My Great Commission
21st Century
Disciple Preacher, Teacher & Friend
When Buster Swoopes, Jr., was five years old, his dream was to be a pastor. “My parents recently reminded me that I would play baptism with my stuffed animals, my sister’s dolls, and my G.I. Joes. I’d have them all sitting like they were being preached to during a church service, and then they would all be baptized,” says Swoopes. While his dream to become a pastor did become reality, God has led him to a ministry he never expected, as a professor at Southwestern Adventist University. Not only is he
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teaching religion classes, but he has the opportunity to encourage, guide, and support students at a critical time in their lives. Swoopes’ father was a singing evangelist, and the family spent weekends traveling to different areas in Oklahoma and Texas. His father would give a concert, usually ministering in tandem with an evangelist. The family joined him, and this is where Swoopes says he came to understand the many different aspects of ministry. During an evangelistic meeting when he was 13,
he first felt God truly calling him to the ministry. “I remember leaning over to my mom and telling her. After that, I never looked back.” As a junior theology student at Southwestern, he remembers professor Bill Kilgore, the man whose position he would once be asked to fill, challenging him, saying, “If you can do anything else in your life—do it. You won’t be satisfied in pastoral ministry.” Swoopes remembers returning to his dorm room that night and praying earnestly, “God, if you want me to be here, I need you to
