Teaching for Central Seminary has changed over the past thirty years. I used to encounter classrooms full of students from Baptist colleges like Northland, Pillsbury, and Maranatha, or from interdenominational schools like Bob Jones University or Clearwater Christian College. Now I face my students on a computer screen using Zoom. They are in places like Brazil, Kenya, and India. One of my students told me last week that she is Zambian, but that her parents moved her to Botswana until she married a man in Nigeria. Right now, Central Seminary has students in twenty-seven states, fourteen countries, and five continents. Teaching has become a cosmopolitan experience.
We love this global outreach. We love watching our students interact, and we love interacting with them. We love learning about their cultures and their ministry challenges. We love helping them as they master biblical content and theological structure. We love that they are ministering to people whom we will never meet in nations where we will never go. Thanks to the worldwide span of our outreach, the alumni of Central Seminary are ministering somewhere at all hours and on every day. There is never a time when our ministry stops.
If you know anything about higher education, you know that student tuition never pays the full cost of education. Outside sources of income are always necessary, even for big universities. They are much more important for small schools like Central Seminary. In fact, our need for outside income is even greater because our students from the developing world only pay a fraction of the regular tuition—if they pay anything at all.
For us, “outside income” means the freewill giving of God’s people. We depend upon the Lord to meet our financial needs through the generous donations of people like you. Without your gifts, we could not keep training pastors, missionaries, and biblical counselors around the world.
The same is true of WCTS AM-1030. Our radio station blankets the Twin Cities and much of rural Minnesota and Wisconsin with biblical preaching and Christian music all day and night. Our new translator band, FM 97.9, provides even higher fidelity and more intensive coverage.
But WCTS does not sell commercial airtime. Just like Central Seminary, WCTS Radio relies on the generous gifts of its listeners to stay on the air. It, too, is maintained by the freewill giving of God’s people.
That is why we participate in Give to the Max Day every November. Sponsored by GiveMN, Give to the Max Day provides an opportunity for non-profits and charities of all types to appeal to their donors for help. This year, Give to the Max Day is officially being held on November 20, but the opportunity to give toward this campaign formally opened on November 1. In effect, every day from now until November 20 is Give to the Max Day.
Both Central Seminary and WCTS Radio are participating in Give to the Max. We have for two decades. Every year, the Give to the Max campaign brings in a significant part of the budget for both the seminary and the radio station. I mean it when I say that we are counting on you!
A key donor has already stepped up to the plate. This donor has promised a matching gift of $50,000. In other words, for every dollar that you give, this donor will donate another dollar, up to $50,000. The goal is to turn that $50,000 into $100,000. That amount will take a big bite out of our annual budget.
Speaking of budgets, Central Seminary and WCTS Radio are audited annually. We have received very high marks for the way we handle our finances. We’re not rich, but you can be sure that your gift will be used carefully and wisely. Most importantly, it will be used for the Lord’s work.
We offer multiple ways to give. You can give online by following the links to Central Seminary or WCTS Radio. Or you can call during business hours and (763) 417-8250. Or you can put a check in the mail to Central Seminary or WCTS Radio (or both!) at the same address: 900 Forestview Lane North, Plymouth, MN 55441.
Your gift helps us to continue round-the-clock ministry over the airwaves and around the globe. It blesses listeners in Minnesota and students on five continents. It places the Word of God in people’s ears and hearts.
We believe that as we broadcast and teach the Scriptures, what we are doing will matter forever. That’s why we are doing it. And that’s why we aren’t embarrassed to ask for your help. We want to reap eternal rewards, and we want to share some of them with you. Your gift makes you a partner in these important ministries.
This essay is by Kevin T. Bauder, Research Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology at Central Baptist Theological Seminary. Not every one of the professors, students, or alumni of Central Seminary necessarily agrees with every opinion that it expresses.
How Vast the Treasure We Possess
Isaac Watts (1674–1748)
How vast the treasure we possess!
How rich thy bounty, King of grace!
This world is ours, and worlds to come;
Earth is our lodge, and heav’n our home.
All things are ours: the gifts of God;
The purchase of a Savior’s blood;
While the good Spirit shows us how
To use, and to improve them too.
If peace and plenty crown my days,
They help me, Lord, to speak thy praise;
If bread of sorrows be my food,
Those sorrows work my lasting good.
I would not change my blest estate
For all the world calls good or great;
And while my faith can keep her hold,
I envy not the sinner’s gold.
Father, I wait thy daily will;
Thou shalt divide my portion still;
Grant me on earth what seems thee best,
Till death and heav’n reveal the rest.
