Rick Nohr (ThM, 2001; DMin, 2020) serves as the Senior Pastor of Pine Ridge Bible Church located in Quincy, Michigan. The village boasts one stoplight, a seasonal Dairy Queen, and a Christmas tree farm. While Rick and his family moved to the Midwest town twenty-two years ago, Rick’s office still attests to his Texas roots. A large frame cluttered with bluebonnets sits behind his desk, bordered by books and family photos. Rick deeply enjoys preaching, but he finds even more joy in watching the young men he trains preach the Word.
Dallas Theological Seminary trained Rick as both a preacher and a pastor. Seminary takes a toll on students, especially those simultaneously serving others as a spouse, parent, employee, and church leader. Rick’s professors punctuated the business of seminary life with moments of really sweet pastoral care, modeling what it looked like to tend a congregation. For example, during his first semester, Rick walked into a packed Tuesday night Bible exposition class. Dr. Tom Constable (ThM, 1966; ThD, 1969) opened the class, asking for prayer requests. Rick’s wife, Tammy, had been fighting a major sinus infection, so Rick raised his hand. Dr. Constable said, “Yes, Richard?” Dr. Constable knew Rick by name even though they had never met. Dr. Constable and his wife attached student pictures to his class roster and prayed for each of them every night before bed, even before the semester started. Dr. Constable taught Rick what it looked like to pray for a flock. The professor’s prayers did not end there. He stopped Rick along the sidewalk one day to ask about Tammy. Even though the seminary was massive and even though they lived off campus, Dr. Constable still knew them by name. Toward the end of his ThM, Rick met with Dr. Oscar Lopez (ThM, 1975; ThD, 1993) to ask him to be his thesis advisor. Rick jumped into his topic, but Dr. Lopez stopped him in his tracks. “Whoa. Tell me about yourself. How did you come to know Christ?” That interaction showed Rick what it looked like to do a pastoral visit. Dr. Lopez also modeled honesty, refusing to sugarcoat Rick’s need to someday hire a worship leader. There is no making up for a lack of rhythm. Dr. J. Scott Horrell (ThM, 1977; ThD, 1988) showed Rick what it looked like to lavish grace on someone undergoing unexpected and limiting life circumstances, and Dr. Timothy Warren (ThM, 1977), one of Rick’s favorite preaching teachers, demonstrated how to balance skillful instruction with humbling feedback and build-you-back-up encouragement.
Aside from his professors, chapel and all the hands that prepared it ministered pastorally to Rick too. Despite all of the exhaustion, anxiety, and yet-to-do assignments, Rick never left chapel saying it had been a waste of time. The thing that ministered to him the most was the music—just one hymn sung by a roomful of students, almost all broke and all broken, belting out praise. Often, the lyrics led to tears shed in light of God’s great faithfulness, both for Rick and others. They had seen God’s faithfulness delivered to their mailboxes: random gifts, rent paid, tuition covered, and scholarships awarded. God’s faithfulness even came in the form of day-old bread handed out by the Walvoord bread lady.
Toward the end of his ThM, when Rick went to the Placement Office and said he wanted a church where he could teach the Bible verse-by-verse and book-by-book, build relationships, and disciple for the long haul, Bob Kaumeyer (ThM, 1971) looked at him and said, “Well, you’re a dinosaur.” Rick responded, “Well, find me a dinosaur church.” A tiny church wound up flying Rick and his whole family to Michigan. The church was very gracious and warm, and people kept bringing up the area’s lack of trained Bible teachers. Rick and Tammy knew they wanted to go where they were needed, and God kept confirming that Pine Ridge needed them. The dinosaur found his church, and he has served there for twenty-two years and counting. Rick discovered that he enjoyed and still enjoys making disciples and launching teams. Tammy almost immediately started a women’s Bible study, which she still leads today. Both Rick and Tammy are gifted disciple makers and enjoy equipping groups of leaders to go out and lean into their own giftings.
A rural context generates its own challenges. Sometimes you feel isolated. It can be difficult to find someone else to preach when you need rest. It can also be a struggle to get honest sermon feedback, which is crucial for growth. Those struggles and the biblical model for church leadership led Rick to pursue his DMin degree; he focused on team leadership in rural churches, recognizing that the lone-ranger model of ministry was neither sustainable nor biblical. A plurality of leadership fosters church health and allows the church to better enjoy all the Father’s good gifts to his people. Rick worked through the program slowly. Sometimes they could only pay for one class per year, but the Lord provided. Rick graduated with his DMin in 2020.
Pine Ridge has allowed Rick the freedom to train other preachers both within their congregation and throughout the wider community, forming a cohort of young preachers who sharpen and encourage one another. Like the father who derives more joy from watching his child learn to fish, Rick most enjoys watching the young men he trains preach. He gets to see the Lord at work in them as they explore and develop their gifts, and the congregation gets to hear something they would not have heard if Rick had preached. On the first day of his first-ever DTS preaching class, Rick and twenty other ThM students, all attired in coats and ties, walked into Dr. Keith Willhite’s (ThM, 1985) classroom. The professor told his students to stand up, push their desks aside, and get down on their knees. Then he said, “This is where preaching begins, where preaching goes on, and where preaching concludes.” That moment marked Rick’s life, and he shares that story with all the preachers he trains.
Last Christmas, Rick drove past campus, all lit up with string lights. He passed the sign on Live Oak that says Preach the Word on one side and Touching Lives with Scripture on the other as he headed to Baylor Hospital to spend time with his brand-new grandbaby, born at the same hospital almost twenty-five years to the day as Rick’s son. That DTS sign has always been one of Rick’s favorite spots on campus, and it is still a good reminder, simplifying Rick’s purpose and calling as he preaches and trains preachers.