Wilson Benton

Having served in the ministry for more than 40 years, Wilson Benton, retired senior pastor of Kirk of the Hills Presbyterian Church in St. Louis and currently serving as pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church in Nashville, Tennessee, knows what it takes to be a pastor in today’s world. As an adjunct professor of practical theology at Covenant Seminary, he also knows the importance of proper training, ongoing support, and continuing education opportunities for equipping pastors to serve with excellence for a lifetime. That’s why Benton was excited to be part of the Seminary’s recent capital campaign, in which he asked fellow PCA churches to support the capital campaign.

Benton’s goal was to raise $2.0 million for the campaign’s ministerial development component, with funds primarily supporting the work of Covenant Seminary’s Center for Ministry Leadership. The Center was created to enhance the Seminary’s understanding of what makes pastors effective in ministry over the long term. “It’s very avant-garde for a seminary to be doing something like this to support pastors and pastors-to-be,” Benton notes. “Nobody is better poised to do this than Covenant Seminary.”

Benton sees the work of the Center as a perfect balance between investigative research and practical results, the benefits of which reach far beyond the Seminary campus. He believes that initiatives sponsored by the Center, such as the Intersect Forum, the Pastors Summit, the Pastor-in-Residence program, as well as related continuing education classes, degree programs, and lay training opportunities, are essential not only for preparing individual pastors, ruling elders, and other congregational leaders, but also for maintaining their long-term spiritual health and ministerial effectiveness. When these leaders are properly equipped and powerfully energized for ministry, the result will be a revitalized Church that is on fire for the Lord and eager to proclaim his Word to a world in need of transformation.

“I wish I’d had the opportunity to be involved in something like this years ago,” Benton emphasizes. “It’s a way of ministering to pastors and encouraging them, helping to keep their fires lit—but it’s also a way of ministering to the PCA, and, Lord willing, it will create a cycle of success that will spill over into the larger church.”