This month, August 2022, I celebrate five years serving at Pentecostal Theological Seminary. After 37 years serving as a local church pastor, 22 years serving in ministerial development, terms of service on the South Georgia Church of God State Council and State Ministries Board, and 12 years on the denominational Division of Education board, I was invited to join the staff and faculty at PTS. I was honored then, and I remain honored to serve the church at PTS as Assistant Professor of Pastoral Ministries and Executive Director of PTS Thrive.
Learning to navigate the rigors of working for a graduate school was like earning another doctoral degree. One of my first assignments at PTS was to write a grant proposal to the Lilly Foundation on the subject of pastoral thriving. I had never attempted such a project and doubted success. Even so, President Dr. Michael Baker encouraged me, and Dr. Oliver McMahan coached me. The Lilly foundation accepted our proposal and awarded PTS a $1 million grant. Over the last four years, PTS Thrive has encouraged and ministered to over one thousand Church of God Pastors across the United States. PTS has been committed to helping our pastors survive and thrive.
Over the last five years, I’ve had the opportunity to work, worship, and pray with the finest scholars in the Pentecostal movement. In fact, PTS Faculty are recognized throughout the world for exemplary service to the Pentecostal movement, local congregations, and the Academy. The PTS faculty remains firmly committed to the verbal inspiration of scripture, the Declaration of Faith of the Church of God, and a Wesleyan/Pentecostal expression of the historic Christian faith. We are committed to the proposal that Pentecostal scholars are men and women whose hearts and minds have been set aflame by the Holy Spirit. We are aware that those who are called to teach the faith incur a stricter judgment (James 3:1). We abide by the exhortation of the apostle Paul:
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
The best judges of the work of PTS are our students, those who have sat in our classes, over a period of two or three years and completed their degree programs. One of my responsibilities at PTS is to conduct an annual graduate assessment. This is a detailed assessment completed by all graduating students in which they assess all facets of the PTS program. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 representing the highest mark, our students consistently grade PTS with a solid “A” across the board. Our students affirm that PTS is faithful to Pentecostal theology and practice, faithful to the integrity of the inspired word of God, and faithful to the mission of the Church of God. 75% of PTS students are credentialed Church of God ministers.
I am painfully aware of the narrative being promoted by some PTS critics that PTS is compromising fidelity to the Word. I am also aware that some of our students do not share this glowing report. The narrative that we are compromising is utterly false. Students who are critics of our mission and practice remain a minority. Even so, we are constantly working harder to make the PTS experience valuable for everyone.
After five years of service at PTS, I remain honored to serve. Furthermore, I look forward to the next five years.
