He will also serve as professor of theology.
Jinkins began his presidency Sept. 1, 2010. He succeeded Dean K. Thompson, who
had been the seminary’s president since 2004.
Jinkins came to LPTS from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, where he
taught pastoral theology and served as seminary dean. He has been a minister in the
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) for 29 years.
He was presented as president by LPTS Trustee Conrad C. Sharps, chair of the
presidential search committee, and as a faculty member by LPTS Dean David C.
Hester. The inaugural oath was administered by Pamela G. Kidd, chair of the LPTS
board of trustees.
In his 45-minute inaugural address, Jinkins told a full house in the seminary’s
Caldwell Chapel that “the church that I am experiencing today is healthier and
stronger than the church I was born into in 1953.” Outlining the importance of
theological education, he called the church to “stand up and be counted for a thinking
faith.”
He continued: “We are living in an exceptional historical moment,” which he called
an “axial” moment ― “a point around which our intellectual, moral and spiritual
history turns and a forward leap takes place, but not without struggle, uncertainty and
ambiguity.”
Education alone will not solve our problems, heal every evil or cure every disease,
Jinkins said, “but it can teach us that you don’t have to be stupid to follow Jesus …
theological education informs and forms people for ministry, but what it does best is
transform persons for public ministry.”
At its heart, Jinkins said, “Christianity is a learned faith and calls all of us to continual
learning, all God’s people. Transformation of the community,” he said, “must be led
by those who have been through the crucible of their own transformation.”
It’s not education alone that transforms, Jinkins insisted. “That’s just one part of the
alchemy. Transformation is by God, who, though we were far off, came beside us
and took us home. The critical study of this message ― spoken many ways to many
contexts ― is the call of theological education.”
This critical engagement happens every day in seminaries, Jinkins said, “and is the
magic of theological education. There is something magical in the chemistry of a
classroom when a teacher in love with his or her subject encounters students who are
ready to fall in love with the message.”
Jinkins said every teacher and every student can relate their stories of
transformation “in which they were ushered into a deeper encounter with the world
around us, and experienced humility toward all and reverence toward God.
“Seminaries are not terminals, they are launching pads,” he said.
Speaking at the ceremony, the Rev. Craig Dykstra, senior vice president for religion
at the Lilly Endowment and a former LPTS Christian education professor, called
Jinkins’ election as president “a splendid match.”
In his “charge to the president,” Dykstra said God’s call to persons and communities
is “to receive the gift of life and respond to it gratefully and to make it our calling and
vocation.”
The goal of theological education, he continued, “is to educate and form pastors and
leaders in the ways of knowing, perceiving and acting in ways that individuals and
communities of faith live it (communion with God) in their situations.”
In his “charge to the community,” Professor of Old Testament Emeritus Eugene
March compared theological education to trying to charge a car battery. “Unless you
know how to hook up the cables right, all you get is sparks and smoke,” he said. “But
if you hook them up correctly you get a reliable source of energy and power.”
Then, quoting Paul in Philippians 4, he said: “Whatever is true, honorable, just, pure,
pleasing, commendable ― if there is any excellence, think about these things.”
