Dean of the School of Education at Bob Jones University Dr. Brian Carruthers joins Pastor Walton this week. He was on-island speaking to HCA staff.
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Episode transcript:
Chris Harper: Welcome Welcome to Harvest Time. My name is Chris Harper, and our host on this program is pastor Gary Walton, the lead pastor at Harvest Baptist Church. Every week, we spend these 25 minutes together telling you the stories of our church by interviewing our members and other friends of the ministry. We’d like to invite you to join us at Harvest Baptist Church this week. Now we have 2 services.
We’re back to two services starting this week. The first at 8:45 AM, the second at 10:45 AM. We do have Japanese and Korean translation available during that 10:45 AM service. We hope you can join us then. We also have a live stream available at that time at hbcguam.org, hbcguam.org.
And this week, Pastor Joe Baldwin will be speaking in our Sunday morning services. Let’s begin today’s harvest time by welcoming pastor Gary Walton. Hi, pastor.
Gary Walton: Hey. Hafa adai, Chris. Yeah. It’s an exciting transition for us. It happens in the fall.
If you’ve been around you might know that we have, through the summer months we’ve gone back to one service which has packed out our auditorium. In fact, if you’ve come in the last few weeks or the last couple of months and had a hard time finding a seat, This Sunday morning, we’re gonna have a seat for you and it won’t be as hard to find it. We’ve got students coming back, a lot of transitions happening in the fall, and so we know that we will not all fit back in the auditorium this Sunday. So it’s a fun transition and it opens up some space, for people to come and not feel like you’re having to cram in with some others as you walk in. We’re gonna have a great service.
Pastor Joe Baldwin has, actually served here on the ministry team for 12 years and has been back in the States for a few years. We asked him to come back and help with our in service this week and he’s gonna be a blessing to you. So let me invite you to come and hear the words, fellowship with God’s people, sing together in worship of our God and and just be fed by the word. So we’d love to have you come and join us. Our greeter team will be there at the door.
If this is your first time, they’ll let you know where to bring your kids and how to connect and where to find a good seat. So, come. I I think you’ll feel right, a part of our family, as you walk in this this Sunday morning. Well, I’m really glad to have with us a special guest that’s been with us, now for about a week, doctor Brian Carruthers. Doctor.
Carruthers is the dean of the School of Education and Human Service at Bob Jones University. And he’s here as well for part of our in service, our staff in service particularly helping with some teacher training that we’re doing. We’ll talk about that here in just a minute. But first of all, welcome doctor Crothers. Thanks for being here.
Brian Carruthers: Thank you, Gary. It’s my pleasure to be back on the island and spending time with the folks here at Harvest.
Gary Walton: You have 38 years of experience in Christian education, so a long time of experience there.
Brian Carruthers: It has it has been an incredible journey. The Lord led, me to Bob Jones University, where I got my undergraduate degree in science education and then my master’s degree. And then my wife and I got married, moved to Miami, Florida. And my first teaching role was an administrative role was at a large Christian school, very similar to the ministry here at Harvest, very diverse population, Hispanics. We had about 12, 1300 students.
And, that’s where I cut my teeth in Christian education. I was there for 8 years. The Lord led us up to North Carolina. I was at smaller Christian school for 11 years and then back to the university. This is my 21st year at the university.
So I’ve been serving Christian education from k 12 all the way through collegiate and professional development for Christian school teachers.
Gary Walton: Yeah, I was gonna mention that that you do a lot of professional development. Really what you’re doing with us here, kind of a new program now, but been doing that for a long time. And in fact, that’s brought you to Harvest. Did you say this is your 8th time?
Brian Carruthers: This is my 8th visit back here to the island, yes.
Gary Walton: Okay. Throughout the years, you used to do some block classes back in
Brian Carruthers: the day. My very first visit here to harvest was I think it was back in around 2,005, 6 in there someplace. I came here and did a block class, grad class. It took 2 weeks. And then I’ve been back here numerous times doing professional development and and other things.
And so this has always been a special place for me and my family to come and and to to minister.
Gary Walton: In fact, your daughter, Kristen, was on our staff, part of our graphic design team. And, for a few years before heading back to South Carolina. So we’re thankful for her and her ministry. She’s loved here. Tell us about the rest of your family, your wife and
Brian Carruthers: Yes. My wife, Anne, we just celebrated our 39th anniversary last week. She’s, her parents are both from Cuba. And so she is, fluent in Spanish. And so she teaches Spanish at a local Christian school in Greenville, South Carolina.
She also facilitates what we call the Teachers for Tomorrow program which is the school around, the country, around the world who have shown an interest in the teaching profession. I have 3 daughters. My oldest daughter Sarah is married to Lester, and we have 3 granddaughters. Sarah is a k 5 teacher at our church preschool, in Simpsonville. Of course, we’ve mentioned Kristen, my middle daughter.
She is just finishing up her grad degree from Clemson University, which means I’ve got a high tail it back to South Carolina.
Gary Walton: Right. We’re thankful for you being here because one thing you had to do is get back for that graduation.
Brian Carruthers: That’s right. I was I was threatened with an inch of my life that if I made this trip, I had to be back in time for graduation on Friday morning. And so she she works for Clemson University. She is a graphic designer for a a leadership arm of the university that works primarily with youth camps and with charter schools in South Carolina. And then my youngest daughter, Lori, she is married to Leonard.
They also live, in Simpsonville. She was a nurse for a number of years. And then just in, December, she had her first child, little Lucas, and so she’s now a stay at home mom. And so we’re excited to have all 3 of my kids and all of my grandkids within 20 minutes of my house. And so we praise the Lord for
Gary Walton: that. Yeah. Special privilege
Brian Carruthers: Amen.
Gary Walton: For you right there. Well, I wanna ask you about education, but before I do that, maybe just give us a little bit of your story, your spiritual story. You grew up in a Christian family. What’s that like?
Brian Carruthers: Doctor. Darrell Bock So I’m a native Canadian, and you may hear the outs and abouts along the way. That’s kind of my telltale. Doctor.
Gary Walton: Darrell Bock Yeah. Who gives it away? Doctor.
Brian Carruthers: Darrell Bock It sure does. Anyway, I grew up in Nova Scotia, Canada and was interesting because I’m of Scottish heritage. And so my great great grandfather, who came from Scotland, was a Scottish Presbyterian minister.
Gary Walton: And
Brian Carruthers: so he came and settled in Nova Scotia, and and really my spiritual heritage extends all the way back to them. Grew up in a Christian home. Both my mom and dad, were believers, but being in a very remote area of the country, we didn’t have the opportunity to go to church like a lot of people, are comfortable doing today. So we basically had church in in the living room of my home. We had an itinerant pastor who would come to our house every other Sunday afternoon Wow.
And have a service. And so that’s how I grew up. So there was no teen group. There was no summer youth camp. No Awanas.
All I had was that one service every other week. So I I give a lot of credit to my mom and dad and for their spiritual impact and influence upon my life. I came to know the Lord as my savior when I was 5 years old. And, and I just look back on it now and I’m just incredibly grateful for the impact of my my parents.
Gary Walton: Darrell Bock Isn’t it interesting how God uses everybody’s family situation, our story in different ways, shapes us by that. You know, the things that we’re passionate about equips us.
Brian Carruthers: So speaking of that, my mom grew up and trained to be a teacher. She actually was a teacher of a one room school, and then my aunt was also a teacher. And so I look at those 2 individuals and their illustration of my life that kind of impacted me in going into education. And so, again, grateful for family and for their impact.
Gary Walton: Yeah. Good. Hang on to that. I wanna put a little post there because I wanna come back to that. We have the potential of a lot of educators listening to us today, public school teachers, private school teachers, charter school teachers, of course Christian school teachers here at Harvest.
Let me just ask you about education in general first. What’s the reason that someone would wanna get involved in education in the first place?
Brian Carruthers: 2:1 Well, you know, education it’s been there’s an interesting saying out there that the education profession is the profession that trains all other professions. Alright? So you stop and think about it. If you’re a lawyer or a doctor or a veterinarian or whatever the case, you had to have somebody teach you. And so the idea is that that was an educator.
And so, you know, I I really you know, you go back even into scripture. You look in the Old Testament and the New Testament where it talks about teaching the next generation or instructing the next generation or helping them to remember what they have learned and trained on. So it is a profession that goes all the way back to the beginning of time. And I’m just grateful for it because it gives me an opportunity to pour my life into the next generation. Whether it’s in k 12, whether it’s helping a young person go from 2nd grade to 3rd grade, or someone moving from high school into college or college into a career path, you’re investing in that person’s life and helping them to make strategic choices as to what they’re going to do, what is god calling to them to do, and be prepared to do it.
Gary Walton: It’s really interesting. I mean, you think about I mean, virtually everybody is influenced in some way by the education model or lack of education that they received along the way. But the influence that teachers have in the lives of kids, you know, from you just think about the different ages, you know, from little kids, so influential, but those incredible mentors in high school and college, you know, education is such a big part of that. I’d be interested in you talking about, did you say your mom and your grandma?
Brian Carruthers: My aunt.
Gary Walton: Your aunt as educators. What else? What were the other motivators for you personally? Doctor.
Brian Carruthers: Darrell Bock I think it was just something the Lord put on my heart. I know even as a child we’d play school. Okay? And so the ability to get up in front of other people and to talk and to teach and so that was just something that came natural to me. And so again, being able to, interact with the influence of my mom and then my aunt who was actually one of my teachers, when I was growing up, that that really was something I think the Lord used to impress upon my heart, to want to become a teacher.
Gary Walton: What are the big challenges in the education world? Or maybe maybe it’s not challenges. Maybe it’s opportunities. Maybe give us a little bit of both.
Brian Carruthers: Alright. So as we sit here today and we look at, education, there are some pretty deep challenges right now. And and and if you talk to, and I’m gonna use Christian education as as my illustration, but it it would be the same for public education. One of the big needs across the world is the lack of teachers.
Gary Walton: Yeah.
Brian Carruthers: What we’re seeing is that young people today really, have lost that vision of what it means to be a teacher. And unfortunately, especially even coming into COVID and then more drastically coming out of COVID, I think young people have have received a very negative, taste of what it means to be a teacher. And, and one of the things I was sharing with, your teachers earlier this week, I said, you guys are one of the biggest influencers on the next generation of teachers because your students are sitting in your classroom and they’re watching you and if you are not passionate about being a teacher and and really love what you’re doing, they’re looking at you and saying why would I want to do this? And so I always challenge teachers is that you have got to think about the next generation, and it’s how you portray yourself is going to have an impact, on what whether young people are going to follow in your footsteps or not.
Gary Walton: I know that in the states, well and we’re impacted by this here. There there is a very dearth of, teachers in Christian education. Here on island, in the public schools, they’re really struggling. I mean, God’s been so good to us here at Harvest in giving us, you know, just filling our needs. I’m just so thankful for that.
Not that it’s not easy and we, you know, we invest a lot of time into that process. But God’s been good to us to fill our needs. But I know public schools across Guam, I mean the teacher shortage is intense. Is that true? Schools across the states.
I mean, I think you just said a little bit of it, but what’s the cause of
Chris Harper: all that?
Brian Carruthers: Alright. So so to your point, in the state of South Carolina where I’m located, a year ago, when their school year started, they I think it was 12 or 1300 positions short at the beginning of the school year. And so they still have to have school. And so what do they do? Well, they combine classrooms or they eliminate subjects and so on.
And so it’s having a negative impact upon student achievement because they don’t have the people, the resources to be able to provide a well rounded program. And again, I think there’s you know, you look at the literature, there’s a number of reasons of why we’re seeing, the shortage in teachers, from a world standpoint. It could be that, it’s a low paying profession when you compare the teaching profession to like, the medical profession or or the law profession. You know, teachers get paid next to nothing. The the workload that’s on teachers to be able to, complete all the requirements, meet the standards and the paperwork and so on.
And of course, you know, in public education especially, classroom management. You know, it’s what teachers are having to deal with. When those students come into the classroom, you know, we’re seeing the effects of broken homes and, of course, drugs and stuff like that that come to the classroom. And so here are the teachers over here trying to teach and yet dealing with life issues. And so many times we’re finding young teachers are going like I’m just done.
I’m tired of this. It’s the hassle. It’s the it’s the burnout, if you will. And so they’re moving on into other career paths.
Gary Walton: Yeah. That’s really interesting. I haven’t thought about that in in a while. That pressure of, teaching is a hard profession. You know, there’s there’s some perks to it, so we’re thankful for those.
But it’s an exhausting grind, you know, for those 10 months that you’re involved in it. And, yeah, it can be challenging if the discipline in the classroom, you feel like you’re, you know, you’re kind of at your wits end. There’s nothing to do about that. And just day after day, it’s a challenge. And then you think about the reason people go into education is to make a difference.
And when you start to feel like I’m not making any difference, that’s discouraging.
Brian Carruthers: Yeah. Absolutely.
Gary Walton: What’s the what’s the help for for that? What’s the
Brian Carruthers: What what the help is, I think, is to maybe reframe our thinking Yeah. On on the role of the teacher and how can we better prepare our teachers to handle, some of these, issues. One of the things that I’ve often thought, especially, and again, my my world’s Christian education, is what can we better do what what kind of a better job can we do at onboarding teachers as they come into our, into our ministries? And I have to give Harvest credit because you guys do an incredibly good job. You you are you are attracting young people from halfway around the world.
They come here and they’re on island, new culture and so on, and yet you basically bring them in and you care for them and you help them, become adjusted, to this new environment and and the school and you mentor them along. Unfortunately, a lot of schools don’t do that. You know, they kind of expect them to come in and here’s the text books. I’ll see you on Thanksgiving. You know, it’s just like there’s not that investment of time.
And there’s an interesting statistic that says that young people, and this is both public and private, young people who are coming out of teacher preparation programs and coming into an initial role as a teacher, 50% of them will probably drop out within 5 years. Okay? Because they’re not getting the support. And so I think number 1 is is providing that support. If we can just give them the support and the mentorship to help them to be successful, I think that’s gonna make a big difference.
Now I think in the world of Christian education, a second, and I’m not sure there’s an easy answer to this, but I think it’s something we’ve got to figure out is how do we compensate and take care of our teachers? Because I’ve come in contact with some schools that are paying their teachers poverty wages. And, you know, we can’t expect young people coming out of college who probably have school debt, maybe have no other forms of of of income, and we’re asking them to put in a full role as a teacher. And yet, they they can’t even afford to put food on the table and to take care of the necessary responsibilities of life. And so, again, labor’s worthy of his hire.
And so we need to make sure that we’re doing what we can, not only to support them, you know, mentally and and physically, but also we’re taking care of their financial responsibilities as well.
Gary Walton: Yeah. It’s so good. We feel this, in general, but I’m just listening and so grateful for the privilege of being able to have, have you here, doctor Crother, just the depth of experience. You’ve mentioned a couple of times, that your world’s been in Christian education. Thankful for that.
What’s unique about Christian education?
Brian Carruthers: Well, obviously, Christian education is looking at education through a biblical worldview. And so that’s what really separates us. And I wanna be cautious that we don’t set up a debate between Christian schools and public schools. Schools are just a building. They’re a place.
What we really need to think through is the system of education or the philosophy that that is behind the contents that’s being presented. So in Christian education, we are teaching math, science, English, history, those core subject areas. Those are the same core subject areas that you’re gonna get in a in a in a public school setting. However, what’s different between the two is the lens in which that content is being filtered through. So in a Christian school, obviously, we’re filtering it through the lens of scripture.
You know, what does the Bible say about math, language arts, science, social studies, and so on? Wherein secular education, that lens is humanism. You know, how does how how do we take math and science and how does it promote self and how does it meet the needs of humanity? And, of course, that doesn’t help a society because everybody is focused back on themselves and the promotion of self. So I’m very grateful that in Christian education, we are providing the skill set.
We’re providing the content information that young people need, but it’s always being done through the filter of God’s word. So that’s why we use Christian textbooks. That’s why we use Christian teachers in the classroom because we wanna be able to facilitate that true biblical based philosophy.
Gary Walton: There really is a worldview, right, that’s being formed Absolutely. When we’re when we’re kids and through our families. The church, we believe is the answer to that, helps us guide. But to have a school that’s coming along, I you know, and supporting that, super helpful. Discipleship.
Sure. We talk a lot about discipleship here at harvest. I think any church should. This is god’s plan for, you know, for the world. It’s a mission that he’s has called us to.
And we see Christian education as a part of that discipleship. Let me ask you 2 questions about that. 1 would be, just you personally, could we track that? Any, in your growing up years, was there, you know, kind of formal discipleship or if not, then who would be sort of the big influences? Let me ask that.
Brian Carruthers: Alright. So, in my life, obviously, as I said earlier, it would be my parents and more specifically my mother. I really as I reflect back was her impact. I had 5 brothers. There were 6 boys growing up, and so she had her hands full.
And yet she invested in my life and especially, I was the first one of the, of my brothers who, desired to go off to college. And and I left the country to do it. And I never came back, you know. And and yet, they were totally supportive of that. Then, of course, when I got to BJ, I was surrounded by, you know, bible teachers and and, other individuals who were speaking into my life.
And, of course, as I got into the ministry, I I’m grateful, for pastors, because I can look back at every ministry I was at, every pastor that, I was under, and I can reflect back on how they have impacted my life and how they influenced me. And so I’m entirely grateful for, I guess, when you say the Christian community that, has come alongside and is invested in my life, to help me to be where I am today.
Gary Walton: So if you look back on those, let’s say, if you could identify 2 or 3 of the main mentors in your life, let’s let’s put it out of your parents because I of course those influencers are really significant for people that have grown. If you can think about 2 or 3, what would you say would be the the biggest factors in why they were so influential
Brian Carruthers: for you? Well, I I I’ll think of one person specifically and this would be my pastor when I was in North Carolina. He actually came from California. So he really wasn’t from the South, and so that was a little bit of antithesis for him. And I kind of felt a connection because I wasn’t from the South as well.
And yet he invested in my life. He spoke truth into my life. And and there was times when I became discouraged being involved in Christian education and and the pressures that were on. And he would sit down with me and he would, we would talk through issues. But I also think he gave me a burden for ministry.
And I actually at one time thought that maybe the Lord was calling me into full time Christian ministry. And I became a licensed pastor as through through that ministry. But again, now that I reflect upon it, I think he was using Ross Davis just to help me understand the role that, the Lord had me in and just to be faithful to accomplish his purposes.
Gary Walton: Yeah. It’s great to look back on those people that God put in our lives at those critical times. And we talk a lot with our teachers about this idea or at least I think through this, particularly when we’re interviewing or recruiting new teachers, but the influence of a teacher is so Huge. It’s so connected with somebody who’s caring passionately and investing and so.
Brian Carruthers: Darrell Bock Yeah. So, what I tell teachers, especially when I’m doing professional development, I will say right up front, the teacher is the key. Yeah. And we’ve got to understand that. But at a number of levels.
Alright. So the teacher is the key. They’re the content expert. They’re the ones that are communicating content to the student, but they’re also key because they know the students. Okay?
So they they know the students who are coming in with background issues, difficulties, and so on. So how do I best take the content and meet the specific needs of that student? But in Christian education, we’ve got the spiritual needs that we’re also needing to meet. And so we’ve got a wide realm of of pop potential points of connection, and the teacher is the focal point in being able to meet the needs of each of those students.
Gary Walton: I love talking to our, graduates, in particular their parents. Every year you know those graduation ceremonies come along and then you know you’re after that the big party that’s happening afterwards and every year multiple times throughout the course of that kind of graduation week, I’ll have parents talk about how thankful they are for the education that their child received to harvest and I always want to press them a little bit on what was it every time. I mean, this is not without fail, they’re gonna give me a teacher’s name.
Brian Carruthers: Absolutely.
Gary Walton: And, this one significant person, usually a teacher that pushed their child, demanded more than the child thought they could get, sometimes as a teacher that the kid didn’t even like originally. Mhmm. But, yeah, it was somebody that just pushed them and pressed them and, yeah, I think you said that right from the beginning, it’s about the people.
Brian Carruthers: Yes, it is.
Gary Walton: And we’re thankful for that. Time goes fast. We’re out of time. Thank you again.
Brian Carruthers: Oh, you’re welcome.
Gary Walton: Brian, thank you for being here.
Brian Carruthers: To be here.
Gary Walton: Yeah. Your ministry to our staff and our church has been, exceptional. We’re really grateful for it, not just now, but over the years. Thank you for that.
Chris Harper: Well, thank you for listening to today’s harvest time. Of course, at this point in the program, we always just wanna personally invite you again to services this Sunday at Harvest Baptist Church. We’re back to 2 services this Sunday, so make note of these times, 8:45 AM and 10:45 AM Sunday morning. We hope you can join us then. We also broadcast the 10:45 AM service live here on 88.1 FM and khmg.org.
We hope to see you this Sunday. Thanks again for listening to Harvest Time.