I spent my entirety of high school growing up on the seminary campus where my father was a student. The average teenager would probably be less than thrilled about that, but I loved it. I had a built-in community who helped me through all the ups and downs in life. If it weren’t for the people I met while living there I don’t think I’d be the person I am today. Everyone was there for me since day one no matter what. When my grandmother passed and I wasn’t able to make it to her funeral, the community came together to hold a celebration of life for her—a woman none of them had ever met, but they made it a priority because it was important to me. The kindness and love I felt in that community is unmatched. When there was a family emergency one Thanksgiving, Ollie Jarvis did everything he could to make me feel better. Every Mother’s Day I spent with Sarah CW and the Anderson family since I did not have a mother of my own. There are many more individuals who did amazing things for me, but if I were to write them all down there would be pages and pages to read. I am now 23 years old and live far from the seminary, but the love from the community will resonate with me forever. – Lola Sackett, daughter of Ed Sackett (MDiv’18)
For years I struggled with God’s call, never believing I had the ability to meet the challenges. The day of my campus visit, we attended chapel service. The organist played Largo from Dvorak’s “New World Symphony,” which was a favorite of my grandfather. The tears came and I felt as if I had come home. During the three years of seminary, he never played the piece again. Until, the last service I attended before graduation. Tears again, as I felt my grandfather and God saying, “You trusted and here you are, Reverend!” – Lynda Dinsdale (MDiv’03) 14 | Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary
By Timothy Lincoln
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ustin Seminary is exemplary in at least three ways. We value faculty scholarship. We offer high quality programs. We are open to changing how and what we do to serve our mission. In my time at the Seminary, expectations for professors to conduct research and publish their results have increased. And the faculty have responded. In the past two years, they have written eight books and thirtysix articles and took leadership roles in the creation of a brand new nine-volume lectionary commentary series, Connections. The faculty supports research excellence by serving as the sponsoring institution for Horizons in Biblical Theology, an international peer-reviewed academic journal. The Seminary’s commitment to scholarship is further shown in its new sponsorship of the Hispanic Summer Program, a program committed to supporting Hispanic doctoral students and emerging scholars. Another area in which Austin Seminary is exemplary is through its innovative programs to address the needs of churches. For several years the Seminary has partnered with the Center for Youth Ministry Training to offer a Master of Arts in Youth Ministry (MAYM) degree. This three-year program combines academic work at the Seminary with part-time employment in a ministry setting, typically a congregation. Because students in the program are actively serving in ministry, classroom discussion about ideas and texts is constantly in conversation with the questions that students have as a result of their ongoing experiences with children and youth. Another The Reverend Dr. Timothy Lincoln, as research professor in theological education at Austin Seminary, uses his exemplary skills to make sense of all the information at his fingertips.
