NTS has started a new school year—a year of promise and possibility for new and returning students and our academic community. Already, students are knee-deep in lectures, assigned readings, and other classroom work.
Since our very beginning, NTS students enroll in seminary not just to fulfill their calling, but to offer God the best version of themselves. In our inaugural class in 1945, only two students came directly from college. The rest were largely experienced pastors and military chaplains who sacrificed and sojourned from across the United States with their spouses and families because they believed that a seminary education would make them even better servants of God.
One of those early students was Norman Oke, a former student body president and a member of NTS’ first full graduating class in 1948. Norman was an experienced pastor and a former district superintendent in Canada. Yet, he interrupted his ministerial career because he believed the benefits of graduate theological education would make a difference in his life, his faith, and his service to God. After graduating, Norman became a denominational leader, the editor of Preacher’s Magazine (1961–1963), and a theological educator for Nazarene Bible College. The imprint left by his seminary education never left him.
A more recent example is Rev. Darin Fowler, an accomplished pastor in his fifties from Fairfield Church of the Nazarene in Cincinnati, Ohio. Last year, Darin decided that a seminary education would enhance his work as a pastor and leader. He is working toward a master’s degree in Transformational Leadership and says the insights already gleaned from his classroom work have directly applied to his role as a pastor and preacher. He added that the close relationships he has formed with fellow students, many who, like Darin, are working in local churches around the country, have contributed to his ministry and to his life. Two months ago, during his district assembly in Ohio, Darin shared with attendees how NTS is impacting his life and his appreciation of the Wesleyan-holiness tradition.
In a recent online chat session with NTS students, Dr. Doug Hardy, Professor of Spiritual Formation, observed that interactions between students and professors over what it means to be followers of Jesus in their various ministry contexts is one of the things students regard most about their seminary experience.
As women and men from this year’s student body come together from across the globe, their experiences and the quality of their theological engagement is resulting in an even deeper and more holistic level of Christian formation. Such spiritual and intellectual growth is not only enabling our students to be their best selves in ministry for the sake of the church, but it is accomplishing God’s reconciling work in the world. “To the praise of His glorious grace!” (Eph. 1:6).
