Buies Creek–Campbell Divinity School commissioned 46 new masters’ level students and eight doctoral students this semester. A commissioning service, acknowledging the students’ spiritual commitment to ministry, was held Tuesday, Sept. 18.”We want to be very clear about what this service is about today,” said Dr. Michael Cogdill, dean of the Divinity School. “This service is about God’s calling, about celebrating God’s calling and the wonderful witness of this ceremony is that God continues to call young men and women to his service.”The Rev. Emmanuel McCall, founding pastor of the Fellowship Group Baptist Church in East Point, Ga., and vice president of the Baptist World Alliance, explained what it means to be called by God.”A call to ministry is different than taking up a job,” he said. “All of the psychological and spiritual training you’ve had cannot prepare you for ministry. If God has not called you, you are in dangerous territory.”Conversely, if you’ve been called by God and ignore that call, you will suffer also.”Once God makes his claim, you can’t turn your back on it,” McCall said. “There is a turmoil that goes on inside, it’s like fire shut up in your bones.”Karen Carlton, of Ernest Myett Presbyterian Church in Raleigh, N.C., can certainly relate to that statement. Believing that she was called two years ago, she wrestled with the decision to commit her life to ministry, eventually enrolling in the Campbell Divinity School.”I believed God was calling me to a teaching ministry,” she said. “I’m not sure what that means, but I finally decided I had to step out on faith.”Paul Burgess, of First Baptist Church, Smithfield, N.C., experienced a different kind of calling. He visualized himself working with youth and one day becoming a pastor. “The success of this Divinity School is written large in so many ways,” said Dr. Jerry M. Wallace, president of Campbell University. “Certainly this service today is evidence of the traditions in which the Divinity School is rooted.”Dr. Tony Cartledge the former president and editor of the Biblical Recorder, was commissioned to service as a new member of the Divinity School faculty. Cartledge is serving as associate professor of Old Testament.The Campbell Divinity School opened in 1996 with 35 students and currently has an enrollment of 232 students. The school offers the Master of Divinity and Master of Arts in Christian education and the Doctor of Ministry degree. The Divinity School is committed to providing Christ-centered, Bible-based, and ministry-focused theological education for Christian ministry.More information about the School of Divinity is available on the Campbell website, www.campbell.edu, or you may call either (910) 893-1849 or (800) 760-9827.
Commissioning service holds special meaning for Divinity students