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Freddye James
Freddye James

Anyone that knows me knows about Richmont Graduate University! They are always impressed not only with the quality of my education, but also with the lasting and powerful relationships that I’ve formed while completing my studies there. I can honestly say I have formed lifelong friendships as well as enduring professional relationships.

In my undergraduate studies, I was a Biology and Chemistry major.  For years, I was employed as an Environmental Chemist doing analyses by instrumentation for metals in environmental samples.  While on this job, my office seemed to become the counseling center.  I was doing just as much encouraging and listening to the problems and concerns of my co-workers as I was analytical chemistry. This is when I began to feel a pull towards becoming a counselor but had no idea how this would come about. While I desired to return to school to study counseling, I did not see how I could leave my job and continue aspects of my life that I had become accustomed to. At the time I did not see a way, nor did I have the faith, to go in the direction where I was clearly hearing God say to go. 

Eventually, a friend at work who believed I would benefit from training as a lay counselor told me about a program at her church that was training lay leaders from a biblical perspective. I took the training and for five years was as a lay biblical guide. During this time, two major things occurred:  I accepted my calling into the Gospel ministry and I became ill and had to leave my job.  After eighteen years of gainful employment, suddenly I was an unemployed disabled person!

Then, in 2001, a friend from church who had recently completed her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology shared with me that she attended the Psychological Studies Institute (PSI) after earning her degree to pursue a certificate in Christian Psychological Studies. She also shared with me that the school was now offering a complete program in Professional Counseling integrated with Christian faith and biblical theology.  This sounded like just the place for me to finally fulfill the desire I had to study counseling from the perspective of God’s Word.  I applied was accepted and after 20 years of being out of school, and became a graduate student!

Because of my disability, the challenges were great.  Yet, my classmates and the faculty at Richmont (then PSI) gave me invaluable assistance that I do not believe I would have received in any other graduate program!  They took to heart the seriousness of my physical limitations and gave me the help and encouragement I needed.  Finally, in 2004, I graduated with a Master of Arts in Professional Counseling and a concentration in Spirituality and Counseling!  I could hardly believe what God had done!

Fast forward to 2011, I received a letter from my alma mater inviting me to apply to become a part of the inaugural class of the School of Ministry. Richmont was launching its Master of Arts in Ministry program and I saw this as a divine opportunity to begin my formal education in ministry. I applied and was accepted. The rest is history. In 2014, exactly 10 years later, I graduated earning my second master’s degree from Richmont. 

Since graduating, I have begun my first year toward a Doctor of Ministry degree at McAfee School of Theology at Mercer University. I have chosen as my specialization Christian Spirituality which is synonymous with Christian Spiritual Formation. This is a clear continuation of my Richmont education in counseling and ministry where it was emphasized what it means to know Christ, be in Christ, and do as Christ does.  As a minister of the Gospel, it is my desire to see a revival of spiritual formation in the body of Christ so we will have rich and meaningful spiritual lives that show forth Christ and give us the ability to live the abundant life that he came to bring. I hope to one day teach churches the value of apprenticeship to Christ by developing discipleship programs that are a blend of counseling and Christian spiritual formation. Ultimately, I want to see Christ’s command to make true disciples the main goal of the church!               

Walking Through Sickness Yet Called to Comfort

As with most in the helping professions, I believed that it was incumbent upon me to extend to others the same comfort that I had been given so lovingly and freely by God.  What I call my “life’s Scripture” is 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 which reads: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.”  

The time I became ill while still employed was a very disheartening and troubling time for me.  A job that I once found joy and ease in doing had now become difficult to do. Yet, while going through this long-term illness, I believed with all my heart I would get well and carry on with my life just as I had before.  Because I could not understand why it was taking so long for me to get well, I sought help from a loving Christian therapist and my encouraging, but very honest and truthful pastor. When I was told by my doctors that I would not be able to return to work, I felt lonely, displaced, and of no value to anyone. Through the counseling I received from my therapist and my pastor, (both women I might add!), I found the courage to continue on although my life was forever changed.

My natural inclination is to be an encourager and helper. Through my chronic and disabling illness, I was so very grateful to God for the grace and compassion that was extended to me, I came to believe it was my calling and Christian duty to extend the same to others.  Studying counseling and ministry have served to fine tune my God-given gift of compassion. I will always believe I was called to both counseling and ministry.  In my view, they are natural companions, each one enhancing the other.    

Go to School!

Having been out of school for 20 years when I enrolled at Richmont meant that I had not written a paper since my undergraduate days and that I had never heard of the writing style APA, which is what counseling students use. When assigned my very first paper, I panicked! Suddenly, it occurred to me I had no idea what I was doing. I didn’t remember how to write a paper in any style and I surely did not know how to use the wonderful 2 inch thick APA Manual I had purchased. All kinds of thoughts ran through my mind, but the predominant one was, “What in the world are you doing here? You have no business in graduate school at age 45! Get in in your car, leave, and never come back!”

I didn’t run away at that moment, but I did walk to the parking lot, sat in my car, and the tears just flowed. I clearly believe I had heard God say, “Freddye go to school!” At that moment as I cried and cried and prayed. I asked God if I had possibly misunderstood Him and He actually said, “Freddye, you are a fool!”  

I made the decision to share my dilemma with Dr. Jeff Terrell. I went in his office with the intention of telling him calmly that I had made a mistake in coming to graduate school.  As I tried to explain my situation to him, I began to cry again and literally stretched out on the floor wailing. Dr. Terrell was not phased by my hysteria, and got down on the floor with me and calmly began to tell me just how to attack the writing of a paper. Thank God he remembered the old school way of writing papers beginning with an outline on a legal pad!  As we both sat in the middle of the floor in his office, he talked to me very calmly and told me how to approach this task that seemed overwhelming, I realized that my old way of writing would still be effective. I just needed a calm, reassuring and knowledgeable person to be the voice of reason. And that day, thank God, Dr. Jeff Terrell was just the voice I needed to hear! From that day forward through both my Richmont degrees, I learned never to approach paper writing with clear but with a sound plan! 

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