By Mike Haynes
Jerry Klein’s
devout mother made sure he was raised in the church, but with a father who went
to the mountains on Sundays, Klein was confused about religion when he enrolled
at Cameron College in Lawton, Oklahoma, in 1965.
The recent
Walters High School graduate took an Old Testament class because his friends
were taking it, and he soon tried out the Bible Chair at Cameron.
“Going to
campus ministry and being surrounded by college students who really wanted to
be there – we weren’t there because mama made us go,” he said. “The sincere
faith of so many of them was really what made the biggest difference in my life
– just seeing that faith in action made me want to be a part of it.”
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So much so
that Klein, 69, is retiring this month as director of the Amarillo Bible Chair
at Amarillo College, closing a long career bookended with college ministry.
Another
influence has been Gene Byrd, who taught that Cameron Old Testament class and
many years later was Klein’s boss at AC as vice president and dean of
instruction.
“Sitting
with him at the student union, he asked us all kinds of questions about
ourselves, and he helped me believe I could get through college and become a
college teacher and major in Bible and philosophy and could figure out what I
believed and maybe figure out myself,” Klein recalled.
After
graduating from Cameron (then a junior college, now a university) in 1967, he completed
a bachelor’s degree in Bible and philosophy at Oklahoma Christian University in
1969. He met his wife, Janie, there. “I graduated from Oklahoma Christian, but
the best thing that happened to me there was finding her,” he said.
The
newlyweds moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where Jerry earned a master’s in
theology in 1974 at the Harding University graduate school. His first job was
as a Bible Chair director at Henderson State University in Arkansas, and since
then he has been a preacher, a church staff member, a professor and that first
love, a college ministry leader – including two stints at AC beginning in 1982.
About
preaching, he said, “That was not me.” He believes he was OK, but because of
his student experience at Cameron, leading a Bible Chair “is all I really
wanted to do.”
Plenty of
people think he made the right choice as he combined an intellectual mind with
Christian compassion.
“The first
time I came across his name was in a footnote in a Greek grammar book,” said
Jon Kohler, director since 2002 of AC’s other full-time ministry, the Bible
Chair of the Southwest. “He had corrected the author. Then I came to AC, and
there’s Jerry Klein.”
In addition
to leading student ministry, Klein has taught academic religion and philosophy
classes and plans to continue some teaching.
“He built
the religion program at AC,” Kohler said. “His fingerprints are all over it.
And he has a gentleness that invites you in.”
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| Jerry Klein (Photo courtesy The Ranger/Amarillo College) |
“He allows
students to think for themselves. He inspires students to want to read and
learn more. Through his teaching, he has brought me closer to God.”
Such
inspiration is not an overt part of Klein’s classes at the state-supported
college. “I allow the students in my classes to express whatever point of view
they want to express, and when I grade their papers, I tell them their
conclusions never have to agree with mine, but their conclusions have to be
reasonable,” he said. “That gives students from many different religious
backgrounds an opportunity to hear other points of view.”
Melodie
Hefley, a recent Tascosa graduate and a religion major, took Klein’s Life of
Christ class this spring. “He was very focused on teaching us material not just
so we could pass the class but so we could get something out of it personally,”
she said. “He said, ‘I’m not here to push my religion on you. I’m here to teach
you so you can come to your own conclusions.’ He’s adamant about that.”
Even at the church-supported Bible Chair
across the street from campus, Klein’s approach is nurturing, not dogmatic.
Painted on a wall and printed on his business card is the slogan, “A Place To
Make Your Faith Your Own.”
Through
Christian club Kappa Chi, Klein has led students in meetings, devotionals,
meals and retreats. “You can’t bless anybody if you can’t get them in your
building,” he said, “if you can’t sit down with them in the College Union
Building.” His wife Janie’s cookies have been one attraction, just one of her
many support roles.
Mural
Worthey is coming from Virginia to take Klein’s Bible Chair position July 1. It
will be a new era as Klein’s health issues pull him away from his dream job.
“I’ve tried
to be the best teacher I could be,” he said. “And I’ve tried to love the
students, be there to encourage them and laugh with them and cry with them.
“I found
what I wanted to be, and I got to be it, and not many can look back on their
life and say they did what they wanted to do right where they wanted to do it.”
