Beeson Divinity School launched a new marketing campaign during the school’s Alumni and Friends Breakfast, Nov. 22, at the 71st annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society in San Diego, Ca.
The alumni-focused campaign called, “It’s more than what you earn. It’s who you become," features eight alumni sharing on video the ways in which God has used Beeson to shape them into the person and minister they have become. Watch the video and learn more on Beeson’s website. Follow along on social each Wednesday for more #BecomeAtBeeson content.
“I can’t think of a better place to grow in discipleship, Christ-like maturity and fruitfulness in ministry,” Dean Douglas A. Sweeney said. “Our commitment to incarnational, life-on-life teaching, mentoring, and modeling is unparalleled among top-tier divinity schools.”
He continued: “Beeson is especially well-placed right now—in terms of our culture, our faculty, our staff and other resources—to inspire fellow Christians to more faithful Christian witness, discipleship and service by connecting them to the progress of the gospel in our time.”
Also during the breakfast, Sweeney announced new initiatives that are underway since becoming the school’s second dean in July. These initiatives include:
- a Baptist advisory group, which will help the school think strategically and program more effectively for Beeson’s Baptist students;
- a minority student fellowship, which will prepare students to serve in minority church contexts, discuss challenges unique to minority students at Beeson, spend time with visiting speakers and eat together;
- a program for students heading into chaplaincy;
- a chapter of the Center for Pastor Theologians, in partnership with Beeson board member Todd Wilson, which will help Beeson students assume their roles as the church’s most important theologians;
- a new cohort of the John Templeton Foundation’s “Creation Project” for the southern states to encourage natural scientists and theologians based in and around Birmingham, Tuscaloosa and the greater-Alabama region to think and pray more carefully about the implications of their work and the ways in which Christians understand God’s relation to the world;
- a faculty/staff prayer sheet, which is updated weekly as a way for colleagues to pray for one another every day;
- a free lunch program, offering cafeteria vouchers to students and faculty who want to share meals with one another; and
- an interdisciplinary dialogue group for faculty who are spending four nights per year sharing dinner together and then discussing work in progress by members of the group.
As he looks to the future, Sweeney is “eager to help Beeson grow into its identity as a world-class national and international center of theological education.”
“I am also eager to help us expand and deepen our community life at Beeson, Samford and in central Alabama: providing more and better opportunities for fellowship, worship and learning in Divinity Hall; diversifying our student body, faculty and staff; caring well for all our students, especially those who sometimes feel underserved; integrating Beeson more fully into the campus life of Samford University; and reaching out more regularly and partnering in ministry with churches in the region.”
Yet, in spite of these plans and excitement about the future, he said that Beeson faculty and staff are careful to remember the words of Psalm 127, “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.”
“Unless the builders at Beeson give our lives to the Lord, the authority of Scripture and the orthodox traditions of our evangelical heritage, our work will be in vain,” Sweeney concluded. “Won’t you pray with us that God will show us what he wants for Beeson, blessing us with courage to submit to and follow his leading for our school?”