A total of 104 golfers turned out Monday for the 23rd annual Heritage Classic Golf Outing — an event that generated $282,000 that will help defray tuition costs for students at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
President Dr. Al Mohler said the investment by golfers and 10 sponsors “will make a tremendous difference” for students and will be a “tool for the gospel.”
He noted that at the last graduation there were students from 47 countries. That event included a graduate from Russia and one from Ukraine, and some of the graduates’ names and their countries could not be named because of security issues.
Edward Heinze, vice president of institutional advancement at Southern, said this year’s event marks the 100th birthday for the tournament host, Big Spring Country Club, as well as the 100th anniversary of Southern’s move to its present campus on Lexington Road.
Heinze presented Southern M.Div. student Elliot Tom with the Rick Bordas Memorial Scholarship, an award that dates back to 2014. This year’s presentation moves the total money awarded for that scholarship to $60,000.
Tom is from Sacramento, Calif., and earned degrees in data science and economics from UC Berkeley in 2021. He spent four years working data science, but two years into that career began serving as a pastoral intern at his church.
“My time serving at my church was significant because it really gave me a flavor of what pastoral ministry might look like,” he said. “What was unique about my church (planted by Grace Community Church in southern California) was though it was planted no more than 12 years ago, the Lord had so blessed the ministry that at the time I was interning there, we had close to 750 members but only four elders. That is not a great ratio. But it was because of this, when serving there, I really got to participate in a lot of the work of the ministry.”
He helped run its membership classes, did baptism classes and membership interviews, pursued inactive members, did hospital visits, taught equipping classes and preached in a variety of its ministries. “However, the thing that probably stuck out to me the most was the opportunity to sit with my pastors in many of their counseling sessions.
“Growing up I heard that the gospel was the solution to every problem, but it was in these sessions that I really began to believe this statement to be true. We had members struggling with the death of loved ones; different discipline cases, some including infidelity, others of abuse, betrayal and hurt from other people. I realized that the problems our members were facing were problems that came down to the issue of sin — where every issue could be traced back to the Fall. As I wrestled with this truth, I found myself really believing that the gospel is the only hope for the world.”
After being at his church for a little less than a year, his pastor encouraged him to take seminary classes. And after two years of interning and a year of online seminary, he left his full-time job to move to Louisville to pursue his seminary education full-time.
“Here at Southern has been such a privilege. I no longer work in data science and am no longer in California, but I feel so privileged to be here every day. The guys I get to study with are guys who I used to just read, and they used to be the guys who I would take a week off of work just to hear them speak.
“My desire is to enter into pastoral ministry, and if the Lord would be so kind to continue to open those doors, my prayer is that He would bring me to wherever I can steward my gifts best.”
This article was orignially published at Kentucky Today. Used with permission.