10 Questions with David Kneip, Associate Director
We recently announced that David Kneip will join the Siburt Institute for Church Ministry team next month as associate director. I’ve known David for a number of years as we’ve held various roles in ACU’s College of Biblical Studies, and I’m excited to get to work with him more closely in the Siburt Institute. So for those of you who don’t already know him, allow me to introduce you to my new boss!
1. What is something you’re looking forward to about working with the Siburt Institute?
First, I’m looking forward to working with the great team within the Siburt Institute itself. I’ve long respected the work that’s done there, going back to the ministry of my own teacher, Dr. Charles Siburt! But the personnel currently on staff in the institute are pretty amazing, and they’ll make me look forward to going to work every day. Second, I’m excited about the ways we will get to serve ministers and churches. We have access to amazing resources here at ACU, and I love that the Siburt Institute works to bring those two things together. We all benefit from healthy churches, healthy leaders, and healthy families of leaders, and it’s a privilege to get to help work toward that end for the sake of the kingdom.
2. Tell us a little about your experiences in congregational ministry.
I grew up in a small church, and so like most males from that background, I was involved as a volunteer from quite early on. But my formal ministry experience didn’t start until my college years in North Carolina, where I served as a volunteer with the music, youth, and children’s ministries. That’s also where I first served on a staff and learned about the amazing gifts that can come from working with great people. During my graduate studies at ACU, I worked as the youth minister and song leader at a little country church, where I came to know first-hand how important it is for ministers to have good relationships with their congregants. After getting married, my wife and I attended a church in northern Indiana, where I served in a variety of capacities, from adult education to youth ministry to the music team; those experiences in a growing church taught me about helping to lead and manage growth and change. Finally, since moving to Abilene over a decade ago, I’ve been volunteering with the music and youth ministries at a very large church – over 1,000 members. But our work has also included our church’s community ministry, in which we were on the front lines serving disadvantaged, poor, and hungry members of our community. I’m excited to see how these varied experiences will help me serve ministers and churches in my new role in the Siburt Institute.
3. Could you tell us about your family?
When I think about my family, I first think about the family in which I grew up. I have been very fortunate to have two parents who have been deeply involved in church ministry for their entire adult lives. That fact impacted me heavily in terms of the ways I think about what a Christian life ought to look like. That also shaped my interest in the woman who would become my wife, in that when I first met Cynthia, I quickly learned of her involvement with her church as well as of the ways her parents volunteered with a variety of churches over the years. I’ve been married to Cynthia for almost 18 years now, and we are active members and volunteers at the Highland Church of Christ here in Abilene. We have two adopted daughters – one in middle school and one in elementary – whom we fostered for two years and then adopted in 2014. I’m deeply blessed by God through and with my wife and daughters!
4. You’ve been involved in a number of stage productions. What similarities do you see between theatre and leadership?
Well, one of my favorite things about the theatre is that it is fundamentally collaborative. Regardless of our roles in the production, we all have to work together and do our part for the whole to succeed. That’s absolutely been my experience in organizations of all kinds, including churches and ministries. If lead ministers think that everything depends on them, it can be just as disastrous for a church as it can be when the manager of a restaurant or the lead actor in a play thinks the same thing. But when leaders can inspire everyone to contribute in ways appropriate to their roles and their gifts, and even to see themselves as leaders in their own areas and tasks, then organizations can work magic!
5. What are you currently reading or listening to?
Right now I’m reading Christopher A. Hall’s Reading Scripture with the Church Fathers, which has been sitting on my shelf for a few years, waiting to be read. The title explains the book pretty clearly: it’s about ways that the church fathers read, understood, and interpreted Scripture, which I think actually match pretty closely the ways that modern folks do those things today. It’s something I’ve thought about for a long time and am beginning to explore in new ways.
6. For a number of years, you’ve been teaching undergraduate students in ACU’s Department of Bible, Missions and Ministry. What is something your students taught you this past year?
I think the biggest thing they’ve taught me is that anytime I’m encountering someone, I have no idea what they might be going through at the present time. I interact with my students primarily in the classroom, but each time they come in, they’ve got all sorts of burdens in their backpacks, so to speak. Some burdens are more traditional – roommate troubles, romantic anxieties, tests in other classes, vocational questions. But this year, that list has also come to include worrying about contracting a potentially life-threatening illness, grieving the loss of loved ones, struggling with an inability to go home to family, and facing extra financial difficulties that might impact their ability to return to ACU. I hope they have taught me to be more compassionate; I know for sure that they’ve raised my awareness of the ubiquity of struggle, which makes me want to be more caring in my interactions with others.
7. If you could spend a few hours with any one fictional character, who would it be and why?
While Shakespeare’s Henry V (not fully fictional) is attractive, in that I would learn how to speak to others in highly inspiring monologues, I might have to go with Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter universe. According to the standard timeline from the canonical materials, she is currently serving as Minister of Magic, and I’d be happy to take advantage of an also-fictional “Associate Minister for a Day” program (in line with my new position in the Siburt Institute). I’m sure I’d learn a lot about the magical world, and I’d try to choose a day when the Potters are expected to come for dinner so as to maximize my immersion with the characters of that world!
8. Sometimes there seems to be a bit of a disconnect between the church and the academy. What do you think these two bodies can offer each other?
I think that one of the biggest things they can offer one another occurs when their people get together. Scholars are often rewarded for thinking and writing things that are interesting, but we may feel no obligation to make our knowledge and insights relevant for others. But in the world of theology and religious studies, we are talking about matters that are literally life and death – and afterlife! – for billions of humans. On the other hand, churches and ministers can sometimes suffer from a lack of access to the kind of knowledge that scholars have, whether it’s about a difficult passage of Scripture, a knotty pastoral problem, or an ethical dilemma. I love that the Siburt Institute gives me the opportunity to bring together the church and the university, ministers and scholars, for the benefit of both! This work will help scholars be engaged in the church, so that we are thinking about how our ideas help actual believers in the pews, and it will help ministers when they have need of what scholars can offer.
9. We know you like sports. What are some of your favorite sports, teams, or athletes?
Well, growing up, I was really small, so I played the sports in which you can flourish while being small: baseball, soccer, and tennis. I’ve found that those are the ones I still enjoy, even in middle age. In baseball, I like the Texas Rangers (they’re close geographically) and Baltimore Orioles (my team as a kid). In tennis, I love the grace and elegance with which Roger Federer plays. And I definitely obsess a bit about soccer, mainly in Europe and specifically in Germany. I especially follow teams from Leipzig, Münster, and Munich, since those are places I have lived at various times.
10. As you consider the church at large, what is one of the greatest challenges she faces? What are some of her greatest opportunities?
Right now, it’s hard not to think of the challenges that the pandemic has brought upon us. But honestly, I think that COVID has just sharpened something that’s been going on for decades – that people are increasingly finding Christianity to be less and less relevant to their lives. I think that Western society has accepted our message about a loving God who is accessible outside of buildings made with human hands, but some have responded by accepting our God and rejecting our community, while others have rejected that God completely in favor of human love and solidarity. Further, the pandemic has led many current churchgoers to conclude that they can feed themselves sufficiently on YouTube, podcasts, and Christian books, but I fear that they will find themselves eventually malnourished. And in the meantime, churches will have had to make hard decisions about staffing, facilities, and budgets. Yet I think our greatest opportunity may grow out of this rather bleak picture, in that we have the chance to show the world a “Christianity at work” – not just one that “works” in the sense of being relevant, but one that is working in the sense of producing lives that are deeply devoted to Christ. I suspect that discipleship will be the biggest draw for outsiders in the next 10 years. It may not draw huge numbers, but hopefully it will draw committed disciples, and the church always needs that.
