205. Marcus Merritt on Luther Rice College

All right, welcome to the For Freedom Podcast. We are here live on location in Jerusalem, Israel, and me and Brett are excited to be here in Israel. Brett, why don't you introduce our guest for today? We have the one, the only, the renowned, the astounding Dr. Marcus Merritt from Luther Rice Seminary, and we're glad to have him. We've been spending all week with him, and couldn't think of a better guy to go to Israel with, and we are thankful that you're here with us, that you're taking time, and thank you for being here with us. It is my joy and my delight and my pleasure, and I can't believe you guys aren't sick of me yet, and you let me come up and do a podcast episode with you. I'm honored. Yeah, well, you know, someone was talking about how it's been a good day, and I'd mentioned any day with Marcus is a good day, and so that's always a blessing. It's always a great thing. It's me and Brett's second time. It's our three-year reunion for men in Israel, and man, we're going to talk about that in our next episode, but we're excited about what's going on with Luther Rice. We are trying to be some, even though me and Brett are not graduates of Luther Rice, we're ambassadors for good causes, and we like to promote things that are good, and they're healthy, and they're going to be good for people's education and spiritual growth, and so you were telling us just a couple of days ago and looking through some new things that are going on with Luther Rice. They've got a new bivocational bachelor's two-year degree. Tell us a little about what's going on, and then we'll throw it to Brett for a couple of other things. I'd be glad to. Yeah, it's a two-year associate's degree to a four-year bachelor's degree program, and I'll tell you how that works, but let me just first tell you about my experience. I came out of high school and was not going into the ministry, was not going to be a pastor or anything like that, so I come out of high school, and I go to Marietta Cobb Vocational Technical School, and I take heating and air conditioning, and yes, I can still do heating and air conditioning to this day, and so that was what I did. I did heating and air, and then when God called me to preach and I began looking at my theological education, I knew I needed some grounding in the ministry and in the Word of God and preaching and all that you learn in Bible college, so I start off at ground zero. I've got this associate's degree, this technical degree, but that doesn't be no good, so I start out with nothing, and I start working towards a Bachelor of Arts in religion at Luther Rice, and it was a great, great experience. I mean, you know, in those days, you go, you sit in the classrooms, and you know, there was a thousand students on campus, and it was just a bustling place. It was a very good experience, but it was four years. It was four long years, and I'm working still, and you know, going to school and working that in. It was a lot. Well, now with this program that you were talking about, it's called a Bachelor of Arts in Workforce Readiness. Now, that title may change a little bit. It's kind of a working title for us right now, but here's how it works. Let's say you're a plumber, or you're a welder, or you're an electrician, HVAC, whatever, and you've got your two-year degree from a technical school. Now, in that two-year degree, I had a little bit of gen ed in that. I think there's some math, and you know, I don't know about history, but maybe some science. Just very light, but it had some in there. Well, what Luther Rice is doing now, we have a partnership with the state of Georgia, with the technical school system. You can take that two-year associate's degree, bring it to Luther Rice, and you're not going to start all over. You're basically going to have a halfway point. You're going to be about halfway finished with your bachelor's degree because you've got two years. The next two years, you're going to work at Luther Rice, and you're going to be getting your preaching or theology or whatever you're majoring in. And so you're going to get your theology at Luther Rice, your preaching, your hermeneutics, all of your Bible classes that you'll take. And if you needed a little more gen ed, you can get that here too. And then in two years, two years at Luther Rice plus the two years at your trade, with your trade school, Luther Rice is going to give you a four-year bachelor of arts degree. So you have beat me by two years. I think it's a wonderful partnership, and Dr. Evan Posey, our provost, has been working really hard with the technical school system in Georgia to make this happen. You know, I'll tell you, one of the biggest fears that you can have when you're changing education, when you're changing careers, is starting over. Starting over at ground zero with nothing. I remember when I was trying to get my master's and I had this unaccredited degree, and I didn't, you know, what the biggest obstacle was starting over at ground zero. But thankfully, there was a college that had a program that didn't allow me to just start over fresh. And I'm really encouraged by this because it's an op, it takes care of an obstacle that a lot of people have. I think it's a great opportunity. I think it's going to benefit a bunch of people. Yeah. And I think, Brett, one of the things that is so intriguing with this is, I don't know how many guys I've talked to in North Carolina. We, right now we've got 40 churches that are running, 40% of churches that are running a hundred or less that can't support a full-time pastor. And our association alone, we've got 19 in our association. And I think eight or nine of those guys are bi-vocational. So this would allow a guy to be bi-vocational, get a plumbing degree. And essentially, I guess you could do this simultaneously. Yeah, you could go. You don't have to finish the one instructor. Yeah, you could simultaneously be a plumber working in the field and then be taking your biblical courses at the same time at your own pace, roughly, to be able to work through that. So I think that's great. I think it helps out some of these churches that are struggling with revitalization, trying to get in a healthier way, that can't support a pastor full-time, and he's got to supplement somehow. So how can we find those avenues to help those guys out that are doing a good work that just need that help? And let me give you the rest of the story, as Paul Harvey would say. This is the other good news. So not only do you not have to start over, but you can take that two-year degree, or as you're working on a two-year degree, also be working on your two-year degree at Luther Rice to get that bachelor's degree, bachelor's degree in religion at Luther Rice, or in workforce readiness. But for me, I had to take all day Tuesday and all day Thursday and go sit on campus all day long. Man, you guys have done it. You don't have to do that anymore, either. We are a fully SACS-accredited institution. We have the same accreditation as the University of Georgia, or Alabama, or Southern Seminary, or New Orleans Seminary, where Brett and I have our money. But you can do it online. We're a fully accredited college and seminary, but you can do 100% of your work online. You don't have to take off. You can be going to your tech school and working and doing your Luther Rice, or you can get your tech degree first and then come to Luther Rice. Whatever you want to do, it's fine. But Brett, I love that thought. We've taken the obstacles out. Satan will throw every obstacle at you as to why you can't do this, or you shouldn't do this, or you put it off to do it later. All those obstacles have been removed. And so, you know, hey, email me, email the guys here, email Dr. Steve Prey, our registrant, Luther Rice. And by the way, if you work for a seminary and your last name's Prey, how cool is that? Steve Prey, steve.prey.lutherrice.edu. And he can get you, or you can go to the website, just hit apply. But yeah, don't let any of these things keep you from doing what God's called you to do. I have a question as we're talking about Luther Rice. One of my things that I've been looking at from Luther Rice and several other colleges is I have no desire to get my master's degree. Brett is all in on education. But I have a heart for counseling and certified through IBCD. And the certificates that you have that are three courses that give you a certificate at a master's level program. Share that with us, maybe the different specialties that you've got that could help a guy that's got his bachelor's degree. Me, I've got a bachelor's degree from my undergraduate college. So I'm looking to add some of those things. But I don't have the time or the means to jump into a full two-year, four-year master's degree level program. What does that look like? How does that look? And what is the success, I guess, since you've started that of guys doing that? Well, we've had great success with it. And we have these certificates available on the bachelor's level and the master's level. So anybody, again, no excuses, jump in. I'll give you an example. One of the certificates is one of the most popular ones is, we call it Bibb Studies, Biblical Studies. You say, well, that doesn't sound really exciting. And it may not. But let me tell you why it's probably our most popular. The three courses that you take, you take a hermeneutics course. And if you're going to, you know, if you're going to be preaching, you're going to be leading teaching, you need to know how to study the Bible. So you're going to take a hermeneutics course. And then you're going to have an Old Testament overview. It's going to be your second course. Your third course is going to be a New Testament overview. I mean, what three better courses could you take for a guy that's just starting out preaching or a guy that's been preaching for 10 years, you know, to take it to the next level? It's a great. And then you take those three courses and you can literally, if you wanted to, come to Atlanta and put on a cap and gown and graduate with the graduating class in May. You literally can do that. And people do. But here's the other thing. Say you take that bib study. You're like, man, I really like that. Now I think I want to take a counseling or I want to take a biblical Greek, three courses in Greek. I want to take biblical Hebrew, three courses in Hebrew, or I want to take counseling or whatever. I think we said counseling already. Whatever options are there. They're all on the website, by the way. These things stack, meaning the three hour credit that you got for that bib studies would apply towards a full degree if you wanted it to. You could take another certificate and apply that towards a full degree. You're not losing anything. Or you can take one certificate and say, that's all I needed. It was great. Thanks. I'm done. So I think the technical term is stackable, but that's what that means. It would apply towards a full degree. And, you know, I think what I'm hearing is like, there's nothing wasted. Everything you do counts. Everything you do matters. Everything, if you start with a certificate, if you want to roll that over into something else, you want to go further, you change your mind one day, you want to get a degree, you have all these options available. I can't remember the last time that I heard about a college or heard about a seminary that had this many options. It's really unreal how many y'all have. It's great. Yeah, and I don't know why anyone wouldn't take the trip down to Atlanta to walk because you're going to be able to see and hang out with Dr. Mark Merrick for a weekend. You can make it a whole week and go and hang out in his camper and just have a great time with him. It would be a great thing. Yes, I'm excited about what you guys are doing and love getting to talk with you guys at the convention and now here at this moment. So if you've got questions, we'll link in our show notes to the website and go to the website and check it out. Maybe there's an option where you're looking to increase your education or start your education or you're one of these guys that have a two-year degree in plumbing and you're a pastor and you've never had the opportunity to get your degree. Now you can add this on. A lot of the two-year degrees in North Carolina, the Fruitland, it's getting close to closing its doors, which was a great training facility for two-year degree for pastors. So this is an option to come out with an accredited four-year degree and use those trade school studies. So I think it's a great idea. And thank you, Marcus, for coming on and talking with us. And I hope you guys enjoy this. Any closing words from you, Marcus? Yeah, let me give you one final thought. If you're interested, Brett, I appreciate you saying that. The third Thursday in every month, we have chapel and you can watch that online. It's, I think it's Facebook or YouTube on it. You can watch it online. You can Google it or look at the website. But we also have another thing that we do for prospective students. During chapel, chapel is always at 10 o'clock. And, but before chapel at nine o'clock, we have coffee with a prof. And prospective students or just, you know, pastors sometimes come in for that. So the professor that's preaching chapel that month will do coffee with a prof before. So he'll, he'll do this little teaching session at nine and then move out of the classroom and move into the chapel. And then the same, the same professor will, will preach at 10. And the, the guy in February that's going to be doing that, it's a real shady guy. His name's Merritt, but he would love to meet you. But seriously, I would love to meet you. I'll be, I'll be preaching and doing that. And it'd be a great chance to get to meet some folks. That's great. Brett, have either one of us gotten invited to chapel yet, Brett? I don't think we have. Waiting for that invite. Maybe one day that'll happen. But thanks for tuning in today. Hope you guys enjoyed it. And I look forward to next week as we start talking through Israel. We were in Israel at the time of this recording and we're going to be, I took a device with me. I hope it worked, but I've recorded all of our teaching sessions at all the sites. And as many of those as I can get on here in the month of February, we're going to be putting on there, the messages that were preached, the scripture that was read on site and location. So you can really feel like you were there. And we're going to talk next week about what, what Israel's like and all the things we went to. The question that we get asked is, is Israel safe? Am I going to get a bomb dropped on my head when I walk over there? And so we're on location. We're going to talk about it. So tune in next week as we jump into that. So until next time, to God be the glory. Great things he has done.

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