Joel’s Story

One of my favorite movies of all time is Forrest Gump. The story is about a simple man who, unwittingly, finds himself taking part in several pivotal moments in history. I often feel like I “Forrest Gumped” my way into ministry.

While I grew up in a pastor’s family, I was not the one who ever thought I would end up in vocational ministry. But somehow doors kept opening and I would hesitantly walk through them. This is also how I ended up in seminary at The Master’s Institute.

After working in the church in various capacities for almost 15 years, I began to wonder if this is where God was calling me. But the prospect of having to quit my job, uproot my young family, and move across the country just to receive an M.Div. was out of the question. 

Then along came Mike Bradley (the president at the time) who told me about MI. It was a different type of seminary for a different type of leader. I was intrigued, but there were other hurdles to overcome, like would my family support this decision. As a matter of fact, one of the first things that stuck out to me about MI was the fact that they put my family ahead of my schooling. They personally reached out to my wife and children to make sure they were on board and taken care of in the process.

And when my family said yes, and my church said yes, who was I to say no? I knew that God was leading me into vocational ministry and I knew MI was the place where He wanted to prepare me. After enrolling, an acquaintance of mine who worked for another seminary asked me, “Why do you want to go there? They’re going to make you do spiritual formation!” I told him that was exactly the reason it was the place for me. I had the angry Lutheran thing down; I needed a holistic approach to pastoral development, not just competency training.

The Master’s Institute’s mission says it all: Equipping the heart, head, and hands of pastors and leaders for the Church. While I learned a lot from wonderful faculty and adjunct professors, it was the quality of people associated with MI that impressed me most. These were loving, caring, wise and gracious practitioners who cared about me and were invested in helping me become the leader God had called me to be. They were examples of leaders who walked with Jesus and expected that the students would do the same.

It is this holistic training that I’ve carried with me into serving two different churches, various non-profits, and now the LCMC Ministry Board. In each context I am able to bring what I learned at MI about the five elements that must be present in the life of a healthy Christian leader: Christ, Community, Character, Calling, and Competencies. This is what holistic training looks like, and it’s what the Master’s Institute provides and produces. I am grateful that God orchestrated the events that led me to MI to prepare me for what He had planned next.