The Great Commission’s Call to Leadership

“The quality and the heart of the people that are showing up to Southeastern — I wish every Christian got a chance to see the heart of the people that I get to be with in the classroom,” he expressed.

The Great Commission has been the driving force of Struecker’s life since he was a young man. In fact, if it wasn’t for the words of mission-minded believers, Struecker’s testimony today would look drastically different.

Growing up, Struecker had no access to the gospel and no one to tell him about the love of Christ. His parents divorced when he was young, and before Struecker even finished high school, he and his mom moved a total of 22 times.

When he was 13 years old, he heard the gospel for the first time from a couple who lived in his apartment complex and took it upon themselves to share Jesus with him.

They were nervous, Struecker remembered, but their words struck and resounded in his heart. So deeply, in fact, that he knelt by his bed that night and surrendered his life to Christ.

At the time, neither Struecker nor his neighbors could have known the full impact of their gospel conversation with him. Struecker and his mom moved once again only a couple weeks later. However, the change in his heart was a lasting one.

“After I came to faith in Christ, I got up every Sunday from there on out, no matter where we lived, and I walked to the closest church,” Struecker recalled. “I showed up on Sunday and just sat in the back and tried to learn what it meant to be a follower of Jesus.”

“I didn’t really get discipled until I was a young man, a sergeant in the Army,” he said. “I got plugged in to a local church in Columbus, Georgia, and the pastor really took me under his wing and started to disciple me.”

Called Through Fire

During his time serving as a sergeant in the Army, Struecker’s faith underwent a transformation forged by the very real threat of death, and that change resulted in a radical calling.

Struecker led a squad of soldiers during the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu in Somalia.

During that battle, several things happened. Most immediately, Struecker and his men came face to face with the likelihood of death. In that moment, Struecker found the hope of Christ to be not only sufficient but superior to all else.

Years ago, when his neighbors first told him about the gospel, they made a promise to him, saying, “Jeff, when you turn your life over to Christ, he will radically deal with your eternity. You don’t ever have to worry about what happens to you after you die.”

They didn’t know that death was a fear he had struggled with for much of his young life. In fact, it was one of the reasons he had joined the Army in the first place.

“I wanted to go to war,” he said, “I wanted to get shot at — I wanted to know, am I really over this fear of dying?”

In his moment of greatest need, he discovered that his hope in the gospel and God’s promise of eternal life gave him the courage to face death head-on.

It was also in that moment that God changed the trajectory of Struecker’s life.

In the Battle of Mogadishu, one of Struecker’s friends died instantly next to him, and he realized, “‘Jeff, you’ve never talked to him about heaven and hell, and now it’s too late, and you can never get that back.’ And that was the moment that God attached to me this gospel urgency that I think should go with every Christian who understands the Great Commission.”

And that was the moment that God attached to me this gospel urgency that I think should go with every Christian who understands the Great Commission.

Somehow, in some way, he realized, God was calling him to the work of ministry.

Where Leadership and Theology Meet

Today, Struecker serves both as a professor at Southeastern, teaching courses in Christian leadership, and as the founding pastor at 2 Cities Church. Over the years, God has used him in a variety of ways.

From 1997 to 2000, Struecker attended Southern Seminary, where he received his Master of Divinity. Following graduation, God called him back onto the field where he served as an active-duty Army chaplain for the next 10 years.

Upon his retirement from the Army in 2011, Struecker directed his attention towards pursuing a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) at Southeastern. He was excited because the seminary had recently developed a Christian leadership cohort for the PhD in applied theology.

“The Army invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in teaching me leadership and giving me leadership experience,” Struecker explained. However, something was missing.

As he was deciding what to do following retirement, Struecker realized the path of ministry still lay before him.

“I wanted to spend the rest of my life in the local church, but I felt like I had a lot left to learn about leadership and specifically about the theological underpinnings of leadership.”

Two things in particular drew him to Southeastern: its Great Commission call and President Danny Akin’s leadership.

Struecker’s heart for the Great Commission had remained with him since God first called him to ministry. In fact, he began to grow concerned as he observed a lack of urgency for the Great Commission in local churches. He also wrestled with leadership failures that he continued to see within the church.

Struecker recognized at Southeastern a mission-centered heartbeat that mirrored his own, and he began to realize his own passion for equipping leaders within the church.

“I said this to Dr. Akin and to many others — I still say this to my leadership classes,” Struecker explained. “Every pastor that I’ve known or even heard of that’s been fired from a church, if it’s not for a moral reason, then every other one of them has been fired for a leadership failure.”

Every pastor that I’ve known or even heard of that’s been fired from a church, if it’s not for a moral reason, then every other one of them has been fired for a leadership failure.

This realization motivated Struecker’s desire to teach and train up other leaders following his graduation from Southeastern.

He said, “I don’t ever want to see a church suffer because the pastor is struggling to lead. And it’s not that the pastor isn’t trying; he just doesn’t know how to lead because he hasn’t been given the tools. So that’s how I ended up teaching at Southeastern.”

A Great Commission Commitment

Christian leadership, Struecker maintains, is a subject that applies to everyone — not just the president of an institution or an Army chaplain or a pastor.

“As I look at the Scriptures and what Jesus is calling his people to, the Great Commission inherently calls us to be leaders,” Struecker explained.

As I look at the Scriptures and what Jesus is calling his people to, the Great Commission inherently calls us to be leaders.

“The command ‘teaching people to observe all things that I’ve commanded you,’ alone, makes you a leader — not to mention the ‘making disciples’ command of the Great Commission,” he added. “It’s baked into the Great Commission; it’s part of our DNA.”

Struecker has been particularly encouraged by the Great Commission drive exhibited by his students in the classroom. During a recent hybrid course, he encouraged his class, saying: “You might be the generation that accomplishes the Great Commission. I believe that because of what I hear coming out of your hearts in this room — it’s got me so excited for the future.”

As Struecker equips men and women to serve as leaders in the local church and across the world, he also prioritizes his commitment to his own church, to the military community, and to the work of making disciples.

“God has given me a privilege to be alive at this moment in time. And I don’t know how many days I have left, but I’ve made a commitment to God,” Struecker said. “I’m going to go as hard as I can until my last day, and I hope I fall over dead on a mission trip somewhere. I hope I fall over dead in the pulpit. I hope I fall over dead trying to chase after the Great Commission.”