The Master's Seminary 2021 Annual Report

REFLECTIONS ON GOD’S FAITHFULNESS TO SUPPORT TMS When I became the dean of TMS in June of 1990, the school depended on a single donor who gave $600,000 every year. But in the fall of that year, this individual stopped giving that annual gift, or any gift, to the school. Of course, this strained our budget significantly and caused me to wonder how the Lord was going to provide for our small but growing school. Three decades later, I look back with amazement at the extraordinary adventure that unfolded as, again and again, the Lord provided the finances TMS needed to train men for gospel ministry.

By the end of my first year on the job, the Lord had already provided. We needed $300,000 to balance the budget, but by May 1991, as the end of the fiscal year approached, we had received only $100,000. Humanly speaking, raising the remaining funds seemed an impossible task. However, the Lord providentially connected a Florida-based foundation to the ministry of John MacArthur and that June, they gave $200,000. Amazingly, TMS finished the school year “in the black” by a mere few cents—all to the glory of God. Over the past three decades, we’ve seen a similar providence year after year. The Lord has provided for our needs and we’ve finished “in the red” just once, and only by a small amount.

In the early 90s, TMS did not have a building to call its own. The faculty, staff, and library were scattered across the Grace Community Church campus. Some occupied mobile trailers in the parking lot. We had blueprints for a three-story building with a world-class library. We had a location on the campus of GCC. But we did not have the finances. We didn’t want to 8