Dear MTS Community,
Like many of our students and alums, I myself am a bivocational minister: while serving as the President of Memphis Theological Seminary, I pastor and prepare a sermon each week like many of our students who serve in congregational ministry.
I hope you will enjoy the stories of Rev. Lisa Anderson (MDiv, ’94) and Rev. Dr. Keith Norman (DMin, ’16). These MTS alums exemplify what it means to have fruitful bivocational ministries.
–Rev. Dr. Jody Hill, MTS President
Rev. Lisa Hall Anderson (MDiv, ’94) is a former chaplain at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and is the founding executive director of Room in the Inn-Memphis and pastor of Colonial Cumberland Presbyterian Church.
After receiving her MDiv from Memphis Theological Seminary, Rev. Anderson completed Clinical Pastoral Education at Veterans Administration Medical Center in Memphis. Rev. Anderson served as Vice President of the Tennessee Chaplains Association and President of the Pediatric Chaplains Network. As director of Room in the Inn-Memphis, she has been involved in advocacy in Memphis and Shelby County for those experiencing homelessness. Under her leadership, the first recuperative care center for medically fragile homeless individuals in the Mid-South was opened this year.
“My education at MTS provided me with a biblically-based opportunity to think theologically about the world. The knowledge and spiritual formation prepared me for being a chaplain and a parish pastor. But it was the way the seminary community put that education into practice that informs the work I do today. MTS taught me to take the truth of the scriptures into the world where I live, seeing Christ in all of those I meet. I have had the privilege to be chaplain, pastor, and advocate because of my seminary education and I’m thankful.”
Rev. Dr. Keith Norman (DMin, ’16) is the Pastor of First Baptist Church, located in the Binghampton community of Memphis, Tennessee. Dr. Norman is leading the revitalization of Binghampton through GREATER WORKS Inc., an organization he founded. Pastor Norman is also the vice president of government affairs for Baptist Memorial Healthcare Corporation.
A graduate of Morehouse College, Dr. Norman has completed the Institute of Church Administration and Management Program at the Interdenominational Theological Center (ITC). He has studied community revitalization and church/corporate partnerships at Harvard Divinity School, and at the Wharton School of Business. Dr. Norman is a graduate of Memphis Theological Seminary, where he earned a Doctor in Ministry degree in Leadership.
Dr. Norman says, “My DMin in Leadership from MTS affirmed the transformational impact that leadership can have upon a person’s faith. It has enhanced my ministry in the Church, in the hospital, and in the world around me.”
One Cumberland Presbyterian couple has been so inspired by our work and alums like Rev. Anderson and Rev. Dr. Norman that they have offered to match up to $70,000 for all donations recorded before our fiscal year ends on July 31st.
We are grateful to God for this blessing, and we hope you will click here to make a gift to support Memphis Theological Seminary.