Three “Great” Priorities for Christ-Centered Higher Education, Part 1

NATHAN A. FINN

Editor’s note: This is the first in a series of four blog posts. The material was originally presented at the fourth annual IACE Faculty Development Conference, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, May 22-24, 2024.

In the spring of 1999, I was finishing up my associate degree at a junior college now known as South Georgia State College in my hometown of Waycross, GA. I was a first-generation college student, and I knew God was calling me to serve as a pastor of some sort. I was already working in churches as a part-time youth minister and speaking at youth events. My plan following junior college was to attend Valdosta State University, a regional state university. I intended to be active in VSU’s Baptist Student Union, complete a bachelor’s degree, and then attend seminary.

Everything changed the day my mom asked if we could go to lunch because she wanted to talk to me about college. She told me that she and dad had been praying, and they had come to believe I should complete my undergraduate studies at Brewton-Parker College, a Baptist liberal arts school in our region. Mom assured me they would support me attending Valdosta State, if I really believed the Lord was leading me there, but they wanted me to pray about making a campus visit to Brewton-Parker.

Up to that point, I had never been interested in Brewton-Parker. I had been on campus several times, and though I had friends there, I dismissed it as a little school in a little town surrounded by mostly little churches. But I also couldn’t remember a time when my parents had ever told me that they had been praying about something and felt God was leading them to talk to me about it. So, we made that visit to Brewton-Parker a few weeks later, we all agreed the Lord was in it, and in August I began as a junior transfer student.

My time at Brewton-Parker turned out to be deeply formative, for many reasons. I met my future wife during orientation week; 16 months later we were married. I changed my major from sociology to history, then added a minor in Christian Studies. I began reading books by Chuck Colson, who deeply shaped the way I thought about the Christian life. I settled on which seminary I wanted to attend after college. In fact, by the time I was beginning my senior year, I had done a complete 180 and was wrestling with the idea that God might be calling me to be a professor in an institution like Brewton-Parker.

When I shared my sense of calling with the chair of the Christian Studies department, he encouraged me to do two things. First, read Mark Noll’s book The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, now in its second edition. He also told me to pay attention to everything that David Dockery was writing about Christian higher education. Dockery’s co-edited volume The Future of Christian Higher Education had recently been published, and he was writing essays for various journals.

After finishing up at Brewton-Parker, I enrolled in seminary. I took as many theology electives as my course of study would allow, then I earned a PhD in theological studies with an emphasis in church history. I eventually became a professor at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, then was appointed an academic dean at Union University, then served over five years as the chief academic officer at North Greenville University. I now lead the Institute for Transformational Leadership at North Greenville, teach courses in our Honors Program, and serve as program director for our Master of Arts in Leadership.

I have now spent a quarter century in Christian institutions as a student, staff member, faculty member, and administrator. For nearly all that time I’ve been reflecting on this question: what makes Christian higher education Christian? In the next three blog posts, I want to reflect on what I’ve come to call the three “great” priorities for Christ-centered higher education. My hope is that readers will find these priorities as compelling as I do, and that they might help faculty and academic leadership understand the strategic importance of Christ-centered colleges, universities, and seminaries in God’s kingdom economy.

Nathan Finn is professor of Faith and Culture and executive director of the Institute for Transformational Leadership at North Greenville University.