Alumni & Friends
Bethel Focus
A Magazine of Bethel University
Search Narrows for Next Bethel President
Committee Seeks Servant-Leader
with a “Divine
Calling”
Intensive and prayerful work continues toward selecting a new leader for Bethel University to succeed President George Brushaber, who will retire at the end of June 2008 after 26 years in the office (and seven prior years as college dean). The Presidential Search Committee is committed to selecting an executive who will carry on Dr. Brushaber’s “passion to lead an institution that will make a significant and life-changing impact on the life of the mind and spirit of the student,” according to the published search profile.
George Brushaber has served in leadership at Bethel for 33 years, 26 as president.
Consisting of nine trustees, three faculty members, and an alumni representative at large, the committee has narrowed the field from 62 “potentially qualified” individuals to a pool of 14. These candidates, from both inside and outside academia as well as Bethel, are now undergoing in-depth interviews, assessments, and review for their qualifications, experience, and leadership traits. Another round of evaluation will follow with an even smaller group.
From the beginning, there have been uncompromising standards for the selection of Bethel’s next leader. Criteria for the search specify that he or she will be: “An evangelical Christian with a high view of the authority and trustworthiness of God’s Word and a clear sense of divine calling to Bethel’s mission in higher education.” The description also calls for someone with an “authentic, irenic, maturing Christian faith” who exhibits “moral and ethical leadership…in all of his or her actions.”
As prayer groups across the nation and on campus intercede for the process, search committee members are committed to identifying a servant leader who is “visionary and strategic; collaborative yet decisive; an effective communicator; engaging and relational; a champion of cultural diversity; an accomplished fundraiser; and an active figure in the local and national evangelical community.”
Public Event to Honor Brushabers
All friends of Bethel University are invited to Classics in the Great Hall, a special choral-orchestral concert honoring President George and Darleen Brushaber on May 9, 2008. The event, beginning at 7:30 p.m., takes place in Benson Great Hall. A dessert reception will follow.
For tickets, call the Benson Great Hall ticket office at 651.638.6333 (toll-free 866.424.4849).
The ability to manage in three dimensions—administrative, academic, and spiritual—is critical according to the profile, which calls for a successor who “loves students” and the work of “training and equipping [them] to make a kingdom difference.”
Prior to the search, more than 80 people from 18 distinct constituent groups of Bethel were interviewed for their perspectives on Bethel’s needs in leadership at this juncture.
The committee intends to present a candidate to the Board of Trustees at a special meeting of the Board sometime in early May. Trustee approval, should it be forthcoming, would probably (but not necessarily) set in motion a process of introducing the candidate to various Bethel constituencies, leading up to presentation of the candidate for election at the Bethel Corporation Biennial Meeting in late June.
The Search Committee continues to ask for the prayers of all Bethel friends during this process. If you have questions or suggestions for the committee, please emailpresidential-search@bethel.edu.
New President Will be Fifth
In a remarkable pattern of lengthy tenures, there have been only
four presidents since 1914, when the Baptist Union Theological Seminary
and Bethel Academy merged to form what is now Bethel University.
(From left to right): G. Arvid Hagstrom, 1914-1941; Henry Wingblade,
1941-1954; Carl Lundquist, 1954 to 1982; and (above left) George
Brushaber, 1982 to present.
