Summer 2009 | Volume 67, No. 4

Adam Hughes: Text-Driven Mentorship

by Keith Collier

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Adam Hughes, a Southwestern Ph.D. student in preaching, owes a great deal to J.R. DeBusk for his early discipleship and call to ministry.

Although Hughes became a Christian at the age of 12, he was not truly discipled until the age of 16, when he began attending the church where DeBusk was pastor.

Less than a year later, Hughes told his pastor that God was leading him to do something, but he was unsure what it was. DeBusk began praying with Hughes, leading him through Scriptures related to ministry. Through this, Hughes recognized God’s call on his life to preach.

“He became my father in the ministry,” says Hughes, adding that DeBusk, a two-time graduate of Southwestern, “began to meet with me and mentor me on Sunday afternoons before church and gave me an opportunity to preach in the pulpit.

Hughes served as a full-time pastor for three years before coming to Southwestern. Providentially, by that time, Hughes had ended up marrying DeBusk’s youngest daughter, making DeBusk both his father-in-law and his father in the ministry.

Once at Southwestern, God further developed Hughes’ approach to preaching. Building on what he saw in DeBusk, Hughes began to embrace Dr. Steven Smith’s short definition of expository preaching: “Everything about the text determines everything about your sermon.”

In addition to introductory and advanced preaching classes, Hughes continued to hone his preaching skills through elective courses. Upon completion of his Master of Divinity, he felt the Lord leading him to pursue doctoral studies, which his father-in-law attributes to his steady growth as a preacher.

“Since Adam has been in Ph.D. studies, I have seen him progress rapidly as a maturing man of God,” says DeBusk. “The peer relationships with his professors have given him a confidence to stretch in ministry and in preaching.”

On March 1, 2009, Hughes became pastor of Ridgecrest Baptist Church in Abilene, Texas, a new church plant that was seeking a pastor who was committed to expository preaching.

Hughes has already seen the power of text-driven preaching in his congregation. A man who recently started attending the church told Hughes he loved coming to the church because of Hughes’ passion and exuberance in the pulpit.

Hughes sees his passion and exuberance as an outgrowth of the philosophy of preaching he is developing at Southwestern.

“When you’re preaching the Word, you know every week eternity hangs in the balance, and you’re simply communicating what the God of the universe has already said. If you believe that, there’s no way you can approach the pulpit without some authenticity and zeal.”

A little more than a decade after those Sunday afternoon discipleship sessions, DeBusk realizes their relationship has come full circle.

“I began mentoring him as he took his first baby steps of ministry,” says DeBusk. “As a Ph.D. student, he has become my sounding board, especially in the area of expository preaching.”

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