Seminary faculty cultivate ‘extended family’ atmosphere through mentor program

As Liberty University Theological Seminary students prepare to enter full-time ministry after graduation, a new faculty mentor program is providing them with yet another opportunity for discipleship and spiritual guidance.

Over 10 faculty are leading mentorship groups with up to 15 students each, meeting weekly on campus for a time of fellowship. The program started in a formal capacity in Fall 2023. While Liberty’s classes already provide godly instruction for students, mentorship meetings allow them even more freedom to discuss various issues affecting ministry and daily life.

“My sense is that for a certain part of our student constituency, it has really met a need and they really seem to enjoy it,” said LTS Professor Dr. Kevin King, who organizes the program. “Personally, I’ve enjoyed it because it gives our students and I more time together to get to know one another beyond what we have in class time.”

Recalling his own days in seminary, King said he had one professor who often asked him to drive him to speaking engagements. Excited at the prospect of spending additional time with the professor, King took full advantage of the opportunity to further his theological knowledge during those trips. He hopes Liberty’s ministry will serve a similar purpose for the next generation of the Church.

“As a seminary, we are about the business of communicating knowledge, values, and skills,” King said, “but we also want to add that personal element to say that even in all of our busyness, we are going to prioritize what we believe is important … to really make sure we are intentional about developing what I see to be lifelong relationships. It’s not like once you are done, you are out. I see Liberty as an extended family.”

He said the program follows a biblical model for discipleship: “Jesus had a small group. When that has been used in church history, there is enrichment and enhancement, but you also have the opportunity for greater conformity to the image of Christ.”

Seminary professor Dr. Rod Dempsey, who also serves as an associate pastor at Thomas Road Baptist Church, hosts a weekly mentorship group in the Freedom Tower that he affectionately calls “Pizza with the Professor… It’s cheesy but it’s good.” Equipped with a list of 40 potential topics and several boxes of fresh pizza, Dempsey faithfully leads discussions on whatever the students decide is the topic of the day.

Noting several instances of the phrase “one another” used in the New Testament to describe biblical fellowship, he said this group allows students the opportunity to live out the calling of discipleship.

“Part of the reason we’re here is academics and to teach the subject matter to the best of our ability, but the other reason we’re here, especially at the graduate school level, is to teach from a point of view where we have been in the field,” Dempsey said. “We have been pastors; we have been in the ministry. The mentoring part is the opportunity to talk a little more about life experiences, what to do or perhaps what not to do in ministry. our own personal lives.”

Third-year Master of Divinity student Jaxson Rees has been attending Dempsey’s group since 2022, when he first heard about the group as a member of Dempsey’s class.

“Seeing how he interacts with other people outside of the school who I don’t know and he might not know, how he loves them as Christ would love them, and being able to learn from his wisdom, has been very helpful,” he said. “Especially because I am so young, and I still have a lot left to learn before I enter ministry as a profession.”

Rees, who also works as a graduate student assistant for John W. Rawlings School of Divinity Professor Dr. David Wheeler, will to begin residency with Bedrock Church Madison Heights after graduation with hopes to eventually enter a career in church planting.

Marcy Fenn began her M.Div. studies in the fall and currently works as the director of Answer the Call Ministries, with which she previously served as a missionary to Honduras. Through the seminary’s mentorship program, she said she has discovered even more ways to make a Kingdom impact and would encourage other students to join a group where they  can reap all the benefits of godly fellowship.

“You only know what you know, and you don’t know what you don’t know,” she said. “Whether you’ve done ministry already or not, the mentor groups help you learn from somebody else. Whether they are from the same field or not doesn’t matter — make yourself available.”

Fenn said she appreciates how Dempsey and other faculty members intentionally care for students.

“It shows they care about more than just your assignments and everything you’re turning in and have to do,” she said. “If you know somebody cares, you almost feel like you’re going to have help even when you leave here. I’m already emailing him about what’s happening at (my) church and I’m going to ask him for material and training on topics.”

The John W. Rawlings School of Divinity remains the world’s largest school for religious studies and ministerial training. A member of the Association of Theological Schools, the Liberty University Theological Seminary, which houses the School of Divinity’s master’s, postgraduate, and doctoral programs, stands on a solid, biblically based foundation and a firm commitment to conservative evangelical theology.