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Powell new Boyce recruiting director
December 1, 2008
By Garrett E. Wishall
Before you enter John Powell's office at Boyce College, it would be wise to discover what kind of day he is having. Depending on what kind of mood he is in, he might preach to you, sing you a song or pull a gun on you.
Powell is the new director of recruiting at Boyce, replacing Dan DeWitt, who recently took over as associate vice president of communications at Southern Seminary.
In addition to his role at Boyce, Powell serves as interim minister of music at Carlisle Avenue Baptist Church and is a firearms instructor at Bluegrass indoor range. Previously, he filled the pulpit of First Baptist Church of Appleton City, Mo., in south central Missouri in the role of interim pastor.
During his undergraduate years, Powell attended Southwest Baptist University (SBU) in Bolivar, Mo., where he worked in the admissions department as lead ambassador and coordinated event planning.
In fall 2005, Powell began attending Southern Seminary in the master of divinity program. That Thanksgiving a conversation with Southern's School of Theology Dean Russell Moore led to a detour in his plans.
"I went to Dr. Moore's house for lunch on Thanksgiving in 2005 and he asked me why in the world I was putting off marriage (Powell was dating a girl from college)," Powell said. "We had about a 30-minute really awkward conversation about how I should just man up and marry that girl. The next day I went ring-shopping. A week later I went and asked her to marry me. Six months later we were married."
Powell took a year off from school to return to Missouri, get married and let his wife, Katherine, finish her schooling at SBU. In the fall of 2007, Powell returned to Louisville and re-entered the School of Theology Christian ministry track at Southern.
Powell said he is excited about carrying out the mission of Boyce College to train men and women for ministry in his new role.
"I want to recruit students who will make an impact for the kingdom," he said. "That is our vision and ministry at the school and I want the recruiting office to mirror that. We are not a liberal arts school. We are an entity of the Southern Baptist Convention and we are here to serve the SBC and Southern Seminary. We want to do that by training up godly men and women to serve the kingdom of Christ.
"And those are not just words," he added. "Whenever we go to a college fair and set up our booth students come by and ask us 'can I come to your school and be a Christian nurse?' We say, 'no, if you want to be a Christian nurse, there is a college right down there I would recommend. But if you are going to come here, you need to be planning to be a missionary, a pastor or a youth pastor because that is what we are here for.'"
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