Welch College Graduates 75 in Commencement Exercises
GALLATIN, TN—Welch College conferred degrees on 75 students, according to Provost Matthew McAffee. Commencement exercises were held in the Student Activities center. The gymnasium space was converted into a 700-plus seating auditorium for the Baccalaureate service on Thursday evening, May 4, and the Commencement ceremony on Friday morning, May 5. The college awarded degrees in multiple programs, including associate’s degrees, bachelor’s degrees, the Master of Arts degree in Theology and Ministry, the Master of Arts in Teaching degree, and for the first time, the Master of Divinity degree.
Dr. Albert Mohler, President of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, delivered the Commencement address. Rev. Brad Ryan, pastor of Ina Free Will Baptist Church in Ina, Illinois, delivered the Baccalaureate sermon.
President Matt Pinson recognized Matthew Bracey, Vice Provost, for his ten years of faithful service as a faculty member and administrator. Dr. Ian Hawkins, Assistant Professor of Biology and Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, was named Academic Advisor of the Year. The college also awarded the inaugural Teacher of the Year Award to Dr. Linda Shipley, Professor of Music.
The college congratulates the 2023 graduating class and commends them to the service of Christ and the transformational work of His kingdom.
Associate of Science Degrees
Matthew Dillon Alphin Kinston, North Carolina Ministry
Cadence Cara Beauchamp Plant City, Florida Business
Erica La’Nise Boone Gallatin, Tennessee Business
Julia Faith Chandler Pleasant View, Tennessee Biology
Lauren Heather Thomas*** Morristown, Tennessee Child Development and Learning
Luke Everett Tyler*** Hendersonville, Tennessee Youth and Family Ministry
Jackson Taylor Watts** Pleasant View, Tennessee Pastoral Ministry
Lauren Elizabeth Weese** Greenville, North Carolina Exercise Science
Rylan Gray Willaford** Jacksonville, North Carolina Business Administration
Mancer Camern Wilson Columbia, South Carolina Business Administration
Bachelor of Arts Degrees
Caleb Isaiah Boivin Gallatin, Tennessee English
Caleb Mark Creech Macon, Georgia English
Nicolas Isaiah Cruz* Bristol, Tennessee Humanities and Arts
Daniel David Delgado Russellville, Arkansas Intercultural Studies
Jacob Adam Johnson** Smithville, Mississippi Pastoral Ministry
Raygan Elizabeth Sellers** Pleasant View, Tennessee Humanities and Arts
Master of Arts Degrees
Kevin Thomas Banberger Clayton, North Carolina Theology and Ministry
Eric L. Brown Cedar Hill, Tennessee Theology and Ministry
Billy Johnathan Champion Folkston, Georgia Theology and Ministry
Ryan Daniel Curtis Paragould, Arkansas Theology and Ministry
Michael Adam Holloway Pikeville, Tennessee Theology and Ministry
Anna Grace Kozyutynskyi Nashville, Tennessee Theology and Ministry
Derreck Andrew Lute Wheelersburg, Ohio Theology and Ministry
Jacob Tyler Lute Gallatin, Tennessee Theology and Ministry
Michael Houston Pugh New Bern, North Carolina Theology and Ministry
Theron Barton Scott Turbeville, South Carolina Theology and Ministry
Theron Barton Scott Turbeville, South Carolina Theology and Ministry
Theron Barton Scott Turbeville, South Carolina Theology and Ministry THESIS: The Office and Mission of the Deacon: What It Means “To Serve Tables” in the Twenty-First Century
Mark Edward Webster Gallatin, Tennessee Theology and Ministry
Master of Arts in Teaching Degrees
Abby Grace Bragg Senoia, Georgia Special Education AUTHENTIC LEARNING EXPERIENCE COMPENDIUM: Effective Strategies for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder
Jennifer Lavonne Connor Portland, Tennessee Instructional Leadership AUTHENTIC LEARNING EXPERIENCE COMPENDIUM: The Relationship between Social and Emotional Skills and Academic Success
Rachel Elizabeth Goode Champaign, Illinois Teaching AUTHENTIC LEARNING EXPERIENCE COMPENDIUM: Growth Mindset, Motivation, and Grit in the Classroom
Amy Rene Lytle Nashville, Tennessee Instructional Leadership AUTHENTIC LEARNING EXPERIENCE COMPENDIUM: An Educational Leader’s Role in the Well-Being of Teachers and the Overall School Culture
Master of Divinity Degrees
Joshua Allen Hunter Pleasant View, Tennessee
Dustin Michael Walters Hamilton, Alabama
*** Summa Cum Laude – 3.75 ** Magna Cum Laude – 3.50 * Cum Laude – 3.25
GALLATIN, TN—Two years after its inception, Welch Divinity School celebrated its first two graduates, Dustin Walters and Joshua Hunter, according to Dr. Martin Sheldon, Director of Administration at Welch Divinity School.
Alabama native Dustin Walters currently resides in Chandler, Indiana, with his wife Laci. He serves as connections and next steps pastor at Faith Free Will Baptist Church in Chandler. Dustin graduated from Welch College in 2016 with his B. A. in pastoral ministry and moved to New Orleans, where he studied at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. He later transferred to the newly established Welch Divinity School to pursue the three-year Master of Divinity (M.Div.) degree. He has a heart for pastoral ministry and ministering the gospel through the Free Will Baptist Church.
“Dustin was not only one of our first M.Div. students, he was also the first Administrative Assistant for the Divinity School,” Sheldon said. “He approached his role as a student and employee with eagerness and excellence. He truly has a servant’s heart. While demonstrating academic acuity, his passion for local church ministry is perpetually evident.”
Josh Hunter is a native of Missouri. He came to Welch College for his bachelor’s degree in 2015 and completed it in 2019, moving straight into the Master of Arts program in Theology and ministry. Upon completing the M.A. in 2021, Josh worked as a curriculum instructional designer but returned to pursue the new three-year Master of Divinity program at Welch. He plans to pursue further study at other institutions to engage in scholarship from an evangelical Christian perspective.
“When I first met Josh, I sensed right away that he had a sharp mind and humble spirit,” Sheldon said. “These are two qualities that are not often found together, but Josh has them both. Throughout his time as a Welch student, Josh has demonstrated the virtues of diligence, humility, and perseverance.”
The entire Welch community offers its congratulations to these first graduates of Welch Divinity School. For more information on Welch Divinity School or theological master’s degree programs at Welch, contact Jacob Johnson at jacob.johnson@welch.edu.
Today one of my dearest friends passed from this life, Dr. Harry L. Reeder III, senior pastor of Briarwood Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, Alabama. Dr. Reeder was killed in a tragic car accident this morning. He was a wonderful friend and supporter of Welch College and of Free Will Baptists who was always a favorite speaker in conferences, commencement ceremonies, and chapels at Welch.
It was about fifteen years ago, fairly early in my tenure as president of Welch College, that I stumbled onto Dr. Reeder. I received an announcement about a new book from P&R Publishers, From Embers to a Flame: How God Can Revitalize Your Church. Here at last was a book by a veteran church revitalizer that put into words the things I had striven to commit myself to as a pastor and teacher of pastors but could never articulate as artfully as he had done.
The book was about biblical, organic church revitalization and growth. It was about church growth, but unlike much of the “church growth movement,” it was about natural, organic growth by means of church health. Dr. Reeder, who had several times led churches to grow from in the thirties and fifties in attendance on Sunday morning into hundreds and thousands, was waxing eloquent about practical ways to bring biblical, organic, growth to struggling, indeed, dying, congregations.
He used catchy phrases like “cultural steroids”—that’s the term he used when he referred to all the extrabiblical secular gimmicks and marketing and entertainment techniques he thought the evangelical church had come to rely on to “get the numbers up.” But he insisted that, not only was this reliance on—this obsession with—secular consumer marketing to increase the numbers of people in the pew unbiblical. Not only was it despising the ordinary means of grace—replacing those Spirit-ordained methods found in the New Testament with the “inventions of people.” It was also pragmatically counterproductive in the long-run.
He would often point to what steroids do to a physical body. They’re artificial stimulants that bring quick, artificial growth but leave the body weaker and sicker than it ever was in the first place. Similarly, he’d say, cultural steroids leave the body of Christ spiritually anemic—weaker and sicker than it ever was before.
Cultural steroids, he’d say, also make churches less effective evangelistically. That’s because believers’ evangelistic and missionary effectiveness correlates directly to their practical engagement with the meat of the Word. And the evangelical church, he’d insist, was starving for the meat of the Word, quoting Amos 8:11, “‘Behold, the days are coming,’ says the Lord God, ‘That I will send a famine on the land, Not a famine of bread, Nor a thirst for water, But of hearing the words of the Lord.’” “The famine is here!” he’d say, describing too many churches as “an inch deep and a mile wide.”
But perhaps the most remarkable thing about Harry was his cool-headed confidence in the ordinary means of grace. He was so positive and hopeful. He had a smooth level-headedness about him that allowed him to make incisive, prophetic critiques of both church and culture while keeping the focus on the soul-nourishing means of grace in Holy Scripture that always bring about human flourishing, for individuals, families, churches, and cultures.
His refreshing emphasis was that we naturally structure our congregations according to the means God has given, affirming the sufficiency of Scripture. Scripture really is enough for the life, health, and growth of Christ’s church, he stressed. And when we do this, the spiritual blessings of our Lord will follow as we wait patiently on Him.
That was the message of From Embers to a Flame. I was so encouraged, and I began to give away copy after copy of that book. I said to Melinda, “We’ve got to go meet this man.” And on one trip back from my parents’ home in Pensacola, Florida, our eight- and six-year-old in tow, we stopped in Birmingham and attended a service at the church Reeder served, Briarwood Presbyterian.
I introduced myself to him after the service was over, and he said, “I answered the call to the Presbyterian ministry in a Free Will Baptist deacon’s tobacco field!” Then he told me this long story about his first ministry job being the youth pastor at Trinity Free Will Baptist Church in Greenville, North Carolina. He told me about preaching his first sermons in a Free Will Baptist church (even though he was a five-point Calvinist). With that characteristic twinkle in his eye, he reminisced about singing in a quartet and traveling to dozens of Free Will Baptist churches with Jack Paramore and Al Davis. Even though some of his convictions differed from some of those of Free Will Baptists, Dr. Reeder deeply valued those years and how his experiences in Free Will Baptist churches, with Free Will Baptist people, helped shape him spiritually.
It wasn’t too long before I asked him to come and speak at Welch College. He has done so a half-dozen times since then, and he gave me opportunities to speak at Briarwood as well. Melinda and I also grew to love his dear wife Cindy, who has also spoken at Welch. She has been such an integral part of his ministry, and her graciousness and gift of hospitality were so obvious when I visited in their home. We at Welch surround Mrs. Reeder with prayer in this difficult moment.
Dr. Reeder also spoke at the National Free Will Baptist Leadership Conference and became involved with several Free Will Baptist state associations, local associations, and local congregations through his church revitalization ministry, Embers to a Flame. That organization, now known as Lampstand, has helped struggling churches in several Christian denominations to experience revitalization in biblically faithful ways.
To some people, it seems ironic that Dr. Reeder, a die-hard Calvinist Presbyterian, and I, a die-hard Free Will Baptist, became such fast friends. But it’s really not. When it came to the gospel, orthodox Protestant theology, ordinary-means-of-grace church renewal, and Christian cultural renewal, we were of one mind. He knew where I stood, and I knew where he stood, on the issues on which we differed, but our friendship was one of iron sharpening iron, and we agreed on far more than the things on which we differed. I learned so much from this man, and in amazing ways he helped me develop as a young Christian leader.
Most will remember him as a gentle, consensus-building, but stalwart confessional Presbyterian churchman. I will remember him as a giant that the cross-denominational evangelical community has lost. Evangelical Protestantism does not know what it has lost in Harry Reeder and his influence. But my prayer is that God will raise up scores of young Christian leaders across denominations like Dr. Reeder, leaders who like him will bear kind and unwavering witness to the faith once delivered to the saints, which alone, through Christ, brings human flourishing now and forever.
GALLATIN, TN—Welch College President Matt Pinson announced today that this year’s Strong and Courageous Award will be presented to Dr. Doug and Linda Varnado at the college’s annual banquet celebrating Christian faith in Sumner County.
Dr. Doug Varnado, a native of South Carolina, is the lead pastor of Community Church of Hendersonville, a role he has filled since 1992. Varnado is well known in the Sumner County community as a pastor, educator, missionary, and humanitarian. He has served on the boards of Cumberland Crisis Pregnancy Center, Mission Discovery, Hendersonville Samaritan Association, Nation’s University, and the Community Pastor’s Association. Dr. Varnado is retiring this year from his position as pastor of Community Church after thirty years of service.
Linda Varnado grew up in Georgia and moved to New Zealand as a teenager to assist her parents, who were church planters. Linda spent much of her career serving as a missionary and educator. She is most known for her work in children’s ministry and as a leader in her church’s ministry, FRIENDS Love Local. FRIENDS is a compassion ministry that serves the local church and community by equipping and energizing members to be the hands and feet of Christ to those within and outside of the church.
Welch College’s annual Strong and Courageous banquet is a scholarship event to raise funds for Sumner County students. Strong and Courageous has raised almost $200,000 for student scholarships at Welch. Past Strong and Courageous award winners are: Rev. David Landrith (posthumously), Dr. David and Congressman Diane Black, Bob and Karen Goodall, and Dr. Charles Lea.
The event will be held in Celorio Hall on the campus of Welch College, Tuesday, May 9, 2023, at 7:00 p.m. To be a part of this special event, please contact the Office of Institutional Advancement at Welch College (615-675-5302) or email Davida Black at dblack@welch.edu.
Please be in prayer for the family of Dr. Milton Fields, who passed away yesterday after an extended illness. Dr. Fields joined the Welch faculty in 1994 as chairman of the Teacher Education Department. He served as Academic Dean (1998-2006), Vice President for Institutional Planning (2006–2011), and a member of the President’s Leadership Team. He retired in May 2011.
Funeral services will be at 11:00 a.m., Saturday, April 1, at Skelton Funeral Home of Reform, Alabama. Visitation will be one hour prior and immediately following the service.
81 Welch Students Receive President’s and Provost’s Recognition for Fall Semester
Gallatin, TN—The fall 2022 semester at Welch College ended with 81 students receiving academic recognition, according to Provost Matthew McAffee. This honor roll includes online and adult studies students whose fall courses ended in December. “We are proud of these students and their hard work in academics last semester,” McAffee said. “We believe that one important aspect of preparation for Christian leadership is the pursuit excellence in academic study. These students have distinguished themselves in this regard, and we commend them for it.”
Twenty-eight made all A’s and were placed on the President’s List—16 seniors, 4 juniors, 7 sophomores, and 1 freshman. Fifty-three earned a 3.25 GPA and all A’s and B’s and were placed on the Provost’s list—21 seniors, 9 juniors, 9 sophomores, and 14 freshmen.
