Ray Evans/JoAnn Belknap Seminar
This year's Ray Evans Seminar is April 17–19. Our guest speaker is Dr. Matthew Bates and the topic is "Why the Gospel?"
You can learn more about sessions, the speaker, and our annual seminar below.
FREE childcare is available, but you must sign up ahead of time. If you need childcare, REGISTER HERE or call the church office at 405-321-0788.
FRI. & SAT. (4/17/26-4/19/26)
FRIDAY
7:00 pm to 8:00 pm:
"How did gospel confusion happen?"
SATURDAY
9:30 am to 10:15 am:
"How does Scripture clarify the gospel?"
10:15 am to 10:45 am: Break
10:45 am to 11:30 am:
"What and how does the gospel restore?
SUNDAY (4/19/26)
All adult Bible classes will meet in the auditorium for a combined class led by Dr. Bates.
SUNDAY
Bible Class at 9:00 am:
"Why the recovery of a royal gospel is urgent!"
Worship at 10:00 am:
Q&A with Dr. Bates for the sermon
Dr. Matthew Bates
Matthew W. Bates (PhD, Notre Dame) is Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary with expertise on the gospel and salvation. His book, "Why the Gospel?" (Eerdmans, 2024) won the Christianity Today award in popular theology and was Outreach magazine's "Resource of the Year" in theology and Bible. His primary research training is the New Testament and second century Christianity with secondary in the Old Testament (Hebrew Bible) and Second Temple Judaism.
Upon graduation (2010), he was named the winner of the Shaheen Award in the humanities. From 2011-2014, Bates served as Professor of Theology at Quincy University. In 2024, he was appointed Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary. Bates's research interests include the gospel, Jesus, soteriology, the Apostle Paul, early Christology, the Trinity, prosopological exegesis, the use of the Old Testament in the New, theological interpretation of Scripture, and Justin Martyr.
Ray Evans/JoAnn Belknap Seminar & Ray Evans Library
Ray Evans was a minister, missionary, scholar, and teacher. He preached at University Church of Christ which later merged with Central Church of Christ to form Alameda Church of Christ. Working diligently with college students, Ray believed teaching God’s word would encourage the next generation of teachers to dig deeper and reach farther. Ray had a master’s degree in Old Testament Studies, was working on his PhD in Communications, was a preaching minister, and a missionary in The Hague, Netherlands, but his passion was teaching. He joined the Preston Road School of Preaching as a professor to share his experience and encourage the next generation of preaching ministers. His students experienced great loss when Ray and three of his colleagues were killed in a plane crash on February 22, 1979.
This seminar and the Ray Evans Library at Alameda are memorials of his passion for teaching and encouraging students of the Bible. Those who are searching will find answers they seek, and Ray wanted to share his appetite for the Bible with those around him. His wife, JoAnn Belknap, continued to remember his diligence and shared it with others in this annual Bible seminar. JoAnn passed away in 2023, and now the Ray Evans/JoAnn Belknap Seminar serves in memory of her as well.
Every year, a Bible scholar comes to Alameda to share his area of Biblical knowledge in celebration of Ray Evans’ dedication. His legacy lives on in the loved ones he left behind who share with us his hunger for teaching and learning together in the family of Christ.
