177. Summer Interview With Luther Rice College - President Steven Steinhilber and Dr Marcus Merritt

You guys are not brothers with that hair. It's crazy to me. I mean, it's the same view. My hair, actually, as a kid, used to be that color. Yeah. Over the years, it's darkened up. Isn't that crazy? Yeah. When did y'all first, how old were y'all when you met? Israel? Yeah, well. No kidding. How old were you? The meetup. Bourbon meetup. Bourbon meetup. Okay. Yeah, but we really didn't know each other that well. Israel was the time we really played out. I did not know that. Yeah. We were on the Seat Gallo-Lea, and I said, Brett, I think John's going to bail out the podcast. Would you come on and help me as a co-host? Wow, I didn't know that. It was you. It was me. It was all you, Mark. I brought you together. Seven degrees of separation from Kevin Bacon. It's time to care. That's exactly right. I just assumed they were best buddies, because they hung out together the whole time. Just brothers from another mother. Now, remember, you got sick, and I had some really good over-the-counter medication, and I'd left it on the bus, and I felt so bad, that I could tell you didn't feel good. No, no. It was a quick sickness. I missed out on that fish house, though. Yeah. Right. I found my freedom in you. I found a joy I can't lose. And thank God it's true. You wrapped your arms around me, and heaven broke through from the moment you found me. I found my freedom in you. Welcome to the For Freedom Podcast. This podcast exists to bring the freedom of the gospel for everyday Christians with everyday issues. Now, here are your hosts, James Safer and Brad Martin. All right. Well, we're here today with Steve and Marcus from Luther Rice. And if you don't know Luther Rice, this is the combination of Martin Luther and John R. They came together and formulated an independent Fundamental Baptist College. It fits our series of the fundamentals, the foundation of fundamentals. And so they're just going to sort of share the history of where we're at. If you listen to RFP, Marcus was just on there and got to share a little bit about what's going on. But we've got the president here, Steve, the man in charge, the myth, the legend. And we want to just sort of hear the heart of what's going on at Luther Rice and what you guys have going on. I appreciate that, James and Brad. It's good to be here. And good to be here with Marcus as well. I appreciate the independent Fundamental Baptist introduction. I've been here over 13 years. That's the first time I've ever heard us explained like that. But no, we've been around since 1962. Dr. Robert Witte started the school in Jacksonville, Florida. He decided that not only were we going to train people for ministry, but we were going to train people in the ministry. And a lot of the pastors could not pack up their families and move their family to a seminary. So he decided he was going to do it via distance education. And he started out by doing a correspondence. Well, here we are now with the internet. We think that thing's going to take off here sometime soon. And we use that for online education now. So here we're still doing distance education. Primarily, I think we have, what, about 1,000 students right now, Doc? I would say almost 99% of those students do their work 100% online. A couple of the doctoral students come in for the one-week modules. But it's just our average age student right now is anywhere between 30 and 50 years old. It's a man or a woman that's in ministry, has a job, has a family, and is crazy enough to try to figure in an education. So that's what we're really good at. And our professors are dedicated to that. But the most important thing is the fact that we still believe that God's Word is infallible, inspired, inerrant, and authoritative for our lives. So that's what we teach at Luther Ice. It undergirds everything we do. And we're not ashamed of that. You guys aren't a Southern Baptist seminary. But you guys sort of, I think if I remember correctly, you spawned out of the conservative resurgence. Tell us a little bit about that. Yeah, so we don't get any of the cooperative funds from the Southern. They let us play in the reindeer games here, right? So we can get a booth here and hang out and recruit. But no, we've always been independent since 1962. But yeah, we spawned out of really where I think we gained our traction was a conservative resurgence. So Dr. Charles Stanley's a graduate of ours. Jerry Vines is a graduate of ours. Stephen Olford is a graduate of ours. So back in the day when that was hot and heavy, our guys were on the pulpit or being nominated as president to rock, to move this convention into a conservative perspective. So we still stand on that today. Now, before we started, Marcus, you said you had the perfect face for podcasting. So I wanted to ask you a question. What kind of programs does Luther Rice offer for anyone that might be interested in attending? Well, thank you, Brett. Obviously, I think everybody should do a doctor of ministry because I'm the director of that program. But not everybody's there. And I understand that. Thanks to our president, we have all kind of new offerings now. For example, say you have no education at all, no formal education at all, and you're a pastor of a church. You don't have the time or the money or the ability to do a full degree. Well, you can do a certificate now. A certificate is three courses. For example, if you took a certificate in biblical education, that would be the three courses would be like Old Testament survey, New Testament survey, and Introduction to Hermeneutics. I mean, what three better classes could a pastor ask for than that? And then once they complete that certificate, they could actually come to graduation in Conyers, Georgia, and they could march in cap and gown and graduate with that certificate. They could be done there. Or that pastor or that Christian may say, I want to do another certificate. Or they may say, I want to roll this certificate into a full degree. And everything they've done would go right into a bachelor's degree. And they could work towards that 120-hour bachelor's degree. So I love the front-end offering of certificates for pastors for ministry, for anybody that's in ministry. And then we also have another new program that Dr. Stein Hilber has spearheaded. We have an associate's degree in general studies. We also have, in addition to our long hell, which is what I have, a bachelor of arts in religion, we have now a bachelor of arts in psychology from a biblical, conservative, Christian perspective. So not everybody in your church is called to full-time ministry. And so that's why we've added some of these degrees. And obviously, we have all the master's degrees, Master of Divinity, Master of Arts, and the D-Men, which is my program. And we have two PhDs, PhD in organizational leadership, which could be used, maybe work for Coke or Delta. You know, you could use that in a secular setting. We also have a PhD in Christian scripture. And anyone that graduates with that degree would be qualified to teach not only Old Testament, but also teach New Testament. So it's a wonderful, all-encompassing PhD. And in addition to that, again, and I hate to, I don't want my president to think I'm just gloating on him because he's standing right here and because his name's on my paycheck. But another one of, part of the reason is that. But another one of his vision was not only are we to equip for the ministry, but also for the marketplace. How many people in your churches are going to be full-time ministers? Not many, probably. But everybody's going to be in the marketplace. So we've now, uh, have the funds in place to begin the Nall School of Business. And I'm sure Dr. Stein Hilbert has much more information about that than I know. So, but those are just some of the degree programs that we offer. Now, one thing, when you say 100% online, you absolutely mean that. I mean, me being in Mississippi, I could take it and not have to go to Georgia at all. It's just 100% online, the whole program. Yeah. And you don't have to be online at any particular time. You just have to get your weekly assignments done. So the academic week starts at Monday at 12 a.m. And then goes through 1159 on Sunday. And so our classes are what's called asynchronous, right? So you can access them at any time. We have the video lectures already recorded for you. So you can watch them, re-watch them, re-watch them, fall asleep, write down what time you're at, come back the next morning, wake up and watch it again. So it just offers the flexibility. You know, I was in school and I just didn't have the time to go to the classroom. And, uh, and Luther Rice helped me do that. So. We had a cigar this past week with a guy named Daniel Wynn. And, uh, Daniel and his wife that went to an unaccredited Bible college had received credits and now they sort of got burned out. But now she has a re-intervigored spirit to begin to go back to, uh, school to get a teaching education, teaching degree. And she enrolled in several colleges and they wouldn't accept any of their college credits that she took. They couldn't provide syllabuses for the classes that she took. The college wouldn't do that. So no college. So she had to start back from square one. So in our world, a lot of that, we have an unaccredited Bible college degree. Brett has two unaccredited Bible college degrees from two different colleges. Um, he was able to go through a college that helped out a little bit of that. What would you say to someone that has that college experience, but maybe it's from an unaccredited college. I know you guys are full tracks and sacks accreditation. Yep. And so what would you tell someone that is wanting that they spent all the money in the, of the years that someone told them to go there? How would you advise someone in that area? Yeah. First of all, I would say, listen, the education that you got from that unaccredited school, just because it's unaccredited does not mean it's not worth anything. Uh, normally at the under, at the, you know, the Bible college level or the Christian school, a lot of those schools just don't have the financial resources to get that accreditation. That has no bearing on the quality of the education you got. So first of all, I just tell anybody, even like yourselves, like, don't, don't, don't worry about that, right? Like it's, it's more about what you learn in the education versus, versus the, the accreditation that you have. Now, if you wanted to further your education at a place like Luther Rice, we do accept non-accredited schools, but we do have to evaluate the courses and the syllabi and so forth. But, um, so my recommendation would be just go to a school like a Luther Rice and just ask them and say, hey, listen, is, is this something that you would evaluate? And, uh, most schools will try to do that. Uh, we try to give the, the student the benefit of the doubt because we know the arena we're in and, uh, and we know that the education that you got was worth it. It's just the, the school didn't have the resources. So selfishly, I'm going to say, hey, give Luther Rice a try. Uh, let our office of admissions evaluate those transcripts and, uh, we'll see if we can get you in. I'm not going to call school names, but I'll tell you, uh, I've seen credits be given. For some schools that aren't, you know, on the level that we're on. So I know it can't, it can happen. Now, y'all, you mentioned something a while ago about business going into that arena. Can you tell us more about that? Yeah. So I'm an accountant by trade. I'm a bean counter, right? So, uh, I came into higher ed about 13 years ago. I just turned to call to ministry and just enrolled as a student at Luther Rice. And then here I am 13 years later as president. It's bonkers. Um, but again, I, I worked in the marketplace for about 15 years and I was a winsome ambassador for Christ in the business world. And so when we had the opportunity, we had a major donor give us a $300,000 gift this year to start a school of business. So Lord willing, we get this, um, uh, we get the accreditor's approval starting this spring. We'll have a bachelor of arts in business administration. And our goal is just to equip men and women who've called to be businessmen and women, uh, but also want to be winsome ambassadors for Christ in the marketplace. So we're going to teach it from a biblical worldview, very heavy on business, right? We want this to be a business degree that you can utilize and succeed in that market. But, uh, we also want to equip you to be able to do it from a, you know, an ethical worldview, you know, so we're going to, we're going to have a business ethics degree, uh, class, uh, an evangelism class and, um, you name it, it'll be from a biblical worldview. So is this going to be like business, uh, is there, will there be specific business degrees or just be a general business degree? Yeah, it'll be a gen, it'll be a general bachelor of arts in business administration degree, but you're going to have economics, accounting, marketing, uh, uh, finance, statistics, you name it. It's, it's, it's going to be your general degree. A little birdie told me that you guys were thinking of starting an associate's degree for bikers that were looking to be a biker education. I was just trying to figure out where that was at. Yeah. Yeah. Dr. Merritt is a resident biker. You know, I, I had to give up my bike about, uh, about six years ago. I used to ride quite a bit, but we leave, uh, the bike in the dock now. When you have a beard like that, you got no choice but to be a biker. Yeah, absolutely. And you know, I, I, I, he shared something on Facebook. I think he shared more about the bike exhibit around here than he even did Luther Rice's exhibit. So I'm trying to figure out where that was going to be incorporated. The guy's never in the office anymore. It's like, Hey man, it's a doc. I got to go to Israel. I've got to go to Greece. I got to go to Daytona for bike week. Let's go to Sturgis. So, uh, yeah, he's only here for our modules anymore. That's good. That's good. That's why it's all online because doctors got to be gone all the time. In my defense, I am not a biker. I'm a motorcyclist. And there's a big difference. That's right. Well, my dad, he drives motorcycles as well. So I've been in it my whole life. So you said you enrolled 13 years ago at Luther Rice. Was Dr. Merritt one of your teachers or how was that? No, he, he was still with the, uh, the mission board at that time. Actually, I, real quick, funny story is we had, we were hiring for his position. So I called him up knowing he knew everybody in the state of Georgia. I said, man, I got an open position. You know, everybody, you know, anybody that'd be interested in it. And he goes, yeah, I know one guy, me. I was like, yeah, that's exactly who I wanted. He was, he was ready to get out of the convention work and ready to get back into education. I love it. Well, any final thoughts or closing things from Luther Rice to encourage someone that's trying to figure out where they're at, where they want to go? Well, I would say so many of us at Luther Rice that are on the faculty are guys and, uh, some ladies too, that, uh, maybe later in life was called a ministry. Uh, I have a heating and air conditioning certification. I had a heating and air conditioning company when I was in the eighties and nineties. So it, you don't have to be fresh out of high school to go into college and then into seminary and then into the ministry, wherever you're at, if God's calling you to ministry, then God's calling you to prepare. And Luther Rice, uh, doc, what's our average age? Like 35 to 50, something like that. And it's never too late. It's never too late. And since our, uh, our offerings, our courses are online, uh, really you have no excuse. If God's calling you into ministry, or maybe you're already in ministry, but you feel like God is calling you to take it to the next level, then I would encourage you to just go online, check out Luther Rice, give us a call. And we'd be happy to talk with you. And it's a lot less complicated to get enrolled and to get started than most people probably think. Well, thank you, man, for coming on today. Appreciate you guys giving us a little bit of time. Looking forward to our lunch tomorrow with you guys. Uh, it's always been a highlight the last three years that Marcus has invited us to be there as friends, not alumni, but as friends of Marcus's. And I think there's more friends of Marcus there than, than there are alumni. It should be the friends of Marcus. And so we appreciate it. And thank you guys for all your work. Uh, until next time to God be the glory. Great things he has done. Found my new name. Found that good grace. Found that healing. And the tears fell down my face. When I found my beginning. That has no ending. Found that second chance. Found my best friend. Found my forgiveness. Found my happiness. I've been singing ever since. I found my freedom in you. Thanks for listening to the For Freedom Podcast. If you enjoyed our content, do us a favor by liking, subscribing, or sharing our podcast on whichever podcast platform you use. Be sure to join us next time for the For Freedom Podcast.

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