Rev. Kirk earns doctorate at age 64

Knowledge, to Gregory Kirk, is power.

Kirk is the United Gospel Rescue Mission executive director. He challenged himself in 2018 at age 58 to earn a doctor of educational ministry degree. In May, he walked across the stage at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in 2024 at 64 years old to receive his reward.

“I want to be the best I can be for our town and for our rescue mission,” he said.

__Back to school__

His journey was bumpy. He had a knee replacement, COVID and a minor stroke, which delayed him by three semesters, but didn’t stop him. Kirk kept his eyes on the goal.

“The doctor said if I had waited one more hour I would have been on a vent,” Kirk said. “At my age, I wouldn’t come off the vent. I had to call my advisor and tell him I have to drop this semester. Of course they understood, because of COVID.”

His school advisor explained he had never had a student who called from the emergency room as much as Kirk.

“I decided I needed to be better at the craft I do at the mission,” Kirk said. “We work with people all day long and counsel them. What better way to do it than to get more education.”

Admitting it was “a lot harder” than anticipated, he said, “I had been out of school for 20 years.”

Writing papers was extremely hard, and Kirk asked himself, “What am I doing? This is crazy.”

Even when he started writing his dissertation, he still questioned himself.

“It seemed like an insurmountable mountain I was never going to be able to climb,” he said. “I kept slogging forward, I kept moving forward.”

The day came when the school said he was done except for orally defending his written work. Kirk was worried.

“You stand before professors who look at your work and basically you’re defending your statements,” he said. “I passed my defense and I got an A- in my orals and a B+ on my written.”

Kirk said getting his degree was a crowning achievement and a big honor.

“I want people to know: don’t give up,” he said. “You can do this. Everyone called me ‘Grandpa’ in my class because my cohorts were in their 20s. I’m in my 60s, working on a doctorate.”

People have questioned what he’s doing with the degree.

“I know I’ve got at least 20 more years to give Poplar Bluff and this rescue mission,” he said. “ I want to be the very best director of our rescue mission I possibly can be. What we do for our city is important and there’s a lot of people to serve and to help. We want to continue to do that.”

__The path to UGRM__

While Kirk has a bachelor’s of theology, a master’s in clinical counseling and a master’s in Christian resources, he doesn’t have a high school diploma. Kirk was a military kid who went to 17 schools for 11.5 years.

“I lived everywhere in the world three years at a time,” he said.

He dropped out of school to join the Army after the Vietnam War. Kirk recalled the Army “didn’t care who you were, because nobody was going into the military.”

“I had a good career until the Lord changed my plans,” he said. “I understood the military because I was raised in it.”

He enrolled in Bible college and after eight months he was called to the office. An official told him they couldn’t get his high school transcripts

“I never thought they would ask,” Kirk said. “I put I went to high school in Springfield, Missouri. I never said I graduated. I didn’t lie. I guess I didn’t tell the truth.”

When Kirk explained, the official’s reply was, “What do you mean, you didn’t graduate?”

His college GPA was a 3.8. They said, “You’ve already completed these courses, the number of hours you’ve completed, equal a high school diploma.

“They put me on academic probation for a year. Nothing else was ever said. I had to keep at least a 3.0 GPA. I did, because I finally had found what I wanted. When I went to Bible college, I knew I was going into the ministry. I had a purpose. I was driven. I had a new goal.”

__Moving forward__

The mission “is going places,” he said. “I felt to position the mission in the right place, the director should have a higher education. It’s important what we do, and I want to be able to lead the mission to the next step.”

Kirk wants “our city officials, our government officials, senators, whoever comes here to see a homeless shelter that doesn’t take any federal or state money that’s doing it right.”

Kirk has worked with the homeless for 32 years. “I’m not a novice when it comes to dealing with those who we’re serving. People come for lunch, we feed people who have food at home, but they get a square meal. Especially summertime, we have a ton of kids. I know Monday through Friday they have food.”

“I believe when you stop learning, you start dying. I don’t want to die at my craft, I want to keep going forward. Maybe I’m going to be in a classroom teaching how to run a rescue mission, how to work with those addicted to drugs and alcohol, how to work with the poor. By getting the degree it enables me to do that, it adds legitimacy to what I’m saying. I don’t have to have this degree to teach somebody, but it sure doesn’t hurt.”