Tim McKnight, an Anderson University professor, brings a unique mixture of training, experience and passion to his ministry.
His dad was in the Army, and the family moved often, allowing him to grow up in places like Germany and Japan. He says, “The military is so diverse. I have been around so many people of different cultures. I really don’t have a single place I am from.”
What he did notice as an adult was racial prejudice, something he had not seen in his formative years. When he moved to the South, he was “shocked” by the racial divide in the country. “Growing up,” he says, “my best friend was an African-American. My experience was more about relationships than race. Today, I have a burden for racial unity.”
McKnight received a B.S. degree in criminal justice from Bluefield College and master of divinity and doctor of philosophy degrees from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. His first semester at Southern coincided with Albert Mohler’s first semester as president of the school. He watched students disrespect and berate Mohler but observed that he “showed grace to those who opposed him and responded with such Christlikeness. I knew he was a leader.”
McKnight served as an Army infantry chaplain and was deployed during Operation Noble Eagle and Enduring Freedom in 2001. That deployment influenced his life. “In that setting, it really hit me that we are not guaranteed our next day. That experience had a profound impact on me,” he stated. “I was so convicted about kingdom advancement. Since then, I have looked at my mortality and the finite number of days I have and based the major decisions of my life on kingdom advancement, spreading the gospel, making disciples and glorifying God.”
He is the director of the Great Commission Center at Anderson University, which will launch this fall. He says, “It is a vision and a ministry, not a building. Our goal is to match graduating church-planting students with students who are graduating in other disciplines but want to help with a church plant. I tell students that your employment is your deployment. Your vocation is to make disciples — that is your call.”
The Great Commission Center has established a partnership with the Jakarta Baptist Seminary, located in the most populated Muslim city in the world. McKnight says, “We also plan to help missionary kids entering college and partner with the International Mission Board in London. We want to take students who have never been on a mission trip to an English-speaking country and let them rub shoulders with Muslims. We want to reach the unreached, especially Muslims. My heartbeat is to make disciples, and we are in discussions with Charleston Southern and North Greenville [universities] regarding collaboration.”
The final step, according to McKnight, is to focus on “church revitalization by sending students and faculty out to help churches in that process.”
He teaches courses related to youth ministry, missions and church planting at AU and is the founder of Youth Ministry Roundtable, a discussion forum for those involved in youth ministry. He has served churches in Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Alabama and both Carolinas, spending 12 years in youth ministry and nine years in the pastorate. He is a certified church health consultant and also a South Carolina Law Enforcement Division and National Rifle Association-certified concealed weapons permit and basic pistol instructor.
McKnight founded South Carolina Sheepdogs, LLC, in February of this year, where he teaches CWP classes, basic pistol instruction and basic self-defense.
The concept of the name comes from Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, an instructor for chaplains and law enforcement, who identifies three types of people. He says, “The sheep are kind and gentle and only hurt one another by accident. The wolf feeds on the sheep without mercy. The sheepdog lives to protect the sheep and confront the wolf.”
McKnight notes, “I don’t expect when people go through my training that they are going to be able to protect everybody around them, but I do expect them not to be a sheep — to protect their family.” He pointed out that this is “a way for me to help people defend themselves and share the gospel while I do it.”
McKnight and his wife, Angela, have four children: Noah, Micah, Karissa and MaryAnna. Angela holds a bachelor of music degree from Toccoa Falls College and a master of church music degree from Southern Seminary. She teaches piano and is a stay-at-home mom.
McKnight will begin writing a regular feature for The Courier beginning with the September issue. He will deal with current topics and events facing Christians in our culture. He will also address youth ministry, church planting and kingdom leadership.