It's Never Too Late

By Robert Harden, D.Min.
Dean of Harrison School of Graduate Studies
rharden@sagu.edu

He came into my office, sat down across from my desk and began to tell me about the call of God upon his life.

“I feel like God wants me to train pastors in Russia”, he said. “I have been over there many times and they have a thirst for the word that I have witnessed in very few places. In order to be recognized by the government I need to have a Masters degree, so I want to enroll in the Masters program at SAGU.”

The idea of a student being called to train pastors is not anything new for me. What was new was that this student was a friend that I’ve known for 18 years; a successful pastor and businessman in the area and here he was at 75 years of age with tears in his eyes, telling me that God has renewed his vision and he feels a need to get his Masters Degree to fulfill that vision!

He came into my office to open a class in Leadership in Ministry. Dressed in blue jeans and a plain plaid button up shirt, he looked like any other “50- something” student.

As we began to talk, I asked him where he was from and what he did for a living. It was then that he told me that he was in the last few hours of his Masters degree in Theology with a practical track and that he was a District Court judge just five years from retirement. He felt that God had something in store for him after he retired and he was preparing for it academically.

It’s my practice during the first class lecture to get to know my students. I take the first minutes of class and introduce myself and then the class members introduce themselves to each other. The usual introductions follow, “my name, my wife/husband, and we have children and I work here.” But this particular class last fall was different.

One man in his early thirties told me that he had just resigned his church. God was calling him into Military Chaplaincy. The next man who was in his mid to upper forties introduced himself as a retired Colonel from the United States Army. His last assignment was as a JAG officer in Germany.

Each year brings more and more people with successful careers and positions or after retirement coming back to school to enter into “full time” ministry to fulfill God’s call. Many with a fresh call others fulfilling life long visions that God birthed into their souls in prior years, some while they were undergrads in college.

God may be stirring you to fulfill the call He placed on your life! Whether today or many years ago, God’s timetable is never wrong! So it is never too late to follow after what God has called you to do.

The Harrison School of Graduate Studies is the place to complete your academics to follow that call!