5 Year Reflection

My phone rang with an unknown number.

On the other end of the call, Dr. Jason Allen, the new president of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, spent some time talking about the vision he had about gathering a team for a high-risk revitalization project in Kansas City. 

“We have 5 years to show the SBC why we need a seminary in this region!” he explained. “And I want it to center on the reason a seminary exists – to be for the church. Will you join us in the work?”

As a full time pastor who left teaching at a sister seminary because I wanted to embrace this very ideal, my heart soared. Our seminaries and Southern Baptist entities are at their best when we see them connect to the heartbeat and baseline of our cooperative work, the local church.

But therein was the tension. I loved the local church I pastored. God gave my family such an amazing congregation to be a part of. I enjoyed preaching the Word and shepherding the people. I delighted in regular baptisms. I cherished new ethnic church plants and ministry to refugees. How could we possibly leave?

Over the course of several months God began to set in motion things that only in retrospect make sense. In our prayer and Bible reading, my wife and I began to sense God was making a change in our ministry assignment. When we finally agreed, we did so knowing we were fully trusting the Lord.

And we are ecstatic about what God has done as we trusted him. Only once in a lifetime do some have the opportunity to be a part of something that can only be explained through the direct work of the Holy Spirit. There have been days of struggle for sure, but what an amazing place to serve where God is at work.

November 1, 2018 marked our 5 year anniversary at Midwestern. Time really does fly past. Our kids have grown, our ministry has expanded, and God continues to provide in ways we could only have imagined. 

​Reflecting on this, I thought about 7 key things that we have experienced at Midwestern that shape how I think about academic leadership.

1. Vision Matters – What defines everything we do? Our central vision is simple: We are for the church. What shapes our programs? The things that matter to the church. What defines our lectureships? The issues that face the church. What drives our faculty? A love for the bride of Christ – the church. Our passion is to equip men and women for service for the church! Such a clearly defined vision makes hard decisions so much easier to resolve. Does it fit the vision or not?
2. Confessional Fidelity Matters – We hold firmly as an institution to the Confessional framework of the Baptist Faith and Message 2000. This ensures doctrinal fidelity from our faculty and staff while ensuring our constituency in the local church can be ensured that we are guarding that which has been entrusted to us (1 Timothy 6:20)
3. Leadership Matters – Getting the right people in place is very important. Dr. Allen tirelessly works to put the right people in the right places. When this element of synergy begins to function, things happen. This atmosphere shapes every aspect of our campus life. For those of us on the leadership team at MBTS, we work hard together and strive for God’s best in all that we do. As a unified team, this makes every challenge and every battle much easier to engage. Serving under a God-called leader brings joy to the task at hand.
4. Trustees Matter – There is not a finer group of men and women on the planet than those who serve Midwestern. They work tirelessly to ensure quality in our educational systems, to represent the people of the Southern Baptist Convention and to hold us to the doctrinal fidelity we share as Baptists. They are gifted men and women who make Midwestern fit for service and bring quality to all we do. We are perpetually thankful for their heart.
5. Faculty Matter – Can I tell you how rare it is to find such quality in a faculty? Men and women trained at many of the most prestigious institutions globally, yet carefully training the next generation of global leaders for the church! They write books, speak at conferences, challenge students in the classroom, shepherd the hearts of students and serve in their local church. If I were choosing a school, I would always look at the faculty. At Midwestern, quality abounds.
6. Cooperation Matters – Every semester, students look at their registration and their bill. They wonder how they are going to make it through another semester. Yet Southern Baptists step in every term and lighten the load. In another powerful demonstration of what we can do together as churches, Southern Baptists, through gifts to the Cooperative Program, grant our SBC students a tuition break that amounts to about ½ of their total cost. Unbelievable. While students at other denominational schools sink into debt that mortgages their future ministry effectiveness, the SBC sees the benefit of investing in each of these students as they prepare to reach the world for Christ.
7. Students Matter – Our institution knows that our students are leaders in their churches today andthey frame the future leadership pipeline of our congregations, missions outreach, and cooperative work. Our student quality continues to rise and I’m excited to see what God continues to do through them!

I’m thankful God called us to serve here at Midwestern. I’m thankful for the leadership of Dr. Jason Allen and the men and women I serve alongside as we press forward in training men and women to be faithful leaders for the church!
 
 

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