Student-focused ministry and teaching motivates Dodd’s service

Some may find the first part of the Bible to be difficult to understand or even irrelevant to modern times, but Adam Dodd, assistant professor of Old Testament and biblical backgrounds at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, believes, “The Old Testament is too amazing to not have fun.”

“People who we love are going to ask us, ‘What about the talking snakes, the talking donkeys, and all the weird stuff of the Old Testament,’” Dodd explained. “There has to be some level of comfort in discussing those things, and we’ve needed to have thought about those things. If we take our Scripture seriously, then we absolutely need to take the time to study and train well with the Old Testament.”

From an early age in Arkansas, Dodd began his journey of faith, as he recognized being a sinner and needing God’s salvation.

“Even as a young child, if this Gospel makes sense and I am God’s, how do I spend my life in His service?” Dodd questioned. “That was quite frightening, to be honest. I think as a child, I was like, ‘I don’t want to go do this thing that I somehow feel like I am supposed to be doing.’”

Adam Dodd, assistant professor of Old Testament and biblical backgrounds at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, seeks to teach his students to study and train well in the Old Testament.

Dodd felt that way until he became an undergraduate at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway, Arkansas, where he met his future wife and had a healthy college ministry experience at a local church.

“I started wrestling with the call,” he said. “Due to the mentorship from my college pastor, I decided after I finished my undergraduate, instead of pursuing the graduate program in health sciences that I was targeting, I actually was going to do a hard pivot and go to seminary.”

Dodd’s college pastor was Kenny Hardin, a 1991 Master of Divinity graduate of Southwestern.

Dodd said he was led to the Southwestern Seminary extension in nearby Little Rock. He started to take classes there under the guidance of Tim Dill.

“It became very apparent to me that the academic world was going to be where my contribution and my ministry would be in theological higher education,” Dodd remembered. “In my mind, that’s no less ministry than local church, mission field, et cetera. This is my calling, and this is what God made me to do.”

It was a natural shift to move from Southwestern’s extension to the main campus in Fort Worth, where Dodd went on to earn Master of Divinity, Master of Theology, and Doctor of Philosophy degrees.

A three-time alumnus of Southwestern Seminary, Dodd was called to ministry as a college student in his native Arkansas. In addition to his academic role, Dodd also serves Southwestern as the vice president for campus technology.

As a student, Dodd received an opportunity to go to Israel on archaeological digs and now holds the role of the Director of Tandy Institute of Archaeology at Southwestern. Additionally, he serves as vice president for campus technology where he provides oversight to technology affecting the classroom and administrative support.

“Everything that exists that makes the academics go depends on some sort of digital system or data flow,” Dodd expressed. “The team I have the privilege of leading, and they are the real heroes, not me, everything that they support is what makes the seminary go day in and day out.”

Regardless of the role he is serving, Dodd said his motivation is to be student-focused.

“If students aren’t here, none of us have a reason to be here,” he stated. “I think the main value right now is whenever you get to know students outside of class.” He added that students “drive everything I do so I try to spend a lot of time with students outside of class.” He explained the time he spends with students outside of class allows him to “speak into those students’ lives and ministries and try to give them what they need on that ministry skill side.”

Claire Mummert, a Master of Divinity and Master of Theology alumnus, took Dodd’s classes on Daniel, Aramaic, and an independent study on the Dead Sea Scrolls. She credits Dodd’s guidance with the reason she is in a doctoral program.

“The best thing about Dr. Dodd is that he’s not only a teacher, which he’s an amazing professor who is fun, funny, and interesting, but he really takes an interest in you as a person and helping you get to your goals,” said Mummert, who is currently an adjunct professor at the University of Houston and Ph.D. student at Baylor University.

Bruce Mikel, a Bachelor of Arts in Christian Studies graduate of Texas Baptist College, recalled his first class with Dodd as an undergraduate: Old Testament I.

“He introduced us to new ideas about the Old Testament,” said Mikel, who currently serves as a missionary. “We read the Old Testament, but he gave us these new insights and new ideas to ponder on.” Mikel added that Dodd was “able to inspire” in him “a passion not only for the Old Testament but for a life of faithfulness and a life of learning.”

At Southwestern, “we want students to love God with all their mind,” Dodd said. “We want to blend and think about ministry skill and intellectual training not as two competing interests but as two things that have a deadlock handshake with one another.”