Speaker: Mike Voigts, Professor of Christian Spirituality and Theology
Please introduce yourself and tell us how you found your way to your current role at Asbury Theological Seminary.
Mike Voigts: Hi, I'm Mike Voigts, professor of Christian spirituality and theology here at Asbury Seminary. I was first introduced to Asbury as a student. My wife and I both graduated in 1993. After 25 years of pastoring churches in both Texas and Kentucky, and after some further education, I was invited in 2017 to join the faculty full time.
Could you share a few details about your favorite part of being on faculty here?
Mike Voigts: I think there's a couple of things that I really enjoy about being a member of the faculty here at Asbury. The first is probably just, just getting to know students. I love to hear about their call to ministry. I love to learn about their families, what their passions are, what their dreams are for the Body of Christ. And secondly, I'd love to help students stay connected with the long line of Apostolic Christianity that, that topics that seem to be new and innovative today really may not be so new. They've been part of our heritage since the earliest days of the Church.
What’s the best piece of advice you have ever been given?
Mike Voigts: I think the best advice I've ever been given is that despite what you do in life, never forget who you are. You are not what you do. You are not who people say you are. You are created in the image and likeness of God. That is your identity.
If you had to teach a class on one thing for the rest of your life, what would you teach?
Mike Voigts: Wow. If I could teach a class on just one thing for the rest of my life, I think it would probably be a class on the life, the theology, and the spirituality of Bernard of Clairvaux. He was twelfth-century reformer in France, a real fire brand! Uh, he drove people nuts, but I love him because of that. He wasn't perfect, but he was a saint whose humanity got in the way. We have so much to learn from people like him.
What skill do you think everyone entering ministry should have?
Mike Voigts: Well, I think the one skill everybody should have entering ministry isn't really a skill at all. It's, it's just allowing their relationship with Christ to naturally spill over into the lives of other people. Uh, if, if we don't love the people, uh, with whom we're in ministry, it's gonna be difficult to be in ministry with them. And we certainly don't want our relationship with Christ to stay with ourselves. But love, I think is, is, is the key in ministry.
