Nov. 1, 2008 | Michael McCormack

For 20 years now, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary Professor of New Testament and Greek Gerald Stevens has been beating the curve - and by necessity, so have his students.

In 1988, Dr. Gerald L. Stevens moved from Birmingham, Ala., to begin teaching New Testament and Greek at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Over 20 years, much has changed for the typical Stevens class, but his passion for New Testament, Greek and students hasn't. For him, these two decades have gone by in a flash.

"I can't believe how much time has passed so quickly," Stevens said.

Stevens' path to NOBTS professorship was no straight shot. Originally from Mississippi, Stevens double majored in math and physics at the University of Southern Mississippi. He sensed God's call on his life as far back as his senior year in high school. But it was toward the end of his college days that the call began to take shape.

"It was probably somewhere in the junior-to-senior-year transition that I began to recognize that ... God was working in my life in a very special kind of way," Stevens said. "I responded [to that call] during a citywide crusade in Hattiesburg, Miss. I went on to finish my degree in math and physics and then came down to the seminary."

While earning a master's degree, Stevens pastored nearby Bayou Baptist Church. Out of that ministry came personal direction for him.

"Whenever I was in a teaching mode [at the church], I always got this strong response," Stevens recalled. "It was the pastoring experience that led me to the realization that God had gifted me for teaching."

And so it was that sense of calling that led Stevens to enter the doctoral program at New Orleans Seminary.

"It wasn't something I decided to do because I had some intellectual capacity for academic pursuit," Stevens said of entering the doctoral program. "It was a fundamental sense of call."

And near the end of his doctoral studies, Stevens' sense of call was challenged. The field of teaching - especially in Baptist colleges and seminaries - was flooded at the time of Stevens' graduation. Despite all his efforts to secure a teaching position, he had no success.

"I sent out probably 60 résumés the spring of graduation and got not one response," he said. "That was a real challenge to my sense of call."

LAGNIAPPE, FLEXIBILITY AND SPIRITUAL STRUGGLE

Stevens said that "just by lagniappe" he decided to participate in an interview with the Alabama Baptist Campus Ministries. With no other opportunities on the wire, Stevens thought "Why not?"

"I interviewed and that snowballed into a position as campus minister at the University of Alabama at Birmingham," he said. "So in the fall of 1981, I went to UAB as campus minister. I had the time of my life."

Stevens clearly loved the seven years he spent in Birmingham. Known for his energy in the classroom, Stevens remembered being energized by the college students.

"I loved their energy, their excitement for life," he said. "I love being a part of someone's life when they were making major life decisions about faith and commitment to a spouse."

Stevens said with a smile that, even now in private devotions, he sometimes prays, "God, if you don't want me teaching and if you give me an option, I'm going to ask you if I can be a campus minister."

"I just loved it," he said.

But at the same time, Stevens said he was becoming restless. His campus ministry was extremely fulfilling, but he still sensed a call to teach. He was facing questions like "Where is this going?" and "How did I get here?"

"I came to a crisis point in the winter of 1987 where I was up to my eyebrows wondering ‘What is God doing in my life? I have worked so hard to get a doctor's degree and to honor God with this sense of call on my life, but He just hasn't open up the place to teach,'" Stevens said.

After seeking some wise career counsel, Stevens decided to be as open and flexible as possible. Not long after, a new opportunity came his way.

"A couple of months later, I received an invitation to be an editor at the Sunday School Board (now LifeWay)," Stevens said. "I accepted that position and had already signed a contract on a condo and had accepted a position as a single's minister at a church in Nashville.

"All of that was already in place when my phone rang at the BSU one day."

Much to his surprise - and confusion - the phone call was from Landrum Leavell, president of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Leavell was up front: "Gerald, do you want to teach?"

"I was in instant career crisis," Stevens said. "I thought I was doing God's will and I'd been more open to the future like I was advised to be. I thought I was doing all the right things, and then suddenly, out of the blue, there was this invitation to teach."

Stevens asked for 24 hours to pray over the decision. After a sleepless night, he called Leavell back. Stevens had identified four major hurdles that the seminary president would have to cross in order for Stevens to even consider returning to teach. He was sure that Leavell would respond in the negative.

"But the oddball thing about the conversation was that I presented hurdle number one, and he said ‘I can handle that,'" Stevens said. "It blew me out of the water. I said ‘OK. I've got three more.' He didn't balk at any of them.

"And I thought, ‘Oh no. God, I told you if Leavell could get over all four hurdles then I would have to give this some consideration."

After a second sleepless night, Stevens agreed to come to New Orleans for an interview. It didn't take long for him to realize that teaching in New Orleans was where he was supposed to be.

"I knew with a shadow of a doubt, after all the spiritual struggle I went through over that two-day period, this was God's will," Stevens said. "So in the fall of 1988 I started teaching at New Orleans. The rest is history."

A STANDOUT TEACHER

Anyone who's taken a Stevens class knows the huge role that technology plays. By Stevens' own admission, technology has always been a driving force in his presentations. At New Orleans Seminary, Stevens was one of the first - if not the first - to use LCD projectors in class and to have every lecture in presentation format.

"I've always been the one who was hanging ten on the front of the wave," he said. "If anything's happening technologically, I'm there."

Stevens even connected his widely used Greek grammar textbooks to technology. About the same time Stevens came to the conclusion that students needed a more graphics-oriented and user-friendly Greek textbook, a new technology called "desktop publishing" was hot off the presses.

"I wrote a textbook because I wanted a better classroom experience for my students," he said. "My love was the Greek language, so I wrote a Greek grammar."

That first textbook has led to an updated primer, an intermediate Greek grammar and, due out Fall 2008, Syntax in New Testament Greek, written in conjunction with fellow NOBTS New Testament and Greek professor Dr. Bill Warren.

Of course, whether he's talking about his textbooks or the use of technology, Stevens connects everything back to his students in the classroom. Over 20 years, Stevens admits that students have changed with regard to culture.

"Culturally, they've changed because the culture they confront is different," he said. "The life around them is much more fast-paced. News and information come at an alarmingly fast rate, to the point that you have to respond to something without reflecting on it. And that's dangerous."

But Stevens said students have not changed spiritually; their spiritual needs are the same. He pointed out that students first need a dynamic relationship with Jesus Christ. Without that, he said seminary makes no sense.

"And students still need a mentor," he continued. "No matter how you're getting the information, somewhere along the way you still need a mentor to guide you along the way of learning how to become a minister."

A student's mentor acts as a sounding board for digesting and integrating information into ministry, Stevens said. Finally, he said that students need professors to be personable.

So in the spirit of being personable, here are some interesting facts about Dr. Gerald Stevens:

"Doc of Rock" - Many in the Alabama Baptist Campus Ministries world knew Stevens as the "Doc of Rock." He is, of course, an accomplished guitarist. He writes his own songs - even an Easter cantata - and he and his wife, Jean, have performed many concerts at churches. Stevens emceed an Alabama BCM talent show in the 1980s. Dressed in his doctoral gown and with his electric guitar strapped on, Stevens took stage between acts and entertained as the Doc of Rock.

iTunes and on the web - Stevens has a website - DrKoine.com - that shows his out-of-the-classroom side. It has information about his classes, photos from his travels, podcasts and more. He and Jean also have an album available on iTunes. Go to the iTunes music store and search for "Jean and Jerry Stevens."

Classroom Perfect Attendance - Stevens said that, a few years ago, Jean shocked him by asking if he realized that he'd never missed a class. He went back and checked, and indeed, in 20 years, Stevens has never missed teaching a class. "I can't help it," he said. "I just have to be in that classroom."

Schnauzer named Tilly - The Stevens family has had two schnauzers over the years, one of which was named "Tilly." People in New Orleans may think Tilly was named after Gentilly, the neighborhood in which the seminary is located. That's not the case. Instead, Tilly was named after an exit off Interstate 59 in Laurel, Miss., for Chantilly Street (Mississippi exit 97 to be exact).

-30-