Building a Foundation

We can design our lives around ambitious goals, advanced degrees, and influential careers, but without a firm foundation those things alone will not carry us through the storms of life.

One aspect of a firm foundation is commitment to careful study and academic rigor. It’s true that we can get by reasonably well in our relationship with Christ without theology courses. However, it is also the case that we can be led astray if our times of devotion to the Lord are not built on an accurate understanding of Scripture. This is where the academic rigor of my classes at New Hope became increasingly beneficial for the development of both my character and my thinking as a Christian.

During my junior year, I had been swayed into a period of confusion and hyper-spiritualism, but it was neither the call of ministry nor long times of aimless prayer and undisciplined devotional reading that restrained me from nearly derailing my life and deeply hurting the people around me. Rather, it was when I took a step to renew my commitment to reading and understanding God’s Word properly that I received clear instruction from the Lord and got back on the right course.

If not for my studies at NHCC, I may not have had the tools to combat the lies the enemy was trying to get me to believe.

Furthermore, it was through this experience—coupled with the robust biblical courses of my senior year and the advice, care, and mentorship of the staff who are all-in for Christ— that God forged a commitment to rigorous study into a heart for biblical discernment that I have been able to use on countless occasions to benefit myself and others around me.

Written by Nik Coats (Class of 2019)

"God has shown me that I am to take my calling as a pastor seriously and do my best in my studies in order to be the strong Christian leader the Lord has created me to be." (Taylor Empringham, Class of 2026).