Bethel Seminary
Bethel Seminary St. Paul—Faculty
The faculty of Bethel Seminary are dedicated to the task of educating men and women for church vocations. All teaching faculty hold earned doctorates and several have pursued postdoctoral studies at leading universities. Most have served as pastors, executive pastors, associate pastors, missionaries, or have held crucial positions in ministry agencies. Their background of ministerial experience is invaluable as they guide students in their theological studies. Faculty associates are carefully selected on the basis of their ministry expertise and teaching credentials.
Faculty continually avail themselves of opportunities for professional growth through sabbatical leaves for study, participation in professional societies, research, publication of significant scholarly books, and teaching in cross-cultural settings. These activities enrich and empower the professors' chief task: teaching. The ethos of learning seeks to create a facultystudent relationship in which the professor and the student both share in the learning experience, challenging the learner to be a creative and resourceful thinker, and providing a foundational experience of learning that will become the basis of continued growth in Christian leadership. Different personalities, educational backgrounds, and methods combine to create a varied pattern of theological instruction. Moreover, classroom instruction is combined with frequent opportunities for counseling and informal fellowship.
Bethel professors are active church people who render many services in the local church and in the wider framework of the District and General Conferences. Their responsibilities take the form of elective office, board membership, teaching, consultative service, assistance in pastoral placement, editing of Christian education materials, archival responsibility, continuing education courses for ministers, and a variety of speaking appointments.
Faculty
Chris Armstrong—Associate Professor of Church History
Gregory W. Bourgond—Vice President for Seminary Operations and Strategic Initiatives
Jeannine K. Brown—Associate Professor of New Testament; Associate Academic Dean
John R. Cionca—Professor of Ministry Leadership
David K. Clark—Lead Faculty, Master of Arts in Christian Thought; Permanent Part-time Professor of Theology
Carla M. Dahl—Professor of Marriage and Family Studies; Director of the Marriage and Family Therapy Program; Dean, Center for Spiritual and Personal Formation
Leland V. Eliason—Executive Vice President, Executive Director and Seminary Provost of the Seminary
Paul W. Ferris, Jr.—Professor of Old Testament
Dan Gurtner—Assistant Professor of New Testament
Mark G. Harden—Dean of Intercultural Relations, Lead Faculty for the Master of Arts in Community Ministry Leadership
David M. Howard, Jr.—Professor of Old Testament, Dean, Center for Biblical and Theological Foundations
Justin Irving—Assistant Professor of Ministry Leadership
Lori K. Jass—University Registrar
Denise Muir Kjesbo—Director and Lead Faculty, Children's and Family Ministry
Joel Lawrence—Instructor of Theology
Douglas Magnuson—Associate Professor of Intercultural Programs and Director of Muslim Studies
Mark McCloskey—Professor of Ministry Leadership; Lead Faculty, Master of Arts in Transformational Leadership
Erwin McManus—Distinguished Lecturer and Futurist
Thorsten Moritz—Professor of New Testament
David S. Nah—Assistant Professor of Theology
Sandra Oslund—Director, Seminary Library
David Ridder—Dean of the Center for Transformational Leadership
Sam Rima—Director, Doctor of Ministry; Faculty, Center for Transformational Leadership
Kyle Roberts—Assistant Professor of Systematic Theology
Steven J. Sandage—Associate Professor of Marriage and Family Studies
Wilbur Stone—Director and Lead Faculty, Global and Contextual Studies
Peter Vogt—Associate Professor of Old Testament
Faculty Associates
Administration
Joseph V. Dworak—Trans-Regional Director of Admissions
Greg Meland—Director of Supervised Ministry and Placement
James Spickelmier—Associate Vice President for Seminary Development