Danny Akin: Still Chapter and Verse
WAKE FOREST (BSCNC Communications) - Danny Akin’s first job in the ministry was as janitor of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas. While a student at Criswell College he was quickly catapulted into the world of textual criticism and a stark realization that though some forms of higher education at Baptist institutions boasted a thoroughly Christian worldview and an orthodox understanding of Holy Scripture, an intentional schizophrenic model which sought to separate intellectual discipline from personal piety was in play in the denomination of his birth. As a student at Criswell, he embodied the opposite of what many prestigious universities (some of them Baptist in origin) desired of their graduates. As Enlightenment forces overtook formal religious studies requiring most students to separate rigorous intellectual pursuit from personal evangelism (seen by some contemporary Southern Baptists at the time as religious imperialism), Akin refused to acquiesce toward Bultmannian demythologization or Schleiermacher’s hermeneutics.
As a student Akin studied for hours attempting to formulate in his own mind a careful grid of thought as to who exactly thought what and how doctrinal changes manifested themselves over time. An avid sports fan boasting that he once “never missed games on television,” sports, by his own admission, was his god. When he arrived at college he stated that “God gave him the ability to start studying,” replacing the hours once invested in athletics in theology. As evidenced by his personal library, he never stopped.
Mike Bryan used Akin as a focal point of study while writing Chapter and Verse: A Skeptic Revisits Christianity during the early 1990s. As one of Akin’s students at Criswell College, Bryan observed him over time and evaluated his level of skill as a teacher of the Bible and theology. Always ready to speak his mind, Akin openly stated to him that “he learned how the religious game can be played.” Reading Bryan’s book is an expose of market-based religion and its intellectual ammunition as well as organizational baggage. Much of what Bryan discovered while attending college at Criswell was not simply a correction to the over-played maxim that religious conservatives ranked one step above some sort of intellectual Neanderthal, he also saw that inside agendas and religious politics can overtake institutions just as they can quickly take over a church – especially a Baptist church.
During the almost 29 years since his graduation from Criswell College, Akin went on to earn a Ph.D. and serve in some of the most visible and critical roles in the Southern Baptist Convention’s institutional infrastructure. Now, as President of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, something has happened to him. He is not the same person he was almost three decades ago. And everyone knows it. Some of his closest friends are at a loss to fully understand just what has taken place in his mind and heart. When he stepped to the pulpit in the chapel of Southeastern during the 2009 Great Commission Resurgence Evangelism Conference, he left no doubt as to what he was about and what would consume him for the rest of his life.
“I want to speak to you from my heart,” Danny Akin told his listeners. Those who have heard Akin preach and teach, or spent any time with him, know he always speaks from his heart with a clear passion for living out the Gospel and encouraging others. Nonetheless, it seemed imperative for Akin to make sure his listeners knew that the message he was to bring from 2 Timothy 2:1-7 came from his need to “share his burden” with them – to share with them a challenge critical not only to the success of their ministry, but to the advancement of a Great Commission Resurgence. A challenge that may be hard to hear, but one radically necessary.
Akin began by asking the audience to remember that these words of Paul are his last words to Timothy, the very truths the apostle yearned for Timothy to hold fast to long after Paul was dead. “Last words are intended to be lasting words,” Akin said. “In your absence, when you are dead and gone, what will be left behind?” Akin asked. “What will be the lasting fruit of the ministry that you have performed on behalf of the Lord Jesus Christ?” As Christianity, and the Southern Baptist Convention, continues to lose ground in America, Akin’s generation continues to lose the next generation, both generationally and theologically. Perhaps this is because people are comfortable “being their own theologian in residence,” Akin said, and they believe they can be Christians without church and without the Bible. Some even doubt the very foundation on which the Christian faith lives – salvation through faith in the work of Jesus Christ on the cross – and this leads to a generation living in “unbelievable confusion” and a “theological fog.” If churches believe this, that salvation comes in any way other than Jesus Christ, it will be “impossible for them to get excited about a Great Commission Resurgence.”
The answer to this lack of holding onto truth and passing it on successfully is far from business as usual. Instead, Akin offered images, or imperatives, from the text as to how truth can be passed on to the next generation. This all starts when Christians are committed to developing the dedication of a teacher. Nothing happens by accident, and it does not happen with just a pulpit ministry, or just Sunday School – it takes something more “personal, intentional, intimate.” “You will not build devoted followers of Jesus by long distance,” Akin said. Akin challenged pastors and church leaders to stop giving youth in their church a “light weight” diet of theology. “We’ve treated our people for too long like they’re idiots,” he said. Akin then went right to the question that was likely forming in some, if not most or all, of the minds and hearts of those listening – won’t this be hard? Won’t this take time? Of course it will. Akin never apologized for that fact. This business of teaching theology will be hard for some people because “you’re lazy,” Akin said. He challenged men of God to “stand up” and start teaching the people.
When Akin talked about his heroes Jim Elliot and Bill Wallace it was not for fame or fortune that he mentioned their names. These men surrendered to the call of missions as teenagers and “shame on us” if we think kids are not able to make that decision, Akin said. “We coddle them, we try to protect them” when the older generation should be helping cast a vision for their lives that is greater than just going to college and getting a decent job. Again, Akin did not deny the harsh reality of the opposition that will inevitably follow this sort of commitment to young people and he told the story of a campus minister to prove it. This campus minister encouraged students to attend chapel and Bible studies and he challenged them to live for the Lord. When this one man invested in the lives of college students, more and more students decided to train for the mission field and a life of full time ministry. Then the phone started ringing. Not with calls from grateful parents, but from parents angry that their children would be headed down a different path. “I’m telling you, you’re going to run into opposition,” Akin said. “Are you ready for it?”
Teaching the truth is a battle, which makes sense, considering believers are called to be soldiers of Jesus. Believers are not called to be wrapped up in the affairs of this life but should be striving to please Christ. “Distraction is one of the evil one’s most favorite devices in getting us off the path of the Great Commission,” Akin said. Again, he tells his audience he wants to speak from his heart – and then asks this question: What are you doing to raise up a godly generation of men? Too many men are “giving their best time to things that in the long run really don’t matter,” he said. Those not called to go should be training those who are called to go.
Akin ended by describing how teachers must possess the diligence of a farmer, and he reminisced back to the days of his granddaddy, a church janitor and farmer with a fifth grade education. He was “one of the godliest men I’ve ever met,” Akin said. Every day, sun up to sun down, Akin’s grandfather worked, and he worked hard at a job far from glamorous. He did not see the fruits of his labor daily, or even weekly. Yet, God promises fruit to hardworking farmers. Today, Akin’s granddad is enjoying the real fruits of his labor in heaven as he has great-grand children serving the Lord overseas and preparing for ministry. We need a Great Commission Resurgence, Akin said, and it will only come about when Christians faithfully, daily, teach young people the truth of Jesus Christ.
Photos courtesy Southeastern Seminary.
