I grew up in a Christian home mission setting that took a very strong stand on total abstinence from beverage alcohol, tobacco, and illegal drugs. I even joined the Loyal Temperance Legion, the children’s division of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), as an eight year old child and took a pledge to abstain from the aforementioned personal and societal evils.
One of my longtime colleagues and friends recently wrote me that the President of the Kentucky Mountain Bible College, where we had worked together, Dr. Philip Speas, asked her to find some "interesting places for our KMHA senior citizens to take a trip now and then--within reasonable distance."
Her story continues: "We went to the Creation Museum (Petersburg, KY) in December for their Christmas lights display and programs. I've been searching for something indoors during this cold weather. I finally told him I found a great idea. The most popular thing being advertised right now is the Kentucky Bourbon Trail! Now wouldn't that be something we've never done before? Something brand new is always exciting. Right? Well, it certainly gave him a laugh. He even suggested Miss Henrietta Griffith (long-time leader in local, state and national WCTU organizations) lead the excursion!"
I laughed loudly in my office as I read this story!
Monday, January 12, 2015
Mentors
I Timothy 6:11-21, II Timothy 1:1-7
Dear God,
Thank You for the mentors and advisors that You have brought into my life. Thank You for all who have taught me, both deliberately and by default. Thank You for those mentors and advisors who are a delight, as well as for those who have taught me simply because they are difficult. Thank You for the time, care, constructive criticism, and challenge each has brought into my life.
There are those mentors You have brought into my life who delight me. Thank You for their investment of themselves into my life. Seeing these folks has always been a cause for joy. I find my spirit responding like that of John in his mother Elizabeth's womb when the pregnant Mary came into their home. Elizabeth felt John leap within her. Something within me leaps with joy when I am privileged to spend a few moments with these dear people.
Thank You for serendipitous moments of inspiration, guidance, and care that so many have invested in me. Thank You for my friend who is always optimistic, encouraging, and believes in me. Thank You for my friend who never misses a moment to pray with me. Thank You for my friend who asks the deep, probing questions that intensify and enhance my journey of conscience to be like You.
However, there are those colleagues and acquaintances who are more difficult and challenging to me because of the sense of conflict and adversity they bring into my life. I would often seek to avoid these encounters. I shun relationships with such. But You, in Your mercy and grace allow these precious one to cross my path. They often love You no less than I, but my instinct is to label them as the problem, simply because I find them difficult. I find myself wanting to engage in the extremes of fixing them or ignoring them.
These difficult relationships are unpleasant. Teach me a spirit of gratitude for the difficult people in my life. Help me to remember that it is not my duty to change them, but to allow You to change me–often through them. Help me to understand the gift with which difficult relationships present me. Remind me of the humbling truth that I may represent another’s difficult relationship. Any holiness that You are working in me is not best revealed in ease and comfort, rather amidst adversity, testing, and difficulty. Reveal and refine Your holiness in my character through the frustrating and the challenging relationships of my life. Allow my righteousness, cultivated through adversity, to "shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of my Father" (Matthew 13:43).
Thank You, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, for all who are tools in Your Hand to shape me toward Christlikeness.
Amen.
Dear God,
Thank You for the mentors and advisors that You have brought into my life. Thank You for all who have taught me, both deliberately and by default. Thank You for those mentors and advisors who are a delight, as well as for those who have taught me simply because they are difficult. Thank You for the time, care, constructive criticism, and challenge each has brought into my life.
There are those mentors You have brought into my life who delight me. Thank You for their investment of themselves into my life. Seeing these folks has always been a cause for joy. I find my spirit responding like that of John in his mother Elizabeth's womb when the pregnant Mary came into their home. Elizabeth felt John leap within her. Something within me leaps with joy when I am privileged to spend a few moments with these dear people.
Thank You for serendipitous moments of inspiration, guidance, and care that so many have invested in me. Thank You for my friend who is always optimistic, encouraging, and believes in me. Thank You for my friend who never misses a moment to pray with me. Thank You for my friend who asks the deep, probing questions that intensify and enhance my journey of conscience to be like You.
However, there are those colleagues and acquaintances who are more difficult and challenging to me because of the sense of conflict and adversity they bring into my life. I would often seek to avoid these encounters. I shun relationships with such. But You, in Your mercy and grace allow these precious one to cross my path. They often love You no less than I, but my instinct is to label them as the problem, simply because I find them difficult. I find myself wanting to engage in the extremes of fixing them or ignoring them.
These difficult relationships are unpleasant. Teach me a spirit of gratitude for the difficult people in my life. Help me to remember that it is not my duty to change them, but to allow You to change me–often through them. Help me to understand the gift with which difficult relationships present me. Remind me of the humbling truth that I may represent another’s difficult relationship. Any holiness that You are working in me is not best revealed in ease and comfort, rather amidst adversity, testing, and difficulty. Reveal and refine Your holiness in my character through the frustrating and the challenging relationships of my life. Allow my righteousness, cultivated through adversity, to "shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of my Father" (Matthew 13:43).
Thank You, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, for all who are tools in Your Hand to shape me toward Christlikeness.
Amen.
Sunday, January 11, 2015
Being
Psalm 131, Psalm 90:12
Oh, Lord,
Teach me the simplicity of being in your Presence. Quiet me. Teach me to BE with you. Teach me to REST in you. Teach me intimacy with you. Teach me the JOY of your Presence.
So much of my life is busy. I multi-task all day long. As soon as I help to solve one problem, I race to write a letter, make a phone call, pray with a colleague, or lead a meeting. I live life at a hectic pace, and frankly, I don’t see an end in sight to that intensity. Teach me to make time to BE in Your Presence each day.
My day rushes on at such a rapid pace that I suddenly look at the clock and wonder where the time has gone. I remember working my first job as a youth and constantly watching the clock. Oh, how time seemed to creep! Today, the weeks, months, and years pass in a blink.
Teach me the slow and quiet pace of spending time in Your Presence. Left to my own fallen reason, I would misconstrue time with You into some sort of superstition, shrinking and deforming You into an idol of my control, conjuring You to perform my will, manipulating You to serve me. Save me from such evil, idolatrous, corrupted worship. Help me to long to enter my Quiet Place with You. Be my reward for time well spent.
I have experienced intimacy with the wife of my youth in which a whisper, a breath, or a tensed muscle communicated volumes to me. Teach me to listen to Your softest whisper, to sense the quickening of Your pulse, to feel Your intimate breath upon me, and to know the depth of meaning in a slight nudge of Your Holy Spirit. Teach me to be with You, to listen to You, to learn Your ways. I want to know You.
St. Augustine prayed, "You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless, until they can find rest in you." Thank you for making me restless apart from You. Thank you for loving me enough to draw me into You, into Your Presence, into Your Person. I love You. I need You. I find myself sorrowful when I have to leave my Quiet Place with You. I want to remain in Your Presence. I long for more time alone with You.
But I must go. I must fulfill the tasks of Your calling. I go from the Quiet Place to BE with You throughout my day. I go with a simple faith that Your Presence will continue to BE with me and in me.
In Jesus’ Name,
Amen.
Oh, Lord,
Teach me the simplicity of being in your Presence. Quiet me. Teach me to BE with you. Teach me to REST in you. Teach me intimacy with you. Teach me the JOY of your Presence.
So much of my life is busy. I multi-task all day long. As soon as I help to solve one problem, I race to write a letter, make a phone call, pray with a colleague, or lead a meeting. I live life at a hectic pace, and frankly, I don’t see an end in sight to that intensity. Teach me to make time to BE in Your Presence each day.
My day rushes on at such a rapid pace that I suddenly look at the clock and wonder where the time has gone. I remember working my first job as a youth and constantly watching the clock. Oh, how time seemed to creep! Today, the weeks, months, and years pass in a blink.
Teach me the slow and quiet pace of spending time in Your Presence. Left to my own fallen reason, I would misconstrue time with You into some sort of superstition, shrinking and deforming You into an idol of my control, conjuring You to perform my will, manipulating You to serve me. Save me from such evil, idolatrous, corrupted worship. Help me to long to enter my Quiet Place with You. Be my reward for time well spent.
I have experienced intimacy with the wife of my youth in which a whisper, a breath, or a tensed muscle communicated volumes to me. Teach me to listen to Your softest whisper, to sense the quickening of Your pulse, to feel Your intimate breath upon me, and to know the depth of meaning in a slight nudge of Your Holy Spirit. Teach me to be with You, to listen to You, to learn Your ways. I want to know You.
St. Augustine prayed, "You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless, until they can find rest in you." Thank you for making me restless apart from You. Thank you for loving me enough to draw me into You, into Your Presence, into Your Person. I love You. I need You. I find myself sorrowful when I have to leave my Quiet Place with You. I want to remain in Your Presence. I long for more time alone with You.
But I must go. I must fulfill the tasks of Your calling. I go from the Quiet Place to BE with You throughout my day. I go with a simple faith that Your Presence will continue to BE with me and in me.
In Jesus’ Name,
Amen.
Saturday, January 10, 2015
Who Me?
Jeremiah 1, Isaiah 6
Are You sure, God? Certainly You missed this one! Me? A leader?
Leaders are people like Moses, Joshua, David, Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, and Jeremiah. Leaders are people like Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and the Apostle Paul. Leaders! Do You get it? Not me! I am not like them!
I don’t want that kind of responsibility. I don’t want that kind of danger. I don’t want that kind of risk! I’ve watched Survivor! The leaders are the first ones voted off the island! Let me hide in the background. Let me coast a bit. I can keep a low profile. I can just hang out. I don’t have to lead! Surely, You don’t have to ask that much of me!
So, You’re Sovereign? What’s that mean?
You say You know best. You say that whom You call You equip. You say that You have called me to lead. Me? You have to be kidding! You missed this one, God. You have this decision all wrong. You have me confused with someone else! Surely, You are not calling me to be a leader!
Now that I think of it, I am not the only one to protest Your call to lead. Moses told You that Aaron was a better speaker, a better leader than himself. But Moses was wrong. David did not look like much of a king for Judah, prompting the prophet Samuel to remark that "Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart!" Elijah was so exhausted with leadership, that he asked You to kill him; but You did not answer that prayer. Jeremiah was so astonished at Your call that he tried to get out of it on the basis of his youth and inexperience. You responded by filling his mouth with Your words until Your message burned like a pent up fire in his bones. I guess we humans don’t have a very good track record of arguing with You when You call us to lead, do we?
I’ll make a deal with You. I will answer Your call if You will make me a promise. You have to promise to go with me. You have to promise to fill my mouth with Your words. You have to promise to perform miracles to help me to lead. You have to promise to go with me, to defend me, to fight my battles for me, and to be my Companion!
So, You can do that? Thanks, God. I feel like You are calling me to go out on a limb. Don’t cut it off behind me! Don’t fail me! I trust You that whom You call You will enable and empower to perform Your appointed task.
In the Name of the Sovereign God of the Universe,
Amen.
Are You sure, God? Certainly You missed this one! Me? A leader?
Leaders are people like Moses, Joshua, David, Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, and Jeremiah. Leaders are people like Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and the Apostle Paul. Leaders! Do You get it? Not me! I am not like them!
I don’t want that kind of responsibility. I don’t want that kind of danger. I don’t want that kind of risk! I’ve watched Survivor! The leaders are the first ones voted off the island! Let me hide in the background. Let me coast a bit. I can keep a low profile. I can just hang out. I don’t have to lead! Surely, You don’t have to ask that much of me!
So, You’re Sovereign? What’s that mean?
You say You know best. You say that whom You call You equip. You say that You have called me to lead. Me? You have to be kidding! You missed this one, God. You have this decision all wrong. You have me confused with someone else! Surely, You are not calling me to be a leader!
Now that I think of it, I am not the only one to protest Your call to lead. Moses told You that Aaron was a better speaker, a better leader than himself. But Moses was wrong. David did not look like much of a king for Judah, prompting the prophet Samuel to remark that "Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart!" Elijah was so exhausted with leadership, that he asked You to kill him; but You did not answer that prayer. Jeremiah was so astonished at Your call that he tried to get out of it on the basis of his youth and inexperience. You responded by filling his mouth with Your words until Your message burned like a pent up fire in his bones. I guess we humans don’t have a very good track record of arguing with You when You call us to lead, do we?
I’ll make a deal with You. I will answer Your call if You will make me a promise. You have to promise to go with me. You have to promise to fill my mouth with Your words. You have to promise to perform miracles to help me to lead. You have to promise to go with me, to defend me, to fight my battles for me, and to be my Companion!
So, You can do that? Thanks, God. I feel like You are calling me to go out on a limb. Don’t cut it off behind me! Don’t fail me! I trust You that whom You call You will enable and empower to perform Your appointed task.
In the Name of the Sovereign God of the Universe,
Amen.
Friday, January 9, 2015
WHY I BELIEVE IN WESLEY BIBLICAL SEMINARY--Dr. John Neihof's Installation Message as President of WBS
October 7, 2013
Friends, Trustees, administration, faculty, staff, students, alumni, President Emeritus Spann, Mom and Dad, Beth, thank you for coming to Wesley Biblical Seminary for this convocation and installation service.
My life direction has taken a radical turn in the last few weeks and months. As God began to draw my wife, Beth, and me toward Wesley Biblical Seminary, I began to ask myself the question, "Why do I believe in WBS?" I want to share with you some of my Rationale, the Mission of WBS, our Team philosophy, and our Vision, in an effort to help you understand why I believe in WBS.
RATIONALE
Many people have asked, "Why did you come to Wesley Biblical Seminary?"
I did not come to WBS because I had nothing better to do. God has allowed Beth and me to have a twenty-three year fulfilling life and ministry at Kentucky Mountain Bible College . We raised our children there. Throughout those years, I was a full-time volunteer, as were each of us who worked at KMBC. I taught communications and served in two Vice Presidential positions. Beth was a school library media specialist in the Jackson school system. She supported my habit.
Over the past 6 years, God was blessing our lives with a growing evangelistic ministry holding revivals, conferences, and church camps across the Wesleyan-holiness movement. I was enjoying the open doors for ministry and the favor God seemed to be granting me. Beth had one more year as a public school library media specialist before she could retire with full benefits. It seemed like 2014 would be the year she would retire. We were neighbors to my parents, living only two tenths of a mile from them. I knew how to do my job. We had met most of the challenges of life successfully. We were comfortable. Too comfortable.
On December 9th of 2012, God disturbed our comfort. My life-long friend, David Mercer, went to heaven. David and I have been friends since we were 13 and 14 years old. I taught him how to sing bass in chapel at Mount Carmel High School. We sang in a gospel quartet together when we were 16, 17, 18 years old. David, his wife Renee, Beth, and I, graduated from Mount Carmel High School and Kentucky Mountain Bible College together on the same days. Last year, David died at age 51 from a heart attack while on a missions trip in Nicaragua.
Over the next four months, God turned my life upside down. He clearly showed me that I could no longer stay where I was comfortable and simultaneously maximize the limited time of my life in light of eternity. At the encouragement of Dr. Joe Brown, I began praying, "Lord Jesus, where do you need me?" Beth and I sensed a sort of Abrahamic call away from everything we knew into a great unknown. Over four months of praying and seeking God’s direction, then Wesley Biblical Seminary blipped across our radar. God consumed me with WBS. When I tried to escape WBS because the task looming before us looked too large, the Holy Spirit spoke a Divine imperative to my soul, "Go!"
In recent months, I have asked myself, "Why do I believe in Wesley Biblical Seminary?" I thought back through the years and remembered the influence of people like Dr. Harold Spann and Dr. Eldon Fuhrman. I remember when Dr. Spann preached my home camp meeting at Mount Carmel in Jackson, Kentucky. It was 1969. I was 8 years old. I remember when he recruited Beth and me to Asbury College in 1982. He then raised the scholarship money for us! When Beth and I graduated from Asbury, Dr. Spann graduated to Wesley Biblical Seminary. His presidency helped to shape this institution!
"Why do I believe in Wesley Biblical Seminary?"
I thought of Dr. Eldon Fuhrman and his wife Blanche Perry Fuhrman. Miss Blanche, a mountain girl from Eastern Kentucky, was a student at Kentucky Mountain Bible Institute in 1939 when it was washed away in a flash flood. Blanche was miraculously spared a certain death. I grew up on the banks of the North Fork of Kentucky River and the Frozen Creek that nearly took her life.
"Why do I believe in Wesley Biblical Seminary?"
I thought of my own father who received an honorary doctorate from WBS in 1993. My dad, Dr. J. Eldon Neihof, Sr., led the Kentucky Mountain Holiness Association for 22 years.
These people shaped me. They shaped the same tradition that birthed Wesley Biblical Seminary. They shaped Wesley Biblical Seminary. Now, I am called of God to shape this great institution and advance its mission for His glory.
"Why do I believe in Wesley Biblical Seminary?" As I ask myself this question, I remember the many students that I have taught at Kentucky Mountain Bible College. I remember conversations when I encouraged Eric, Doug, Brian, Jerome, David, Jim, Daniel, Rob, Aaron, Nathan, and others to advance their education at WBS. Many have. The partnership investment of Kentucky Mountain Bible College and Wesley Biblical Seminary into men and women’s lives is a powerful one, shaping them to be mighty for God and His Kingdom building work.
MISSION
I believe in Wesley Biblical Seminary because of its mission. Wesley Biblical Seminary exists to advance Christ’s Kingdom through the Church and make disciples of Jesus by offering life-transforming theological education producing Spirit-filled, shepherd-theologians and leaders for the 21st century, who demonstrate an unwavering commitment to Trinitarian faith, Christ-centered holiness, Biblical authority, and personal accountability.
The mission of Wesley Biblical Seminary is one that is being fulfilled around the world in the lives of our alumni and people they touch. I believe in WBS because of the alumni and friends who insist upon its importance in our world today.
Repeatedly, our alumni tell me, "Wesley Biblical Seminary changed my life!" Nathan Doyle, pastor in Boardman, Ohio told me in July, "Wesley Biblical Seminary changed my life!" Rob Pocai, alumnus, church planter, pastor, and now administrator at WBS, told me, "Wesley Biblical Seminary changed my life!"
Across recent months, WBS alumni have repeatedly told me, "We need Wesley Biblical Seminary!" My friend and WBS alumnus, Reuben Lang’at, uttered urgent words to me in May of this year, as WBS future appeared to be on the ropes, "Brother John, we need WBS!"
My president at KMBC, WBS alumnus Philip Speas’ words to me as I was leaving KMBC were, "We need WBS."
Alumni like Karl Luman, Bruce Moyer, Becky Luman, Nathan Doyle, Rob Pocai, Samuel Bolen, Bubba Humphries, John Moyer, Steve Bagby, Peter Lanigan, Michele Tipton, Randy Huff, and many more have said it to me until it rings in my ears and reverberates in my soul, "John, we need WBS!"
My academic dean at KMBC, Rev. Tom Lorimer, spoke these words to me as I was leaving KMBC, "We need WBS."
My father, Dr. Eldon Neihof’s words to me as I was leaving him and mom and the beautiful hills of East Kentucky, were, "We need WBS!"
My mother’s words to me were the words of Mordecai to Esther that God gave mother for my life as she was expecting me in 1960 and 1961: "Who knows but that thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this!"
Friends, I am no Messiah and I am no martyr. I am no Savior and no hero. I am merely a servant of Jesus Christ who is abandoned to the Christ of the Cross, and the resounding, Divine imperative in my soul is that Jesus needs Wesley Biblical Seminary. I believe in WBS because of its mission.
TEAM
I am amazed at the quality of people with which God has blessed Wesley Biblical Seminary. Gary Cockerill is in his 34th year at WBS. He was granted professor emeritus status at the 2013 commencement ceremonies, only to return as professor and Vice President for Academic affairs this year. Rev. Rob Pocai was the first person I called after my initial informal conversation with Jim Howard and a few trustees on May 4th. Rob is a KMBC and WBS alumnus, and serves as our Vice President for Enrollment and Student Services. Ralph Brown joined our team as Vice President of Business Affairs, leaving a successful career in banking. In February of this year, Ralph sensed the Abrahamic call to leave the comfortable behind and invest in Kingdom business. Johnny Gainey has enjoyed significant success in business and development. He joined the WBS this year as Vice President of Development. In many ways this team is a Dream Team! But we are also a rookie team, and rookie teams will make errors on the field. Indulge us! Give the team permission to drop some balls and make some errors, praying all the while that God will empower us to win the game, for His Glory!
As I beg your indulgence for a rookie team, I implore your patience with a rookie leader. I have spent my career in the second and third chair. Now, I am thrust into a role of greater visibility and responsibility. Although Biblical Higher Education is my world, I am a communicator, not a theologian. Dr. Steve Blakemore makes this caveat, "However, John can think theologically." I guarantee that I will gloss over some of the theological nuances that some of you have built careers upon! Please indulge me. I will make mistakes, please allow me permission to fail. But I promise you that all glory for each success will be given to the risen Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
Although the administrative team features some rookies, our classrooms do not. Seasoned veterans, for whom Wesley Biblical Seminary is their legacy, grace our lecterns. Our faculty are the crown jewel of WBS. My son-in-law, Peter Lanigan, WBS class of 2013, informed me of his desire to attend WBS 5 or 6 years ago. From 2007 to 2010, Peter and Katie lived in Nicholasville and Wilmore, Kentucky. I asked Peter, "Why don’t you go to that OTHER school in Wilmore?" He responded, "Because I want to be mentored by the professors at WBS." Each of our full-time faculty has spent double digit years of service at Wesley Biblical Seminary. We honor the excellence that they bring to Biblical and theological graduate education.
Team, having honored the quality of the incredible team God has assembled, I remind you, we are not at Wesley Biblical Seminary because any of us needs credit or recognition, but we are at WBS because Jesus needs glory. If we refuse to touch any glory for any success that WBS enjoys, Jesus will inhabit and bless this place. All glory must be given as an act of worship to the ONE who deserves it, our miracle-working Triune God. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are engaging in the miraculous on behalf of the mission of Wesley Biblical Seminary, as we seek to advance Jesus Christ’s Great Commission for His Church, the Body of Christ, until He comes again!
I believe in WBS because of its team.
VISION
The mission of WBS is bigger than the trustees, the administration, the faculty, and the staff put together. It is bigger than our students and alumni. The mission of Wesley Biblical Seminary is bigger than Jackson. It is bigger than Mississippi. It is bigger than the South. Our mission is bigger than the United States of America. The mission of Wesley Biblical Seminary is global in scope and eternal in its consequence.
The VISION for Wesley Biblical Seminary is this! Jesus needs to be glorified through Wesley Biblical Seminary’s rebirth, its mission, and our fulfillment of His Great Commission. Jesus needs Wesley Biblical Seminary.
Our broken, sin-cursed world needs Wesley Biblical Seminary. Bishop Robert Lang’at is a Wesley Biblical Seminary alumnus. Bishop Lang’at is bringing Jesus to Kenya through the ministry of Africa Gospel Church, and Dr. Friedeman and I shall join AGC and Bishop Lang’at in that endeavor in December. Ghuna Kumar is a WBS alumnus. Ghuna, the 21st century Saint Paul of India, is bringing Jesus to his homeland. Matt Ayers is a Wesley Biblical Seminary alumnus. Matt is the President of Emmaus Bible College in Haiti. Matt and his WBS educated administrative team of Haitian leaders are bringing Jesus to Haiti.
Our nation needs Wesley Biblical Seminary. Bryan Graham is a WBS alumnus. He is building the church of Jesus Christ in Shiloh, Ohio. Jeff Wolheater is a WBS alumnus. He is building the church of Jesus Christ in Indiana. Jerome VanKuiken is a WBS alumnus. He is preparing the next generation of Christian leaders at Oklahoma Wesleyan University. Marshall Daigre is a WBS alumnus. He is planting a church in Alabama.
Mississippi needs Wesley Biblical Seminary. Tim Burnett is a WBS alumnus. He is bringing Jesus to broken people in Byrum. Dr. Jesse Kelly is a WBS alumnus. He is bringing Jesus to broken people in Mississippi’s prison system. Dr. Becky Luman is an alumnus. She is bringing Jesus to families broken and separated because of sin, crimes, convictions, and incarceration. Numerous church groups of the Wesleyan heritage across our state are looking to WBS to prepare their next generation of pastors, theologians, and leaders. The African Methodist Episcopal Church, the AME Zion, the Church of Christ Holiness, the Church of God in Christ, the Association of Independent Methodists, the Congregational Methodists, the Methodist Protestants, the Church of the Nazarene, the United Methodist Church, and beyond, are looking to Wesley Biblical Seminary.
Jackson, Mississippi needs Wesley Biblical Seminary. Matt Neumann is a WBS alumnus. He is bringing Jesus to broken people in Pearl and Brandon. Emily Smith is one of our current students. Emily is bringing Jesus to Japanese people living in the Jackson area. Matt Friedeman is one of our professors. He is bringing people to Jesus through an ambitious program of personal discipleship, soul-winning, prison ministry, and pro-life endeavors. One WBS Trustee has repeatedly complimented Matt for the boldness and courage for Christ that he models and instills in our students. Carey Vinzant is a WBS alumnus and part-time professor. Carey brings Jesus to agnostics and atheists who are often on the fringes of the culture, people who are constructing meaning upon emptiness and brokenness.
Vision! Why do we need WBS? We need Wesley Biblical Seminary because Jesus needs Wesley Biblical Seminary! Wesley Biblical Seminary exists to advance Christ’s Kingdom through the Church and make disciples of Jesus by offering life-transforming theological education producing Spirit-filled, shepherd-theologians and leaders for the 21st century, who demonstrate an unwavering commitment to Trinitarian faith, Christ-centered holiness, Biblical authority, and personal accountability.
We need Wesley Biblical Seminary because of the souls whom we serve. WBS serves the world. Our alumni are in 52 countries, fulfilling Christ’s Great Commission. WBS serves the African-American church in Mississippi. WBS serves the broader Wesleyan-Holiness movement. WBS serves Christ and His Kingdom. We need Wesley Biblical Seminary!
One of the greatest temptations our historically Wesleyan-holiness institutions face is the temptation to loose ourselves from our historical and theological moorings in the quest for respectability. If WBS drifts, we will start with softening our position on a clear second crisis of entire sanctification, subsequent to regeneration. Such a drift would minimize the importance of a process of growth in grace culminating in a clear crisis of death to self and the baptism of the Holy Spirit, followed by further growth in grace along with fresh and frequent infillings of the Spirit. Such a drift would abandon the insistence for the crisis of entire sanctification, and in its place substitute a process.
Drift.
Vision.
In order to have a vision forward, Wesley Biblical Seminary must have a clear vision of its past, its history, its distinctives, and the reasons for which God raised us up. We must understand why we have a right to exist. Our right to exist is founded upon the distinctives that birthed us. We are a Wesleyan-holiness seminary that believes in the inerrant and authoritative Word of God, the Holy Bible. If, in a misplaced quest for respectability and recognition, WBS drifts toward the mainstream of evangelical protestantism, and seeks to become a generic evangelical institution, we lose our right to exist. There are other seminaries that can do generic evangelical protestant theological education better than WBS. But if we remember who we are and we seek fulfill our mission under Christ, WBS can be great for the glory of God!
CONCLUSION
Mission, team, and vision. That’s why I believe in Wesley Biblical Seminary!
Wesley Biblical Seminary exists to advance Christ’s Kingdom through the Church and make disciples of Jesus by offering life-transforming theological education producing Spirit-filled, shepherd-theologians and leaders for the 21st century, who demonstrate an unwavering commitment to Trinitarian faith, Christ-centered holiness, Biblical authority, and personal accountability.
I believe that Wesley Biblical Seminary is poised to be the premiere Wesleyan Holiness institution in the world to advance the message of scriptural holiness as founded upon the inerrant and authoritative Word of God, the Holy Bible. Why? So that WBS can advance its own name for its own sake? God forbid! Any favor, any measure of success, any preeminence that God allows WBS to achieve must always be for the Glory of God, the advancement of Christ’s Kingdom, and the spread of scriptural holiness!
Friends, Trustees, administration, faculty, staff, students, alumni, President Emeritus Spann, Mom and Dad, Beth, thank you for coming to Wesley Biblical Seminary for this convocation and installation service.
My life direction has taken a radical turn in the last few weeks and months. As God began to draw my wife, Beth, and me toward Wesley Biblical Seminary, I began to ask myself the question, "Why do I believe in WBS?" I want to share with you some of my Rationale, the Mission of WBS, our Team philosophy, and our Vision, in an effort to help you understand why I believe in WBS.
RATIONALE
Many people have asked, "Why did you come to Wesley Biblical Seminary?"
I did not come to WBS because I had nothing better to do. God has allowed Beth and me to have a twenty-three year fulfilling life and ministry at Kentucky Mountain Bible College . We raised our children there. Throughout those years, I was a full-time volunteer, as were each of us who worked at KMBC. I taught communications and served in two Vice Presidential positions. Beth was a school library media specialist in the Jackson school system. She supported my habit.
Over the past 6 years, God was blessing our lives with a growing evangelistic ministry holding revivals, conferences, and church camps across the Wesleyan-holiness movement. I was enjoying the open doors for ministry and the favor God seemed to be granting me. Beth had one more year as a public school library media specialist before she could retire with full benefits. It seemed like 2014 would be the year she would retire. We were neighbors to my parents, living only two tenths of a mile from them. I knew how to do my job. We had met most of the challenges of life successfully. We were comfortable. Too comfortable.
On December 9th of 2012, God disturbed our comfort. My life-long friend, David Mercer, went to heaven. David and I have been friends since we were 13 and 14 years old. I taught him how to sing bass in chapel at Mount Carmel High School. We sang in a gospel quartet together when we were 16, 17, 18 years old. David, his wife Renee, Beth, and I, graduated from Mount Carmel High School and Kentucky Mountain Bible College together on the same days. Last year, David died at age 51 from a heart attack while on a missions trip in Nicaragua.
Over the next four months, God turned my life upside down. He clearly showed me that I could no longer stay where I was comfortable and simultaneously maximize the limited time of my life in light of eternity. At the encouragement of Dr. Joe Brown, I began praying, "Lord Jesus, where do you need me?" Beth and I sensed a sort of Abrahamic call away from everything we knew into a great unknown. Over four months of praying and seeking God’s direction, then Wesley Biblical Seminary blipped across our radar. God consumed me with WBS. When I tried to escape WBS because the task looming before us looked too large, the Holy Spirit spoke a Divine imperative to my soul, "Go!"
In recent months, I have asked myself, "Why do I believe in Wesley Biblical Seminary?" I thought back through the years and remembered the influence of people like Dr. Harold Spann and Dr. Eldon Fuhrman. I remember when Dr. Spann preached my home camp meeting at Mount Carmel in Jackson, Kentucky. It was 1969. I was 8 years old. I remember when he recruited Beth and me to Asbury College in 1982. He then raised the scholarship money for us! When Beth and I graduated from Asbury, Dr. Spann graduated to Wesley Biblical Seminary. His presidency helped to shape this institution!
"Why do I believe in Wesley Biblical Seminary?"
I thought of Dr. Eldon Fuhrman and his wife Blanche Perry Fuhrman. Miss Blanche, a mountain girl from Eastern Kentucky, was a student at Kentucky Mountain Bible Institute in 1939 when it was washed away in a flash flood. Blanche was miraculously spared a certain death. I grew up on the banks of the North Fork of Kentucky River and the Frozen Creek that nearly took her life.
"Why do I believe in Wesley Biblical Seminary?"
I thought of my own father who received an honorary doctorate from WBS in 1993. My dad, Dr. J. Eldon Neihof, Sr., led the Kentucky Mountain Holiness Association for 22 years.
These people shaped me. They shaped the same tradition that birthed Wesley Biblical Seminary. They shaped Wesley Biblical Seminary. Now, I am called of God to shape this great institution and advance its mission for His glory.
"Why do I believe in Wesley Biblical Seminary?" As I ask myself this question, I remember the many students that I have taught at Kentucky Mountain Bible College. I remember conversations when I encouraged Eric, Doug, Brian, Jerome, David, Jim, Daniel, Rob, Aaron, Nathan, and others to advance their education at WBS. Many have. The partnership investment of Kentucky Mountain Bible College and Wesley Biblical Seminary into men and women’s lives is a powerful one, shaping them to be mighty for God and His Kingdom building work.
MISSION
I believe in Wesley Biblical Seminary because of its mission. Wesley Biblical Seminary exists to advance Christ’s Kingdom through the Church and make disciples of Jesus by offering life-transforming theological education producing Spirit-filled, shepherd-theologians and leaders for the 21st century, who demonstrate an unwavering commitment to Trinitarian faith, Christ-centered holiness, Biblical authority, and personal accountability.
The mission of Wesley Biblical Seminary is one that is being fulfilled around the world in the lives of our alumni and people they touch. I believe in WBS because of the alumni and friends who insist upon its importance in our world today.
Repeatedly, our alumni tell me, "Wesley Biblical Seminary changed my life!" Nathan Doyle, pastor in Boardman, Ohio told me in July, "Wesley Biblical Seminary changed my life!" Rob Pocai, alumnus, church planter, pastor, and now administrator at WBS, told me, "Wesley Biblical Seminary changed my life!"
Across recent months, WBS alumni have repeatedly told me, "We need Wesley Biblical Seminary!" My friend and WBS alumnus, Reuben Lang’at, uttered urgent words to me in May of this year, as WBS future appeared to be on the ropes, "Brother John, we need WBS!"
My president at KMBC, WBS alumnus Philip Speas’ words to me as I was leaving KMBC were, "We need WBS."
Alumni like Karl Luman, Bruce Moyer, Becky Luman, Nathan Doyle, Rob Pocai, Samuel Bolen, Bubba Humphries, John Moyer, Steve Bagby, Peter Lanigan, Michele Tipton, Randy Huff, and many more have said it to me until it rings in my ears and reverberates in my soul, "John, we need WBS!"
My academic dean at KMBC, Rev. Tom Lorimer, spoke these words to me as I was leaving KMBC, "We need WBS."
My father, Dr. Eldon Neihof’s words to me as I was leaving him and mom and the beautiful hills of East Kentucky, were, "We need WBS!"
My mother’s words to me were the words of Mordecai to Esther that God gave mother for my life as she was expecting me in 1960 and 1961: "Who knows but that thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this!"
Friends, I am no Messiah and I am no martyr. I am no Savior and no hero. I am merely a servant of Jesus Christ who is abandoned to the Christ of the Cross, and the resounding, Divine imperative in my soul is that Jesus needs Wesley Biblical Seminary. I believe in WBS because of its mission.
TEAM
I am amazed at the quality of people with which God has blessed Wesley Biblical Seminary. Gary Cockerill is in his 34th year at WBS. He was granted professor emeritus status at the 2013 commencement ceremonies, only to return as professor and Vice President for Academic affairs this year. Rev. Rob Pocai was the first person I called after my initial informal conversation with Jim Howard and a few trustees on May 4th. Rob is a KMBC and WBS alumnus, and serves as our Vice President for Enrollment and Student Services. Ralph Brown joined our team as Vice President of Business Affairs, leaving a successful career in banking. In February of this year, Ralph sensed the Abrahamic call to leave the comfortable behind and invest in Kingdom business. Johnny Gainey has enjoyed significant success in business and development. He joined the WBS this year as Vice President of Development. In many ways this team is a Dream Team! But we are also a rookie team, and rookie teams will make errors on the field. Indulge us! Give the team permission to drop some balls and make some errors, praying all the while that God will empower us to win the game, for His Glory!
As I beg your indulgence for a rookie team, I implore your patience with a rookie leader. I have spent my career in the second and third chair. Now, I am thrust into a role of greater visibility and responsibility. Although Biblical Higher Education is my world, I am a communicator, not a theologian. Dr. Steve Blakemore makes this caveat, "However, John can think theologically." I guarantee that I will gloss over some of the theological nuances that some of you have built careers upon! Please indulge me. I will make mistakes, please allow me permission to fail. But I promise you that all glory for each success will be given to the risen Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
Although the administrative team features some rookies, our classrooms do not. Seasoned veterans, for whom Wesley Biblical Seminary is their legacy, grace our lecterns. Our faculty are the crown jewel of WBS. My son-in-law, Peter Lanigan, WBS class of 2013, informed me of his desire to attend WBS 5 or 6 years ago. From 2007 to 2010, Peter and Katie lived in Nicholasville and Wilmore, Kentucky. I asked Peter, "Why don’t you go to that OTHER school in Wilmore?" He responded, "Because I want to be mentored by the professors at WBS." Each of our full-time faculty has spent double digit years of service at Wesley Biblical Seminary. We honor the excellence that they bring to Biblical and theological graduate education.
Team, having honored the quality of the incredible team God has assembled, I remind you, we are not at Wesley Biblical Seminary because any of us needs credit or recognition, but we are at WBS because Jesus needs glory. If we refuse to touch any glory for any success that WBS enjoys, Jesus will inhabit and bless this place. All glory must be given as an act of worship to the ONE who deserves it, our miracle-working Triune God. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are engaging in the miraculous on behalf of the mission of Wesley Biblical Seminary, as we seek to advance Jesus Christ’s Great Commission for His Church, the Body of Christ, until He comes again!
I believe in WBS because of its team.
VISION
The mission of WBS is bigger than the trustees, the administration, the faculty, and the staff put together. It is bigger than our students and alumni. The mission of Wesley Biblical Seminary is bigger than Jackson. It is bigger than Mississippi. It is bigger than the South. Our mission is bigger than the United States of America. The mission of Wesley Biblical Seminary is global in scope and eternal in its consequence.
The VISION for Wesley Biblical Seminary is this! Jesus needs to be glorified through Wesley Biblical Seminary’s rebirth, its mission, and our fulfillment of His Great Commission. Jesus needs Wesley Biblical Seminary.
Our broken, sin-cursed world needs Wesley Biblical Seminary. Bishop Robert Lang’at is a Wesley Biblical Seminary alumnus. Bishop Lang’at is bringing Jesus to Kenya through the ministry of Africa Gospel Church, and Dr. Friedeman and I shall join AGC and Bishop Lang’at in that endeavor in December. Ghuna Kumar is a WBS alumnus. Ghuna, the 21st century Saint Paul of India, is bringing Jesus to his homeland. Matt Ayers is a Wesley Biblical Seminary alumnus. Matt is the President of Emmaus Bible College in Haiti. Matt and his WBS educated administrative team of Haitian leaders are bringing Jesus to Haiti.
Our nation needs Wesley Biblical Seminary. Bryan Graham is a WBS alumnus. He is building the church of Jesus Christ in Shiloh, Ohio. Jeff Wolheater is a WBS alumnus. He is building the church of Jesus Christ in Indiana. Jerome VanKuiken is a WBS alumnus. He is preparing the next generation of Christian leaders at Oklahoma Wesleyan University. Marshall Daigre is a WBS alumnus. He is planting a church in Alabama.
Mississippi needs Wesley Biblical Seminary. Tim Burnett is a WBS alumnus. He is bringing Jesus to broken people in Byrum. Dr. Jesse Kelly is a WBS alumnus. He is bringing Jesus to broken people in Mississippi’s prison system. Dr. Becky Luman is an alumnus. She is bringing Jesus to families broken and separated because of sin, crimes, convictions, and incarceration. Numerous church groups of the Wesleyan heritage across our state are looking to WBS to prepare their next generation of pastors, theologians, and leaders. The African Methodist Episcopal Church, the AME Zion, the Church of Christ Holiness, the Church of God in Christ, the Association of Independent Methodists, the Congregational Methodists, the Methodist Protestants, the Church of the Nazarene, the United Methodist Church, and beyond, are looking to Wesley Biblical Seminary.
Jackson, Mississippi needs Wesley Biblical Seminary. Matt Neumann is a WBS alumnus. He is bringing Jesus to broken people in Pearl and Brandon. Emily Smith is one of our current students. Emily is bringing Jesus to Japanese people living in the Jackson area. Matt Friedeman is one of our professors. He is bringing people to Jesus through an ambitious program of personal discipleship, soul-winning, prison ministry, and pro-life endeavors. One WBS Trustee has repeatedly complimented Matt for the boldness and courage for Christ that he models and instills in our students. Carey Vinzant is a WBS alumnus and part-time professor. Carey brings Jesus to agnostics and atheists who are often on the fringes of the culture, people who are constructing meaning upon emptiness and brokenness.
Vision! Why do we need WBS? We need Wesley Biblical Seminary because Jesus needs Wesley Biblical Seminary! Wesley Biblical Seminary exists to advance Christ’s Kingdom through the Church and make disciples of Jesus by offering life-transforming theological education producing Spirit-filled, shepherd-theologians and leaders for the 21st century, who demonstrate an unwavering commitment to Trinitarian faith, Christ-centered holiness, Biblical authority, and personal accountability.
We need Wesley Biblical Seminary because of the souls whom we serve. WBS serves the world. Our alumni are in 52 countries, fulfilling Christ’s Great Commission. WBS serves the African-American church in Mississippi. WBS serves the broader Wesleyan-Holiness movement. WBS serves Christ and His Kingdom. We need Wesley Biblical Seminary!
One of the greatest temptations our historically Wesleyan-holiness institutions face is the temptation to loose ourselves from our historical and theological moorings in the quest for respectability. If WBS drifts, we will start with softening our position on a clear second crisis of entire sanctification, subsequent to regeneration. Such a drift would minimize the importance of a process of growth in grace culminating in a clear crisis of death to self and the baptism of the Holy Spirit, followed by further growth in grace along with fresh and frequent infillings of the Spirit. Such a drift would abandon the insistence for the crisis of entire sanctification, and in its place substitute a process.
Drift.
Vision.
In order to have a vision forward, Wesley Biblical Seminary must have a clear vision of its past, its history, its distinctives, and the reasons for which God raised us up. We must understand why we have a right to exist. Our right to exist is founded upon the distinctives that birthed us. We are a Wesleyan-holiness seminary that believes in the inerrant and authoritative Word of God, the Holy Bible. If, in a misplaced quest for respectability and recognition, WBS drifts toward the mainstream of evangelical protestantism, and seeks to become a generic evangelical institution, we lose our right to exist. There are other seminaries that can do generic evangelical protestant theological education better than WBS. But if we remember who we are and we seek fulfill our mission under Christ, WBS can be great for the glory of God!
CONCLUSION
Mission, team, and vision. That’s why I believe in Wesley Biblical Seminary!
Wesley Biblical Seminary exists to advance Christ’s Kingdom through the Church and make disciples of Jesus by offering life-transforming theological education producing Spirit-filled, shepherd-theologians and leaders for the 21st century, who demonstrate an unwavering commitment to Trinitarian faith, Christ-centered holiness, Biblical authority, and personal accountability.
I believe that Wesley Biblical Seminary is poised to be the premiere Wesleyan Holiness institution in the world to advance the message of scriptural holiness as founded upon the inerrant and authoritative Word of God, the Holy Bible. Why? So that WBS can advance its own name for its own sake? God forbid! Any favor, any measure of success, any preeminence that God allows WBS to achieve must always be for the Glory of God, the advancement of Christ’s Kingdom, and the spread of scriptural holiness!
Thursday, January 8, 2015
Seeking God's Direction
I wrote this personal essay/testimony on April 17, 2013. I sensed God drawing me toward Wesley Biblical Seminary about two weeks later. Perhaps my testimony will help you discern God's direction for your life.
I am prayerfully seeking God’s direction for the next step of obedience in my life. For some time, I have had a growing awareness and sense that God has another avenue of ministry and service for me that will allow me to make a stronger, deeper, and wider impact for Christ and for eternity in the last 15-20 years of my ministry. This awareness has been clarified since the death of my friend, Pastor David Mercer, December 9, 2012.
I found myself at Hillside Wesleyan Church, Port Huron, Michigan, watching as hundreds of people passed David’s casket. I stood among 1500 mourners at his homegoing service. I grieved with them. I found myself praying, "Lord Jesus, help me to maximize the impact of my life for your glory in the closing years of work and ministry."
The Lord has allowed me a breadth of experience that I believe he wants to draw upon. My passion is preaching holiness. I love pulpit ministry and evangelism. I also have skills and a wealth of experience in working with people, administration, counseling, accreditation, planning and assessment, development, fund-raising, public relations, and teaching. I have written countless policies, procedures, assessment documents, and evaluations. God has gifted me to see through complex situations rather quickly and reach some kind of evaluative assessment, and construct or direct others in creating a path forward. People respond to my leadership. I enjoy bringing people together to find solutions and accomplish tasks.
Beth and I have raised our children. Nathan and Melissa are happily married and in ministry together at Hillside Wesleyan Church, Port Huron, Michigan. Katie and Peter are enjoying raising a young family and pastoring a small congregation in Monticello, Mississippi. Beth can retire with full benefits in August, 2014, but have a flexible timetable. I am ready, willing, and able to mind God and do whatever I can to advance His Kingdom. My precious wife is my helpmate and friend. She supports whatever direction God has for us as we are seeking His leadership.
My life and ministry at Kentucky Mountain Bible College has been full and rewarding. We have invested in eternity, and do not want to stop doing so. I have lived without a living wage salary, living by faith in God and faith in Beth to provide for our material needs. God has done so abundantly. We have blessings that rich folks cannot afford, for which we are thankful; however, we hold all the material resources loosely and seek to use them to advance Christ’s Kingdom. But in these latter years of work and ministry, I would like an opportunity to work in a capacity that I can be a good provider for my wife. I feel as if it is my turn. I have been a full-time volunteer at KMBC for 21 years, starting here fresh out of Graduate School. To do so, I have nearly taken a vow of poverty, although God has seen to it that our family has never done without necessities, often providing extra blessings! Our cabin in the woods, good cars, lovely home furnishings, retirement accounts... all have come as a blessing from HIM! We are blessed. I praise the Lord for His provision! I will continue to praise Him with investing of my time, talent, and treasure in Kingdom building!
I am seeking God’s direction. John Wesley’s Covenant Prayer speaks profoundly to me.
I think that I can pray most of Wesley’s prayer sincerely. I stumble over being "laid aside for thee." I do not sense called to being "laid aside" at this season, nor do I relish that thought when the time comes. I have lived the prayer "Let me have all things, let me have nothing." I consider a major life change only because of a deep stirring in my soul, which I believe to be ordered by the Holy Spirit, as best as I understand His leading.
I have enjoyed the years of work at KMBC. I have enjoyed working with Dr. Speas, Mr. Lorimer and my colleagues here. I have been conscious that I am investing in eternity in the lives of our students. I have played a good second and even third fiddle in the orchestra of ministry here. Personal growth opportunities have been many. Dr. Speas has allowed me tremendous latitude of opportunities in ministry with evangelism and accreditation work with ABHE. For that, I am grateful. Now, these years of ministry appear to be coming to a season of completion. I have done my part. I have completed this phase of eternal investment. A sense of fulfillment and release is upon me.
I am looking forward with a sense of hope and anticipation. I believe that God has something fresh, new, challenging, fulfilling, and eternal ahead for Beth and me. I face the unknown future with faith and confidence in God, and wholehearted desire to do His Will. I want the remainder of my effective years of service to be spent maximally for Him. I want to live with maximum eternal impact for Christ. My sense is that God is calling me to some change of service and ministry in order to effect the fulfillment of this God-given desire in my heart.
I will obey. I just don’t know the path. I don’t know if this path is pastoral, a university chaplaincy, evangelism, consultancy, denominational administration, or a mission agency. My passion is to preach holiness and to help people to get established in that grace. I don’t want to pursue this path of change with secular self-promotion. I want to pursue this path of change with trust in God and obedience to His direction. I purpose to seek Him and His direction. I will obey.
I am prayerfully seeking God’s direction for the next step of obedience in my life. For some time, I have had a growing awareness and sense that God has another avenue of ministry and service for me that will allow me to make a stronger, deeper, and wider impact for Christ and for eternity in the last 15-20 years of my ministry. This awareness has been clarified since the death of my friend, Pastor David Mercer, December 9, 2012.
I found myself at Hillside Wesleyan Church, Port Huron, Michigan, watching as hundreds of people passed David’s casket. I stood among 1500 mourners at his homegoing service. I grieved with them. I found myself praying, "Lord Jesus, help me to maximize the impact of my life for your glory in the closing years of work and ministry."
The Lord has allowed me a breadth of experience that I believe he wants to draw upon. My passion is preaching holiness. I love pulpit ministry and evangelism. I also have skills and a wealth of experience in working with people, administration, counseling, accreditation, planning and assessment, development, fund-raising, public relations, and teaching. I have written countless policies, procedures, assessment documents, and evaluations. God has gifted me to see through complex situations rather quickly and reach some kind of evaluative assessment, and construct or direct others in creating a path forward. People respond to my leadership. I enjoy bringing people together to find solutions and accomplish tasks.
Beth and I have raised our children. Nathan and Melissa are happily married and in ministry together at Hillside Wesleyan Church, Port Huron, Michigan. Katie and Peter are enjoying raising a young family and pastoring a small congregation in Monticello, Mississippi. Beth can retire with full benefits in August, 2014, but have a flexible timetable. I am ready, willing, and able to mind God and do whatever I can to advance His Kingdom. My precious wife is my helpmate and friend. She supports whatever direction God has for us as we are seeking His leadership.
My life and ministry at Kentucky Mountain Bible College has been full and rewarding. We have invested in eternity, and do not want to stop doing so. I have lived without a living wage salary, living by faith in God and faith in Beth to provide for our material needs. God has done so abundantly. We have blessings that rich folks cannot afford, for which we are thankful; however, we hold all the material resources loosely and seek to use them to advance Christ’s Kingdom. But in these latter years of work and ministry, I would like an opportunity to work in a capacity that I can be a good provider for my wife. I feel as if it is my turn. I have been a full-time volunteer at KMBC for 21 years, starting here fresh out of Graduate School. To do so, I have nearly taken a vow of poverty, although God has seen to it that our family has never done without necessities, often providing extra blessings! Our cabin in the woods, good cars, lovely home furnishings, retirement accounts... all have come as a blessing from HIM! We are blessed. I praise the Lord for His provision! I will continue to praise Him with investing of my time, talent, and treasure in Kingdom building!
I am seeking God’s direction. John Wesley’s Covenant Prayer speaks profoundly to me.
I am no longer my own, but Thine.
Put me to what Thou wilt, rank me with whom Thou wilt.
Put me to doing, put me to suffering.
Let me be employed for Thee or laid aside for Thee,
exalted for Thee or brought low for Thee.
Let me be full, let me be empty.
Let me have all things, let me have nothing.
I freely and heartily yield all things to Thy pleasure and disposal.
And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
Thou art mine, and I am Thine.
So be it.
And the covenant which I have made on earth,
let it be ratified in heaven.
Amen.
I think that I can pray most of Wesley’s prayer sincerely. I stumble over being "laid aside for thee." I do not sense called to being "laid aside" at this season, nor do I relish that thought when the time comes. I have lived the prayer "Let me have all things, let me have nothing." I consider a major life change only because of a deep stirring in my soul, which I believe to be ordered by the Holy Spirit, as best as I understand His leading.
I have enjoyed the years of work at KMBC. I have enjoyed working with Dr. Speas, Mr. Lorimer and my colleagues here. I have been conscious that I am investing in eternity in the lives of our students. I have played a good second and even third fiddle in the orchestra of ministry here. Personal growth opportunities have been many. Dr. Speas has allowed me tremendous latitude of opportunities in ministry with evangelism and accreditation work with ABHE. For that, I am grateful. Now, these years of ministry appear to be coming to a season of completion. I have done my part. I have completed this phase of eternal investment. A sense of fulfillment and release is upon me.
I am looking forward with a sense of hope and anticipation. I believe that God has something fresh, new, challenging, fulfilling, and eternal ahead for Beth and me. I face the unknown future with faith and confidence in God, and wholehearted desire to do His Will. I want the remainder of my effective years of service to be spent maximally for Him. I want to live with maximum eternal impact for Christ. My sense is that God is calling me to some change of service and ministry in order to effect the fulfillment of this God-given desire in my heart.
I will obey. I just don’t know the path. I don’t know if this path is pastoral, a university chaplaincy, evangelism, consultancy, denominational administration, or a mission agency. My passion is to preach holiness and to help people to get established in that grace. I don’t want to pursue this path of change with secular self-promotion. I want to pursue this path of change with trust in God and obedience to His direction. I purpose to seek Him and His direction. I will obey.
Tuesday, January 6, 2015
Hilma Bouck--A MOTHER IN ISRAEL
We all called her “Aunt Hilma.” I knew “Aunt Hilma” and her husband “Uncle Louie” all of my life. They were my neighbors on the Kentucky Mountain Bible College campus where I grew up.
Aunt Hilma was an incredible, Godly woman. A first impression of Aunt Hilma was that she was warm, yet dignified. A second impression of Aunt Hilma was that her dignity could quickly morph into sternness. But Aunt Hilma had a sense of humor that endeared her to students and campus families alike.
In the classroom, Aunt Hilma became Mrs. Bouck. Her love for the Old Testament, especially the prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah was inspiring. As she read the Scripture, her voice was pregnant with emotion. But Mrs. Bouck’s true specialty was church history. I remember how she would tell the stories of the people, their times, and their lives with a freshness and clarity that fueled my imagination.
Mrs. Bouck had studied the saints through the ages. She knew the passion, purity, and perspectives for which the saints had lived and died. She told the stories of martyrdom with tears in her eyes. And then, this dignified lady whom I considered to be one of the holiest people I knew, shocked her entire church history class.
“I don’t know that I have the grace I need to suffer and die for my Lord Jesus, if circumstances of life demand it! In fact, I know that I don’t have the grace to be a martyr for Christ.”
We sat in classroom desk chairs surrounded by wains-coated walls and high ceilings, fluorescent light fixtures suspended above our heads. I was absolutely astonished! “NO!” my mind screamed. “Not Aunt Hilma! She would never disown Christ!”
Mrs. Bouck was still talking. I tuned back in. She had my attention now. “But if circumstances ever demand that I die for my faith in Jesus Christ, I know that God will give me the grace in the moment of need!”
College chapel services were guaranteed to be a special treat when Aunt Hilma led the service. She often led us in singing the historical hymns of Methodism and the church. Each verse was frequently read before it was sung, assuring that the singers maximized their understanding of its message. New vocabulary was always defined and explained. I learned the lesser known hymns of Charles Wesley, Isaac Watts, and others with all of their many verses because Mrs. Bouck insisted we sing them, usually from an ancient Methodist hymnal.
Aunt Hilma never had a great home with finery. She did not possess fine linens, beautiful china, lovely silver, or even her own children. Aunt Hilma and Uncle Louie had never been able to have children. The story was that they had tried to adopt, but had been denied because of the meager income of their sacrificial, missionary lifestyle.
In spite of their childlessness, Aunt Hilma and Uncle Louie were parents to many. When we campus children celebrated birthdays, we could always count on a birthday card from Aunt Hilma and Uncle Louie. Usually the personalized inscription was written on an enclosed piece of paper, the envelope left tucked rather than stuck, and the option to re-use the card was preserved for the recipient by the thrifty givers.
Aunt Hilma was the Kentucky Mountain Bible College Dean of Women during my season of enrollment. That meant that I had to seek her permission for social privileges–dating the girl of my dreams–whom I later married. That event occasioned an interview and a confrontation with the gracious, dignified, nearly stern Mrs. Bouck, but permission was granted!
Beth and I loved Aunt Hilma. Beth even traveled with her on singing groups for the college. She tells how the moment Aunt Hilma awoke and rolled out of bed, she fell to her knees in prayer! Such holy habits were alarming, yet winsome to young people in their late teens and early twenties. However, Aunt Hilma softened her image dramatically when she blew her straw paper off the straw and across the plastic McDonald’s restaurant table careening off the young singers and into the neighboring booth filled with unknown diners!
When Aunt Hilma turned 80 years old, she professed herself to be an octo-geranium! No longer in the classroom, Aunt Hilma assisted in the library. The library was in transition from an analog system of card catalogs to a digital computerized system. Aunt Hilma volunteered to assist with data entry into the computer. Never having used computers throughout her life, Aunt Hilma soon learned the basic tasks and was proving to be a valuable asset in the monumental data entry project. One day another library staff person was using the terminal Aunt Hilma usually used. "I can't do my work," she exclaimed. "Someone else is using MY computer!"
Toward the end of life, Aunt Hilma was diagnosed with cancer. Surgery only seemed to hasten her decline, but her radiance and warmth never diminished.
Never a parent to birth children, but she was “Aunt Hilma” to countless campus children and college students. She was truly a “mother in Israel” (Judges 5:7).
Aunt Hilma was an incredible, Godly woman. A first impression of Aunt Hilma was that she was warm, yet dignified. A second impression of Aunt Hilma was that her dignity could quickly morph into sternness. But Aunt Hilma had a sense of humor that endeared her to students and campus families alike.
In the classroom, Aunt Hilma became Mrs. Bouck. Her love for the Old Testament, especially the prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah was inspiring. As she read the Scripture, her voice was pregnant with emotion. But Mrs. Bouck’s true specialty was church history. I remember how she would tell the stories of the people, their times, and their lives with a freshness and clarity that fueled my imagination.
Mrs. Bouck had studied the saints through the ages. She knew the passion, purity, and perspectives for which the saints had lived and died. She told the stories of martyrdom with tears in her eyes. And then, this dignified lady whom I considered to be one of the holiest people I knew, shocked her entire church history class.
“I don’t know that I have the grace I need to suffer and die for my Lord Jesus, if circumstances of life demand it! In fact, I know that I don’t have the grace to be a martyr for Christ.”
We sat in classroom desk chairs surrounded by wains-coated walls and high ceilings, fluorescent light fixtures suspended above our heads. I was absolutely astonished! “NO!” my mind screamed. “Not Aunt Hilma! She would never disown Christ!”
Mrs. Bouck was still talking. I tuned back in. She had my attention now. “But if circumstances ever demand that I die for my faith in Jesus Christ, I know that God will give me the grace in the moment of need!”
College chapel services were guaranteed to be a special treat when Aunt Hilma led the service. She often led us in singing the historical hymns of Methodism and the church. Each verse was frequently read before it was sung, assuring that the singers maximized their understanding of its message. New vocabulary was always defined and explained. I learned the lesser known hymns of Charles Wesley, Isaac Watts, and others with all of their many verses because Mrs. Bouck insisted we sing them, usually from an ancient Methodist hymnal.
Aunt Hilma never had a great home with finery. She did not possess fine linens, beautiful china, lovely silver, or even her own children. Aunt Hilma and Uncle Louie had never been able to have children. The story was that they had tried to adopt, but had been denied because of the meager income of their sacrificial, missionary lifestyle.
In spite of their childlessness, Aunt Hilma and Uncle Louie were parents to many. When we campus children celebrated birthdays, we could always count on a birthday card from Aunt Hilma and Uncle Louie. Usually the personalized inscription was written on an enclosed piece of paper, the envelope left tucked rather than stuck, and the option to re-use the card was preserved for the recipient by the thrifty givers.
Aunt Hilma was the Kentucky Mountain Bible College Dean of Women during my season of enrollment. That meant that I had to seek her permission for social privileges–dating the girl of my dreams–whom I later married. That event occasioned an interview and a confrontation with the gracious, dignified, nearly stern Mrs. Bouck, but permission was granted!
Beth and I loved Aunt Hilma. Beth even traveled with her on singing groups for the college. She tells how the moment Aunt Hilma awoke and rolled out of bed, she fell to her knees in prayer! Such holy habits were alarming, yet winsome to young people in their late teens and early twenties. However, Aunt Hilma softened her image dramatically when she blew her straw paper off the straw and across the plastic McDonald’s restaurant table careening off the young singers and into the neighboring booth filled with unknown diners!
When Aunt Hilma turned 80 years old, she professed herself to be an octo-geranium! No longer in the classroom, Aunt Hilma assisted in the library. The library was in transition from an analog system of card catalogs to a digital computerized system. Aunt Hilma volunteered to assist with data entry into the computer. Never having used computers throughout her life, Aunt Hilma soon learned the basic tasks and was proving to be a valuable asset in the monumental data entry project. One day another library staff person was using the terminal Aunt Hilma usually used. "I can't do my work," she exclaimed. "Someone else is using MY computer!"
Toward the end of life, Aunt Hilma was diagnosed with cancer. Surgery only seemed to hasten her decline, but her radiance and warmth never diminished.
Never a parent to birth children, but she was “Aunt Hilma” to countless campus children and college students. She was truly a “mother in Israel” (Judges 5:7).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)