Thom S. Rainer - Raising Dad: What Fathers & Sons Learn from Each Other

I met Thom Rainer in the spring of 1994. As a graduate student at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, I was assigned to pick him up at the airport. Thom was an emerging scholar in the field of church growth and had just been tabbed as the founding dean of the Billy Graham School of Missions, Evangelism, and Church Growth at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. We werent in the car five minutes before Thom began to tell me stories about his wife and his boys. I was immediately impressed by the love with which he spoke about his family. By the end of the brief journey between the Louisville airport and Southern Seminary, I knew that Thom Rainer was a family man worthy of my admiration and respect. Little did I know that one encounter would be the beginning of a lifelong friendship.

I first came to know Thom as his studentsitting in his classes, occasionally being asked to help with special projects, often recruited as a willing gofer, required to buy and read his books for class every semester. I had multiple opportunities to watch him in action as a professor, dean, and influential denominational leader. Of course, I learned a lot from all of those experiences. But the times that made the biggest impression on me were the times I got to see Thom love his family. I have sat with him at his sons basketball and football games where his passion for his boys athletic endeavors occasionally erupted in what I would call Christian fussing (all Christian dads can understand what this phrase means), and I have shared many laughs with Thom and his family. I have always watched carefully as he treated Nellie Jo with tenderness and respect. Although I have learned much from Dr. Rainer in the arenas of the academy and the formal ministry, his finest lessons have always been the seamless integration of Thoms love for Christ, his love for the church, and his love for his wife and children.

With all of that being said, I am not surprised at all that Art and Thom would write this amazing book together. Arts love and respect for his Dad come through loud and clear, and Thoms characteristic humility and sense of humor are evident throughout. The thing that makes this book great is their willingness to be transparent, not only to one another, but to their readers as well. This book is a great tribute to the relationship that one father shares with his son, but it is also a display of the honor and reverence with which all of the Rainer men hold Nellie Jo. On nearly every page, Art and Thom point to her behind-the-scenes leadership in daily family life. Those of us who are privileged to know her can testify that she is worthy of every word.

Over the last twelve years I have had a front row seat as Thoms speaking, writing, and consulting career have grown in an amazing way. In that time he founded and nurtured a school, published numerous books, and has become president of a half-billion dollar Christian resources company. But through all of those successes, Thoms top priorities have remained his roles as husband and father. In 1994, Thom was still in his thirties, the father of three young boys and the husband of a beautiful wife. I was a twenty-one-year-old single guy, just hoping to survive seminary. Now, Thom is a rapidly aging empty nester (although Nellie Jo remains young and beautiful), and I am the happily married father of six childrenfive boys and a girl (six is all we have now, but who knows what the future holds?). I knew him first as my dean; as I grew up we became colleagues; and now we remain close friends. My admiration and appreciation for what he and Nellie Jo have accomplished with their sons has only grown. Its funny, while Art, Sam, and Jess were busy raising their dad, in many ways they were helping to raise other dads as well, spectators to the Rainer family who hope and pray that we can emulate in our families the kind of warmth, commitment, and godliness that their family embodies.

As I read Raising Dad, my thoughts kept returning to Psalm 127. In that beautiful hymn, David wrote that children are a blessing. It is obvious to all that know the Rainers that Art, Sam, and Jess are a blessing to many, and especially to their parents. At the end of the psalm it talks about a mans highest achievement, that his grown sons are proud to stand at the gate with their father. In this book, Art, along with his brothers, are publicly going to the gate with their dad. Well done, Thom and Nellie Jo; you raised three fine boys who are now three fine men. Well done, boys; you have raised a great dad. You are a great encouragement to your readers. Hopefully we can go and do likewise.

Jimmy Scroggins

Dean, Boyce College

Teaching Pastor, Highview Baptist Church