Dear Friends:
This is an exciting time for Grace Bible Theological Seminary and Grace Bible Church. This week, we announced our new Provost and Research Professor of Theology.
For the last two years, we have been in careful prayer that God would fill this role with a man after our theological convictions and our heart for training faithful men. Not only was our choice on our shortlist, he was at the very top. Today we rejoice and thank God for answering our prayer more abundantly than we could have imagined. He is not only a first-rate theologian, but he has also proven faithful to stand strong, in a gracious and uncompromising fashion, for the truth of God’s Word. We have been looking for a godly Professor that our students could not only learn from in the classroom but also emulate in their life and ministry. He is eager to take up this weighty work, as he has said.
This brings me to the reason for my email to you. We believe the Lord is giving us gospel momentum in this time. We wish to partner with sound, strong churches. As we begin a new season of ministry, would you consider financially supporting us? Our school is just a few years old. It has a growing student body. We have a great seminary building. But we want to advance all these efforts.
In line with the apostle Paul’s prayer for the Philippians that their love would abound “more and more,” we want to increase the love of God’s people for Christ (Philippians 1:9). We believe that we can accomplish this goal by producing strong men of Christ who will lead churches with righteousness and godly strength. We think on this count of what Hushai said of David: “those who are with him are valiant men” (2 Samuel 17:10). May the Lord give us such men, and may we do our part to train them well. But we can only do this through partnership with faithful pastors, and God-exalting churches.
So today, I ask as President of GBTS: stand with us. With the elders of your church, prayerfully consider becoming a supporter and backer of our institution. We are grateful for your consideration. In addition, please do consider sending prospective students our way. Our MDiv is intensive at 100 hours, but we believe that such a cost is worth it. We not only want to strengthen men in the classroom; we want to integrate them into our local church, so that, as in the days of David, we will produce valiant men. In human terms, this is truly the need of the age.
The Lord has established a work here in Conway, Arkansas. Men may despise our efforts; they may sneer at them, and dismiss them. But we are paying them no mind. There is much work to be done, and by God’s grace, we will continue the work already begun. We wish to invest in the next generation by equipping and training qualified pastors and missionaries. The greatest need of the world is the gospel that has been entrusted to the church, and the greatest need of the church is men of God who are humble, bold, and able to rightly divide the truth of God’s Word.
Visit gbtseminary.org/donate to become a supporter or contact Danny Thursby at dthursby@gbtseminary.org for more information.
God bless you and keep you, brothers. In days ahead, I pray I will have the joy of welcoming you to our campus. Beyond seeing you face to face, I pray we can stand together for the truth in days when so many know of the great battle before us, but so few show up for the fight.
Jeffrey D. Johnson
President, Grace Bible Theological Seminary
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