Rev. Garrett Burns felt called to the ministry of word and sacrament, and specifically to the pulpit, at a very young age. A proud Cumberland Presbyterian, Burns knew that Bethel University, then Memphis Theological Seminary, would guide his path to ordination. It was important to him to have a strong theological education so that he could share God’s word well.
While a student at MTS, Burns especially loved studying ethics and food, farming, and faith, as well as taking immersion courses. His preaching was particularly shaped by a Preacher as Storyteller course he took from Dr. MaryLin Hudson. He appreciated the balance between rural and urban ministry he found at MTS, as well as the school’s deep roots in Memphis history and social justice activism. The small classes and focus on practical ministry offered him transformational education for ministry leadership.
Upon graduation from MTS, Burns became a navy chaplain, completing both officer development school and a chaplaincy training program, even as he was pastoring a local congregation. He married and started a family, assuming reserve rather than active duty as a navy chaplain to become associate chaplain at Bethel University.
The theological education Burns received at MTS prepared him to serve as a military officer, a chaplain in both the military and a college campus, and a local church minister. MTS equipped him to maintain a thriving spiritual life in professional ministry. Both in and beyond the classroom, MTS challenged him to broaden his view of ministry beyond the demographics most familiar to him. He learned to build collaborative communities across barriers and how to set boundaries to nurture his own spiritual health.
Burns believes that God provided a way through Memphis Theological Seminary that would not have been possible anywhere else. If he could have attended any seminary in the world, he says he would have chosen MTS because it offers a crossroads of culture, race, gender, age, socioeconomics, denomination, and rural and urban ministry that “you just can’t get anywhere else.”
