My Story

Dr. Lorin L. Cranford Professor of Religion Dept. of Religious Studies and Philosophy Gardner-Webb University Boiling Springs, North Carolina

I grew up in farm and ranch life at the edge of west Texas during the 1940s and 1950s, near Perrin, Texas. Perrin is a small town of less than 500 people, about a seventy-five miles northwest of Fort Worth, Texas. My parents's place was about three miles southwest of Perrin. I was born Nov. 3, 1941 at my grandparent's home, just "across the creek" from where I would grow up. My father worked as a cowboy on a large ranch for the first several years after he graduated from high school. When my father and mother married in 1939, he continued working for Mr. Marks on his ranch until dad bought the Goddard place southwest of Perrin. Shortly after I was born, they moved to their new home and that's where I lived until I graduated from high school in May of 1960. The place initially covered 100 acres, but was gradually expanded later to 180 acres. During those years, my dad leased or rented another three to five hundred acres of both pasture and cultivated farm land. Still, this was a small place in comparison to many of the ranches in the area. Across the road from us was the 3,500 acre Smith ranch. The Cherryholms ranch just north of Perrin was the largest with almost 35,000 acres.

These growing up years were filled with hunting, fishing and lots of hard work. There was cotton to hoe in the summer and then to hand pick in the fall. Cattle and hogs needed "working" and periodically to be shipped to the stockyards in Ft. Worth. Chores were assigned to my younger sister and brother as well as to me. These were daily responsibilities come rain or shine. But in the occasional free moments, my most prized activity was to grab my dad's single shot 22 rifle, the cain fishing pole and a can of worms. My buddy, Shorty (the bulldog who was born the same day that I was), and I would head off early in the morning to the pastures to spend the day fishing, hunting and just messing around. Returning about sundown in the evening, we seldom had any fish or game, but we brought back a day full of fun memories. A bag of crackers and chunks of American cheese was all we needed or wanted for lunch. I did this from about age five until I graduated from high school, even after old Shorty died at 13 years of age.

Since I grew up in the post-WWII boom years, the economic atmosphere in this small community was very positive. This became especially true when oil and gas were discovered in the early 1950s. Many individuals became very wealthy because of having massive amounts of oil and gas on their property. Unfortunately, my parent's place wasn't one of them, although a couple of oil wells were drilled and still produce some oil until today. The main benefit came to the school district. In Texas, school districts are divided into Independent School Districts which operate completely separate from other governmental agencies and have their own taxing authority. As a consequence of this legal structure and the massive amounts of oil and gas income generated for the school, Perrin Independent School District (now the Perrin-Whitt Consolidated Independent School District) charged almost no taxes to the local property owners, paid cash for everything, and provided substantial extra bonus income to its teachers. The net result was that this small school district with less than 200 total students had some of the finest, best educated teachers found anywhere in the state of Texas. The facilities were equal to, or better than, any of those found in the largest schools in major cities in Texas. Thus, the students were exposed to outstanding educational opportunities despite its small size. Consequently, many of its graduates have gone on to become leaders in many fields of endeavor across the nation.

Sports occupied a central place in school life. The small high school with only about 75 students didn't play football at that time, thus we played basketball about "13 months" out of the year. Track and baseball were spring sports, but mostly served as preparation for basketball in the fall. Usually Perrin high school was in competition in both boys and girls basketball for district and bi-district championships about every year. The school had won a state championship a time or two during those years. Every year of the four years that I managed to "letter" in basketball, the boys team was district or bi-district champs or else runner-up. So also were the girls teams. Playing basketball was one of the highlights of my high school years, and I was good enough at it to average about 20-25 points per game during my sophomore through senior years.

After graduating from high school in May of 1960 as class Salutatorian in a class of nine students, I began my college studies at East Texas Baptist College (now East Texas Baptist University) in Marshall, Texas in the fall, majoring in Religious Studies. After my freshman year there, I transferred to Wayland Baptist University in the Texas panhandle at Plainview Texas, where I finished my BA degree in Religious Studies in May of 1964. The open spaces of west Texas suited me more than the piney woods of deep east Texas where EBTC was located. During the Wayland days, I was married and our first child was born shortly before my senior year at Wayland. Working in a West Pharmacy in downtown Plainview for most of that time helped keep my feet anchored in the real work of business, as well as earn enough money to pay for the expenses that college scholarships didn't cover. Lots of preaching opportunities came from all over west Texas during those years, since Baptist churches out there enthusiastically support Wayland and her ministerial students. I had "cut my preaching teeth" at the TB Hospital in Shreveport Louisiana my freshman year when several of us "preacher boys" traveled each Sunday evening from Marshall to preach in the various wards of the hospital. That group of African-American women who patiently listened to their "white preacher boy" each Sunday evening gave me much undeserved encouragement. I will be eternally grateful to them for allowing me to learn to preach with them.

With college graduation came the decision about where to go to seminary. During my junior year of high school I had "accepted a call to ministry" after wrestling with God about it for over a year. My high school years were increasingly pointed to an appointment to the Air Force Academy and afterwards a degree in aerodynamical engineering at MIT in Boston. My dream was to design and fly airplanes. The test pilot Chuck Yeager was my inspirational model. But God had other plans that I eventually accepted, even though at the time I could not have imagined where He would take me in that plan. Thus, seminary education was an expectation rather than an option. Since Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary was reasonably close to home and had the best opportunities for Southern Baptist ministerial students, I chose to move my family to Fort Worth in the summer of 1964 to begin seminary in the fall.

During those MDiv studies at SWBTS, I began wrestling with whether or not God was calling me into missionary service. After seminary classes began in Sept. of 1964, the First Baptist Church of Graford Texas called me as pastor. I was happy being a pastor, even though during those four years of MDiv studies, I drove 150 miles each day to and from the church field to the seminary in Fort Worth. The church was in small town ranch life and I was able to relate to the people since I had a similar background. Graford was somewhat challenging, since the school there had been our bitterest competitor in sports all through my high school years. But I knew lots of people there, and was able to overcome that long time sports rivalry between Perrin and Graford. Toward the end of the four years of both master's degree studies and the pastorate there, the struggle with missions grew to where I made a commitment to go to the missions field. But by this point that calling was to theological education on the missions field. That meant a doctors degree must be completed before the calling could be realized.

When I graduated from Southwestern with a Masters of Divinity degree in May of 1964, I sensed that God was also calling me to a new congregation to pastor, as well as to begin my ThD degree at the seminary in the fall of 1964. During that summer, Springdale Baptist Church in Ft. Worth, Texas called me as their senior pastor. While the Graford church had averaged about 75 in Sunday School, this new urban congregation would have around 250 or so in Sunday school. With a multiple staff, I was entering into a brand new world of pastoral leadership. The challenge of juggling family life, doctoral studies, responsibilities as a seminary teaching assistant, and pastoring put my scheduling ability to the test. To be sure all of these had been present since my second semester of MDiv seminary studies when I was asked to serve as Dr. MacGorman's assistant in the New Testament department. But with more intense seminary studies and a much large pastoral responsibility I had to learn how to manage my time very efficiently.

But the six years that I was pastor at Springdale church were some of the happiest and most fulfilling of my life. This urban church on the edge of the inner city of Ft. Worth grew and underwent a profound spiritual awakening during 1970 that continues to keep the congregation vital and spiritually alive even to this day, some 40 plus years later. When I was nearing completion of the doctoral studies in the fall of 1973, the process of missionary appointment kicked back into full gear. But disappointment came when the Foreign Mission Board of the SBC delayed approval of our application because of earlier health issues that I had some years back. That left us unsure of what God's leadership meant career wise. I loved pastoring the Springdale congregation and felt that once the doctorate was completed I would become just a pastor for the remainder of my career. I didn't understand the reason for the doctoral studies, since that had become necessary because of the anticipated missionary career. And now that seemed increasingly out of the picture.

Then out of the blue in January of 1974, I received a phone call one Saturday afternoon from Dr. Huber Drumwright, then dean of the School of Theology at Southwestern. He extended to me the invitation to join the New Testament department as a professor of New Testament and Greek. I had no forewarning of this; wasn't even aware that the NT depart was considering adding a professor. After careful and prayerful consideration over the next week or so, I accepted the invitation to begin in August 1974 as Instructor of New Testament and Greek. So in late July, after we returned from a youth mission trip with about 40 Springdale young people and adult sponsors to Ann Arbor Michigan, we moved to the south side of Fort Worth to begin a twenty-three year plus teaching career at the seminary. The toughest part of all this was leaving a much loved congregation who had been a delight to pastor and who loved us dearly.

The first year of teaching full time also meant finishing up a doctoral dissertation. Additionally, my mother was diagnosed with lung cancer that same fall. The next thirteen months were spent fighting a loosing battle with that dreaded disease. She and dad lived with us much of that time so that she could take chemotherapy treatments at the nearby St. Jospeh's Hospital in Ft. Worth. Much to my sadness she died in September the following year before my December graduation with my doctorate. She had served as Minister of Music for almost a quarter of a century in the home church at Perrin, and took special pride in one of her children being in vocational Christian ministry.

Some glimpses into specific episodes in my life can be read from several of the posted short stories that I have written over the years.

The next two plus decades were spent teaching New Testament and Greek at Southwestern seminary. During that time the enrollment of the seminary topped 5,500 students in the late 80s, thus becoming the largest and one of the most prestigious seminaries in North America. By the early 80s my teaching responsibilities in the NT dept. began migrating toward advanced masters level courses and doctoral seminar teaching and supervision. The Greek courses remained the core responsibility at the masters level and year long New Testament Critical Methodology and New Testament History seminars gradually became the teaching focus at the PhD level. Also during that time I was asked to assume the responsibility of director of the newly formed Modern Language Studies Program, and I served as its director until 1992 when the seminary added a new professor to assume this responsibility. Also, after the first sabbatical leave at the university in Bonn Germany I taught the second year of Theological German in this program in addition to serving as the director of the entire program. In my "spare time" I served as interim pastor, revival preacher, fill-in preacher, and Bible conference teacher in numerous churches over Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma. This involvement in local church ministry helped me orient what I taught in the seminary classroom to where the students would eventually come in ministry after graduation. One of the most delightful extra activities during the years was involvement in professional societies for biblical studies professors. This meant attending the annual national and regional meetings of the Society of Biblical Literature, the National Association of Baptist Professors of Religion, and the Institute for Biblical Research. Fortunately, in the north central region of Texas two other area professional groups were active: the Southwest Biblical Seminary and the Seminar on the Development of Second Century Christianity. Through participating and serving as an officer, occasional presenter etc.  in these groups many valued friendships with colleagues in other schools were developed.

Two special opportunities during the seminary years proved especially enjoyable and influential in my teaching career. Southwestern Seminary has a very generous sabbatical leave program; every seven years it allows a professor to take a full twelve months off from teaching responsibilities at full salary and benefits plus travel expenses outside the US. In anticipation of my first sabbatical leave, I spent the summer studying German at the Goethe Institut in Freiberg Germany in 1980. My first sabbatical leave (1981-82) was spent working as a guest research professor at the University of Bonn. During the year I accepted an invitation to deliver lectures at the German Baptist Predigers Seminar then located in Hamburg; it is now the Theologisches Seminar Elstal and is located near Berlin. The sabbatical year was spent attending classes, doing intensive research, and developing skills with the German language. The second sabbatical leave (1990-91) was spent at the University of Heidelberg. Similar activities filled up my time there. Additionally, I was invited to give guest lectures at the universities in Bonn, Goettingen, Heidelberg and the Prediger Seminar in Hamburg during the year. During both sabbatical leaves, the opportunity came to preach in several German Baptist congregations, which put my German skills to the test as much as the academic lectures and writing did, and in several European Baptist Convention (now the International Baptist Convention) English language churches in Germany. Many lasting friendships have come out of those experiences. Also, opportunities came to try my hand at writing German in a more popular style with two published articles in the German Baptist monthly magazine Die Gemeinde. During the summer of 1990 before beginning the work in Heidelberg, I was privileged to attend the Alliance Française in Paris France in order to develop better oral skills with the French language. Such opportunities could never have even been imagined while growing up in Perrin, Texas! God's plan for me had many surprises and wonderful twists and turns.

For most of that time, my assumption was that I would retire from SWBTS at the end of my career. But with the explosion of the so-called Southern Baptist Controversy into seminary life in the 80s, that assumption became less and less certain. By the mid-90s, I became convinced that I could no longer remain with integrity in a seminary atmosphere saturated with suspicion, ungodly treatment of individuals, and growing distortion of the teachings of the Bible. But I wasn't sure where God wanted me to go. When two separate churches in Germany tried to call me as pastor, but God wouldn't give me the green light to say yes, I became even more puzzled about future directions. Then again, out of the blue like the seminary invitation, there came the opportunity to move to North Carolina to begin teaching at a Baptist university that I hardly knew existed beforehand -- Gardner-Webb University. So in December 1997, I took early retirement from Southwestern Seminary, and Claire and I moved to Boiling Springs, NC, just before Christmas.

The years since have been mostly pleasant and satisfying as I began teaching at the undergraduate level in the GWU Department of Religious Studies and Philosophy. With about 4,000 students, the university is poised to make a substantial contribution to Baptist life, especially in western North Carolina. Coming from primarily teaching doctoral students to mostly teaching undergraduate students presented a substantial challenge in the beginning years. But the challenge of working with students just out of high school, who are more open to exploring new ideas and are in a very formative stage of intellectual growth, has been exciting. Although I began working with computers in the middle 80s, the opportunity presented itself after moving to NC to immerse myself much more deeply in technology and the high tech world. Thus, as a way to help students, Cranfordville.com was born. That interest has steadily grown over these past years, along with programming skills together with web design and graphic design skills. As a consequence, everything connected to what I do in the class room is now linked to the Academic section of Cranfordville.com. A fist full of health problems developed in the summer of 2001 including cancer; this has slowed me down considerably but thus far hasn't forced me into a second retirement. For that I am very grateful.

How do I approach teaching?

In the years of seminary teaching, my generation of faculty members determined to make SWBTS the absolute top seminary anywhere in North America. We pushed hard for tough academic standards and expectations. Our goal was to combine top flight academic expectation with a warm hearted evangelical theological and spiritual commitment. During the 80s especially, before the SBC controversy began destroying the seminary, we achieved much toward this goal. Twice Christianity Today magazine ranked SWBTS as the number one evangelical seminary in North America. Our graduates were able to compete successfully with seminary graduates from all over the world for teaching positions in seminaries, divinity schools and universities. We graduated several thousand students who have spent their lives in ministry as pastors, teachers, missionaries etc. on every continent of the world. I will forever be grateful for the opportunity to be a part of that.

My willingness to come to GWU in 1998 was due in large part to being convinced by Dr. White, the president of GWU at that time, that I could make a contribution to the growing academic standards of GWU. I saw in the university the opportunity to help students achieve their very best academically for ministry and contribution to society. Since the beginning of my own educational experience in 1947, I have been taught and have believed that learning is both a gift from God and an opportunity to serve God. As a spiritual stewardship obligation, our educational experiences should be an expression of our devotion to God. We are to "love God with our minds," just as in other areas of our life. This requires discipline and commitment.

All of this to simply say that I love learning and want to instill that in my students. I expect from each of them a commitment to give their very best effort to growing in their understanding of things. And I cherish for them a life long love for learning. A healthy curiosity about life with the proper tools to explore it is one of the best things a student can carry away from his/her university studies.

To achieve this, a wide variety of teaching approaches are utilized in the classroom. These range from lectures, to inter-active discussions, to in class group learning activities, to written assignments and testing etc. Through the Course Room site for each class at Cranfordville.com, I try to define specific expectations of students for each class in great detail. Learning objectives are spelled out. Testing parameters are precisely defined. These are continually reviewed and updated with fresh materials and new understandings.

Since the vast majority of my teaching centers on teaching the Bible and Koine Greek in which the New Testament was originally written, my expectations of students focuses on their experiencing God's Word in their lives through the pages of sacred scripture. My hope is that each one will come to feel the excitement and joy that I do every time I open the Bible for study and reflection. I endeavor to teach the very best ways to open that Bible and gain the greatest understanding of its meaning. Any interpretative methodology that has legitimacy must include both the historical and literary aspects of the written text. These aspects put one to probe the human side of scripture composition. I have set this forth in detailed lectures given to the Bible survey students, also available in written form at Cranfordville.com. The divine side of sacred scriptural composition (inspiration) must not be ignored, but has to be correctly understood and applied, or else distortion of text meaning will take place. God's revelation in scripture is too important to treat superficially.

Additionally, this means drawing upon the insights of biblical scholars from all over the world. It means consciously developing the best possible personal method of Bible study for each individual. It means exploration of a wide variety of insights and understandings of scripture. We best learn for ourselves when we examine ideas different from our own perspectives. Learning means openness to new ideas. But it also means honing down our own religious foundation and heritage. The new and the old must be brought together in ways that strengthen and build deeper commitment to God.

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