PROFESSOR SAMUEL J. MIKOLASKI
Personal

I was born in Yugoslavia in 1923 and reared in Canada from the age of four. In 1950 Jessie Bain of London, Ontario and I were married. We have been blessed with four children, three daughters and a son. In retirement we live in Oceanside, California.

My Education

B.A. University of Western Ontario, 1952
M.A. (Philosophy) University of Western Ontario, 1954
B.D. (Honors) University of London, 1956
D.Phil. University of Oxford, 1958
D.D. (Honoris Causa) Acadia University, 2003

Christian Ministry

I have served as senior minister of several Baptist churches in Canada, England and the United States. While my primary work has been Christian Theology, I have had a keen interest in church life and ministry and have assisted students, pastors and churches in profiling church growth. This interest extends to administration philosophy, entrepreneurship and the values of a market economy, alongside my work and writing in Christian Theology.

I continue to have a keen interest in my Serbian heritage and mourn the civil wars which have resulted in the breakup of Yugoslavia, the land of my birth. I work toward, and pray for, the Christian renewal of Serbs and other people in the Balkans, through the witness of committed Christians whether Baptist, Serbian Orthodox, or of other Christian denominations.

Academic Pursuits

I have served as senior Professor in Theology at the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, North American Baptist Theological Seminary, and as Pioneer McDonald Professor at Carey Theological College and Regent College on the Campus of the University of British Columbia, from which position I retired in 1988. I have been Principal of the Baptist Leadership Training School, Calgary, and President of the Atlantic Baptist College. I led the College to seek a Charter from the government of New Brunswick as an accredited four-year degree granting institution. It is now Atlantic Baptist University.

During 1994 Jessie and I were part of the first-ever delegation from the American Philosophical Association which visited seven universities in China. I was advisor to a television crew from CFTO, the anchor station in Toronto for Canada's independent television network, who filmed a thirteen-part series in Israel and Egypt on the history of the Bible (1993). During 1994, 1995 and 1997 I lectured in theology at the Baptist Seminary in Novi Sad, Yugoslavia. From 1997 to January 2000 I served as president of the San Diego Chapter of the Serbian Unity Congress and have served as a Trustee of the World Affairs Council of Orange County, California.

Jessie and I are members of the Saddleback Church, Lake Forest, CA. During the past fifteen years since my retirement in 1988 I have continued an active academic career as Adjunct Professor for Fuller Theological Seminary and the Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary in California, and the accredited Seminary program at Saddleback Church developed jointly by Saddleback Church and Golden Gate Baptist Seminary. During these retirement years we have enjoyed teaching and working with over 1250 students in my theology classes.

I was invited to address the Convocation and Graduation Exercises of Atlantic Baptist University on May 3, 2008, at which time the university gave me their Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of the twenty-fifth anniversary of my acquiring degree-granting status for the university by means of a Bill proposed by the Premier, the Honorable Richard Hatfield, and passed by the Legislature of the Province of New Brunswick.