Annual Report 2006
Strategic Step #6: Be relevant to society.
Success story: Taking Christ to the streets
Growing up in Detroit and later patrolling its streets as a law enforcement officer, Mark Harden is intimately acquainted with the challenges of urban life. While serving as both an ordained pastor and policeman, Mark founded Streetwise and Detroit Love, Inc., two Christian outreach organizations dedicated to nurturing the potential of urban youth. Now on faculty at Bethel Seminary, he has developed the upcoming Master of Arts in Community Ministry Leadership program, which teaches a deep and proactive approach to ministry in the city. "It's not just about feeding the poor. It's about equipping seminary students to empower individuals and families through transformational ministry in the urban context," Mark says. "Jesus met human needs as He traveled from city to city. Life experience ignited my passion for city ministry, but Jesus' life and ministry are what fuel it."
In a world all too ready to dismiss the gospel, Christian institutions and their ministry partners cannot afford to appear irrelevant or ineffective. At Bethel our task remains to demonstrate that our worth to society is because of our Christian distinctive—not in spite of it. To be a vibrant witness, Bethel must never withdraw from the discussions and problems in society, but must weigh in on issues, meet real needs, and extend the love of Christ at every turn.
Bethel Steps Ahead
- As gay activists converged on the St. Paul campus in April, Bethel proved once again its readiness to engage issues while standing firm on the Word of God. The visit from Equality Ride, though not solicited, allowed us to model how to sustain one's convictions but take part in constructive and civil discourse with those advocating conflicting positions.
- Pastors are invited to Bethel for helpful workshops, such as the recent presentation, "Cracking the Code: Fiction and Truth in The Da Vinci Code," by Bethel Professor of Biblical Studies Michael Holmes. A similar series has drawn more than 1,000 pastors and lay people to Bethel Seminary San Diego for discussions ranging from euthanasia to the integration of faith and science, to women in ministry.
- Bethel University students are the hands and feet of Jesus around the world. Every week 13 "Twin Cities Outreach" teams, each including five to 10 students and a leader, blanket the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area to serve in schools, nursing homes, and homeless shelters.
- During spring break more than 170 students gave themselves to hurricane recovery, home construction, urban ministries, youth work, evangelism, and homeless outreach in five states and three Latin American countries. More than 60 students have joined Bethel's new "Acting on AIDS chapter," recently raising more than $6,000 to fight the disease.
- The arts are another area of cultural engagement. With the opening of the singular New York Center for Art & Media Studies (NYCAMS) and the 9th Street Entry Gallery in St. Paul, Bethel is training Christian visual artists to have a significant presence. The NYCAMS studio and gallery "is full of life," wrote an NYC art critic. Bethel also participates in the Los Angeles Film Studies Center, a place where Christian students with a passion for movie-making can learn to craft influential films of kingdom significance.
We are salt and light– relating to the world and society in culturally relevant ways.
When gay rights activists visited campus, Bethel University modeled Christ-like love while affirming its stance for sexual intimacy only within heterosexual, monogamous marriage.
Strategic Steps