Each week, Baptist Women in Ministry introduces an amazing minister. This week, we are thrilled to introduce Linda McKinnish Bridges.
Linda, tell us about your ministry journey and the places and ways you have served.
Born into a Baptist pastor’s home in the mountains of western North Carolina, my life was centered around the church. Sunday morning, Sunday evening, Wednesday night—all of the traditional Baptist holy hours. I was always at an instrument. If the church had no musicians, I was on the organ stool or the piano bench before my legs were long enough to reach the pedals. I would leave Friday night high school football game early, race to the revival meeting, change out of my cheerleader uniform in the church bathroom, and proceed to the piano before the announcement of the second hymn.
Choosing a major in Religion at Meredith College seemed a natural fit. Studying with special mentor and Religion professor, Dr. Ralph McLain, only fanned the flame of living and working abroad. After classes were concluded for the day, I went to his office regularly where we talked about missions, international travel, and the global history of Christianity. We studied not only the missionary history of Africa but also the flora and fauna of our chosen country, Madagascar. I did not ever live, or even travel, to Madagascar but I did go live and work among the Mandarin-speaking people in Taipei, Taiwan. And Dr. Mac’s approach to sharing the gospel was always in my mind. The focus was on listening and learning, not doing a lot of talking and telling. “Learn the culture, appreciate the culture, explore the culture, appreciate the people,” were lessons learned from Dr. Mac. And those years, both in Dr. Mac’s office and also on the field provided direction for my life.
Seminary education was the next important step. A little too early or maybe too late, hard to tell, but I arrived at The Southern Baptist Seminary in the early 1970s for Master of Religious Education (the only degree offered to women at that time) and then returned in the mid-80s to complete the Master of Divinity, followed by the PhD. Many women were struggling at that time to make their calling work among a sea of male professors and students and a tightly-fit stained glass ceiling. Often made to feel as if we were strange and second-class citizens for even considering a seminary degree, I found a safe, scholarly harbor with New Testament professor, Dr. R. Alan Culpepper, who continues to this day to be my mentor and friend. The study of the Gospel of John became for both of us a mutually edifying meeting place for both our hearts and minds. I learned from Dr. Culpepper that scholarship was stewardship, that one could be academic and spiritual, that the Bible was to be enjoyed rather than endured, that professors could be ministers.
I wanted to stay there forever—to be buried among the SBTS holy relics in the local cemetery. But the dissolution of the Southern Baptist Convention and the harsh position of women leaders in the church would lead me elsewhere. With our eighteen-month-old son, I followed my husband to Richmond, Virginia where he was called to live out his calling as Minister of Education. I searched for teaching jobs, combing the paper and calling friends. I boldly knocked on the door of Union Theological Seminary and asked for a part-time teaching position. I became the Summer School Greek professor for three summers and then taught adjunctively in New Testament during the academic school year. And then the conversation about a new Baptist seminary began.
I was in process of preparing for Presbyterian ordination exams when President Tom Graves, the founding president of BTSR, called. I was not going to wait for a Baptist church to call me, so I was heading in another direction. President Tom Graves asked me to consider teaching New Testament for the new school, to help shape a presence for women leaders in the newly configured Baptist landscape. I said yes, and decided not to take the Presbyterian ordination exams. And there I spent a decade trying to do just that—to create a path for women in the church.
And now after sixteen years later, with various positions in higher education, an MBA, experience in corporate business life, and opportunities in international education, I am returning to the place where I began. With thankful heart and a mind filled with mysterious wonder, I return to Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond to help lead her into the future. I am both humbled and honored.
Tell us about your new calling as president of the Baptist Theological Seminary in Richmond.
I would not have been ready to assume the presidency of BTSR at any time except for this time. These years have provided opportunities to explore the world of higher education in offices of academic dean, provost, trustee, student recruitment and admissions, department of religion and school of divinity. I wanted to learn more about the world of business, financial models, and profit margin, thinking that someday I would be able to apply that knowledge to the world of higher education. I completed an Executive MBA from the Wake Forest University School of Business. I joined an international company, Shorelight Education, a start-up headquartered in Boston where I shaped an even greater commercial understanding of education. Traveling the globe as Managing Director of The International University Alliance gave me an even larger vision of the power of learning, the need for international connections, and the ability to create sustaining programs for financial growth for institutions both here and around the world.
All of those experiences, once having seemed far away from my original calling of ministry, while I played the Hammond organ in that little mountain church in western North Carolina, now seem to be part of the plan for these years of my life—to lead BTSR as their third president.
What are you most excited about as you take on this new role?
I look forward to helping shape the future of theological education. We are at a crossroads. We cannot look back, and most of the time we cannot even look to the side, either right or left. We must look to the future. I ask myself daily, “What is the role of theological education for this moment in time?” Certainly, to prepare ministers for the church. Is there yet another role that this particular kind of educational community might be able to offer the world, to the marketplace? The answers are not yet completely clear, but the questions are absolutely necessary! I am most excited to be able to ask questions. Having lived and worked these years in higher education and in business, I have a lot of questions for theological education. And we all know that questions sometimes are just as important, and maybe even more important, than the answers. I am called to BTSR, to theological education at this very moment in time, to ask really good questions. May God give me the power to fulfill that calling.
What ministry advice would you give to a teenage girls contemplating a call to ministry?
Learn all that you can. Do all that you can. Know that you can be a minister while learning to code, while being the CEO of the local bank, while negotiating a huge real estate transaction. Understand that God’s calling on your life is for your whole life, not just a role with a ministerial title or a job in a church with a salary. Walk into your life with confidence because many women and men have paved the way before you. The stained glass ceiling is slowly beginning to shatter. Now let us go to work, for there is much to be done.