Eleven
Eleven years ago April and I moved to Louisville, Kentucky, to start a job that was supposed to last two years. I was finishing my doctorate and I accepted a position as a recruiter for Boyce College. It was a short-term commitment that coincided with my academic program. That was eleven years ago. It has been eleven sweet, underserved, blessed years. Our hearts are full of gratitude.
Earlier today Cedarville University announced that I will be joining their faculty as Associate Professor of Biblical Apologetics and Applied Theology. I will also be the founding director of the Center for Biblical Apologetics and Public Christianity. Our family will move to Ohio this summer. We are humbled and grateful for this opportunity.
But we will look in our rearview mirror with tear-filled eyes as we drive north on I-71. We have loved this city. We have loved Southern Seminary and Boyce College. This is the only home our family has ever known, as all four of our children were born at Norton Suburban Hospital, not far from campus.
My kids think the seminary lawn, affectionally dubbed the Jospephus Bowl, is something like their backyard. They think the faculty and staff are something like aunts and uncles. The twins, who share a birthday with Dr. Mohler, think it is normal for the president of the largest seminary in the world to drop in on their birthday party.
We love this place and these people. But we sense a calling to focus on a passion that God has placed deeply in my heart. I love teaching worldview and apologetics. I love writing. The opportunity to focus on these two things in a liberal arts setting where I can invest in students preparing for a diversity of vocations was captivating. As difficult of a decision as this was, we truly sense the Lord’s leading.
I cannot adequately articulate my appreciation for our family’s time in Louisville. Over the last eleven years we’ve had amazing leaders invest in us: the Mohler family, the Dumas family, the Ezells, the Scroggins, and the list could go on and on. I’ve worked with amazing colleagues at Boyce and at Southern. I’ve had a phenomenal staff at the college who really are the ones who make things happen. We’ve come to know and love a ton of serious-gospel-minded college students who are going to do great things for God. And we have formed deep friendships here that we pray will last a lifetime.
At the interview with the trustees at Cedarville University I was asked to describe the influence that Dr. Russell Moore and Dr. Albert Mohler have had on my life. I was thankful for the question. My answer was simple. I wouldn’t be who I am or where I am without them. They have left an indelible mark on my life. And I hope to transfer that, by God’s grace, as much as is humanly possible, to students seeking to take the gospel into numerous professions from literature to law, from medicine to ministry, for the glory of God.
Soli Deo Gloria