A Sundoulos Interview with Dr. Barry Corey

Sundoulos: The costs of seminary education make it more and more difficult to finish a graduate degree and go into pastoral ministry or the mission field. A number of graduates are forced into better-paying secular positions because of college and seminary debt. You have wrestled with this at Gordon-Conwell; what ideas are you bringing to Talbot to help ease this problem?

Corey: That’s a good question, and it’s a hard question—it’s one that every seminary is wrestling with. Very few evangelical schools have enough of an endowment to make much of a difference in terms of the affordability of theological education. And faculty want to get paid. [laughter]

Both here, and at Gordon-Conwell [in the Boston area], the question is: what does it mean to have a quality theological education in an expensive area of the country with a school that has limited endowment resources to fund scholarships? We need to be able to hire the best and the brightest faculty who have a deep-seated commitment to the core convictions of Biola, and to do that, we need to be able to move them here, and find a place for them to live that they can afford, where they can raise a family.

I realize that there aren’t many gimmicky answers—there are only limited new revenue streams or cash cows. I believe we must make the needs known among God’s people so they can open up the resources. I think there is a compelling case to be made for how essential it is to fund theological education today, perhaps more than ever before—especially Talbot’s kind of theological education that puts such a stake on biblical fidelity, when in so many areas of our culture, even in evangelical Christianity, we see an erosion of biblical faithfulness. Investment in Talbot is really an investment in the rising generation of leadership that will hold true to those core convictions and also make the gospel relevant. That’s really the story that has to be told.

Our alumni tend not to be at the high end of the income spectrum, so they’re not in positions to give a lot, but it is a statement to the rest of our donor community if we can say, for example, 60% of Talbot graduates give over a course of several years. [Editor’s note: The actual number is 53%.] Foundations and other donors can see how much the school has meant in the graduates’ lives.

Sundoulos: You have the opportunity to interact with a wide range of evangelical leaders. From that perspective, what do you see as some significant challenges facing the church in the coming decades?

Corey: There are temptations in our culture to water down core convictions of biblical fidelity for pragmatic reasons. We can’t go there. We need Talbot alumni to have a strong sense of the role of God’s Word even while making it relevant.

I think religious pluralism will continue to influence our North American culture, so there needs to be an understanding of how the gospel comes to bear on other religions. The world has come to America, through information technology and communication, and I think our graduates need to understand the global context. Even if you’re pastoring a church in Peoria, Illinois, you need to understand how Islamic thought works, to understand those who come out of the Hindu faith, or from a background in Confucianism. And more than that—understand the mind of the skeptic. It could be the person at the restaurant who’s serving you; it could be the person at the gas station, or your physician. Our graduates need to understand the complexity of global religion and widespread western skepticism in order to be winsome and articulate with the gospel that Jesus is the only way, and to do so with a sense of confidence.

We cannot diminish the role of missions and evangelism. We certainly need to understand how compassion ministry works, but my feeling is that compassion ministry is much more effective when it follows the lead that we are here for the Great Commission, to proclaim the good news of the saving grace of Christ to the world, rather than saying, let’s lead with compassion and hope that evangelism follows. I think that when we do that, often evangelism doesn’t follow. That’s going to be an increasing challenge for us.

Winsome apologetics, defending the truth to the skeptic with thoughtful and logical arguments, “always prepared to give an answer for the hope we have.” I learned from my father a long time ago—he wasn’t an apologist, he just loved Jesus and wanted to tell the story of Jesus—that the rest of the verse in 1 Peter says that we do this “with gentleness and respect.” How do we live out the gospel, not beating someone over the head, not trying to polarize? I think we need to talk more about what we’re for than what we’re against. Increasingly, in the “culture war,” the role of the Christian is to love, yet not back down one iota from those core convictions. We cannot lose sight of the fact that we are to live lives of holiness and obedience and purity. Satan in his own devious way is going to try to undermine that aspect of all of our lives and get us caught up with “loftier” things.

Sundoulos: What does the future of Talbot look like from your vantage point? Do you see any new initiatives on the horizon that will increase our ability to impact the world for the Lord Jesus Christ?

Corey: I talk about going from strength to strength, not from a to b, but from a to a2. I think that what we’re doing, we need to keep on doing and doing well. We need to continue to build on the core strengths of Biola as manifested in Talbot as a “biblical conscience” for Biola University. We need to continue to attract faculty who embody those core convictions of Biola, faculty who have a global view of what God is doing around the world and are open to the global realities before us. We need to not back down on the spiritual nurturing of our students. I’d love to see every student graduate from Talbot a “cross-cultural Christian,” involved in what’s going on in the diversity of the city or around the world. We need to have continued conversations about major issues that are affecting the church today and wrestle with them. And I want to see faculty publish more. We’re doing well, but how can we as a community come along side our faculty so that their research can get in the hands of the broader public. I don’t mean just in peer-reviewed journals, but in ways that strengthen the church—the pastor, the mother, the business leader. Our faculty have a lot to give, and we need to help them along the way doing that.

Sundoulos: Finally, Dr. Corey, what issues are burning in your heart? What drives your passion?

Corey: What are the burning issues on my heart? I come back to John 15: “Remain in me and let my word remain in you.” Remaining—that’s spiritual formation, becoming more like Christ. Then, let the Word of God be central in whatever we do. Then Christ says we can ask want we want. It’s that sense of remaining—I want to say to our graduates, remain in Christ and let his word remain in you, and you’ll have that sense of boldness that you can ask whatever you will, and see God do great things.