Associate Professor of Practical Theology and Dean of Students at Reformed Theological Seminary, Jackson
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Retirement was not in the vocabulary of my uncle, John Calvin Wingard. Since ‘retiring’ from a lifetime of ministry at age 70, he pastored two churches, one for nineteen years and a second for the remaining three years of his life. Two weeks ago he was out making pastoral visits to his small flock at First Presbyterian Church in Ripley, Tennessee. On Mother’s Day, he drove fifteen miles to do what he did most Sundays for the past 68 years, proclaim God’s word. The next day, one of his sons drove him to Tupelo, Mississippi to visit his oncologist. He was informed that treatments would yield no further benefits. He walked into a hospital without assistance. By the end…
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I serve as Director of Field Education at Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson. Part of my work involves talking to students about their relationship with their pastoral mentors. Since 1987, I have mentored men preparing for ordination. While serving on Boston’s North Shore, I served as a mentor for many men in the Gordon-Conwell field education program. Before coming to RTS, I employed men pursuing ordination. Mentoring has been a major part of my pastoral ministry. What follows are my thoughts on what makes a good mentor. I am acutely aware of my own weaknesses as a mentor. Much of what follows I learned from my own mentors and have sought to put into practice, however imperfectly. One of the…
Read MoreOne of my goals at RTS Jackson is to introduce students to the “neglected voices” of the evangelical church. I am not the best qualified to remedy this neglect, but have made it my habit to assign readings that will help. One such book is Thabiti Anyabwile’s The Faithful Preacher: Recapturing the Vision of Three Pioneering African-American Pastors. The book presents biographical sketches of Lemuel Haynes, Daniel Payne, and Francis Grimké, along with selected writings. First, Lemuel Haynes. Born in 1753, he was abandoned by his parents when only a few months old. He became an indentured servant to a Connecticut family who treated him as their own child, and where he was to receive the blessings of family…
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