College of Theology introduces 2 new event series

By Rick Vacek
GCU News Bureau

While the new Center for Worship Arts is the most significant addition to the College of Theology at Grand Canyon University this fall, the college also is introducing two events that will be of interest to faculty, staff and students.

A Lunch and Learn Series, open to all GCU faculty members, begins at 11:15 a.m. Friday, Sept. 12, in Howerton Hall. The one-hour sessions, scheduled for three times per semester, are designed to spark roundtable discussions that help faculty integrate faith, learning and work in the classroom.

The COT Ministry Forum, also a one-hour, three-times-a-semester event in Howerton, begins at 5 p.m. Monday, Sept. 15, and is mainly for theology students and faculty. However, it is open to anyone on campus who would like to attend. In the first session, Bob Blincoe, U.S. director of Frontiers USA, will talk about his organization’s ministry of recruiting, training and sending people to serve Muslims nationally and internationally.

Here are the particulars:

Lunch and Learn

In addition to a free lunch, faculty members will receive constructive ideas in these Friday sessions. COT's Dean Dr. Jason Hiles will present each topic, with various faculty members providing integration-through-instruction perspectives. The topics:

Hiles said he is excited about the potential of these sessions, which will start with classroom tips from the guest speaker(s) and then go deeper into the selected topic with a 25-minute presentation by Hiles and 10-minute individual group discussions.

“We feel like it’s going to take off,” Hiles said. “The deans are so supportive and the provost (Dr. Hank Radda) is so supportive. There’s so much overlap — it changes the dynamic of the classroom.”

Ministry Forum

These are dangerous times for missionaries who work with Muslims, obviously, and Frontiers USA provides support for that low-key work in a low-key manner, Hiles said. Missionaries must be bi-vocational, he said, and need to first fit in with the culture before they move on to sharing the Gospel.

“I’m pretty excited about this because it’s a mission focus and that’s what we want to do here at GCU,” Hiles said.

The other scheduled Ministry Forums are by Palmer Chinchen and Josh Havens of the Barefoot Tribal Gathering, which seeks to inspire Christ's followers to passionately engage issues of justice, sustainability, art, compassion and austerity, on Monday, Oct. 6. There also will be a faculty presentation on “Evangelical Unity in a Post-Christian Society” on Monday, Nov. 10.

Contact Rick Vacek at 602-639-8203 or [email protected].