(JACKSON, Miss.) – Dec. 12, 2013 – Dr. Sean M. Lucas, while continuing his role as senior pastor of the historic First Presbyterian Church in Hattiesburg, Miss. (since 2009), has been elected as a regular faculty member at Reformed Theological Seminary’s Jackson campus. He will begin as an associate professor of church history on January 1, 2014.
Born in Stratford, NJ, Lucas moved up and down the eastern seaboard with his family. He graduated from Bob Jones University with a B.A. degree (Pastoral Studies) and an M.A. degree (Theology/Church History). There, he met his wife Sara and they were married in 1994. He then earned a Ph.D. from Westminster Theological Seminary and wrote his dissertation on the nineteenth-century southern Presbyterian theologian, Robert Lewis Dabney.
Lucas served for five years as the archives and special collections librarian at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. During that time, he and his family joined Community Presbyterian Church in Louisville. The session called him to serve as an assistant pastor and he served there for two years.
In 2004, Lucas and his family moved to St. Louis, where he joined the administration of Covenant Theological Seminary. He held a number of positions there, including dean of faculty, vice president for academics and chief academic officer. He also taught as associate professor of church history. While serving the seminary, he also ministered as assistant pastor of preaching at The Covenant Presbyterian Church in St. Louis, working as the interim senior minister from 2005-2006.
He has written or edited several books, including Robert Lewis Dabney: A Southern Presbyterian Life (2005); On Being Presbyterian: Our Beliefs, Practices, and Stories (2006); God’s Grand Design: The Theological Vision of Jonathan Edwards (2011); and For a Continuing Church: The Beginnings of the Presbyterian Church in America (forthcoming).
Lucas and his wife have four children.