IN THE BILLY GRAHAM SCHOOL, WE WANT GRADUATES WHO LOVE THE SMELL OF DIRT.

Nothing beats the rich scent of earth. We catch that scent in springtime, when the ground is soaked with the early rains, softened and ready for green things to emerge. Most of us only notice it then, mainly because it invades our regular traffic pattern as we move from the car to the office or take walks around the neighborhood. You can’t miss it in the springtime.

But some folks smell dirt far past spring. In fact, that’s only the beginning for them. They smell dirt long into summertime and eventually into autumn. They live on it and work in it. And by the end of the season, they even smell like it themselves. You probably know who I’m referring to: farmers, the steady workers of the earth.

Our Lord Jesus Christ once said, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest” (Luke 10:2). This was when Jesus first commissioned workers and sent them on ahead of him. He is doing the same today.

The earth needs these steady workers. Dirt receives the seed and retains the water that nourishes that seed. It houses the mystery of the underground growth and anchors the growth aboveground as it reaches skyward. The entire enterprise depends on the dirt. But without someone to tend to that dirt, production doesn’t happen. Without men and women handling dirt—grading it, treating it, plowing it, weeding it, watering it, running their machines over its contours—there is no harvest.

Ministry is work, and it needs steady workers. The purpose of the Billy Graham School of Missions, Evangelism, and Ministry is to prepare students to work, and to work hard. We don’t want our graduates to have full heads without tired arms. They go together. In fact, they have to. The best workers combine  knowledgeable insight and practiced skill.

Workers Unashamed

One of Paul’s favorite terms of affection for his partners in gospel ministry is workers. He used it often—my fellow workers in Christ. There is great honor in such an acknowledgment. These folks had labored alongside him, and Paul wanted to ensure they were properly regarded for that labor. Paul used this phrase in many of his letters (Rom 16:3-21, 1 Cor 2:9, 2 Cor 8:23, Phil 2:24 & 4:3, Col 4:11, Phile 1).

But the best known occasion of Paul using the term worker may be his charge to Timothy, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth” (2 Tim 2:15). To this young man he’d invested in, Paul said to be like a farmer—or an athlete or soldier—who toils under the commitment to see the work completed.

Paul’s admonition for Timothy to work has a few key features. For one, it requires maximal effort. Do your best is not an inspirational quote for a schoolroom poster but a command to face the pain of exertion. Work is tough because it means overcoming obstacles toward accomplishment, and without an eager willingness to take on that pain, we will be lax. Another feature is that work is presented to God for approval. We all work for someone, and that person evaluates the acceptability of our work. Christians work not just for earthly supervisors, but for God. And when we work according to his direction, we are unashamed before him. The final feature of work is what we handle in our labor—namely, his Word. Our job is not to invent what we proclaim but to convey it faithfully.

Faithful work requires both knowledge and skill. A worker has to know the nature of his work—the characteristics of his particular land, the needs of his different crops, and the market demand for his produce. But knowledge is not enough. Knowledge compels wise action. That’s what skill is—the ability to act effectively based on an accurate perception of the task.

The Unique Work of Each Department

Each department in the Billy Graham School uniquely contributes to the larger work of Christian ministry. That’s the nature of specialization—different types of training for different callings, according to God’s unique gifting of each person. We want to prepare everyone for his or her work.

MISSIONS & EVANGELISM. Jesus Christ will be worshipped by every tribe and tongue, and we want to be part of it. In the various degrees in missions and evangelism, we build on the theological foundation of the gospel with knowledge of human culture and the history of missions. As students think rightly about the nature of gospel witness, we test their ability to proclaim the work of Christ, to train and lead others, and to evaluate various strategies in missions. In a nutshell, we want to form students who are zealous for good works and grounded in who Jesus Christ is and how he establishes his church through the gospel.

ISLAMIC STUDIES. Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation for our Muslim neighbors here and around the world. In our Islamic Studies degree programs, we start with the gospel of Jesus Christ, including who God is and how he saves, as distinct from every other religion. We study classical Islam and the Arabic language so that we might understand our Muslim neighbors and how to communicate the gospel to them effectively. We hope that the Christian understanding of Islam will allow our students to minister directly to Muslims and equip the church to hold fast to the faith once for all delivered to the saints.

BIBLICAL COUNSELING & PRACTICAL THEOLOGY.

People were made to understand their own lives in relation to God. Our degree programs teach students how to properly interpret human experience in light of God’s purposes revealed in Scripture. We teach students to recognize the complexity of a person’s experience while centering spiritual care on the gospel of Jesus Christ. We want students formed with wisdom, compassion, and integrity to practice the counseling skills of observation, interpretation, and guidance. Our goal is to produce graduates who are confident that the Word of God transforms people’s hearts to respond in faith to the troubles they face.

BIBLICAL WORSHIP. All of life is worship, but gathering as God’s people to worship in song

is one of the most precious privileges of being in the church. At the masters and doctoral level, our biblical worship degrees center on a biblical theology of worship, of the church as the gathered people of God, and of music as God’s gift for expression. The skills we seek to forge in students all revolve around service to the people of God based on the Word of God, including service planning, service presenting, and musicianship. We want to form students with an infectious, knowledgeable love for God who skillfully lead others to express that love together in song.

LEADERSHIP & DISCIPLESHIP. Growth in God’s people is not automatic but requires servant leaders to disciple people according to God’s design. Degrees in Christian leadership, discipleship, and education equip students for various roles leading others on the development journey as disciples of Jesus Christ. Building on a theological foundation of discipleship, we help students understand organization and administration, as well as instructional design and evaluation. We wish to form students with the humility, courage, and competence to lead and instruct God’s people in a variety of settings.

Billy Graham & Work

I don’t know if Billy Graham liked the smell of dirt, but he did grow up on a farm. More importantly, he knew how to work. I have no doubt that what Billy Graham observed on that farm shaped in him a workman’s mentality when it came to the task of evangelism. He was a workman.

In fact, Graham saw the work of gospel ministry as an extension of the regular work that makes up the daily life of any Christian. He encouraged all believers to see their work from God’s point of view.

Let’s be honest; work isn’t always exciting, and when we focus only on its problems or spend our time wishing we were doing something else, we’ll probably end up resentful, angry, or bored. But when we begin to see our work from God’s point of view, our attitude will be much different. We’ll begin to realize that God gave our work to us, and because of this, it has dignity and importance.1

Graham knew the dignity and importance of any type of work because, by our work, we worship the Lord. He applied a workman’s mentality to gospel proclamation. Graham knew that the gospel is sufficient to save and that its sufficiency includes the people commissioned to proclaim it. And that means a lot of work—knowledgeable, skillful work.

Our vision for the only graduate school allowed to bear the name of Billy Graham is to produce graduates who exemplify the humble courage of steady work. We believe the Lord has chosen to spread his glory across the world through workers with love in their hearts and the gospel on their lips. And a good amount of dirt on their hands.

1 From the Billy Graham Answers Series. Billy Graham Association. https://billygraham.org/answer/work-is-a-gift/