April 19, 2024
I am having a first-time-ever experience this week and very excited about it. I am teaching in a Doctor of Ministry seminar at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary. The seminar is focused on the subject of leadership and church health. I will be sharing a lot of information from my book Healthy Kingdom Churches that was published a few years ago. The principles described in the book are still relevant, and will remain relevant.
Once I completed my Master of Divinity degree at Southern Seminary, I entered into the Doctor of Ministry degree program. In fact, I was in the very first Southern Seminary DMin class.
We plowed new ground in a degree program that would prove to be very beneficial to pastors and other church leaders whose focus would be professional church ministry. Now, I have the opportunity to teach DMin students 43 years later. I’m sitting here adding up the years and not believing it has been 43 years since I earned my doctorate. The years pass so quickly!
We can never get too much education. God deserves our very best efforts to communicate effectively and accurately the Word of God, and provide excellence in leadership for His church.”
2 Timothy 2:15 says that we are to “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth.” For the Christian, study and learning are to be lifetime activities that will bless our walk with God and help us to be a blessing to others. I encounter church leadership all the time who will say something like this, “I have been thinking about going back to school to advance my education. It’s something I would really like to do. What do you think about my doing that?”
One hundred percent of the time my response goes like this, “I think you ought to do it. We can never get too much education. God deserves our very best efforts to communicate effectively and accurately the Word of God, and provide excellence in leadership for His church.”
I look forward to meeting the students this week and learning about their spiritual journeys. I want to hear about their call to Gospel ministry. I want to hear about their families. I want to know their dreams for the future of their ministries. I look forward to sharing with them from my heart and from the years of experience I have been privileged to have in church and convention ministry.
The greatest honor of my life has been in serving the Lord. Now, a new generation of leaders is stepping up to the plate. I want them to hit a grand slam home run for the glory of the Kingdom of God.
