Beeson Podcast, Episode #713 Dr. Timothy Tennant Date >>Announcer: Welcome to the Beeson podcast, coming to you from Beeson Divinity School on the campus of Samford University. Now your host, Doug Sweeney. >>Doug Sweeney: Welcome to the Beeson Podcast. I am your host, Doug Sweeney and I am joined today by my friend and newest faculty member here at Beeson Divinity School, Dr. Tim Tennant. Dr. Tennant is our new Methodist Chair of Divinity at Beeson. He’s also well known for being a missiologist, an expert in missions and world Christianity. And we are just thrilled to have him here on the Beeson team and to have him on the podcast today. So, thank you Dr. Tennant for being with us. >>Tennant: Thank you, Doug. It’s an honor to be here. Thank you. >>Doug Sweeney: So, lots of us in the larger Beeson family are getting to know you these days, probably will have some people tuning into this podcast who haven’t yet had the privilege of getting to know you. So, let me start by just introducing you to them. Let’s see. Tell us how you came to know the Lord, to begin with, and how you got involved in ministry as a young man. >>Tennant: Well, thank you I was raised in Atlanta by wonderful godly parents, but I didn’t really here the gospel with clarity until 1976 when I was a young junior in high school. I was invited to a Southern Baptist layperson’s home for a Bible study, which I attended, and he eventually shared the gospel with me with clarity and led me into receiving Christ, my Lord and Savior. >>Doug Sweeney: Wonderful. And then how long was it before you felt like the Lord was pulling you into the ministry? >>Tennant: It was about three years after that that I was at a small Methodist college in Georgia called Young Harris. And it was during that time that I had a very powerful encounter with the Lord and He called me into full time ministry. And so, that’s where I’ve been headed ever since. >>Doug Sweeney: So, our listeners should know your ministry has been varied. You’ve been a pastor. You’ve been a professor. You’ve been the president of a seminary. And you’ve taught in multiple schools, different kinds of schools over the years. How did it all get started Was pastoral ministry first? >>Tennant: Yes, pastoral ministry was first. And at some point, I was living close to a college in Georgia called Toccoa Falls College and so, I taught some theology courses for them part time. And then that eventually rolled into them offering a position to teach missions there because I was involved. I had been teaching over seas in India before that, but I returned to the U.S. It happened at Toccoa Falls College. And then I went from there to Gorden-Conwell and then from there to Asbury. >>Doug Sweeney: How long did you teach at Gorden-Conwell? They’re one of our sister schools too. >>Tennant: Yes. I taught there, I directed missions program for 11 years there. >>Doug Sweeney: Alright. And during that 11 years, we’ve got a lot of pastors and other perspective students thinking about ministry leadership who would like a question like this, I believe. >>Tennant: Okay. >>Doug Sweeney: Were you getting kind of groomed to be the president of a school during that time? Were you thinking all the while, you know what, I’m a prof, and I like being a prof, and I like preaching in churches and doing all the things that seminary profs do with no thought of being the leader of a school someday? How did God kind of get you ready to be the president of one of the largest seminaries in the country? >>Tennant: Well, the short answer is no. I had not thought about that, and I was not particularly interested in some day being in an administrative role like that. I love teaching. I love being with students. But about 2005, I was nominated to be a part of a small study by the Lilly Foundation on could you prepare people to be a president. >>Doug Sweeney: Yes, I remember those. >>Tennant: Remember that? And so, I was one of only four people selected for that program. It was a three-year program. We went all over the country and interviewed presidents, found out what they did, etc. And one of the ironies of that is that we among ourselves said, well, after we know too much, who would now do it? You know? Is this supposed to help us? We used to joke and laugh about it. But after the end of three years, we realized how important the job was. And at the time, I had no idea that I’d be called into it. In fact, of the four of us, I was the first of the four to actually get a call to be a president. And so, I had originally resisted it. I got several offers from Asbury to come and interview. I said no. I wasn’t interested. I was happy where I was. But eventually, the Lord just impressed upon us we were to answer that. And so, we eventually went down there and talked to the trustees and it all eventually happened. I was made president. So, that all happened 15 and half years ago. But, no, it was a little bit of a surprise but a wonderful time because it was like being in a factory, you know, where you work on the factory line doing something, you never really knew how the factory worked, you know. And suddenly, I was brought into a world of having to understand, you know, a role in management, understanding, you know, finances, understanding physical plan issues, you know, raising money. I mean, on and on and on. And all of that was, you know, I knew it from a distance, but not really intimately. So, it was a tremendous, wonderful learning curve. I thank God for it. But it was a change of direction in my life, for sure. >>Doug Sweeney: Yeah. Well, what a blessing it is for us at Beeson to have somebody with all that kind of life experience, ministry experience, pastoral leadership experience, now joining the teaching team here in Birmingham. When did you, I’m not sure you’ll have an exact answer to this, but roughly, when did you first learn about Beeson? I mean, how did God start working in your heart, preparing you for this someday opportunity, come join us? >>Tennant: I think I’ve known about Beeson for quite a long time. I remember hearing about Beeson, you know, in some of the early years. I didn’t know much about it. But during my Gordon-Conwell years, which would have been 1998 to 2009, that period, I became much more of Beeson, and I of course got connected to Timoth George in various settings. And so, he was kind enough to invite me to be a part of various endeavors he was involved in. So, I’ve been down here a few times over the years, spoke at a graduation one year, did a couple lectureships. So, I’ve always admired Beeson. I love the emphasis on classical education. I love the multidimensional aspect of the different denominations here, the kind of evangelical vision. I love the mentoring aspect of Beeson. Everything about Beeson I’ve always just admired from a distance, even though I’d never been a part of it. So, it’s just a surprise and honor to be able to be part of it now. >>Doug Sweeney: Yeah. Well, and I don’t want to puff you up, but you’re such a gift to the church, that I know because I recruited you to come to Beeson, that there were other people trying to get you to go other places. Was there something decisive about us? So, why did you and Julie think the Lord had Beeson in mind for you rather than lots of other places that you might have gone? >>Tennant: Yeah. I was here, you know, as you know, I was here doing a lectureship last spring and had not thought about coming here and was actually on my way somewhere else and in pretty serious conversations with another school. But you and I talked together, and I think it was that conversation with you and your compelling vision for Beeson here you wanted to have, you made a big point, I don’t know if you remember this Dr. Sweeney, but you made a point in our conversation to say that when you came here that you really had an interest in helping to introduce Beeson to world Christianity. And when you said that to me, it really struck me. And so, I went back, and I looked at your inaugural address or whatever, something that you had done when you first got here, and indeed you had said that and that was something that really was in your heart, not just because you were talking to me. And so, I think that was a real determinative thing for me to realized that God was calling us here. >>Doug Sweeney: Alright. So, you’re too new to ask you any sort of big questions about, so what’s Beeson like thus far. But maybe an interesting question would be, have you had a chance to catch your breath and just think a little bit about, so how does having been the president of Asbury, how is that something the Lord wants to continue using in my ministry at Beeson? Is there something about the lessons you learned about ministry, the church, leadership, global methodism, that kind of thing that you’re believing now the Lord was using, not solely to bring you to Beeson, but wants to use in your ministry here at Beeson? >>Tennant: Oh certainly. I think that, as you know Doug, you know, when you’re a pastor and you move from being a pastor to being a professor, everything in your pastoring informs your work as a scholar because you’re writing and working for the church. And so, I do think it’s a blessing to have had 15 years working night and day on all the issues that Beeson, I’m sure, struggles with the same issues. And so of course, when I come here, I bring all that I am and all that I’ve experienced, and I’d certainly be happy to help any way I can from what I’ve learned. >>Doug Sweeney: Well, there’s two obvious ways that everybody’s eager to have your help. One is you’re an expert in world Christianity missions, the work of the Lord around the world. The other is, you’re one of the most important leaders of global methodism today. So, maybe I’ll ask you about those things in turn. What do our listeners need to know about what God’s doing in the world today and it means, whether you’re a pastor or you’re a lay Christian, to be somebody who’s faithful enough in your discipleship so that you’re learning about the larger family of God, you’re better at praying about the work of the Lord around the world, and you’re somebody who’s developing the kind of heart, the kind of instincts that make you just a more helpful member of God’s global family. What’s the kind of teaching ministry with respect to world Christianity and missiology that you want to kind of filter down into the churches and really affect lots of church folks? >>Tennant: That’s a great question. I think if we go back, you know, a generation, people thought about global Christianity, if they thought about it at all, was something that was like, you know, missionary work, other parts of the world. It was not really something that impacted our life, our churches here. But just to give you a sense of where we are globally, when I was born, when you were born, roughly 10 to 11 million people in the world lived outside of the country of their birth, 10-11 million people. Today it’s 281 million. >>Doug Sweeney: Wow. >>Tennant: So, we actually are living at a time that hasn’t quite been this way since, you know, the invasion that eventually brought down the Roman Empire. It’s been a long time since this many people have been on the move, and never at this scale ever in history. So, what it means is that the entire world is here in Birmingham and every other city that hears this podcast. And so, if you’re a pastor today, it’s not simply about, you know, how can we, what can we do for churches in India and China, etc. That’s of course a big challenge as well, but it’s also realizing that the whole global church is also here. The U.S. is unique in that every person from at least some way from every country in the world is in the U.S. And so, U.S. really has a unique roll in the future of world Christianity. And so, I think as a pastor, one has to be aware of the fact that the world as we know it is changing even if you never go over seas and work, you know, with other [inaudible 00:12:06] groups or special missional needs in the world because they’re right here in our midst. >>Doug Sweeney: Wonderful. Alright, let’s talk a little bit about Beeson’s Wesleyan Certificate Program, the fact that Beeson is now an approved seminary of the Global Methodist Church. It’s not that we’re just now starting to serve and partner with Wesleyans and Methodists in ministry. We’ve done that for a while. But things are picking up in this respect these days at Beeson. The Wesleyan Certificate is relatively new. The approval by the GMC, the Global Methodist Church, is relatively new. And of course, we’ve got a wonderful new leader of the Wesleyan program here at Beeson. Any initial thoughts about hopes you have for building up the Wesleyan program at Beeson, goals you might have in mind for us as a school that’s trying harder and harder these days to serve and partner with Wesleyans? >>Tennant: Yes. I think Beeson is a great opportunity for people to come from the Wesleyan world and study here. I’ll be teaching the courses in that area. I think that I’ve just always believed that every movement in some way, by the way there’s 45 thousand denominations in the world today, it’s unbelievable, but every movement goes back to somebody raising their hand and saying something was missing, something happened, goes back to some renewal movement. And I think the Methodist, because they did come 200 years after the reformation, they were able to reflect back on information with some helpfulness and I’ve always believed in the phrase, as I know you know, the semper ecclesia reformanda, the church is always in reformation. So, I believe there’s gifts that the Wesleyan world can offer the wider church in terms of our understanding of grace and sanctification of holiness, discipleship, etc. that I think would be a blessing to all of the students at Beeson, and likewise the gifts that come out of the, you know, Baptist movements preparatory and reform, Anglican, etc. also enrich us. And so, I do believe that coming here, in some ways, helps you be a more ecumenical Christian in the right sense of that word, across the larger work of North America and global Christianity. So, I think Beeson would be a wonderful place for Wesleyans to study and we hope and pray that we can make good partnerships all throughout the region. I know the bishop of this area very well and we just hope that we can make this place a welcoming place for students. >>Doug Sweeney: I hope so too. You love writing. Presidents don’t get a lot of time to get books written, although you did get some books written while you were president at Asbury. You have comparatively more time now. Thinking about the future, kind of getting back into being a regular professor again who can write books if you’d like, anything on your mind that might like to get to down the road? >>Tennant: Sure. I’m definitely interested in writing a book on, like an introduction to global Christianity. I do think that I would, I think the piece that, there’s several books out there on the theme, but I would like to do one that’s a little more theologically oriented rather than some of the historical where I can look at what’s happening theologically in the world. I’m also really interested in what is called global diaspora or diaspora missiology because a lot of the way missions is still framed is around strict use of geography. People still say, where are you a missionary, not to whom you’re a missionary. So, we still have a church that’s largely framed in terms of geographic places. And yet today, with the mass of global diaspora, it’s changing how we understand the work of missions. And so, I like to do a lot more study in what’s called diaspora missiology. I’d love to just write on that area too. >>Doug Sweeney: Sounds great. Alright, we’re about out of time. But Beeson is, as I hope you are learning already, is a praying community. We believe in prayer and the power of prayer. We believe the Lord wants us to be praying without ceasing. And some of our listeners, I know, like to pray for our professors and ministries at Beeson. So, those who are listening now, they want to get to know you and they want to be including you in their prayer lives. What should they be praying about for Dr. Tim Tennant? >>Tennant: Well, always pray first and foremost that my wife and I will be completely consecrated to the Lord in all that we do, that we would always walk with Him and be sensitive to his calling. Secondly, that we would be able to make good connections with the Wesleyan world. I’ve been in Kentucky for 15 years. There’s a lot of Wesleyans in Alabama and the southeast that I need to get to know. So, I need to do a lot of traveling and meeting and speaking. And so, that’s just part of what I need to do. And so, just pray that the Lord will give me the right discernment on where to go, when to go, and who to meet, and how I can best network for the sake of Beeson. >>Doug Sweeney: Alright friends, you have been listening to Dr. Tim Tennant. He is an expert in missions, world Christianity. He’s the new Methodist Chair of Divinity here at Beeson Divinity School. Please keep him and his wife, Julie, in your prayers in the days ahead. Remember that we’re praying for you too. We love you. And we say goodbye for now. >>Announcer: You’ve been listening to the Beeson podcast; coming to you from the campus of Samford University. Our theme music is by Advent Birmingham. Our announcer is Mark Gignilliat. Our engineer is Rob Willis. Our producer is Neal Embry. And our show host is Doug Sweeney. For more episodes and to subscribe, visit BeesonDivinity.com/podcast. You can also find the Beeson Podcast on iTunes, YouTube, and Spotify.