Haste will also lead the strategic and rapidly growing Professional Doctoral Studies program.
Southern Seminary is hiring to its faculty noted author and experienced professor Matthew Haste, who joins Southern after four years of teaching at the seminary of Columbia International University in Columbia, South Carolina. President R. Albert Mohler Jr. announced the hire today.
Haste will be Associate Professor of Biblical Spirituality and the Director of Professional Doctoral Studies at Southern Seminary.
“Matt Haste is both a scholar and a leader, and that makes him just right for the job of leading our professional doctoral program,” said Mohler in a statement. “We eagerly welcome him to the Southern Seminary team, and I am thankful for the wealth of experience and vision that he will bring.”
Haste is well positioned to lead a strong and growing Professional Doctoral Studies program into the future. Over the last three years, the doctor of ministry (D.Min.) and doctor of educational ministry (D.Ed.Min.) programs have grown by a combined 42 percent. In particular, the D.Ed.Min. program has grown over that time from 78 graduates to an estimated 191, an increase of 145 percent.
Haste comes to Southern Seminary familiar with administrative leadership. At Columbia International University, he helped launch a five-year combined bachelor of arts and master of divinity degree program. That role involved curriculum development, church networking, and student advising. He also served on the dean’s cabinet of the seminary, working as a liaison to the undergraduate division of the school.
This experience makes Haste the ideal person to lead the Professional Doctoral Studies program and continue its rich legacy of training hundreds of future pastors and Christian leaders, said Matthew J. Hall, provost of Southern Seminary.
“Dr. Matthew Haste is a proven and skilled Christian theologian with a passion for teaching. In particular, his administrative leadership over our Doctor of Ministry program will have a tremendous impact,” Hall said. “The SBTS D.Min. is one of the most trusted degree programs in theological education and continues to serve hundreds of pastors and leaders. Dr. Haste has all the requisite skills to lead this vital program, as one who has served both in the church and the academy. I am delighted he is assuming this strategic post at Southern Seminary.”
Haste brings with him extensive pastoral and professional experience in preparing aspiring pastors for the practical challenges of ministry. He is the co-author of the upcoming book, The Pastor’s Life: Practical Wisdom from the Puritans, which is due for release this October. He also co-wrote a book on marriage with Robert L. Plummer, professor of New Testament at Southern Seminary, called Held in Honor: Wisdom For Your Marriage from the Voices of the Past.
“Joining the faculty of Southern Seminary is a tremendous honor and privilege,” Haste said in a statement. “As a student, I benefited from professors committed to robust scholarship driven by a love for the Lord and his church. I’m honored to have an opportunity to continue that legacy and invest back into an institution that has invested so much in me.
“As Director of Professional Doctoral Studies, I look forward to strengthening the work of pastors and ministry leaders who are actively serving the local church,” Haste said regarding his doctoral studies responsibilities. “Ministry is difficult and pastors need encouragement along the way. The D.Min. and D.Ed.Min. programs at Southern are among the strongest in the nation for equipping leaders to meet the challenges of ministry in today’s world with excellence and care.”
Haste earned both his master of divinity (2008) and doctor of philosophy (2015) degrees from Southern Seminary and his bachelor of arts (2005) from Western Kentucky University. His Ph.D. was in biblical spirituality and was supervised by Michael A.G. Haykin, professor of church history and biblical spirituality at Southern Seminary.
He has taught at the college or seminary level for ten years, including as associate professor of ministry studies at the seminary of Columbia International University in Columbia, South Carolina. He has had stints as an adjunct instructor at Western Kentucky University and Southern Seminary.
Haste’s ministry experience is similarly robust. He has been the pastor of preaching at Midlands Church in Columbia, South Carolina, since 2016. Before that, he worked as the coordinator of Southern Seminary’s Ministry Connections office and oversaw the school’s Applied Ministry program from 2012 to 2015. For 8 years before that, he was the college and singles minister and adult discipleship pastor at Living Hope Baptist Church in Bowling Green, Kentucky.
“Matt Haste represents another exemplary addition to Southern’s stellar faculty who will shape and influence a generation of students for robust gospel ministry,” said Hershael York, dean of the School of Theology. “An assiduous scholar with a winsome personality, Matt brings an impressive track record of devotion to Christ and to the church and is precisely the kind of teacher students come here to study with.”
His scholarship has been published in numerous publications, including Puritan Reformed Journal, the Journal of Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, the Journal of Discipleship and Family Ministry, and The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology. Haste is also a member of the Evangelical Theological Society and has presented at the regional or national meetings of ETS for the last five years. Haste is also a fellow with the Andrew Fuller Center for Baptist Studies.
Haste has been married to his wife, Cheyenne, for 13 years. They have three children.