Graduate Profile: Timothy Hall (MTS)
/My name is Timothy Hall. My family and I currently reside in Sioux City, Iowa, where I serve our local church as the Director of Facilities and Maintenance. This privileged position of custodian is a sabbatical of sorts after having pastored a local church plant for nine years (Calvary Chapel South Sioux City: a church plant from Southern California). I am very grateful for the kindness extended to me by Central Baptist Church Sioux City and Dr. Lloyd Grant, our senior pastor, for this time of rest and generous provision.
I was born and raised in Southern California and grew up in a single parent home. In a noble effort to provide for my brother and me, our newly divorced mother would work long hours often forced to leave the two of us unattended. Left unsupervised, this young son of Adam naturally indulged in a life of exploration, immorality and eventually, illegality. By my late teens, I was living the so-called California Dream of surf safaris and beach-side living though now addicted to elicit drugs and involved in gross perversion. My sinful nature and rebellion against God became quite evident to all and could no longer be denied (1 Timothy 5:24).
Enslavement to sin and hopeless despair quickly replaced the beach parties and bikinis, when in 1998, I found myself in drug rehab…again! By God’s grace and against the program’s written bylaws, my 12-step sponsor lovingly shared the gospel of Jesus Christ with me. Having been (finally) properly diagnosed as a fallen and hostile enemy of God, this drug addict found forgiveness, reconciliation and freedom for the first time. Interestingly, and I speak from the human perspective, sobriety would lead to the meeting of my wife and regular attendance at church.
Now married and sensing a call to ministry, I enrolled in Bible College where I received a biblical foundation and instrumentally, though the staff of the college might deny it, early underpinnings of the Doctrines of Grace. Those early days of study truly ignited a thirst for biblical truth in me that continues through today. Sadly, inconsistencies within the Charismatic movement I was studying under and serving in [as an Associate Pastor], would force my departure and cause my family to seek fellowship and understanding elsewhere. Such decisions would providentially land me at Reformed Baptist Seminary (RBS) where I would enroll in the Marrow of Theology program, Emphasis on Exegetical Theology.
It is difficult to articulate all that RBS has provided me during my theological pilgrimage. I have been educated, trained, frustrated, humbled and stretched. RBS has instilled in me an unwavering love for historical reformed doctrine and a deep affinity for our particular confession (1689 LBCF) for which I will always be indebted. I’d like to thank Dr. Gonzales and Vadim Chepurny for their charity, patience, and guidance throughout the enrollment process and my student tenure at RBS. Likewise, I’d like to thank Michael Emadi for his tutelage through the many classes I enjoyed under his care, but especially for his godly modeling of how the learned should mentor those still learning. Because of the example these men have set, I plan on continuing my education upon graduation. Lord willing, I will be enrolling in a post-graduate (D-Min) program in fall of 2023, institution yet to be determined.