Meet an Alumnus

August 21, 2011

Nathan Sasser (MDiv '05) on the Reformed Forum show "Philosophy for Theologians."

Nathan Sasser, assistant director of academic affairs at the Pastors College for Sovereign Grace Ministries and PhD student in philosophy at the University of South Carolina, describes the format and goals of the Pastors College, as well as the subject of his doctoral work, the philosophy of David Hume.

Click here to listen to the full interview with Reformed Forum.

Talk about what you're doing with the Pastor's College of Sovereign Grace ministries.

The way I got into the ministry, to go way back, was through growing up in a Sovereign Grace church in North Carolina.  When I came out of Westminster I wasn't really sure what I was going to do after that.  I managed to get a lunch with Jeff Purswell who is the dean of the Pastor's College here, and I was just going to ask him for advice on what I should do with my life.  He offered me an internship with Sovereign Grace; that was back in 2005.  So I came here as an intern for 3 years until 2008, and then in 2008 I went down to the University of South Carolina and did coursework for a PhD.  In January of this year I came back to the Pastor's College, and I'm now on staff in a full-time position; my official title is assistant director of academic affairs.

What I do, in my current capacity, is teaching some courses.  The Pastor's College, to give you some context, is a one-year academic training program for men who are going to serve in Sovereign Grace churches, either planting a church or coming on staff at a church.  It's small, we usually have around 20 men per year, which is about all we can accommodate.  Some of these guys have been to seminary, but most probably haven't.  What we do is give them a crash-course in theology.  Courses that might take a semester at Westminster, we try to cram them into a week at the Pastor's College, which sounds offensively minimal, but actually we do cram a lot of content into those weeks.  So, those guys get 3 and a half days of lecture, and as much reading as we can pile on them reasonably in each of these weeks.

I teach Greek, which is the one course that runs throughout the year....I also get to teach apologetics, which is a joy.  So, we're putting the Van Til in the Kool-Aid here in Sovereign Grace and having them drink it down.  I get to teach Doctrine of God, I just started that, it is just overwhelming. I feel very inadequate for that, but it's a privilege to get to do.  And then also the Doctrine of Salvation, soteriology.  This year, my father and I are actually going to co-teach a course on ethics, which will be brand new for both of us, so we're working on our material for that.

Click here to listen to the full interview with Reformed Forum.