Rick Griffith (ThM 1987, PhD 1990)

My wife Susan and I serve as missionaries with WorldVenture. This has given me the opportunity to teach Bible, preaching and theology at Singapore Bible College since 1991. I also direct the DMin studies in English and Chinese as well as pastor Crossroads International Church, Singapore. These avenues grant us the privilege to mentor leaders from nearly thirty countries around the world.

I often fondly recall my "seven-year tribulation" at DTS for my ThM and PhD (1983-90.) It is hard to exaggerate the influence my DTS professors had on my life.  My new wife and I loved visiting Dr. Bill Lawrence’s home for meals and to interact with his three sons.  Little did we realize then that we also would be blessed to have hundreds of Asian students interact with our own three sons in our Singapore home in the years to follow. 

Dr. Fred Howe always impressed me with his humility and scholarship, but he was also fun to tease.  One theology class session he apologized about forgetting the handouts for that day and excused himself momentarily to run down the hall to his office to get them.  While gone, one student said, "Hey, let’s all turn our chairs around to face the back of the room!"  We had only seconds for the antic, but Dr. Howe returned, went to the podium and looked up from his spectacles only to see another spectacle—the backs of the heads of 30 students!  I’m not sure my side ever recovered from laughing during that entire class session.  Antics hurt.

No doubt the greatest impact DTS had in my life was to increase my love to teach the scriptures and preach expository messages. I also saw modeled before me that character counts. Finally, those hundreds of pages of notes from "Xerox Zuck" are now adapted and translated and retaught all over Asia.

Editor’s Note: Rick offers handouts and thousands of PowerPoint presentations in forty languages on his website for free download in the areas of Bible, theology, Bible backgrounds, and preaching. They can be accessed at www.biblestudydownloads.com.