For the Cause - A Tribute to Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary

I started seminary in the fall of 2005. I’ve been a student at Southeastern since the Spring of 2007. I graduated with my PhD in December, 2016. It’s been a long road.

Despite that long road, however, I look back and am grateful for the opportunity to have studied at Southeastern. As a graduate of the United States Naval Academy, I know something about loyalty to an alma mater. (By the way: Beat Army!) Everything at USNA is geared toward imbuing the ethos of a professional naval officer. It’s in the facts that are memorized, the habits that are inculcated, and the courses that are studied.

I enjoyed (most of) my time at USNA, but was always somewhat surprised at the number of people that didn’t really believe in the mission. The thing is, you could be a good Company Officer or a good midshipman and not really believe in the mission. After all, people would say, it doesn’t really matter if your shoes are shined, it’s whether you can get the job done. There was often a subversive disbelief under the veneer of compliant excellence.

That contrasts distinctly with ethos of Southeastern. I have both worked there and been a student there. There are few shined shoes, but the school as a whole is one that has bought into its mission. That makes a huge difference.

Southeastern’s mission is pretty simple: “We seek to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ by equipping students to serve the church and fulfill the Great Commission.”

I had that mission memorized long before we moved to Wake Forest because every chapel sermon includes an introduction with Danny Akin’s voice announcing it. No one can get away from it because it hangs on many of the light poles throughout the campus and adorns the syllabus of each course offered through the institution.

More significantly, Southeastern’s mission animates the institution.

The school is certainly not a perfect organization. However, even its failings tend to lead to it falling in roughly the right direction. Having a clear mission and broad buy-in for that mission keeps the institution on track and calls it back even when it strays.

In this case the mission is easy to get behind. It’s an institution of higher learning, but one distinctly organized around theological education. The students, staff, and faculty that are drawn to the institution are those who have a strong desire to do something (they may not know what) for the glory of Christ and in service of his church.

Recently, the institution adopted a new school hymn. That was good, because the previous one was a dirge that did little to inspire. Southeastern’s school hymn is now a song by the modern hymn-writers, Keith and Kristyn Getty, called “For the Cause.”

As I listened to the song the first time, and the hundred times after, I could not help but recognize that it reflects exactly the ethos of the institution. It’s not just a slogan, it’s actually the driving idea behind the institution.

At graduation rehearsal, Danny Akin addressed the prospective graduates. In his simple address, it became apparent that his mission is the same as Southeastern’s mission. That’s part of why everyone else’s mission tends to blend in with it and become just like it.

If I were to do a study on the impact that a unified mission and vision could have on an organizational structure, I might choose to use Southeastern as an example. It’s an institution of higher learning dedicated to a simple, but important ministry: equipping men and women for service for kingdom of Christ.

I’m thankful for Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Being surrounded by such a cloud of witness as the students, staff, and faculty pulling in the same direction was a terrific experience. It shaped me in ways I probably do not understand.

Southeastern is a going seminary, so I have friends in places of service around the globe. They were all equipped by Southeastern. More importantly, however, they were shaped and focused by the culture at the institution.

We sang “For the Cause” at the conclusion of the ceremony on Friday. It was a powerful moment, standing in the front row of a crowded chapel, hearing hundreds of voices heartily singing out in unison:

Let it be my life’s refrain
To live is Christ, to die is gain.
Deny myself
Take up my cross and follow the Son.

I'm confident the students and faculty meant it deeply, too. That makes a huge difference. In fact, it’s what makes Southeastern as special place. I’m now employed at Oklahoma Baptist University, but I will always appreciate my time at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Thankful for Southeastern

By the time I am done, seminary will have been the best decade of my life.

There’s a punchline there, but there is some reality, too. Lord willing, I will complete my PhD in Theological Studies with an emphasis in Christian Ethics by May of 2016.

I began my seminary studies in August of 2005 while I was still stationed on the USS JIMMY CARTER. I still remember watching the first DVD lecture while I was sitting in the wardroom several hundred feet underwater.

My daughter was born a few months later. I had to apologize to the distance learning office at the seminary because I accidentally left one of the lecture DVDs at the hospital.

Since then, I have finished my MDiv in Christian Ministry. That took me until the spring semester of 2011. I worked full-time through almost all of that time period.

By the time I walked across the stage to receive my diploma from Danny Akin, I was already admitted to the PhD program. I was tired, but ready to get started.

For two more years I continued to work full-time at a commercial nuclear power station 42 miles from my home in Wake Forest. I made an hour long trip each way, each day, investing more than one man-year of time in the car over the five years I worked there. It was hard work, but good work. Most of the time I enjoyed it.

In June of 2013, when I was offered my present position on the seminary staff I jumped at it. I was tired. My family was tired. But that was not the only reason I took the job.

Making a Shift

I actually started my seminary education at another institution. However, after I started taking an Ethics class at Southeastern’s extension center in Charleston, SC I started to think about switching.

Then, one day, Danny Akin called me personally to invite me to visit the campus. When the President of an institution takes the time to call, it is probably worth going.

It was worth the visit.

On the campus of Southeastern, I found the opportunity for an education equal to my previous seminary. However, I also found an institutional focus that was focused, in a direct and unswerving way, on the Great Commission.

Southeastern is a Great Commission seminary.

We changed our plans. We were going to move to Wake Forest to finish seminary. At the time we figured we would only be there for a couple of years.

Working through Delays

I was living alone in Wake Forest for a month while my wife finished the year as a teacher in South Carolina. As the prospect of her paycheck ending loomed, the house in South Carolina still hadn’t sold. So I interviewed for a job that would take too much time and which was too far away.

I took the job because our medical insurance costs were about to jump, we had a mortgage and rent to pay, and our savings couldn’t last forever.

Instead of going full-time, I became a very part-time student. I took one or two classes a semester, watching online videos on Saturday mornings and writing papers whenever I could.

Really, that isn’t too far from normal for many of the students at Southeastern.

I tried to get a job on campus for years. When a position finally opened up I jumped at it, even though it entailed a large pay cut.

Working on Campus

I serve in an administrative position at Southeastern. It’s the kind of administrative position that would cause a lot of people to lose their sanctification. I calculate numbers, write reports, and do whatever odd jobs the Provost assigns me. There isn’t a lot of glory in the work.

However, since I’ve served in this position, I’ve had more “Thank You” e-mails and comments than in several years of my previous work experience. This is a place where people are genuinely kind––the façade matches the reality.

In the past year and a half, I’ve seen this institution demonstrate genuine concern for students, faculty, and staff. There is a real sense of service at Southeastern.

We seek to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ by equipping students to serve the church and fulfill the Great Commission.

This process starts with the way we treat each other and moves outward from there. We certainly aren’t perfect, but there is a genuine effort made to demonstrate kindness as we work together for the kingdom.

Being Thankful

Graduation is, I hope, only a year and a half away. When that time comes, I am not sure what the future holds. I may have opportunities to teach at a college or seminary, or to serve in a local church. I may have the opportunity to go back to work in commercial nuclear power or even to stay here in an administrative capacity.

Whatever opportunities await me after graduation, I look forward to looking back with thanksgiving at this time at Southeastern Seminary.

I am thankful to have been trained by world-class scholars who are more excited about seeing people come to Christ and the gospel preached to the nations than to have their names on the covers of books. This is good for a young scholar to see.

I am thankful to the many individual donors and the whole Southern Baptist Convention as they support the work here, keeping tuition costs as low as possible. This has made my education, and the education of thousands of others possible.

I am thankful for the friends I’ve made in the seminary community. We don’t always agree on everything, but we all have the same goal: to fulfill the Great Commission. This makes the monumental task of taking the Gospel to the nations imaginable.