Graduate Profile: Jonathan Clemens, MTS

My name is Jonathan Clemens and I live in Jackson, KY with my wife of nine years and four children: Levi, Micah, Lydia, and Agatha. I am joyously serving as the Senior Pastor at the First Baptist Church of Jackson, KY.

I can remember first hearing about Reformed Baptist Seminary while I was still in high school and being intrigued by its educational model. Upon graduation, I attended community college, finished my undergraduate education with an online Christian university, and then attended well respected “brick and mortar” seminary. After graduating with a Master of Arts in Biblical Counseling, I entered full-time ministry. However, I had a deep desire to develop an in-depth biblical theology, understand my confessional Baptist heritage, and gain an understanding of the biblical Greek language. I reached out to the admissions office of my former seminary and asked them what they thought of RBS, and they highly recommended this school to me. The rest, of course, is history and today I am graduating with a Master of Theological Studies in Exegetical Theology. Based on my varied experience with educational institutions, I can endorse Reformed Baptist Seminary unreservedly. Its academics are not only on par with traditional and online schools, but I have also received more personal communication from the faculty and staff of RBS than in any other theological training context.

Growing up, I was raised in the pentecostal tradition, and spent much of my childhood in terror of God, who I knew would judge me for my sin. I was a hard-hearted sinner who did not know the Lord Jesus Christ. Many of the gospel presentations that were given in my childhood church would range from weak to legalistic. It was not until my freshman year of high school that the Spirit of God graciously intervened and I finally understood and embraced the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

My conversion took place while reading Nathanael’s confession of faith in Christ in John 1:48-51,

Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” Jesus answered him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” And he said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

It was at this point that I realized that if I were to be saved, it was Jesus who would have to be the one to call and cleanse me. From the time of my conversion, I began to study the Bible, and in a few years I concluded that my childhood church was in opposition to many important teachings of scripture. I discovered the doctrines of grace and reformed thinking relatively early, and hungered to not only learn more but to become a preacher of God’s word. I wanted to make sure others did not live in the cloud of religious confusion that characterized my own childhood. I wanted others to know Jesus! This lead to further theological studies at the undergraduate level, and later at the graduate level.

The quality, content, confessional heritage, flexible programming, and affordable tuition of RBS were all attractive to one engaged in full-time ministry. Distance education proved much more difficult than I imagined when coupled with the difficulties of full-time ministry and a growing family! Throughout my time I have found the faculty and staff of RBS to be generous and supportive of my endeavor to be one of their students of theology, but also appropriately firm in their expectations. I am a better minister and student of the bible because of RBS, and grateful for my season of further ministry training.

Semper reformanda,
Jonathan Clemens