teeth gritted*
Topics: Personal, life | No Comments »
Whoohoo!! New projects coming up….
By BlackCalvinist | December 29, 2007
Aside from getting the Fourth Friday Fundamentals website up and running, I’ve also got a professional site (MrGilliardMusic.com) that I’m working on getting up. It’ll be an all-purpose resource site designed to pull some of the tedious tasks off of my hands and make my kids and their parents responsible for getting and applying info quickly.
I’m also FINALLY going to do something with this theme. I’ve spent the past 3-4 days reading theme-code for Wordpress, so I have a VERY good idea of how code operates now in wordpress….along with a lot of PHP. So stay tuned.
On a personal note, as 2007 draws to a close, I find myself looking back (as usual) reflecting on things I’ve gotten right and things I’ve gotten wrong. I’ll be digging into my resolutions list from 2005 going into 2006 that I developed back when Meeky and I were dating. Even looking at this blog one year ago with grad school, Grandma having a stroke, my mother and brother just getting back in contact and a host of other things, I see progress in some areas and stagnation in others.
Time grows shorter…. but in all things, God is Sovereign (Romans 8:28-30).
Topics: Personal | No Comments »
Join the Sanctuary! Let’s chat….
By BlackCalvinist | December 15, 2007
Well, it’s not exactly *new* but it would be to you if you didn’t post there before.
Feel free to drop in and join our very PEACEFUL discussion board – The Sanctuary. It’s a part of the Study Center. Fellowship, act silly, encourage oneanother, share, and learn.
Need a direct link ? All you had to do was ask.
Topics: blogwatching! | 1 Comment »
HHI – The Apology…..
By BlackCalvinist | December 11, 2007
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJbv0af0X88
So yes, we pulled the HHI video we originally posted. If you watched that video and were offended or grieved, this one should encourage you.
If you watched the first video and felt zeal well-up in your heart and a desire to go preach truth boldly, watch this video as well. Go about your task wisely.
Topics: blogwatching! | 1 Comment »
A simple message….
By BlackCalvinist | November 22, 2007
Be thankful.
Specifically….be thankful to GOD.
Be thankful that you are single and not dealing with a mate who defies you and disagrees with you on every question and turn.
Be thankful you are married and not single, so you have a partner to go through life with.
Be thankful that you don’t have a lot of things so that when a fire, thief or robber comes, you don’t have much to lose.
Be thankful that God has given you a lot of things to enjoy during this lifetime as a courtesy of His graciousness.
Be thankful that you have eyes that work right.
Be thankful for glasses to help you see better.
Be thankful for being BLIND, because you’re able to see more about the world around you than some sighted people.
Be thankful for God breaking up that old relationship that you absolutely thought was THE ONE – turns out that the person you wanted to get with wasn’t the best thing for you after all.
Be thankful you couldn’t find your keys for 15 minutes because the accident you drove by would’ve happened exactly when you were passing by this spot 15 minutes ago.
Be thankful for traffic jams. Cars not moving tend to not get in accidents.
Be thankful the Lord called your relative home. Being in glory with Christ is much better than remaining here just because you don’t want them to leave.
Be thankful the Lord put some people in your path to challenge what you believe. It’s His gracious way of leading you into more truth.
Be thankful that you know the truth. It’s His gracious way of keeping you from following those who teach error.
Be thankful for a good church family. You need that support, don’t you ?
Be thankful that the Lord has opened your eyes and led you to part ways with your old church in search of a more solid one. He’s growing you up.
Be thankful for annoying brothers and sisters in Christ. They are tools in the process of sanctification to help you grow more patient.
Be thankful for good relationships in the body of Christ. These are people you get to fellowship with for eternity – and you’re getting a head start.
Be thankful your lights are on. God has given you resources to pay your bills well.
Be thankful your lights got cut off for a week. That kept your computer from getting fried during a power surge that happened the next day.
Be thankful that whether you want to believe it or not, God is absolutely sovereign over all aspects of human history including who gets saved and who doesn’t. Otherwise, you’d have nothing but ‘wishing really hard’ to fall back on when you pray for the salvation of a relative.
Be thankful that God is Sovereign over all aspects of human history and it is He who has kept you to this point in life, and not your own ‘free will’. If you got everything you wanted, you’d be in hell now.
Be thankful for contentment with where you are. And if you’re not….pray for it (1 Tim. 6:6-8).
Grace and Peace.
Topics: from the pen and mind, life | No Comments »
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