Beeson Podcast, Episode #589 Dr. Reginald Calvert Feb. 22, 2022 >>Announcer: Welcome to the Beeson podcast, coming to you from Beeson Divinity School on the campus of Samford University. Now your hosts, Doug Sweeney and Kristen Padilla. >>Doug Sweeney: Welcome to the Beeson Podcast. I’m your host, Doug Sweeney, here with my co-host, Kristen Padilla. And today we are wrapping up our four week series on the ministries of key African American alumni. As you know, February is Black History Month. And at Beeson it’s also African American Ministry Emphasis Month. Our guest today preached the Word in chapel this morning and did so beautifully I might add and he’s now here with us in the podcast studio to share about his ministry here in Bessemer, Alabama. Before we learn more about him let me mention a couple of forthcoming events at the divinity school. First, Beeson’s Preaching Institute will sponsor a day with a Beeson author event featuring Timothy George, our Founding Dean, and Distinguished Professor of Divinity. This will be on March 14th. Dr. George will speak on reading scripture and preaching with the reformers. Second, starting on March 15th my good friend Bob Yarborough will deliver our annual biblical studies lectures. Dr. Yarborough is a professor of New Testament at Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis. His lectures will take place March 15, 16, 17. You are welcome to attend. Find out more about both of these things at www.BeesonDivinity.com/events. All right, Kristen, who is this pastor sitting next to you today? >>Kristen Padilla: Thanks, Doug. We have here in the studio the Reverend Dr. Reginald Calvert. Dr. Calvert is Senior Pastor of New Jerusalem Missionary Baptist Church in Bessemer, Alabama. And he’s a two time Beeson graduate, having earned his MDIV and DMIN degree. Dr. Calvert we’re so blessed and grateful to have you with us today to have this conversation. Welcome to the podcast. >>Calvert: Thank you for having me. >>Kristen Padilla: We always like to begin by hearing more personal words about our guest and allowing our guests to say a little bit about themselves. So, why don’t you introduce yourself to our podcast listeners? Tell us where you’re from, your spiritual church upbringing and anything else you want to share with us? >>Calvert: Sure. Yes, my name is Reginald Calvert. Of course I was born in Bessemer, Alabama, raised in Brighton. I attended two churches; Shilo Baptist Church as well as Old Grove Baptist Church. Growing up I came up in a household that religiously attended church. My father was a deacon in the church for many years and our spiritual household leader. Later I married. I’m married to [inaudible 00:03:20] McPherson Calvert and we have two adult daughters. We reside in Birmingham. I presently serve as the Pastor of New Jerusalem Baptist Church in Bessemer where I’ve served since March of 1999. >>Doug Sweeney: We want to know a little bit more about your church. Wilma and I have worshipped there and have delighted in it. But our listeners maybe have not been there yet. Can you tell them a little bit about your church and your ministry and if you can tell us how you felt the Lord calling you into pastoral ministry in the first place? >>Calvert: Yes, thank you. New Jerusalem Baptist Church is a historic church, established in 1890. So, it’s been active for quite some time. Has I think beautifully transitioned with today’s time and culture while still being faithful to the Word of God and the mission of Christ Jesus. We’re still a church that God is still working through and developing us. A wonderful group of people in that church. Average age group I would think from 25 to 60. Very few elderly members above 70 years old. But seem to be pretty faithful to Christ. Pretty good experience at New Jerusalem. My calling to ministry was very timely. It took some time. I was actually called as a young boy. I didn’t actually preach until I was about 34 years old. Fought the call, rejected the call, did not want to preach. Being an introvert I just couldn’t see myself standing in the presence of people talking. I was very bashful and shy and insecure. But over a period of time God’s power, drawing power was greater than my rejection power, and so (laughs) I ended up being overly stressed, going into the hospital, stress overload, and submitting my will to his divine will. Then God really fast tracked me. I served at Oak Grove Baptist Church as a youth minister for about two and a half years. And after which I was invited to serve as pastor of New Jerusalem Baptist Church. >>Kristen Padilla: I love how you spoke about that today in your chapel sermon, which listeners we encourage you to go to our YouTube Channel and listen to Dr. Calvert’s sermon. Pastor Calvert, historically the pastor in the Black Church is very involved in the community where they serve. You’ve been significantly involved in the life of Bessemer. You lead a Seek the Peace Rally and prayer walk throughout the city alongside its city leaders and other ministers. I want to ask you, can you tell us about that specific rally and prayer that you lead? And then why is it so important to be involved in the community and how do you see pastoral ministry going beyond the doors of the church building and into the community? >>Calvert: Certainly. I pastor in a community that in a sense has declined as far as home, home values, and we have never wanted to relocate our church ministry. I’ve always been grateful to drive in where there’s truly a need. I realized over a period of time that I wasn’t investing enough in the community ‘cause I was busy traveling and preaching across the nation. I would always come back and look at homes that needed to be condemned and torn down. People in the community that needed spiritual uplifting. So, I was like Nehemiah, a cup bearer to the king, but yet the walls have been burned and torn down. I felt that I wasn’t doing enough. And so I decided after certain tragedies in the city, certain young men were killed, at least three within a three block radius of the church – that someone needed to get up and organize and do something. And that is the development of Seek the Peace. We want to use that title of peace. We didn’t want anything controversial. We want people to understand that this is our mission. Based on Jeremiah 20:97, “Seek the peace of that city. Pray for it. For if that city prospers, you will prosper.” And so that’s our scripture basis. So, what we do now, we’re trying to get known in the community. We’re trying to develop a relationship with people in the community. So, that’s why we have rallies and prayer walks. Rallies and prayer walks are not the answer to the problems that we have, at least it will bring a sense of awareness. The power of prayer walks is the fact that people who never have anyone to pray for them will get a prayer as we’re walking past their home. Seems to whet their appetite for God and maybe even to attend the church. That’s been our experience. Rallies are held to get more interest from people in the community, that we’re not like the priest and Levite, that we walk past the wounded and don’t want to get involved. But we want to be like the Samaritan, that we would take part and involve ourselves in the issues, the problems, that exist within our communities. So, that’s the basis, the impetus behind Seek the Peace initiative. >>Doug Sweeney: Dr. Calvert, we mentioned at the top of the show that this is African American Ministry Emphasis Month here at Beeson. Certainly not the only time of year we enjoy hearing from African American preachers and alumni, but it’s a special time when we do. And it’s a time when we like to shine a light on African American church history past and present. And the role that the Lord has played in using that church history and shaping ministers of the gospel. I wonder, could you tell our listeners a little bit about ... Who are some of the people, particularly African American pastors, theologians, ministers, who have been influential on your life and has shaped the way you do ministry? >>Calvert: I grew up and spent a majority of my life in Shilo Baptist Church. That’s the church that my family attended. Reverend Sterling Pipkin pastored that church. He was a bi vocational pastor. However he believed in education. He would always encourage us to pursue education in whatever we were assigned to do that he thought education was important. So, I would hear that in his sermons week in and week out. And just his involvement in the community, it helped me and my sociology that I should be involved. It goes beyond theology. It’s the practice of ministry. So, those are some of the things that influenced me in the church growing up. God ultimately moved me to another church under the leadership of a Dr. Wilson Fallon Junior. He’s the President of the Birmingham-Easonian Baptist Bible College. The moment I walked in after visiting many other churches I listened to him preach, just the way he was prepared, the way he prepared his messages and communicated with the people, I was just riveted to my seat. And I knew at that point this was the person I needed to sit under. So, he had a tremendous influence in way of pursuing education at that time in my life. So, two pastors that believed in preparation and education. Theologically, and I sort of cut through many preachers, certainly Gardner Taylor, or as we call him “The Prince of Preachers.” Some have called him, “The Dean of Preachers.” Caesar Clark, Sandy Ray ... so many preachers that I would go to the convention and listen to. And I’ll say, you know what, I feel that I need to prepare myself to be able to preach and communicate on that level. They had a great influence. But until I heard Dr. Robert Smith Junior, that’s when my life changed to be honest. I was here at Beeson. I had never heard him preach and I listened to him and I said to the Lord, “This is preaching. This is biblical preaching.” Because you know preachers did a wonderful job ... some would take a text and maybe expound upon what’s going on in life and maybe give an illustration from time to time or three points and a poem. But when I listened to Dr. Smith and his ability to just dig so deep within that passage and pull out things that you just wouldn’t ordinarily hear or see ... it’s as though, as he would say, that I’m saying what I see so that you can see what I’m saying. It just really turned my life around. At that point the Lord sent me to his office and said, “Go see Dr. Smith and let him know if he needs anything that you will do all you can to provide it.” And so I spoke to my wife about it, we both agreed that we should do that. And from that point on I started driving him to his preaching engagements. Not in order to get an engagement, just to learn to listen, to spend time with this preacher, and that contributed mostly to the development of my preaching ministry. As far as notable theologians, Henry Mitchell, Cleophis LaRue, just great theologians in my opinion that I enjoy reading their work, amongst many others. >>Kristen Padilla: Well, listeners, if you heard a name that you don’t recognize, do a search and learn more about these people that Dr. Calvert has mentioned. I mentioned that you did your DMIN here at Beeson and your research was on the role of the Holy Spirit in preaching. In your chapel sermon this morning you really brought that out about how we can understand God through God and through the Holy Spirit illumining his Word. And so why did you choose to study the Holy Spirit in relation to preaching? Can you share with us some of the things that you learned and reflected on in your paper? >>Calvert: Yes, thank you. Of course my dissertation topic is, “The Work of the Holy Spirit and Preaching a Sermon, Listening, Pneumatology and Proclamation.” This was important to me because I feel that the preacher bears the burden of the preaching experience on Sunday mornings. Oftentimes a minister can be well prepared to preach but a congregation is not prepared to hear. When you talk about the Holy Spirit we talk about the Holy Spirit in relation to gifts and guidance and those things. But never in a way of the Holy Spirit being the great illuminator – as Jesus and John 14:26, that the Holy Spirit will call these things to your remembrance and to your memory. The Holy Spirit, John 15:26 will testify of me, this work of the Spirit that opens Christ to us, that we can see, we can hear him. So, I wanted to do a work that would be of value, not just for preachers but for congregants. And what I discovered in my research is that people come to church and they want to hear a dynamic word from the preacher, but in many cases they’re not prepared. They come in distracted, they spent all weekend doing secular activities with little preparation, so what I discovered was with the praxis group that participated is that they were assigned to start preparing for worship towards the weekend. And to come in and not come to church tired and distracted. To pray for the preacher, to pray for the sermon, and then pray for God to open up their ears so that they could hear. “He who has ears, let him hear.” So, it won’t fall under the category of the assignment of Isaiah 6, “Whom shall we send? Who will go for us? Here, my Lord, send me.” Okay. Go tell the people that they shall be forever hearing, never perceiving, forever seeing, never perceiving, forever hearing and never understanding. We want God to open up people’s understanding by the power of the Holy Spirit that they may experience Christ and also experience transformation. >>Doug Sweeney: Dr. Calvert we are proud to say that you were an alumnus of the year at Beeson back in 2009. And one of the reasons why we do this podcast, certainly not the most important reason, but one of the reasons why we do this podcast is to shine a light on some of the ways in which the Lord is at work currently in Beeson Divinity School and it’s ministries with students and the ways in which the Lord has used Beeson and its people all over the world. What would you say about the way the Lord has used your time at Beeson Divinity School in your own life and ministry? >>Calvert: Beeson means so much to me. I really can’t imagine my life apart from Beeson. Beeson cares more about ... they care not only about my theological and ministry preparation but Beeson cares about me as a person. And that has meant so much to me in my life. The training, the preparation, but also the relationship. After graduating from Beeson in 2005, I thought my journey would soon be over, maybe until I decided to do a DMIN. We considered a PhD but at the time my wife didn’t want us to be separated. So, I did a DMIN here. But Beeson was not finished with me. And continued to reach out, continued to touch my life in so many ways, and I think that’s the great benefit of being a part of the Beeson family. You’re more than just a student, you’re family. You’re an individual person, not being in a classroom, you’re not in a classroom with 50 students, there’s a more intimate setting and the professors here are just great, well trained. So, it has really ... Beeson set a standard in my life, a standard of excellence also a standard of passion for people, patience, understanding how to take care of myself, establishing devotional periods and devotional times. And then I think one of the greatest things for me is the fact that whenever I’m in sermon preparation, I don’t have to go pick up a commentary to start my preparation. As one professor said in class, “You will be the commentator. As a matter of fact, you will start your work without a commentary and you will exegete that passage and then later you can go and embrace the work of others.” It’s invaluable. So, I’m still doing it the old fashioned way. I have friends that have certain apps and downloads on their computer, and I commend them. But with my Beeson training I’m still spreading books out and doing it the old fashioned way. According to some people. Because of what Beeson has poured into my life and I want to embrace that. So, I thank God for Beeson. I thank God for the languages and how I’m able to exegete a passage responsibly. >>Kristen Padilla: Well, you have been such a blessing to the Beeson community and I know that you have been involved in the preaching institute, preaching peer groups, you are currently a mentor to one of our current Beeson students, and we could mention a number of other ways in which you have been so gracious in giving back to this community. So, thank you. We always like to end the podcast by hearing what the Lord is doing in your life, and teaching you these days that might encourage and edify those listening? >>Calvert: Yes. Yes. At this particular time what God is doing in my life, he’s pointing me to the community. To help the downtrodden, the marginalized to develop a church that’s willing to go beyond the four walls and as they go to evangelize to witness and tell people about Christ, but not to stop there. We don’t want to tell hungry people about Christ without giving them food. And so my commitment and devotion at this stage of my ministry is to make sure that we have covered every square mile, starting in Bessemer, it’s like the apostles, you start in Jerusalem and then Judea and Samaria and other most parts of the world. We’re starting in Bessemer to get out and reach people. And present a gospel that attracts people and not drive people away. So, in my opinion, and sometimes people may not understand what I’m saying, but Jesus was just so understanding. I put it that way. In my vernacular I say, “He was just so cool.” He could just sit there under so many circumstances ... of people who were sinners and he could minister to them in such a way that they would love him after they’d been ministered to. How do you drop your water pot and run into town and tell people, “Come meet a man.” After he’s told you you’ve been married five times and the man that you’re with now is not your husband? It’s this love that radiates from Christ that I’m seeking to be able to reach people and say it’s okay because life is hard, life is difficult, we are broken people. And so come, let us present Christ to you that he may make you whole. There’s a [inaudible 00:21:42] in Gilead ... there is a physician there. So, that’s where I am. That’s where we are as a church. >>Doug Sweeney: Amen. I think that’s where we all ought to be. Thank you very much. Listeners, you’ve been hearing Dr. Reginald Calvert. He is the Senior Pastor of the New Jerusalem Missionary Baptist Church here in Bessemer, Alabama. We are proud to say he is a two time alumnus of Beeson Divinity School. He preached a wonderful sermon for us this morning in chapel on the 104th Psalm. Please go to our YouTube page and listen to it, you will be blessed I promise you. Thank you for tuning in and thank you to you Dr. Calvert for being with us today. >>Calvert: Thank you for having me. >>Doug Sweeney: Goodbye for now. >>Kristen Padilla: You’ve been listening to the Beeson podcast. Our theme music is written and performed by Advent Birmingham of the Cathedral Church of the Advent in Birmingham, Alabama. Our engineer is Rob Willis. Our announcer is Mike Pasquarello. Our co-hosts are Doug Sweeney and, myself, Kristen Padilla. Please subscribe to the Beeson podcast at www.BeesonDivinity.com/podcast or on iTunes.