Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / Seven Habits of Highly Effective Seminaries │ Msg 66

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Seven Habits of Highly Effective Seminaries │ Msg 66 · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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  Speaker 1: Chuck Swindoll has devoted his life to the accurate, practical
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  Speaker 1: teaching and application of God's word and his grace. A
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  Speaker 1: pastor at heart. By the way, you don't have to
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  Speaker 1: go very far.
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  Speaker 2: To notice that. When you're in line to speak to
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  Speaker 2: him and he's dealing with one person, you'll be amazed
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  Speaker 2: at his focus. It's as if you're the only person
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  Speaker 2: in the world. And I've experienced that. It's a tremendous thing.
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  Speaker 2: It's a gift. But he works at it as well.
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  Speaker 2: He has a pastor's heart.
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  Speaker 1: You'll see it. Chuck has served as senior pastor to
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  Speaker 1: congregations in Texas, Massachusetts, and California since 1998. He has
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  Speaker 1: served as the founder and senior pastor teacher of Stonebriar
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  Speaker 1: Community Church in Frisco, Texas. His leadership at Dallas Theological
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  Speaker 1: Seminary as fourth president and now as chancellor and soon
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  Speaker 1: to be chancellor emeritus.
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  Speaker 3: Is that it? I don't know.
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  Speaker 1: So that's got to be it, if he doesn't know.
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  Speaker 1: Has helped prepare and equip a new generation for ministry.
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  Speaker 1: He does love the seminary, and I love that about him.
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  Speaker 1: Chuck and Cynthia, his partner in life and ministry, have
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  Speaker 1: four grown children, ten grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren.
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  Speaker 3: Amen.
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  Speaker 1: Would you please help me in welcoming Dr.
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  Speaker 3: Chuck Swindoll.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you.
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  Speaker 3: I wasn't trying to be smart when I said I
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  Speaker 3: didn't know. It's just I can't keep up with all
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  Speaker 3: the stuff. My favorite line is when I told my
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  Speaker 3: grandson that I was chancellor here. I thought that sounded great.
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  Speaker 3: He said to me with a frown, wasn't Hitler a chancellor?
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  Speaker 3: So I'm kind of careful what I tell people nowadays.
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  Speaker 3: You know, we recognize you who are visiting today, and
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  Speaker 3: we're so pleased to have you. Really, a seminary is
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  Speaker 3: a faculty, a great library, a philosophy, or a statement
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  Speaker 3: of its faith. And then from then on, it's the
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  Speaker 3: blessing of God that is at work in and through
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  Speaker 3: the lives of those who teach and those who learn.
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  Speaker 3: I kind of want to talk to you today rather
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  Speaker 3: than preach. I've got a little different style of message
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  Speaker 3: I want to bring, so I will begin with a
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  Speaker 3: different approach than I normally begin with. Back in 1999,
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  Speaker 3: I bought a 1928 Model A, okay? I'd always looked
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  Speaker 3: at those little classic cars that different friends of mine had.
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  Speaker 3: And I sort of wondered what it would be like
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  Speaker 3: to have one. And as I recall, I didn't say
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  Speaker 3: much to Cynthia about getting it. That was the first
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  Speaker 3: mistake that I had. But she was fine with it.
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  Speaker 3: But it was a cute little thing. It was black.
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  Speaker 3: Ford used to say you can have any color you
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  Speaker 3: want just so it's black. So that was a nice
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  Speaker 3: shiny black with bright yellow wheels and wide white walls
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  Speaker 3: on these little thin tires. It had a massive engine
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  Speaker 3: in it of 24 horsepower. You who don't know much
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  Speaker 3: about cars wouldn't know what the significance of that is,
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  Speaker 3: but that's a little over what's on a a nice-sized lawnmower.
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  Speaker 3: So it's a tiny little engine, and it's as rough
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  Speaker 3: as a cob on the back roads of the Dallas area.
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  Speaker 3: But it was a little convertible, had a rumble seat,
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  Speaker 3: which is a pop-open seat in the back behind the
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  Speaker 3: two seats on the front, and it was really dandy
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  Speaker 3: of a car, and just was a real... eye catcher,
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  Speaker 3: and it was totally inefficient. It really was. It didn't
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  Speaker 3: have a place to plug in a cell phone. It
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  Speaker 3: ran hot all the time, even though I tried my
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  Speaker 3: best to wash out that radiator over and over. It
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  Speaker 3: just decided it would always run hot. It had poor
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  Speaker 3: gas mileage. It had no power steering, no power brakes,
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  Speaker 3: no power windows. It was no navigation system, of course,
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  Speaker 3: no GPS, and no automatic transmission. It just was a
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  Speaker 3: cute little jalopy, you would call it. And I drove
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  Speaker 3: it to the school on a few occasions, but mainly...
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  Speaker 3: I got it for the grandkids. We together named it Gramps.
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  Speaker 3: In fact, of all things, I was surprised that that
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  Speaker 3: personalized license plate had not been taken. So I got
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  Speaker 3: Gramps for the license plate. It was terrific. In a
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  Speaker 3: day of efficiency and all that goes with it, and
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  Speaker 3: I made a list of what's going on now our
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  Speaker 3: world of commercial jets and space age stuff where people
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  Speaker 3: are even talking about traveling to Mars, which I could
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  Speaker 3: never quite figure out why that would be fun, and
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  Speaker 3: a day of teleconferencing and voice activated computers and word
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  Speaker 3: processing and podcasting and and Skype and all of that,
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  Speaker 3: here is this old Model A. It's just, it's sort
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  Speaker 3: of a touch of nostalgia in a world that's trying,
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  Speaker 3: almost tripping over itself to stay ahead of our times.
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  Speaker 3: And here is this little car scooting around on the
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  Speaker 3: road attracting attention from various people as I would pass them,
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  Speaker 3: or more often than not, as they would pass me.
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  Speaker 3: No heater in it in the winter, you'd freed your
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  Speaker 3: buns off in the thing as a cold winter of
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  Speaker 3: Dallas would come. And it occurred to me that it
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  Speaker 3: would have made a fabulous graduation gift for our first
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  Speaker 3: graduating class. Dow Seminary began in 1924, so that Model
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  Speaker 3: A would have been about 400 and something dollars, maybe
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  Speaker 3: if you got a few extras, 500 bucks to buy
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  Speaker 3: it new right off the assembly line, and that would
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  Speaker 3: have been a big deal back then. We celebrate our
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  Speaker 3: 95th anniversary as a school this year, if my math
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  Speaker 3: is correct. And it occurred to me while I was
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  Speaker 3: thinking about my little car that it is easy for
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  Speaker 3: a school to cling to its past. There's nothing in
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  Speaker 3: the world wrong with honoring our heritage. There's everything right
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  Speaker 3: about that. The Bible is filled with places and even
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  Speaker 3: stones of remembrance and the value of giving honor to
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  Speaker 3: whom honor is due. If you happen to choose to
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  Speaker 3: come to this school, it won't be long before you'll
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  Speaker 3: hear the stories related to former presidents and former faculty
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  Speaker 3: members and historical events that took place as we got underway.
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  Speaker 3: It was always a thrill for me when I came,
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  Speaker 3: beginning in my first year was 1959, and so Dr.
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  Speaker 3: Chaffer had been dead seven years. I never knew the
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  Speaker 3: founding and first president of the school. My era was
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  Speaker 3: under Dr. John Walvoord, whose time here was a very
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  Speaker 3: significant period of time. But it occurred to me that
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  Speaker 3: we can be so preoccupied as we cling to our
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  Speaker 3: past that we, like that old Model A, can become quaint,
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  Speaker 3: a study in nostalgia. But when schools do that, they become,
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  Speaker 3: without meaning to, dusty monuments. And sort of like quaint museums.
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  Speaker 3: Inefficient reflections. I think maybe the worst title would be
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  Speaker 3: institutional relic. I've never felt that Dallas Seminary, as much
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  Speaker 3: as we respect our past, ever wanted to be that.
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  Speaker 3: So you have no fear if you're thinking about our school,
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  Speaker 3: thinking it's going to always be looking back. We will
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  Speaker 3: look back, and we should look back, In fact, the
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  Speaker 3: book we revere, we certainly don't worship it, but we
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  Speaker 3: study it seriously, pour over it in virtually every class.
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  Speaker 3: We will mention it or we will spend time during
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  Speaker 3: the entire class digging into it. Ancient book. In fact,
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  Speaker 3: it's criticized by the cynics of our day for being ancient.
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  Speaker 3: As if ancient means out of touch. But you and
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  Speaker 3: I know that God's word is alive and active and
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  Speaker 3: sharper than a double-edged sword. And it's changed your life.
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  Speaker 3: It has certainly changed mine. Still changing it. I can
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  Speaker 3: go to certain scriptures and I can say because of
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  Speaker 3: what is written there. my life took another direction from
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  Speaker 3: this ancient book called the Bible, whether Old or New Testament.
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  Speaker 3: So we love God's word here, and we never apologize
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  Speaker 3: for that. However, we desire to have a balance. I
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  Speaker 3: came across a quote from John R.W. Stott that's worth
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  Speaker 3: reading It's very easy to be faithful if you do
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  Speaker 3: not care about being contemporary. And it's also easy to
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  Speaker 3: be contemporary if you don't bother to be faithful. The challenge, obviously,
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  Speaker 3: is to be both. The late Dr. Howard Hendricks, when
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  Speaker 3: his shadow crossed our paths as students years ago and
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  Speaker 3: marked our lives, sort of reshape that statement by Stott
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  Speaker 3: and put it in these words. I like his words
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  Speaker 3: even better. It is no challenge to be biblical if
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  Speaker 3: you don't care about being relevant. And it's no challenge
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  Speaker 3: being relevant if you don't care about being biblical. But
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  Speaker 3: to be both biblical and relevant, addressing the issues of
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  Speaker 3: today's world and culture, that's our challenge as a theological institution.
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  Speaker 3: Very well stated. To quote the words of Jesus out
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  Speaker 3: of Matthew 9, I've got my Bible open to verses
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  Speaker 3: 16 and 17. That familiar word picture you'll recall. No
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  Speaker 3: one puts a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old
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  Speaker 3: garment for the patch pulls away from the garment and
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  Speaker 3: a worse tear results. Then the next verse reads, nor
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  Speaker 3: do we put new wine in old wineskins, which was
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  Speaker 3: in those days the wine bottle, but it was in skins. Otherwise,
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  Speaker 3: the wineskins burst, and the wine pours out, and the
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  Speaker 3: wineskins are ruined. But they put new wine into fresh wineskins.
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  Speaker 3: and both are preserved. Hopefully, we are engaged in doing that,
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  Speaker 3: and you know I mean that in a broader sense,
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  Speaker 3: every year. Every year, hopefully, this faculty will take a
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  Speaker 3: fresh look at your notes, your course that you're teaching,
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  Speaker 3: realizing that another year has passed And perhaps there is
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  Speaker 3: the need to adjust or adapt the way you're going
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  Speaker 3: to say that or teach that so that this generation
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  Speaker 3: can get it for our times. That's constantly the challenge
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  Speaker 3: of every pastor on the planet. I am not ministering
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  Speaker 3: to 1959 people, though some of the people I minister
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  Speaker 3: to are that old. I am ministering to millennials, to teenagers,
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  Speaker 3: to people who are just now learning who Jesus is,
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  Speaker 3: to those who are just discovering what church is about,
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  Speaker 3: who have no clue what the songs are that we've
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  Speaker 3: sung for centuries, or even the new ones that are
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  Speaker 3: being composed. to them the life of faith is a
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  Speaker 3: little weird. And it is the task of the one
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  Speaker 3: who delivers the message to make sure it is solidly
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  Speaker 3: biblical and at the same time ever relevant. So you
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  Speaker 3: don't have to decode what's being said. I've I love
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  Speaker 3: the honest statement that one of my profs said, if
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  Speaker 3: people are bored when you preach, it's not their fault.
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  Speaker 3: I think that's a very good way to put it.
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  Speaker 3: It is your problem, especially if they're regularly bored. Everybody's
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  Speaker 3: a little bored sometime because you're preoccupied or you're sleepy
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  Speaker 3: or whatever. But if you are regularly bored and thinking
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  Speaker 3: about why in the world are we still coming to
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  Speaker 3: this church? There's something wrong with the one at the
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  Speaker 3: pulpit or the one at the microphone. It is the
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  Speaker 3: task of the one communicating to make sure that what
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  Speaker 3: is being said is right on the sharp edge of
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  Speaker 3: where the listener is living. And I'm going to tell
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  Speaker 3: you something, that is a challenge. You cannot stay up
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  Speaker 3: in today's world and keep driving a Model A. You've
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  Speaker 3: got to see that that's sort of a fun little
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  Speaker 3: hobby that you do for a while and you sell
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  Speaker 3: it and you have the memory of it, but you
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  Speaker 3: can't keep up. And so in light of all of that,
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  Speaker 3: I have a very different, like I said earlier, I
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  Speaker 3: have a very different message I want to leave with you.
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  Speaker 3: And I rarely ask you to do this, but today
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  Speaker 3: I'm going to do it. If you've got a place
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  Speaker 3: where you can write something down, I want you to
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  Speaker 3: be ready to write down seven statements. I'm going to
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  Speaker 3: call my talk, Seven Habits of Very Effective Seminaries. With
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  Speaker 3: all due apologies to Stephen Covey, who has written about
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  Speaker 3: seven habits of highly effective people and highly effective families.
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  Speaker 3: I want to talk about seven habits of highly effective seminaries,
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  Speaker 3: and I want to give them to you in no
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  Speaker 3: particular order of importance. Remember I said that. And I
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  Speaker 3: could give you 17, but I can't. And I could
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  Speaker 3: give you three or four, but there needs to be more.
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  Speaker 3: So I'm going to go with seven to stay with
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  Speaker 3: the idea of the way Covey's written his book. So
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  Speaker 3: here they are, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven.
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  Speaker 3: I'd like you to write them down. And I'd like you,
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  Speaker 3: if you come to this school, to check it out.
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  Speaker 3: To see if we are on target in these areas
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  Speaker 3: as best you can tell. And you can tell some
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  Speaker 3: of them a lot easier than others unless you're involved
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  Speaker 3: in the warp and woof of the administration and all
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  Speaker 3: but much of it you'll be able to tell as
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  Speaker 3: a student okay here we go number one highly effective
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  Speaker 3: seminaries are focused on what is essential highly effective seminaries
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  Speaker 3: are Let's even use the word stay. Stay focused on
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  Speaker 3: what is essential. Effective seminary, under that, I'm just going
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  Speaker 3: to ramble a little and just kind of fill in
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  Speaker 3: the blanks here. We don't try to be all things
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  Speaker 3: to everyone. We can't be. We don't try to compete
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  Speaker 3: with some other school and outdo that school so people
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  Speaker 3: will come here to this school. That's not an essential.
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  Speaker 3: Competition is not an essential part of our commitment. I
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  Speaker 3: find that when you do that, you become five miles
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  Speaker 3: wide and about six inches deep, and you miss it.
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  Speaker 3: We should be able to state our mission in one sentence.
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  Speaker 3: By the way, I got a copy of the catalog,
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  Speaker 3: and I turned to the mission statement. There it is. Okay,
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  Speaker 3: here it is. The mission of Dallas Theological Seminary as
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  Speaker 3: a professional graduate level school is to glorify God by
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  Speaker 3: equipping godly servant leaders for the proclamation of his word
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  Speaker 3: and the building up of the body of Christ worldwide.
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  Speaker 3: Ought to be able to state that, ought to be
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  Speaker 3: able to prove that, ought to be able to model
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  Speaker 3: that That's essential. That's what we're about. Ought to be
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  Speaker 3: doing that every day we're in existence. Every course ought
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  Speaker 3: to keep that in mind. That's an essential. I could
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  Speaker 3: even reduce it to the motto that is on our emblem.
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  Speaker 3: Preach the word. Our goal isn't to study the word.
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  Speaker 3: It's to preach the word. It takes study to preach
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  Speaker 3: it well. But the goal is to deliver the goods,
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  Speaker 3: not to sit around in groups for the rest of
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  Speaker 3: our lives and study deeper, deeper, and deeper. You certainly
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  Speaker 3: will want to study, and you want your study to
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  Speaker 3: be deep enough so that you do dig into the treasures.
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  Speaker 3: And I'm going to tell you, from years of experience,
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  Speaker 3: congregations will love you for your hard work in the study.
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  Speaker 3: But they'll appreciate the fact that you give attention to
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  Speaker 3: the delivery of the message. and delivering it well, saying
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  Speaker 3: it carefully, articulating it with right words, preaching the word,
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  Speaker 3: was drilled into us as a student. We should be
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  Speaker 3: clear about what we believe and stand there regardless of
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  Speaker 3: whether it's politically correct or culturally acceptable. Often when I
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  Speaker 3: see something is politically incorrect, I like it even more.
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  Speaker 3: And I find that much of the message is politically
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  Speaker 3: incorrect and I do not care. And I'm cultivating the
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  Speaker 3: life of a church that doesn't care either. We have
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  Speaker 3: an essential set of responsibilities and pleasing our culture is
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  Speaker 3: not one of them. Ignoring the culture is not the
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  Speaker 3: answer either. So here again is the need for a balance.
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  Speaker 3: So you got the first one. Highly effective seminaries stay
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  Speaker 3: focused on what is essential. Number two, highly effective seminaries
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  Speaker 3: exist for the students, not the other way around. I'll
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  Speaker 3: say it again. Highly effective seminaries exist for the students,
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  Speaker 3: not the other way around. Today's seminary must continue to
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  Speaker 3: look for ways to remain student-friendly, That has not always
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  Speaker 3: been true at Dallas Seminary. We have not always had
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  Speaker 3: faculty who saw that as valuable. Thankfully, we have more
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  Speaker 3: now than ever, to my knowledge. And I love that.
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  Speaker 3: I don't care how brilliant any of you folks are,
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  Speaker 3: and I know all of you are that, or you
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  Speaker 3: wouldn't have the job you got, or the calling you got.
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  Speaker 3: I'm going to quit calling it jobs. It's a calling.
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  Speaker 3: Your kindness... is equally important as your scholarship. If you
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  Speaker 3: cannot be kind to us who are students, we're not
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  Speaker 3: going to get it. You exist for the sake of
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  Speaker 3: the students. You wouldn't have a place here if it
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  Speaker 3: weren't for students. And we have to keep that in mind.
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  Speaker 3: Highly effective seminaries, as they think about this, Model grace
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  Speaker 3: and mercy and patience and understanding and tolerance toward the students.
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  Speaker 3: And I don't believe I can overemphasize that. We need
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  Speaker 3: not a thicker policy handbook or more rules and regulations.
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  Speaker 3: We need greater modeling of grace and mercy from those
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  Speaker 3: who are in administrations, and those who are our teachers.
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  Speaker 3: Seminaries that get the job done and are highly efficient
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  Speaker 3: exist for the students, not the other way around. Number three,
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  Speaker 3: highly effective seminaries have great-hearted board members. Now, here's where
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  Speaker 3: you wouldn't know because you're not with board members that much,
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  Speaker 3: and maybe you couldn't even name one of them. When
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  Speaker 3: you get involved in the ministry of the seminary, you
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  Speaker 3: get to know some of the board members. And when
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  Speaker 3: you are closer to the president's office, you really get
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  Speaker 3: to know a number of them. And so you realize
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  Speaker 3: the importance of this. Great-hearted board members keep the big
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  Speaker 3: picture in mind. They are selected because they are visionary.
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  Speaker 3: They are in touch and unafraid of change. They make
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  Speaker 3: hard decisions, and they are people of prayer. These great-hearted
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  Speaker 3: board members hold the leadership accountable in important areas, and
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  Speaker 3: they have great latitude in non-essential areas. They don't panic
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  Speaker 3: when hard times come. They just pray harder, and they
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  Speaker 3: often give in greater measure. Great-hearted board members are one
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  Speaker 3: of the secrets. By the way, they are great-hearted because
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  Speaker 3: they have a great God. And they serve the Lord God.
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  Speaker 3: All board members at Donald Seminary are voluntary. They are
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  Speaker 3: not paid to be in that position. And it is
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  Speaker 3: a pleasure to know them and to have worked alongside them.
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  Speaker 3: Number four. Highly effective seminaries prefer quality to quantity. I'll
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  Speaker 3: spell that out. Highly effective seminaries prefer quality to quantity.
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  Speaker 3: Being the largest is never our goal. You will never
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  Speaker 3: hear me refer to Dallas Seminary as to its size.
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  Speaker 3: As I said earlier, we're not in competition with some
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  Speaker 3: other school. However, being the best we can be is
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  Speaker 3: all important. Given the financial resources we have, given the
• 28:09
  Speaker 3: faculty members we have, given our facilities and what we're
• 28:17
  Speaker 3: able to provide, our goal is to be the best
• 28:20
  Speaker 3: we can be. Having the most number of extensions is
• 28:24
  Speaker 3: not a goal. It's not something we brag about. Having
• 28:28
  Speaker 3: extensions in the best location is important. Offering the most
• 28:33
  Speaker 3: degrees is not a goal. Offering degrees that are the
• 28:38
  Speaker 3: most helpful for the students, that is a goal. Offering
• 28:42
  Speaker 3: courses that best equip you for ministry, that is a goal.
• 28:48
  Speaker 3: Highly effective seminaries prefer quality to quantity. Number five, highly
• 28:55
  Speaker 3: effective seminaries select and retain students. an outstanding enviable faculty.
• 29:05
  Speaker 3: We select and we retain, those are important words, an
• 29:13
  Speaker 3: outstanding enviable faculty. Men and women of great personal character,
• 29:21
  Speaker 3: true scholarship, moral purity, ethical credibility, yet at the same
• 29:32
  Speaker 3: time compassionate. True scholars who are both competent skilled in
• 29:41
  Speaker 3: their disciplines, yet still learning, still reading, still listening, still teachable.
• 29:53
  Speaker 3: I love it when teachers say, I learned the most
• 29:55
  Speaker 3: this year from our students whom I taught. It's a
• 30:00
  Speaker 3: great characteristic of humility when I hear that. By the way,
• 30:06
  Speaker 3: schools in the 21st century must have faculty who are
• 30:12
  Speaker 3: willing to be also mentors. It's a good time for
• 30:16
  Speaker 3: me to mention a book. Some of you have heard
• 30:20
  Speaker 3: of it. Others of you have not. Many of you
• 30:23
  Speaker 3: have read it, I would imagine. But whatever it is,
• 30:28
  Speaker 3: It's titled Tuesdays with Maury by Mitch Albom. Mitch was
• 30:35
  Speaker 3: a sports editor at the time he wrote the book
• 30:39
  Speaker 3: in Detroit. I don't know what he's doing now. But
• 30:42
  Speaker 3: he was a graduate of Brandeis University, and while he
• 30:45
  Speaker 3: went to Brandeis in Waltham, Massachusetts, he and Maury Schwartz, Dr.
• 30:52
  Speaker 3: Maury Schwartz, became fast friends. And Maury, not surprisingly, became Mitch's,
• 31:02
  Speaker 3: not only his prof, but his mentor. Maury got Lou
• 31:10
  Speaker 3: Gehrig's disease. And when Mitch found that out, read about
• 31:15
  Speaker 3: it actually, he decided he would spend every Tuesday with
• 31:20
  Speaker 3: his beloved prof and would be there till he died.
• 31:28
  Speaker 3: Every Tuesday. And he wrote the book. Tuesdays with Maury.
• 31:34
  Speaker 3: Just a few words from the book. And I'll return
• 31:37
  Speaker 3: to it as I close today. But listen to this.
• 31:40
  Speaker 3: Mitch writes. I look back some time. At the person
• 31:45
  Speaker 3: I was before. I rediscovered. My old professor. So he's
• 31:53
  Speaker 3: looking back on himself. I want to talk. To that person.
• 32:00
  Speaker 3: I want to tell him. What to look out for.
• 32:05
  Speaker 3: What mistakes to avoid. I want to tell him to
• 32:09
  Speaker 3: be more open. To ignore the lure of advertised values.
• 32:15
  Speaker 3: I like those words. To pay attention when your loved
• 32:19
  Speaker 3: ones are speaking. As if it were the last time
• 32:23
  Speaker 3: you might hear them. By the way, if I may
• 32:26
  Speaker 3: add just something, and I add it only because it's
• 32:29
  Speaker 3: been a new thing for me. I've learned to listen
• 32:31
  Speaker 3: to my wife like that. I used to not do that.
• 32:36
  Speaker 3: For 10 years, I didn't know that we'd make it.
• 32:39
  Speaker 3: I was so careful with my words here. I was
• 32:42
  Speaker 3: so blamed selfish and self-serving. Thank the Lord I pulled
• 32:48
  Speaker 3: out of that nosedive. But he said I want to
• 32:52
  Speaker 3: pay more attention to the loved ones when they are speaking.
• 32:55
  Speaker 3: as if it were the last time you might be
• 32:57
  Speaker 3: hearing them. A few more comments. Mostly I want to
• 33:00
  Speaker 3: tell that person, still talking to himself, to get on
• 33:04
  Speaker 3: an airplane and visit a gentle old man in West Newton, Massachusetts.
• 33:11
  Speaker 3: Sooner rather than later before that old man gets sick
• 33:14
  Speaker 3: and loses his ability to dance. I know I cannot
• 33:19
  Speaker 3: do this. None of us can undo what we've done
• 33:23
  Speaker 3: or relive a life already recorded. But if Professor Morris
• 33:30
  Speaker 3: Schwartz taught me anything at all, it was this. There's
• 33:35
  Speaker 3: no such thing as too late. By the way, that's
• 33:39
  Speaker 3: not in a course these people teach. That's in their life.
• 33:44
  Speaker 3: That gets rubbed off from a mentor. Something's wrong if
• 33:48
  Speaker 3: you leave this school and can only refer to profs
• 33:52
  Speaker 3: and not name one mentor. One of your goals in
• 33:56
  Speaker 3: being here is to ask the living God to link
• 34:01
  Speaker 3: you with one of those lives. Because I'm telling you,
• 34:05
  Speaker 3: those are lives worth linking to. Or they wouldn't be there.
• 34:11
  Speaker 3: He taught me, if he taught me anything at all,
• 34:13
  Speaker 3: it was that there's no such thing as too late
• 34:15
  Speaker 3: in life. He was changing until the day he said goodbye.
• 34:22
  Speaker 3: Love those words. Now let me finish my list. Number six.
• 34:29
  Speaker 3: Highly effective seminaries attract and cultivate students who remain enthusiastic
• 34:40
  Speaker 3: about and devoted to God's truth. I'll say it again.
• 34:44
  Speaker 3: Highly effective seminaries attract and cultivate students who remain enthusiastic
• 34:51
  Speaker 3: about and devoted to God's truth. When I left the school,
• 34:55
  Speaker 3: I was three feet off the ground and motivated beyond words.
• 35:03
  Speaker 3: And I still am. Every morning I get up, I
• 35:08
  Speaker 3: cannot wait to do what's involved in ministry. I cannot wait.
• 35:13
  Speaker 3: to go up 19 steps to get into my study
• 35:17
  Speaker 3: or to get into my car and to scoot over
• 35:20
  Speaker 3: to that place I love or to go to a
• 35:23
  Speaker 3: spot called Insight for Living and be involved, as I
• 35:26
  Speaker 3: was yesterday, in recording audio and video stuff in the
• 35:31
  Speaker 3: lives of people, knowing I have a chance to touch
• 35:35
  Speaker 3: the world. What a privilege that is. It's just a
• 35:40
  Speaker 3: privilege to do it. What's the matter with me? Starting
• 35:46
  Speaker 3: to believe my own stuff here. You will discover here
• 35:52
  Speaker 3: the joy of learning. Don't ever lose it. Don't ever
• 35:56
  Speaker 3: lose it. You will have just the beginning of a
• 36:00
  Speaker 3: world open up to you, and you've got your lifetime
• 36:04
  Speaker 3: to keep opening it. Just keep opening it. And education
• 36:09
  Speaker 3: is going from a an unconscious to conscious awareness of
• 36:13
  Speaker 3: your ignorance. So when you're here, you'll realize the bad
• 36:19
  Speaker 3: amount of ignorance that's been going on, and it will
• 36:24
  Speaker 3: humble you, and it should keep you humble so that
• 36:28
  Speaker 3: you don't minister in arrogance. You minister on your knees,
• 36:33
  Speaker 3: grateful to God that he gives you a voice and
• 36:36
  Speaker 3: gives you a place to minister and people that were
• 36:40
  Speaker 3: patient enough to listen to you and love you and
• 36:44
  Speaker 3: forgive you and respect you and all that goes with that.
• 36:49
  Speaker 3: We want students like that. You won't get it all here.
• 36:53
  Speaker 3: You'll just get the seed plot. You'll just get the
• 36:57
  Speaker 3: little rootlets starting. And you'll become aware of the books
• 37:02
  Speaker 3: to read. And you'll become discerning in how to spend
• 37:07
  Speaker 3: your time And you'll make bad mistakes, and you'll learn,
• 37:10
  Speaker 3: I can't keep doing that. I've got to stop that.
• 37:13
  Speaker 3: And you'll learn how to stop the leaks in your
• 37:15
  Speaker 3: time dike. And you'll learn how to make the most
• 37:19
  Speaker 3: of the time you have. And you'll learn to stop complaining.
• 37:25
  Speaker 3: Nobody wants to be around somebody complaining all the time.
• 37:28
  Speaker 3: And ministry will give you stuff to be thrilled about
• 37:32
  Speaker 3: or complain about. And congregations don't deserve that. Your counselee
• 37:38
  Speaker 3: doesn't deserve that. Your fellow elder doesn't deserve that. They
• 37:42
  Speaker 3: need to know how thrilled you are with Jesus. And
• 37:47
  Speaker 3: you got it all started while you were right here.
• 37:50
  Speaker 3: And if anyone ever stops to ask you, where do
• 37:52
  Speaker 3: you pick up that kind of excitement? Come right back here, hopefully.
• 37:58
  Speaker 3: I got it to start with right here. I saw
• 38:02
  Speaker 3: it in a prof, or I was around it in chapel,
• 38:05
  Speaker 3: or I witnessed it in a fellow student, or we
• 38:08
  Speaker 3: had a cluster of people in our group, and it
• 38:12
  Speaker 3: was just fabulous. Just fabulous. We got friends that we
• 38:18
  Speaker 3: went to school with here that are still friends. They'll
• 38:21
  Speaker 3: be friends forever. I've just about lived forever, so they'll
• 38:26
  Speaker 3: be friends for the rest of our time. And I'm
• 38:30
  Speaker 3: grateful for each one. Highly effective seminaries attract and cultivate
• 38:34
  Speaker 3: these kind of students. Become that. Don't come to just
• 38:39
  Speaker 3: get a degree. You can do that anywhere. If that's
• 38:42
  Speaker 3: your plan, don't come here. You want to come here
• 38:45
  Speaker 3: to get your life changed and deepened and on a
• 38:50
  Speaker 3: course toward a lifetime of ministry that you can be
• 38:53
  Speaker 3: grateful for, and I mean this in the right sense,
• 38:55
  Speaker 3: proud of. You know what I mean by that. This
• 39:00
  Speaker 3: is the spot. This is the place to do it.
• 39:03
  Speaker 3: Our track record's pretty good about that. And you can
• 39:06
  Speaker 3: be a part of that and love to have you
• 39:08
  Speaker 3: do that with us. Number seven, highly effective seminaries have
• 39:12
  Speaker 3: dreams that are greater than their memories. They aren't stuck
• 39:17
  Speaker 3: in some particular era. The school isn't great because it
• 39:21
  Speaker 3: was great in 1960 to 63. It was great then,
• 39:26
  Speaker 3: but it's not great now because of that. It's great
• 39:29
  Speaker 3: because it's great. now. Schools like this have not stopped
• 39:33
  Speaker 3: risking and reaching. Our dreams are greater than our memories.
• 39:40
  Speaker 3: They pray that their vision will never be hindered by
• 39:42
  Speaker 3: the hurdles and the obstacles. We respect what was, but
• 39:50
  Speaker 3: we do not let that blind us to what might
• 39:52
  Speaker 3: be and a new way of doing it. I would
• 39:55
  Speaker 3: challenge our faculty to think of creative ways to teach
• 39:59
  Speaker 3: that same course and just do it in such a
• 40:04
  Speaker 3: way that it surprises you in its creative approach. Final
• 40:10
  Speaker 3: words back from Tuesdays with Maury. These are touching words.
• 40:16
  Speaker 3: This book was largely Maury's idea He called it our
• 40:23
  Speaker 3: final thesis. Like the best of work projects, it brought
• 40:28
  Speaker 3: us closer together, and Maury was delighted when several publishers
• 40:32
  Speaker 3: expressed interest, even though he died before meeting any of them.
• 40:40
  Speaker 3: The advance money helped to pay Maury's enormous medical bills.
• 40:46
  Speaker 3: And for that, we were both grateful. The title, by
• 40:49
  Speaker 3: the way, we came up with one day in Maury's office.
• 40:54
  Speaker 3: He liked naming things. He had several ideas, but when
• 40:59
  Speaker 3: I said, how about Tuesdays with Maury, he smiled in
• 41:04
  Speaker 3: an almost blushing way, and I knew that was it.
• 41:09
  Speaker 3: After Maury died, I went through boxes of old college material,
• 41:14
  Speaker 3: and I discovered a final paper I had written for
• 41:18
  Speaker 3: one of his classes. He was 20 years old now,
• 41:22
  Speaker 3: and on the front page were my penciled comments scribbled
• 41:27
  Speaker 3: to Maury, and beneath them were his comments scribbled back.
• 41:32
  Speaker 3: Mine began, Dear Coach. His began, Dear Player. For some reason,
• 41:41
  Speaker 3: each time I read that, I miss him more. Have
• 41:47
  Speaker 3: you ever really had a teacher? One who saw you
• 41:52
  Speaker 3: as a raw but precious thing, a jewel that with
• 41:59
  Speaker 3: wisdom could be polished to a proud shine. If you're
• 42:06
  Speaker 3: lucky enough to find your way to such teachers, you
• 42:08
  Speaker 3: will always find your way back. Sometimes it's only in
• 42:13
  Speaker 3: your head. Sometimes it's right alongside their beds. The last
• 42:22
  Speaker 3: class of my old prof's life took place once a
• 42:26
  Speaker 3: week in his home by a window in his study
• 42:31
  Speaker 3: where he could watch a small hibiscus plant shed its
• 42:36
  Speaker 3: pink flowers. Class met on Tuesdays. No books were required.
• 42:45
  Speaker 3: The subject was the meaning of life. It was taught
• 42:50
  Speaker 3: from experience The teaching goes on. It's the greatest honor
• 42:58
  Speaker 3: of my life to be linked to Dallas Seminary. And
• 43:06
  Speaker 3: the fact that I would keep being invited back and
• 43:11
  Speaker 3: to meet friends that I've known for years, to stand
• 43:16
  Speaker 3: and look at the skyline I looked at when I
• 43:20
  Speaker 3: was in my 20s, And to remember the years that
• 43:27
  Speaker 3: have passed. And the heartaches and the heart-throbbing ecstasies of ministry.
• 43:36
  Speaker 3: I tell you, it's great. I want that for you.
• 43:45
  Speaker 3: I want you to come to the place where you are,
• 43:47
  Speaker 3: in the words of Charles Wesley, lost in wonder and
• 43:52
  Speaker 3: love and praise. It was here I learned the great hymns,
• 43:59
  Speaker 3: thanks to our chaplain, Richard Sumi, and others. It was
• 44:05
  Speaker 3: here I learned how to pronounce big words that were
• 44:08
  Speaker 3: good theological words that I would teach our congregation. It
• 44:14
  Speaker 3: was here I learned the languages that I treasure. I'm
• 44:20
  Speaker 3: in the languages every week, and I love it. I'm
• 44:26
  Speaker 3: not nearly as competent as these faculty members are, but
• 44:29
  Speaker 3: they've taught me just enough that I can use them
• 44:33
  Speaker 3: to add color to what I'm presenting. And when I
• 44:39
  Speaker 3: come back on campus, they say, great to be greeted.
• 44:43
  Speaker 3: They'll say, great to see you. Good to have you.
• 44:48
  Speaker 3: And I'll usually say, it's great to be anywhere. Especially here.
• 44:58
  Speaker 3: If God leads you to come on board, come to stay.
• 45:02
  Speaker 3: Don't come for a year and bail out. Finish what
• 45:07
  Speaker 3: you start. Get her done. With your whole heart. Get
• 45:15
  Speaker 3: it done. You'll look back and never regret the price
• 45:22
  Speaker 3: it took. You had to pay to make it happen.
• 45:25
  Speaker 3: Because I'll tell you, there is a price connected to it.
• 45:30
  Speaker 3: It's hard because ministry is hard. But it's wondrous because
• 45:35
  Speaker 3: ministry is wonderful. It's wonderful. Lord, our hearts pant for you.
• 45:44
  Speaker 3: Like a deer in the forest pants for water. We
• 45:49
  Speaker 3: love you dearly. And we want you to know that.
• 45:54
  Speaker 3: Some are just learning how to do that. Others know
• 45:57
  Speaker 3: exactly what that means. For some, it's a foreign thought,
• 46:03
  Speaker 3: but it won't be for long. I pray that you
• 46:07
  Speaker 3: will use these words as memory catch points when our
• 46:15
  Speaker 3: heads sink into the pillow tonight and in the days
• 46:18
  Speaker 3: ahead and we work through the decision of what we
• 46:22
  Speaker 3: should do. Have your way in each person's life who
• 46:29
  Speaker 3: is seeking your mind for his or her future. And
• 46:33
  Speaker 3: then be glorified, Father, with that decision, whatever it may be.
• 46:38
  Speaker 3: In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.
• 46:43
  Speaker 4: The preceding message, Seven Habits of Highly Effective Seminaries, and
• 46:47
  Speaker 4: the sound recording were copyrighted in 2019 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc.
• 46:53
  Speaker 4: All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for
• 46:57
  Speaker 4: commercial use is strictly prohibited.