By: Steven J. Lawson
There are certain people who you never forget the first time you meet them. Upon first impression, you quickly perceive they have an intangible quality that captures your attention. They project a vibrant countenance that shines through them. This noticeable confidence causes them to stand out in a crowd and immediately distinguishes them from the rest.
Jason Allen was such a person the very first time I met him. At the time, he was a nineteen-year-old college student going on twenty, and I was the pastor of Dauphin Way Baptist Church in Mobile, Alabama. I will never forget when this tall and handsome young man walked into my office. He was an athletic college basketball player who looked like he had been chiseled out of marble.
Jason came striding into my study for the visitor’s reception being held there. The room was packed with people who were gathered to meet me and learn more about the church. There he was in the midst of this church gathering, standing out like a towering mountain.
Each of the people around the room introduced themselves. When Jason’s turn arrived, he introduced himself and said that I had come to Mobile perhaps just for him. It was not a cocky statement, but one of immense self-confidence, that God was preparing him for something bigger. Even as a young man, he seemed to have a sense of destiny about his life.
Over the next several months, Jason became so filled with the Word of God that he realized he must quit the basketball team and pursue ministry in a more focused way. More specifically, he wanted to help me in my pastoral duties, an offer I immediately accepted. We had no more room in the church building for another office, so I had sheetrock walls put up in my office to make a new space for him. We hired Jason part-time and then full-time to be my pastoral assistant. Though he was only in his early twenties, he already showed the initiative to step into full-time ministry.
In this new role, he organized outreach efforts to follow up with church visitors, as well as led a team of people to pursue other individuals. He demonstrated a forward drive that was propelling him to do the work of God. Never a passive spectator, Jason was always moving ahead.
On one occasion, he said to me, “I want you to be able to say that I was the best employee you ever hired.” That represents his heartfelt commitment to hard work and his pursuit of excellence. In response to that desire, Jason would certainly be on that short list of the most productive people who have ever served alongside me.
Jason became an avid, even voracious reader of theology, Christian biographies, and Bible commentaries. The fact that he was on a limited budget did not slow him down. Every time I walked into my study, he had pulled out onto the edge of the shelf every double copy of a book that I owned. It was his less than subtle way of letting me know that I should donate it to his ever increasing collection of my library. Soon, my extra British regimental ties and fountain pens were being passed along into his personal possession as well.
In time, I had the privilege of performing the wedding ceremony for Jason and his beautiful bride, Karen. I well remember that she came down the center aisle to the organ playing at full throttle, “A Mighty Fortress.” This Reformation hymn would prove to be a harbinger of Jason’s future ministry.
When it came time for Jason to go to seminary, Jason chose to attend The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. The Sunday before he left for school, we recognized him at the end of a worship service by commissioning him to seminary. As he left, I knew a great future lay ahead for him. I was convinced that he would end up being either the president of that seminary or whatever other school would see his giftedness. I recognized that God had laid out a special path for him, and he was stepping forward to pursue it.
While at Southern Seminary, Jason caught the eye of the school’s president, Dr. Albert Mohler, who wisely drew him into his executive office to work for him. While studying for his Ph.D. at Southern, Jason was given more institutional experience of different capacities. All this exposure was preparing him to demonstrate leadership on a larger platform for whatever God had in store for him. In reality, Jason Allen was becoming Jason Allen. I knew his days would be numbered at Southern until another Christian institution would contact him and call upon him to guide it into the future.
That school proved to be Midwestern Seminary. When they reached out to Jason, he called me and asked for my counsel. I told him that it was obvious God had been preparing him for such a time as this. After a few interviews, Jason clearly showed himself to be head-and-shoulders above the other candidates. The search committee recognized what I knew all along: Jason was a man with exceptional leadership abilities. He was the perfect man for the position, long prepared and precisely fitted for this new challenge.
Soon, the trustees of Midwestern Seminary announced Jason to be its next president, a call which he readily accepted. With this new assignment, he was handed the opportunity, and challenge, of his life. How would he take the helm of a floundering seminary and turn it around? The answer is: exactly as he has responded elsewhere in his life and ministry. He would pursue it with wholehearted commitment until the work is done, a journey he explores in his book Turnaround. As he writes about this at length, Dr. Allen firmly believes in the foundations of faithfulness to Scripture, godly convictions, and tenacity of resolve.
Ten years later, the success of his labors is evident to all. Granted, there is still work to be done at this distinguished institution. There is much progress yet to be made. But if what has been accomplished over the last decade is any indication of the future, there is an even brighter tomorrow on the horizon.
Many years ago, I knew that this day would come for Dr. Jason K. Allen. A day when he would be the president of a prospering seminary and an expanding Bible college. A day in which he would see much fruit from his leadership efforts. The essential ingredients for this day were evidenced long ago, when a young nineteen-year-old college basketball player came walking into my office with enormous potential draped on his broad shoulders.
No one is surprised that this success has come. Certainly not me.
