Q&A With A Dora Maclellan Brown Scholar

Ralston Hartness, a Dora Maclellan Brown Scholar from the class of 2022, recently shared with us what his faith journey looks like, those who impacted him the most on that journey, what life was like while in seminary, and how God is using his seminary training in his day-to-day life as a key member of the Chattanooga Fellows program.

Ralston, tell us about your faith walk. How did you come to faith in Christ? Who was instrumental in that journey? What has your life looked like since?

After seeing how important faith in Jesus was to my parents and family through my early years, I wanted to make a public commitment of faith through baptism in late elementary school – but I didn’t really know what it meant then. I did not actually embrace or understand the Gospel of Grace until my high school years at McCallie, when I was discipled by faithful small group leaders, Young Life volunteers, and teachers such as Len Teague, Jason Cha, and Bart Wallin. That was a season of life when I came face to face with the limitations of my goodness, the fragility of my public piety, and the deep desire for God’s power to remake me to be an agent of His love in the world. I’m so grateful this period of transformation came before arriving at college.

Tell us about your experience at Washington & Lee, and how God shaped you during that time.

Thanks to God’s providence, these late high-school years set the trajectory for a rich season of faithfulness, prayer, fun, and vulnerability with an amazing community of Christian men and women while away at Washington & Lee University. There were eight guys who found each other at various points during our first year, and we continued to meet to pray (almost) every week after that for the remainder of our college years. These men profoundly displayed Christ to me in that they knew me fully and loved me still – to live a life of no secrets before God and other men

Tell us about the highs and lows you’ve experienced in the Christian faith. What have those looked like? What/Who have you clung to in those dark times and in the joyous times? What is your secret for dealing with both the highs and the lows in the Christian journey, and also the everyday, ordinary days?

It’s imperative to have a few trusting covenant friendships with whom I can regularly share what burdens me, confess ways I’ve sinned against God and others, and be reminded of the unending love of Christ. This is the secret. It is in those friendships and rituals that God restores my imagination for how to love and serve my wife. It is in those friendships and rituals that God softens my heart to receive the beautiful and imperfect witness of my local church. It is in those friendships and rituals that God steadies me to abide with Him amidst the ordinary successes and groans of my work life.

You’ll find me (almost) weekly having a short confessional conversation with a friend where, for 15-20 minutes, we live with no secrets before God through the listening hearts of one another. Again, (almost) weekly, I’ll be at my Thursday lunchtime men’s group to pray a brief midday liturgy, share the highs and lows of our weeks, and look for the presence of God in one another’s stories. And, you guessed it, (almost) weekly I’ll spend extended time with my phone off to attend deeply to God’s presence in my family, the ones who often receive the exhausted or frustrated part of me when I’m struggling with a low that has nothing to do with them.

Tell us about your call to ministry. What did that look like? Did others affirm that in you and how? Have others walked with you on this journey, and, if so, what does that look like?

My “call to ministry” is probably better described as many “calls” to ministry, felt as nudges from God’s Holy Spirit through the ministry, friendship, discipleship, and challenge I’ve received by countless shepherds along the way. It’s interesting to me that the longer I work “in ministry,” the more convinced I am that everything is ministry and that God may one day call me to minister in a new way, with new methods, to new people. This might mean becoming ordained as a pastor or it might mean working within a business. I’m asking God to help me stay on the edge of my bed, just as Samuel was when he was ready and listening (1 Samuel 3).

I knew at the end of college that I wanted to go into ministry afterwards, but also a deep love for schools and experiential education. I was thankful for the opportunity to participate in a Fellows Program in Charlottesville, VA where I was surrounded by people who named and encouraged my path into educational ministry. It was in that formative year there and the subsequent year of teaching in Nashville, TN that my desire for continued seminary training to support this calling was galvanized.

As you look forward ten years, and you anticipate those hard times in ministry that may make you doubt your calling, how do you “know that you know that you know” that you were called to ministry? What people, what experiences, what Scripture do you cling to/lean on in those tough times?

Amidst challenges in ministry – as in any arena of work, life, and faithfulness – I cling to my wife as a source of encouragement and counsel, as well as trusted friends and mentors who can both encourage me and challenge me when I need it. What currently helps me know and trust this work of ministry is remembering God’s changeless character, as well as the diverse, interconnected Body of Christ. When I buy into the faulty vision of ministry that puts me at the center of it, I lose sight of the beauty of our God and my life in union with Christ. I also lose sight of the way that God is at work in and through this community beyond me.

The Church belongs to Christ – He is in charge. God is at work in this world through His Church, and He will continue to… the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it. I’m humbled, honored, and excited to be a part of that. But God is in charge and at work far beyond me. This gives me great hope to carry on when it’s hard or when I’m not sure what’s going on.

How has the Dora Maclellan Brown Scholarship program helped you? If you had not received a scholarship, do you believe you would have been able to go to school? What would you like to tell “Aunt Dora” if you could?

I am deeply grateful for the DMBMS. This scholarship fully enabled me to attend seminary. While I may have attempted to pursue seminary training without it, the financial support this scholarship provided was the clear confirmation from God that the season and opportunity was right to enter seminary. 

While many seminaries have creative scholarship opportunities for students to pay their way through the degree, many of these are limited to residential students. The DMBMS allowed me to continue investing in the lives of my students and, subsequently, the Chattanooga Fellows Program, while also completing my Masters in Theological Studies. 

I thank God for Aunt Dora, for the Generosity Trust, and for the DMBMS committee – all of whom believed that God was and continues to be doing something in my life, and the lives of countless others.