Investing in others for the work of the Kingdom: The Southwestern Story of Aaron and Clainetta Jefferson

Editor’s note: this article appears in the Fall 2022 issue of Southwestern News.

A choked-up retired Cmdr. Aaron Jefferson (‘82, ‘88) explains that during his last year as a Southwestern Seminary student people who “invested” in him are still a “blessing” today.

Aaron and his wife, Clainetta, were a young couple with three children living and serving in the Houston-area. Aaron was serving as a chaplain and taking classes at the Southwest-ern campus that was then located at Houston Baptist University. He mentioned to a fellow chaplain money was “kind of short” and he was not certain how he was going to pay for classes for the upcoming fall semester. His chaplain friend told him if he was not able to pay for his classes when August arrived to call him. Aaron called. The friend met with the deacons at his church and called Aaron to tell him the church would cover his tuition, fees, and books for the upcoming semester.

“That was just a blessing,” he recalls. The church was “people investing in me that did not know me. …No strings attached. No conditions,” he says, noting the attitude of the church members was, “We want to help this young seminarian finish seminary.”

The event is one that has remained with Aaron and Clainetta and spurred their desire to “invest back” into other Southwestern Seminary students “as an encouragement to them” so they can know their expenses are paid for and they “can continue their studies,” Aaron says.

In December of 2021, the couple established the Aaron and Clainetta Jefferson Endowed Scholarship to help African American students who are called to military chaplaincy or international missions. Aaron served for 22 years as a military chaplain and Clainetta continues to minister as a school liaison officer, or educational consultant, to military families.

The couple first met after a mutual friend set them up on a blind date. Aaron, a Houston-native, was serving as an assistant pastor at a church and attending Southwestern. Clainetta, a native of Tallahassee, Florida, relocated to Houston to work as an accountant at an accounting firm following graduation from Florida A&M University. After coordinating their two schedules that were filled with ministry activities at their respective churches, the two were finally able to meet at 2 p.m. for dinner on a Sunday afternoon. Almost 40 years later, the couple has enjoyed a lifetime of ministry serving military families around the world.

Aaron, who holds an undergraduate degree from Houston Baptist University, explains he chose to attend Southwestern Seminary because among Houston Baptist students, “It was always Southwestern. None of the other seminaries ever came up.” Aaron, who holds a Master of Arts in Religious Education and a Master of Divinity from the Fort Worth institution, says the popularity, confidence, and experiences other students had and talked about encouraged him to attend the school. Aaron says his brother, Keith Jefferson, a 1980 Master of Divinity graduate, was also influential in encouraging him to attend Southwestern.

While at Southwestern, Aaron says professors including the late Roy J. Fish, William B. Tolar, L. Russ Bush, and Virtus Gideon, made his seminary studies “pleasant” as they “invested” and “poured into” him.

Following seminary graduation, Aaron, who had been serving on a church staff as an associate pastor, enlisted in the United States Navy and became a chaplain in the Navy after he met a naval chaplain recruiter. The opportunity to serve was one Aaron says he “enjoyed immensely” as he and his family were able to minister to other Navy families in Okinawa, Japan, Bahrain, and several other countries. Upon Aaron’s retirement from the Navy chaplaincy, the couple settled in King’s Bay, Georgia, near the shared border with Florida, to be closer to their children, the oldest of whom serves in the Navy.

Clainetta, who holds a master’s degree in education, explains as Aaron was finishing his seminary studies and they were raising their three children, they “could not” have completed their time on Seminary Hill “without the selfless generosity of people,” some of whom they knew, but who “more often than not” were people the couple did not know. The kindness they experienced inspires the Jeffersons to do the same for today’s seminary students.

“We all have heard the stories of how God has opened doors and poured out blessings and we just want to be a vessel that our Lord could use to bless someone else,” Clainetta says. She adds the words of the song, “May Those Who Come Behind Us Find Us Faithful,” remind her that “whatever we do, do it in such a way that we’ve laid a foundation that somebody could come behind us and stand soundly on that work, and build on it so that long after we’re gone, somebody will be able to keep the Gospel going forward in a way that lifts Christ up.”

Clainetta says she views the scholarship as the couple’s “first seed” but not their last. “It’s about making the investment in some other young couple,” she says. “We are empty nesters now. Our children are grown and gone and so we think about those young families who still have babies in diapers and may be just trying to get their start in the work of ministry that they believe God has called them to and if we could, in some small way, invest in them and the work that God’s calling them to, then we would be overjoyed.”

Ashley Allen (’03, ’09) is managing editor of Southwestern News.