As I take office as the second president of Bethlehem College & Seminary, I wanted to send a short message to all of you, expressing my deep gratitude to God for your prayers and support for the school.
In 2005, I moved here, to Bethlehem Baptist Church. I was newly married, a college graduate with a call to pastoral ministry, and I had been persuaded from the Bible that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him. I moved here because I wanted to see Christian Hedonism on the ground, in the flesh, expressed in the life of a local church so that I could be trained and equipped to spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ.
Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that sixteen years later God would call me to take the helm of this remarkable school. And yet here I am—humbled, grateful, and eager for the work ahead. In the coming weeks, I will be gathering with the senior leadership of the school to prayerfully and strategically chart a course for the coming years. Later in the summer, our faculty and staff, including some tremendous new additions to our team, will gather to pray and plan for the coming academic year.
Our vision is the same as it always has been: to offer a God-centered, Christ-exalting, Bible-saturated Education in Serious Joy. By God’s grace, we hope to continue to improve our Masters of Divinity program, a unique approach to pastoral apprenticeship and theological training in the context of the local church. Our college will continue to teach the Great Books in light of the Greatest Book for the sake of the Great Commission, not only to undergraduates but now to men and women at the graduate level as well. And through our evening programs and extension sites in Rochester, Memphis, Hawaii, and Cameroon, we will continue to spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ.
I’m thrilled for the opportunity to lead this school and to partner with all of you in the great work before us. God has been faithful to Bethlehem College & Seminary since its founding, and we are confident that the Lord will continue his steadfast love toward us, even as we hope in him.