From Plowing Fields to Arguing Cases, To Leading a Seminary

Written by Phil and Caroline McCrorey with Ben Cox

The Journey Magazine: July 2025

The Beginnings of My Faith Journey 

My faith journey began as a young boy. At a revival meeting in April 1959, just shy of six years old, I knew there was something that I needed that was more than myself. At five years old, I am not sure one can know much else. But honestly, I don’t know if any of us come to the Lord knowing much more than that. I remember that day vividly for being so young then. I was wearing a hand-me-down coat from one of my friends and I went forward at the end of the revival meeting. My dad didn’t allow me to make the decision publicly and said we would discuss it more. Over the next couple of weeks, we talked about it intermittently until he became confident that I was professing salvation knowingly. So, at five years old I joined the church—almost 66 years ago now. I had one of the best childhoods imaginable. My dad, a Baptist preacher, kept us busy; he would tell people us kids needed to work. I found myself on farms doing a variety of work from plowing with mules to picking cotton. Through these experiences I learned the value of hard work. 

Boone Becoming Home 

We moved to Boone in 1967. It was daunting. I walked into Watauga High School for the first day of my freshman year not knowing a single soul. Little did I know, Boone would become more than just a place we moved when I was young. Eventually it became where I met my future wife, Lynn, raised kids, and have lived a lot of life. I stayed in Boone through college. After undergrad, I ventured to law school at UNC Chapel Hill, only to return afterwards and practice law. When Lynn and I decided we wanted to create our family, we wanted to move away from Boone and establish ourselves. So, we did… only to return about three years later. 

Fully Processing My Faith 

At some point after coming to the Lord, everyone must ask themselves, “does the Lord have an influence on my life or is the world continuing to have an influence on my life?” I would love to say that I have always listened to the Lord, but I don’t think it was until later in my life that I took the fullness of my salvation to heart. Growing up I knew the vocabulary, the right words to say, and how to act the act. There were spurts of growth for sure, for a long time it came in ebbs and flows. In early adulthood I struggled with ultimately turning everything over to Him. There were things I wanted to hold onto, not necessarily bad things, but they stood in the way of being fully committed. It is all or nothing. In my 40s is when I really, fully processed my faith. 

“I HAD A SIMILAR EXPERIENCE TO THE LATE BILLY GRAHAM, WHEN HE SAID HE JUST SPREAD THE BIBLE OUT AT ONE POINT AND TOLD THE LORD, “I’M GOING TO BELIEVE IT. NOW YOU HAVE TO HELP ME KNOW WHY I BELIEVE IT.” 

I started to question my faith. Not so much as to whether I was saved, but more the direction I wanted my faith to go. I had questions about the things I had always believed. For instance, I asked myself, “is the Bible truly inspired, truly infallible, and truly inerrant?” To dig deeper I decided that I would go to seminary and take one course. I am a common sense; logical type of person and I wanted to understand the logical points of Christianity. My mind needed to get wrapped around what my heart really wanted to believe. I had a similar experience to the late Billy Graham, when he said he just spread the Bible out at one point and told the Lord, “I’m going to believe it. Now you have to help me know why I believe it.” I was fortunate enough to walk into South Evangelical Seminary (SES) and walk past Dr. Norman Geisler. I don’t know where he was going, but he stopped and took me back into his office. By the time I walked out of his office, I had signed up for the Doctor of Ministry program. He became a dear friend and great mentor to me. 

He poured into my life and SES poured into my life. I began to wrap my mind around these issues that I needed to deal with, and my Christianity began to become clear and make sense to me. Therefore, I began to live out my Christianity in a more all-encompassing way. The scripture tells us that we are to love Him with all our heart, soul, and mind. So, once my mind came in line with what my heart was wanting to believe, it all clicked. I have certainly not lived a sinless life since then, but my walk with the Lord has been far more important to me since. I had discovered that Christianity was not a leap into darkness but instead a step into light. I jokingly tell my non-believing friends “you’ve got more faith than I do.” 

Serving on the Bench 

I was a judge here in Boone for twenty some years. I ended up leaving the bench earlier than I would have predicted. I wanted to leave while I was still at the top of my game, not in a prideful way, but I wanted to leave while I could still make sound decisions—before I started to go downhill and became jaundiced and/or mean spirited. Being in the courtroom constantly weighs on you. Being a judge, I could only do so much; I could deal with the earthly issues but many of the issues were much more deep-seated. They were issues of spiritual matter. One of the biggest things I learned in the courtroom is that people who don’t understand there is something bigger than themselves have a lot of difficulty doing the right things. If you are the center of your universe, you are going to have a very difficult time getting over that addiction, or whatever it might be. I used to always tell folks, “I’m giving you enough rope to pull yourself out of the mud or hang yourself, you make your decision.” 

Ultimately, I felt the Lord calling me away from the bench and I just knew it was time even though I had four years left in my term. And, I had no idea what God was leading me to and am totally surprised by where I am now. 

“ONE OF THE GIFTS OF OLD AGE IS BEING ABLE TO LOOK BACK AND SEE HOW GOD IS WORKING. EVEN WHEN YOU DON’T KNOW HE’S WORKING, AND SOMETIMES WHEN YOU DON’T WANT HIM TO, HE IS.” 

My Life Resembles a Puzzle 

Looking back, my life resembles a puzzle, each piece finding its place through God’s guidance. It’s not about having all the answers but trusting in the One who does. One of the gifts of old age is being able to look back and see how God is working. Even when you don’t know He’s working, and sometimes when you don’t want Him to, He is. I can see now that God was preparing me for what I am doing now. 

Before getting where I am today, surprisingly I found myself running a horizontal pump company in Oklahoma for three years despite the fact I didn’t know anything about manufacturing pumps. Long story short: the guy who had hired me ended up passing away and I bought the business. Even though I didn’t know much about the industry, I believed it was a good product. I knew some about business from a legal standpoint by being a lawyer, you had to. Overall, it was a lesson in faith and business. Dave Ramsey probably would’ve scoffed at my strategies; I think I did all the things he advises you not to do, but it worked out. 

Coming Back to SES 

A few months after selling the business to someone who wanted to invest a lot more time into it than me, SES called me and said that they really needed a president. They asked me if I would consider the role. We went back and forth on the decision for about a month, I guess. I kept trying to say no, but eventually they talked me into it and I have been here for almost three years now. 

“PARTICULARLY I HAVE A BURDEN FOR MEN IN AMERICA, I THINK MEN HAVE DROPPED THE BALL. BUT, I THINK SOCIETY HAS ENCOURAGED THIS AND HAS EMACIATED MALES.”

The Lord is working here! We have the highest student count we have had in over 15 years. Exciting things are happening. We aren’t expecting to be the biggest or best, but the Lord has blessed us. As president I am driven by a burden to educate. 

A Calling Because of Burden 

I am burdened for our nation, specifically the young people of this nation who are being sold a bill of goods and are ignorant. I don’t mean that they’re dumb, but they are ignorant to the Word of God. Particularly I have a burden for men in America, I think men have dropped the ball. But, I think society has encouraged this and has emaciated males. I am certainly not trying to argue a male dominant society, but what I am saying is that we have a role, and we have failed at fulfilling that role. In Ephesians it says a woman is to submit to her husband, but in turn her husband has the more difficult job of being someone worthy of submission. I want to help show young men what this means in a biblical context. George Barna’s study shows that less than 6% of Christians in America have a biblical worldview. That is frightening to me! It is an indictment of the church in America. So, we have started this program working with churches, families, and individuals to provide them materials to see there is an absolute truth and logical explanation of who God is. From the courtroom to now being a seminary president, I’ve seen firsthand how understanding something greater than ourselves transforms lives. It’s about believing in absolute truth and helping others see that belief isn’t blind but is rooted in reason. As I continue this journey, I’m grateful for the opportunities and challenges that have shaped me. Each step—plowing fields, arguing cases, leading a seminary—has been part of God’s plan. I’m humbled to play a role, however small, in His larger narrative for our world. 

Response to Hurricane Helene 

The first thing that has stood out to me post hurricane Helene, which I am so pleased about, is that neighbors have really taken on the role to help other neighbors. It’s very much like the parable of the Good Samaritan, where Jesus drove home the idea that whoever is in need is your neighbor. 

Secondly, I have been encouraged by the way the local church has responded. It has not been a competition of seeing who can outdo the other, but rather really one another working together. It has been seeing each other’s strengths and seeing where to implement them to compliment what somebody else is doing. When I walk into my home church, folks are constantly on the phones with people from other churches, like minded churches, who are out there working just as hard as they can. We are all working for the good of the community. 

The third thing I have realized, which I think we sometimes overlook, is that Jesus can come walking to us in the storm. I think he has really done that here in the High Country. You know, the disciples were the ones out in the boat on the lake in the storm and they were fearful for their lives. Jesus came walking to them on the water and they almost missed him because he came in a way that they didn’t expect. Sometimes you must look for Jesus in the storm, but he is there. If you go back in scripture, when Jesus calmed the storm around the disciples, they had already called him master and teacher but for the first time they called him Lord. The reason for that is he saved them and preserved them. 

I’ve seen a lot of strength in our faith that has come up to the surface that probably would not have done so had it not been for the storm. There has been a presence of the Holy Spirit in this whole thing. Our church has been housing volunteers and they have had a calmness to what they are doing. There was certainly an intensity to what they were doing; they were not doing easy work. But there has been this calmness that has been amazing to look upon.