Beeson Podcast, Episode #671 Mr. Daniel Edwards Date >>Announcer: Welcome to the Beeson podcast, coming to you from Beeson Divinity School on the campus of Samford University. Now your host, Doug Sweeney. >>Doug Sweeney: Welcome to the Beeson Podcast. I’m your host, Doug Sweeney. I am here today with one of my favorite students at Beeson Divinity School. Mr. Daniel Edwards, who not only is a great academic student here at Beeson and a wonderful minister of the gospel, but he serves as the President of our Minority Student Fellowship. We want to ask him all about God’s work in his life and what God is doing through his leadership of the Minority Student Fellowship this year as well. So, thank you, Dan, for being with us. >>Daniel: I’m glad to be here, Dean. >>Doug Sweeney: So, just for the sake of those who might not know you who will be listening to this, tell us just a little bit about yourself. How did you come to know the Lord and why did you feel like the Lord was guiding you into ministry and bringing you to Beeson? >>Daniel: Sure. So, my story begins actually here in Birmingham. I grew up in Sardis Baptist Church, a historic church here in the city. My dad was an Associate Minister there. And so I grew up in a Christian home. I had two other brothers and a sister and we were taught the ways of the Lord. But like many people who grow up in a Christian home, I did not actually come to know Christ until I was in college. I was baptized when I was probably maybe eight or nine. And the Lord allowed me to go on a journey. I think through a lot of pain that I ended up putting myself through, God ended up showing me his mercy and allowing me to really come to know his grace in a real way. So, I tell people all the time the Lord really saved me in spite of me. Growing up in a Christian home, you’re taught what to do and what not to do. I pretty much ran from that as hard as I could until I couldn’t anymore. And so that’s the short version. >>Doug Sweeney: What happened in college that kind of changed things for you? >>Daniel: Yeah. I college, I had a lot of relational distress that I put myself kind of through. I experienced a lot of brokenness just from trying to find love in all the wrong places. Really suffered from trying to create an identity in high school and all growing up I played basketball. When I went to college I didn’t have that anymore. So, I really struggled with knowing who I was, where my significance came from. So, the Lord really just kind of met me in some really dark places. He used friends, he used all types of people really to help guide me back to really what I already had the whole time in my family, which was the Lord. My mom and dad were great models. So, yeah, that’s kind of how that went. >>Doug Sweeney: All right. So, after that, what goes on in the mind and the heart of a pastor’s son as he’s trying to figure out whether the Lord is leading him into full time ministry? >>Daniel: Run! That’s what goes through the mind. (laughter) Yeah ... so, it’s funny. My call to ministry was much like my call to Christ. I did not want to do it. I saw my dad ... my dad was bi-vocational. So, I saw the real and raw picture of what it meant to pastor in a day to day context in an urban context, phone calls middle of the night, hospital visits, preaching every Sunday. And so I didn’t want that to be a part of my story. I was like, “Lord, I’ll be the best musician and deacon you ever could have in church, but the full time ministry thing just isn’t for me.” The funny thing about it, though, was when my wife and I got married we ended up, in order to build community, we ended up starting a small group, a marriage small group. And I found myself just really enjoying helping other people grow spiritually as I myself was growing spiritually. And I found myself just devoting a lot of time to that, even sometimes being at work and doing research for the small group. And I think just through a process of the Lord revealing to me I guess my gifting in how I’m wired and what he’s created me for. I began to see that this would be the best life for me because this is how he made me to be, if that makes any sense. And also mentors helping me discern that and just relenting on my own plan that I had for myself. And it was like a death. I mean, I grieved it. I wanted to go into medicine. I did my undergrad in clinical lab science. And so I was fully committed to going that path. And the Lord had to open my eyes to this. >>Doug Sweeney: So, how did you hear about Beeson and decide to come here? >>Daniel: So, in my discerning process for ministry, a mentor who was a friend of my dad in the city named Alonzo Jones, he told me about a church where I could go that he was a part of starting. And I could sort of cut my teeth in ministry. And so he was telling me about the church. He was like, “You could go here, you can preach , you can do music, you can try everything out and see if this is really what the Lord is calling you to.” So, when I was at this church plant I actually met two Beeson grads. Eric Park being one of them. And Daniel [inaudible 00:06:07]. They would always go on and on about Beeson. Just all day. I mean, I think Eric had graduated already and Daniel was still at Beeson at the time. And he was just telling me all the stuff he was learning. Just how dynamic an environment it was. And so when it came time for me to consider theological education I was like, “Well, let me see what this is all about.” They talked it up to me. And yeah, it hasn’t fallen short. >>Doug Sweeney: I was just going to ask you that. You got quite the hype from these guys. Has your experience lived up to the hype? What’s your experience been like at Beeson? >>Daniel: It actually has. It’s exceeded it. And I’m not saying that because you’re the Dean of the school right now. But it genuinely has. I tell people ... I was talking at the Preview Day and I was telling the people there that Beeson is forming you in ways you don’t expect. And that’s just the truth of it. Not only ... you expect the academic rigor, people tell you that it is hard. But what you don’t expect is for your soul to be shaped in the way that it is. One of the stories I told Tuesday was that when I first got here and the very first day in Dr. Parks’ Greek class I walk out of the class and my eyes are *this big* ... >>Doug Sweeney: That’s a tough class. >>Daniel: Tough class. A friend, Josh, he and I both were kind of looking at each other like, what are we going to do? You know? And we walk outside into the courtyard and we sit down on the bench. And he’s like, you know what? Let’s pray. And as simple as that is and that should be a knee jerk reaction for a Christian. But that wasn’t mine. But it taught me something in being around him and others that before you do anything you probably need to pray. Before you study, why not have some prayer. As you’re dealing with difficult conversations, going through- >>Doug Sweeney: Great advice. >>Daniel: So, I picked that up, just kind of from being around. And there’s many other things I can name stories with mentors and other professors, but it really does shape you. >>Doug Sweeney: Tell our listeners a little bit about the Minority Student Fellowship at Beeson. At the top of the show, I mentioned that you’re the President this year of the MSF. What is it? What is the MSF? What do you guys do? >>Daniel: Yeah. So, the Minority Student Fellowship is a fellowship here at Beeson that was developed essentially to help minority students to acclimate themselves with Beeson. Like the presidents before me: Sam and Germaine, who I knew, we basically just look at the role as one of serving. So, I tried to ... in whatever way I can help the minority students that are here, or in whatever way we can create an environment where people can feel more at home. And help them navigate the Beeson waters. We try to do that. So, that’s really the goal. >>Doug Sweeney: It’s a great goal. We talked before we began recording about how we in God’s providence happen to be recording this conversation on the 60th anniversary of the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church, which is a big day not only at that church but in town for everybody here in Birmingham. There’s some people who say, “Why do you need a minority student fellowship? Isn’t Beeson just for everybody all the time?” How do you think about stuff like that? How far have we come in the last 60 years when it comes to sins related to racism in our churches? And why do we even need a minority student fellowship at the seminary? >>Daniel: I feel like we need it because although Black people, as a people, we learn the majority culture, which is a White culture. We learn that to survive, but it’s not like it’s always the most comfortable. If I’m honest, I was just having a conversation earlier with Emily and we were talking about the denomination that we’re in. And I expressed to her a lot of times you just kind of want relief from having to be in the majority culture. Most times you get that relief at home. But traditionally Black people have always found a sense of dignity and worth in particularly the Black church. So, it is important to maintain those spaces to be in a place where people get it, people understand you. And they can help walk with you through the different things that you’re facing being a minority in a majority type space. >>Doug Sweeney: Are you feeling like as the Minority Student Fellowship develops, do you think Beeson is getting a little bit better at welcoming minority students? Giving them a space where they can just kind of let their hair down and be who they are and that kind of thing? >>Daniel: Yeah. I think as students come in we try to be intentional about connecting with them. I think that really does help them to also feel connected to the rest of the student body, because we too have deep friendships outside of the minority student fellowship. And so when they can connect to us they can thereby connect to the rest of the student body, because they see you interacting with them and they feel this comfort I think in doing that. So, I don’t know if I answered your question 100% correctly, but ... >>Doug Sweeney: Yeah. Well, and there’s always room for getting better at these things. I just wanted to kind of take your pulse on where you think we are today. And what the value is of paying attention to things like this. A lot of people in the majority culture ... I’m White ... A lot of people like me say, “Well, why do we need to have these special things?” And I believe we do need to have them. Some day maybe we won’t need them to the same degree, but I think now they’re really helpful. >>Daniel: I think it’s important to have allies who understand that. We all are in the American culture, but there are subcultures. And again, it’s hard to really articulate all of the differences to people who are not in your particular culture. They may look at it as trivial. But in the same way a person would feel a sense of comfort being in their own home, as opposed to being in a hotel or being in your own country as opposed to being in another country, it’s similar. And it’s important to maintain those spaces. >>Doug Sweeney: A few minutes ago you mentioned Beeson alumnus, Daniel [inaudible 00:12:41]. I think this past summer you did your cross cultural ministry practicum in London where last I knew he was doing ministry. Tell our listeners just a little bit about the CCMP program “Cross Cultural Ministry Practicum Program” and what you did last summer. >>Daniel: Yeah. So, the CCMP is where we as students enter into a different culture in order to essentially practice and experience cross cultural ministry. And I did my CCMP in London. Preston, John, and Andrew. And we had a great time. I mean, it was phenomenal for a couple of reasons. The first being we had a great pastor over there – Brian – who really showed us what ministry looked like on the ground there. We did a lot of evangelism. But also I think in the process, my huge big takeaway was just that the gospel is really all you need. Over there, church is very stripped down. There’s not a ton of tech, media. There’s not a lot of glitz and glam – and thank God for tech and media. I’m not downing that. But they really had a focus and a passion for the gospel. And the people in the church, you could tell, I mean, they just were in love with Jesus. And that was inspiring for me because in my own ministry I think you kind of feel like you have to have all of these things in place in order to have a successful ministry. And that showed me that that’s not necessarily true. >>Doug Sweeney: Well, Dan, it’s been wonderful talking with you. Thank you very much for being such an integral part of the ministries of Beeson; for your good leadership of the student body. We’re running out of time. But what we always like to conclude these with our guests by asking them – so what are you learning these days? What is the Lord doing in your life? Is he teaching you something new? Is he stretching you in some new ways? And we do it because we want to end on a note of encouragement and edification for the people listening. Anything God is doing in your life that might edify people listening right now? >>Daniel: Yeah. The big thing that the Lord is doing in my life now is teaching me how to let go. I think in going through pastoral care and counseling and reading all the stuff we’re reading and in learning from Dr. Bals just about how we can be very unaware of how we are self protective and self reliant and how God is really trying to shift us away from this closed sort of self contained posture into a posture that is more open to love, trust, and faith in Him. And so the Lord is really doing a lot in me in regards to that. I mean, the self protection thing is a huge one for me. I think anybody who has experienced relational pain to any extent, we have these mechanisms where we withdraw and try to protect ourselves. And I’m just trying to allow the Lord to heal a lot of that and move me out more into a space of openness to Him and to other people. >>Doug Sweeney: That’s a good word. Well, listeners, you have been listening to Daniel Edwards. He is a fantastic Beeson student and student leader, a marvelous minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ. A good friend of mine and my wife, Wilma’s. Thank you very much, Dan, for being with us today. >>Daniel: Yes, sir. Thank you! >>Doug Sweeney: And thank you, podcast listeners, for tuning in again. Thank you for praying for us. We love you. We’re praying for you. And we say goodbye for now. >>Rob Willis: You’ve been listening to the Beeson podcast; coming to you from the campus of Samford University. Our theme music is by Advent Birmingham. Our announcer is Mike Pasquarello. Our engineer is Rob Willis. And our show host is Doug Sweeney. For more episodes and to subscribe, visit www.BeesonDivinity.com/podcast. You can also find the Beeson Podcast on iTunes and Spotify.