By RAY A. NEWBOLD, Ph.D.
School of Forestry, Louisiana Tech University

What comes to mind when you think of a forester? A timber marker with a paint gun? A tree planter? A Park Ranger in a Smokey Bear hat? A preacher? A Preacher?

Folks from every discipline are sometimes led to careers which are departures from their college majors. While Louisiana Tech takes pride in placing high proportions of forestry graduates in professional jobs, some take diversions, such as graduate school, or the military . . . or seminary. As probably the greatest volunteer work force in the world, a spiritual sense of duty draws millions of people to work with youth groups, teach Bible classes, serve in leadership roles, take mission trips, and otherwise contribute time and effort to Christian endeavors around the world. Some Louisiana Tech forestry graduates have chosen a life of Christian ministry as a full-time vocation.

Jeff Links (1985), Senior Pastor of the Morning Star Baptist Church in Meeker, Oklahoma, felt a call to the gospel ministry while still in junior high school. He feels that his pursuit of forestry was perhaps a rebellion to that call. "Amazingly, God has been patient with me and has even used the training and experience I have in forestry to the advantage of my follow-through with ministry."

A personal crisis while working in the forest industry brought him and his wife to a recommitment of their lives to Christ and a confirmation of the call to the ministry. "A knowledge of forestry has opened doors to rapport with persons in the church fields I have served. Many places I have ministered have had people who work in forestry related field and I have been able to better communicate and care for them as a result of my background."

Jason Ebeyer (1993) is the director of the Baptist Collegiate Ministries at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond. In addition to leading a student program of evangelism, discipleship, leadership training, missions, and fellowship, while doing similar work at Kilgore College in Texas he also taught Old and New Testament classes. He says his forestry education was most beneficial, and was a time of self-reflection. He still likes spending time in God's creation day-in and day-out.

"God called us to be stewards of the earth," he says. Jason makes a yearly trip somewhere in the country that is not "spoiled" by too many people. "I take students with me. I let them see the majesty of God in the smallest elements of nature, and the glory of God in the grandness of his creation. I do not think I would have that appreciation if it were not for the years I spent studying forestry."

Jerry Edmondson (1955), West Monroe, serves as directors of missions for the Louisiana Baptist Convention. He also found benefits from his forestry education that have a bearing on his missions responsibilities. He used the clear logical thinking and problem-solving approaches he learned in forestry, and has found that "like growing trees takes years, growing a fellowship of caring believers takes years. The elements of care, nurture, and long-term vision are certainly comparable."

Joe Spell (1982), of Shreveport is not yet full-time in the ministry, but is taking classes from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, working on a master's degree in church planting. He finds several common elements between forestry and the ministry, including seed, planting, growth, maturing, harvest, and yes, even the risk of fire!

Andrew Johnson (1951) also found the patience required to see the results of forest prescription applied to his ministerial work as well. "There are many lessons and illustrations about life that can be drawn from the way trees live and grow. There is an element of partnership with God in both careers. Neither of them would go anywhere without the elements which only God can provide." Johnson (Master of Divinity; Doctor of Psychology), after retirement from a career in the U,.S. Navy Chaplain Corps, returned to live in Ruston, and has served as director of psychological services at the Ruston Developmental Center, and as Minister of Counseling and Family Development at the Ruston First Baptist Church.

After five months of wood procurement and 5 1/2 years with the USDA as a soil conservationist, Willie Leonard (1982) felt God's call to the priesthood. After seminary he accepted a position teaching religion at Archbishop Rummel High School in Harahan, Louisiana. Willie still uses his forestry education working summers with Bayou Tree Service, Inc., with an emphasis on old tree preservation. "From my youth, the time I have spent in the great outdoors has been like a retreat with God--a prayer time. The outdoors seems like God's cathedral to me."

Six years into his forestry career, Ken Lynch (1976) experienced a "calling" to the ministry. He currently serves as Senior Pastor of the Parkview Church of God in Yazoo City, Mississippi. Having a degree in forestry has provided countless openings to talk with people about their land, their tree farms, and more. He continues to use his forestry skills in chairing two boards, one charged with management of a 120-acre estate donated to the Church of God and managed as a tree farm, and another charged with managing the grounds and facilities of Camp Dixon. At the Camp they have marked nature trails, upgraded RV facilities, and educated campers in tree identification and basic environmental principles, as well as conducted timber harvests and thinnings.

David Abernathy (1979) worked for the U.S. Geological Survey for four years before deciding to go to Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is now director of Rolling Hills Ministries, Inc., which ministers to visitors at Lake Claiborne, Caney Creek, and Lake D'Arbonne State Parks, and provides volunteers for disaster relief. Thousands of individuals are touched each year through worship services, personal contacts, and disaster meals. David's live for the outdoors led him first to study forestry and he continues to see the outdoors as God's marvelous creation. Attendance at a secular university in itself proved very valuable in relating to people from many dissimilar backgrounds. After getting a degree in ministry, David says, "It is ironic that I am still working in the outdoors through my work at the State Parks and in disaster relief. I probably will never be one who will feel comfortable behind a desk. My job in the ministry is much more than a job--it's more than a vocation, it's a `calling.' I thank God each day for how He has allowed me to do what I love so much - to work with people in an outdoor setting."

The majority of prospective forestry students come from rural backgrounds are more at home among trees and wildlife than among crowds of people. But it is evident that not all foresters remain in pastoral settings; some choose "pastorate" settings, feeling called, as with the first disciples, to give up the life of a fisherman for a life as a fisher of men. Or perhaps more accurately in this case, proceed from tending the habitat to tending the inhabitants