Keith Ray
By Brad Dupray
Keith Ray is in his 12th year as president of Lincoln Christian University. Ray earned his bachelor”s and master”s degrees at Lincoln and his DMin in leadership and cultural studies at Trinity International University. He also served for a decade in preaching ministry in the local church. Ray came to Lincoln after an eight-year tenure at Dallas Christian College, where he served five years as president. Ray and his wife, Jeaneen, have been married more than 30 years and are blessed with three daughters and one granddaughter.
What does a Bible college education do to prepare a young person for ministry?
The preparation is fourfold. It helps every student assess their gifting, passion, and sense of calling. Second, it provides a biblical theological foundation, otherwise known as a biblical worldview. Third, it provides tools for lifelong learning and research, such as critical thinking skills and research methods. And finally, it introduces skill sets in reading, writing, speaking, leadership, and so on.
So a young minister graduates and goes to a new ministry at First Christian Church. Is he ready?
Churches have high expectations for today”s leaders, and many 22-year-old graduates haven”t attained that maturity level. While we can prepare them, there are some gaps between what churches want and what 22-year-olds can do today.
Is that just today, or is it an age-old problem?
Thirty years ago, 22-year-olds had a different maturity level than they do today, and the expectations of churches back then were different than they are today. There were studies done, three or four years ago, on the delayed maturity of 20-somethings today. They are actually coming into their development later; it”s closer to 25 to 27 years now, which has caused some to question the validity of going to college at 18 to 22. Not only are they not ready for a profession at 22, some aren”t ready for learning and progressing and vocational visioning.
Are there practical means of approaching this immaturity?
One component that”s increasingly important at Lincoln is providing students with mentoring””either in the classroom or outside the classroom via work opportunities on campus. There are fewer than 10 work colleges in the U.S., where you work and your tuition is free. I think the inherent component of that model is worthy of our attention. We believe there is a direct correlation between maturity and the responsibility that comes with having a job.
So as a part of our educational venue, we have several hundred jobs we provide for students that present opportunities for mentoring from faculty and staff as a means of fostering maturity. It doesn”t sound like ministry, but it is the missing component. You can dump the book of Acts on an 18-year-old”s brain and it doesn”t matter if he isn”t growing up.
Who pays for this?
We do. It”s likened to scholarship funding. It”s an hourly scaled job, but the perk is you get real mentoring. Evaluations, interviews, all the things young people need today that they can”t get in the classroom or the dorm or maybe even the church. I think we have a great school””I”m just worried that 18- to 22-year-olds are not up to college-level education today. There”s a fear that it”s a vast waste in America today. Our decision was that it may be true, but let”s subsidize it with the missing component.
Once beyond Bible college, what does seminary have to offer?
Graduate study in seminary is more intensive. Seminary requires more independent study and discipline. Seminary spends more time honing the skill set and it broadens and deepens theological thinking. It blends personal maturity with learning. In other words, about the time you”re in seminary, you”re old enough to get it. It”s a wonderful experience of coalescing involvement in real, live ministry and learning at the same time.
So once again, the maturity factor comes into play.
Adult learners retain a lot more than others. A seminarian typically is at that level””he has experience and has gotten rid of all the childish ways.
Is seminary the logical next step after Bible college, or does it apply to a specific subset of ministers?
It really allows you to develop areas of concentration. A Bible college education is fairly general. It isn”t for everybody. But I do believe the undergrad Bible college does a good job of what some call a pre-seminary degree.
Denominational pastors are often seen as seminary graduates. Is there a reason our churches tend toward the Bible college model?
The Bible college model is completely different from what most denominational models use. The Bible college movement was designed to combat classical liberalism when most seminaries had given way to it. It was a bastion of conservatism. It was also an inexpensive undergraduate seminary for nonmainline denominations. So it originally was designed to do what most denominations do””you go for undergraduate education, then attend seminary.
But that”s often not the case with our ministers.
Consequently, seminary looks like an extraordinary option, when in most denominations it”s mandatory. The Bible college movement in the last 100 years invented this sort of detour to ministry preparation. There are questions about the validity of the Bible college movement in the future because of that. It”s something our brotherhood will have to wrestle with.
How is a ministry education similar to that of other professions (medicine, law, business, etc.)? Or is it?
The simple answer is, it”s a profession in which you”d like to expect an appropriate level of expertise””that ministers have core competencies in their theology and that they have a strong knowledge base. Their skill sets involve competence in who they are and what they do. Frankly, most if not all professions of that level require graduate education.
The age-old axiom from ministers seems to be, “They didn”t teach me that in Bible college!” How do you react to that?
We realistically cannot do everything for a student in a four-year educational program, which is why we advocate seminary education. No matter who you are and when you went, continuing education has to be a part of the process. Ministry is a lifelong call to learning.
Are there circumstances a minister faces for which one cannot be prepared?
Yes. One is the degree of crises that happen in leadership ministry. For example, a minister gets a phone call in the middle of the night that someone”s daughter has been killed. Another would be the unpredictability of the cultural malaise that we find ourselves in. There is an acute breakdown in the health and well-being of the average American today. We have serious problems in our culture with how people are doing psychologically and emotionally.
Shouldn”t the church take responsibility to lead the culture?
About the time you figure something out in our culture, it changes. I call it “chasing the wind.” We would like to do a little more “weather forecasting” before the tsunami hits the beach. We would like to give students better skill sets for interpreting cultural trends. We like to allude to 1 Chronicles 12:32, which mentions the “men of Issachar, who understood the times and knew what Israel should do.” One tribe understood the times so the whole nation of Israel would know what to do. So the way to counteract the circumstances is to develop leaders who can see with cultural clarity, and then to develop maturity in them so they provide clarity for cultural issues and personal stability in times of crisis.
What are the ministry issues churches face today that they might not have faced 30 years ago?
The loss of Christian assumptions and biblical knowledge in the church and in the culture. The complete breakdown of the family system. The clear loss of cultural authority. Where there is no cultural authority, there”s no point of reference for people when you need to give them direction.
Have the problems become too large to handle?
No. The problems churches face today are much like the problems first-century churches faced. The church has been here before””we”ve just gotten spoiled in America. The church through history has seen much worse times. We”ve just lost our vantage point.
What can we learn from the approach of the first-century church?
The local church needs to recover biblical authority within its own setting. It needs to recover a first-century vision for ministry and be relevantly engaged, even if we”re not wanted sometimes. It may very well change how we “do church.” What are we doing in ministry in our churches to seriously address those problems? I spend most of my time thinking about how we posture ourselves to address those things.
How does that thinking reflect on Lincoln Christian University”s vision?
There”s a fourfold underpinning of Lincoln that says it appropriately: We have a resolve to reengage theological significance; second. we have a deep desire to achieve cultural relevance; third, we pursue practical competence with all our might (that”s all about the skill sets); and the fourth is experiential wholeness””experiential learning. This generation is experientially driven. When you intertwine those four components, the belief is you prepare people to do anything, anywhere, at any time for God.
How have you seen our churches (collectively) relate to culture?
There”s a bit of a sense that the fundamentalist side of the Restoration Movement has been anticulture. In fact, I think we”ve moved from anticulture to complete submersion in the culture, where the temptation is to mimic and mirror culture so much that we”ve lost our Christian distinctive. I don”t want to be at either end of the spectrum. I don”t want to be a church that is isolated from culture, but at some point you need to have a distinctive from culture. Os Guinness said the church is accepting of culture and at the same time rejects culture. Lincoln tries to be deeply tied to biblical, theological truths, but also advocates that students be students of the time””that students understand the times so the church can be the anchor and the guiding light. We should be interested in creating culture, not just be imitators of it.
How does Lincoln get input from ministers in the field to help make practical ministry education truly practical?
It”s both informal and formal. The informal part comes from our engagement with our alumni, including surveys and feedback and collaboration I have with church representatives who are a part of our constituency. The other way, which is a little more formal, is when we have leadership conferences on campus with workshops that address particular issues. Perhaps the most formal part of informing the school is that our students have a six-month internship requirement where the reciprocity and feedback shapes our practical ministries.
How has teaching ministry from a practical perspective changed in the last few decades?
Specifically, we”ve seen the evolution of preaching courses that give more credence to a variety of preaching styles and techniques. Evangelism once would have been a sort of standard technique, and now it”s more driven by the setting you”re in; it”s more customized””even to a point of how worship can be seeker-sensitive or seeker-driven. Pastoral leadership is much more customized to the gifting of a leader and the context in which they are serving. Counseling skills are required because of where people are. We see that change because of the degree or kinds of problems people face.
How about the “business” of running a church?
We emphasize the development of broad, sweeping leadership capacity as opposed to management techniques and procedures. There is a difference. Leaders learn to do the right thing; managers worry about doing things right. A leader develops discernment to say, “We can always change methods and techniques”; where a manager says, “That”s how I was taught at school.” Doing the right things versus doing things right has some value.
Brad Dupray is senior vice president, investor development, with Church Development Fund, Irvine, California.
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