Donald S. Whitney

Professor of Biblical Spirituality, John H. Powell Professor of Pastoral Ministry

At a Glance

Discipline

Biblical Spirituality

Research Interests

Biblical Spirituality, Pastoral Ministry

Local Church

Emmanuel Baptist Church

Biography

Don Whitney is the Professor of Biblical Spirituality and the John H. Powell Professor of Pastoral Ministry at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

He served there in a similar position from 1995 to 2005, and then as Professor of Biblical Spirituality and Associate Dean at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, from 2005 to 2024.

He holds a M.Div., Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary; a D.Min., Trinity Evangelical Divinity School; and a Ph.D. in Theology from the University of the Free State, South Africa. He has authored nine books, including Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life and Praying the Bible, and is a popular conference speaker, especially on personal and congregational spirituality.

Dr. Whitney also serves as the founder and president of The Center for Biblical Spirituality. Prior to his ministry as a seminary professor, Don was pastor of Glenfield Baptist Church in Glen Ellyn, Illinois (a suburb of Chicago), for almost 15 years. Altogether, he has served local churches in pastoral ministry for 24 years.

Don lives with his wife Caffy in Kansas City, Missouri. She works from their home as an artist, muralist, and illustrator. The Whitneys have a married daughter, Laurelen, and five grandchildren.

Education

B.A., Arkansas State University

Master of Divinity, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary

Doctor of Ministry, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

Ph.D. in Theology, University of the Free State, South Africa

Publications by Donald S. Whitney

Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life (NavPress)
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Praying the Bible (Crossway)
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Family Worship (Crossway)
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How Can I Be Sure I’m a Christian? (NavPress)
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Spiritual Disciplines within the Church (Moody Press)
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Ten Questions to Diagnose Your Spiritual Health (NavPress)
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Simplify Your Spiritual Life (NavPress)
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Finding God in Solitude: The Personal Piety of Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758) and Its Influence on His Pastoral Ministry (Peter Lang)
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Faculty Q&A

Altogether I’ve spent 24 years in pastoral ministry. Some were part-time, but most were full-time, including almost 15 years as pastor of an SBC church in the Chicago area. This ministry experience, along with more than 70 years of active participation in local churches, has made it impossible for me to teach in a seminary classroom without applying the instruction to ministry in the church. By God’s grace, I am a lifelong churchman. I was even taken to church Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night for nine months before I was born. The family of God is my family. My ministry as a seminary professor is, ultimately, for the glory of God and for my family—”for the Church” of the Lord Jesus Christ.

There are so many reasons; it’s hard to give a concise answer. For one, it’s deeply satisfying to teach in a place with the evident blessing of the Lord upon it. Second, the fidelity of the faculty to the confessional commitments of the seminary and the collegiality this fosters is a fulfilling context in which to teach. Add to these the quality and spirit of the leadership of Dr. Allen and his team, the caliber of students Midwestern tends to attract, and the sheer beauty of the campus all contribute to the reasons why I love teaching at MBTS.

The next generation of pastors and ministry leaders is facing and will face challenges that were unimaginable when my generation of pastors entered the ministry. However, I am encouraged by the fact that, for the most part, they are better prepared at the outset of their ministries than my generation was. I am incredibly grateful for the seminary education I was privileged to receive. I believe that whatever ministry fruitfulness I have seen would have been far less without seminary. But I think students today are better equipped than we were in my day. As one indication of this, I often find myself surprised to learn that—because of the advances in technology and the greater access it gives to Christian resources—many students who enter my classes have read classic books and writers I never even knew about until long after seminary.