Donor Spotlight: Erin & Stan Kinnett

Giving to RTS could not have been an easier choice for Erin and Stan Kinnett, Ohio natives whose life, family, and career choices landed them in Orlando, Florida with a front-row seat to the impact of an RTS education. Erin was raised in a Catholic home and Stan in a Baptist one, but both found themselves as young adults post-college gripped by the truths and beauty of the Reformed theology they encountered in the books, sermons, and podcasts of Reformed pastors.

The sovereignty of God had never been explained so clearly nor had they been so compelled by their need for God’s mercy and grace. Not long after their initial introduction to the Reformed tradition, they developed an almost insatiable appetite for its teaching.

Their journey as RTS donors began with an invitation to a vision dinner. Stan described Erin as having always had a generous serving spirit by nature with giving as a hallmark of who she is. They were always on the lookout for ways to give to make a difference and they started thinking about where else besides their local church. The stories shared at the vision dinner that evening spurred them to connect the dots between an RTS training and the difference that training made both in their community and around the world. It was a difference they could not unsee.

Their lives were surrounded with evidence that RTS was impacting God’s kingdom in powerful ways. At New City Orlando, their home church, they encountered interns and staff trained at RTS ministering faithfully. At The Geneva School, a prominent classical Christian school in the Orlando area, faculty members were RTS graduates and spouses of RTS professors. Students were being shaped to know and love the Lord through co-hosted events and the witness of their teachers. Erin has sat down with RTS-trained women and seen how they are being trained up in the way of the Lord.

In dozens of families, in churches, in young, in old, across a wide diversity of people and institutions they could see the fruit of RTS training. In their giving, they not only could contribute to seeing that fruit continue in tangible ways but could teach their children the importance of generous giving as well. The Kinnetts saw RTS as a wholesaler of the truth and could observe its “retailers,” the places they sent their people, and their impact all around them touching every area of their lives.

Despite being donors, their relationship with RTS has not been transactional but personal. RTS makes them feel like they are not just donors in the way they demonstrate care for their lives and invite them to participate in the life of the institution.

In a day and age where seminaries are on the decline, the Kinnetts have found RTS’s growth remarkable. To those already giving faithfully to their churches and looking for other avenues to give, the Kinnetts would challenge anyone to find another organization impacting as many other organizations in spreading the gospel, being kingdom-minded, and making a difference
as RTS.