Strategic Step #1: Make disciples of Jesus Christ.

Success story: A nurse's passion to serve
Senior nursing student Megan Riggott points to Jesus' declaration of ministry to the poor, ailing, and oppressed in Mark 4:18 when she describes her passion to serve. "Christ calls us to participate in the restoration of His kingdom on earth," she says. Cited for her humility and servant attitude, Megan won Bethel University's Student Leadership Award in 2005. She is grateful for the nursing program's emphasis on holistic care, her opportunities to serve on mission trips to Mexico, and her semester of study and service in Guatemala. "Through these experiences, God has grown in me a love for the poor of Latin America, and has continued to show me how I might be able to incorporate my love of nursing into a life of ministry with and to them."

Christ at the core sets Bethel apart. Even as pressure mounts from society to compromise our faith perspectives, that same society craves a vision of life filled with hope and purpose. "Americans hunger for religious ways of truth-seeking, especially with regard to moral values," recognizes sociologist Daniel Yankelovich.* This palpable search for the eternal compels the church and its partners in higher education to nurture authentic witnesses for Christ.

Bethel Steps Ahead

• In becoming a university in July 2004, Bethel also renewed its commitment to the institution's founding evangelical mission, vision, and values. Christ remains at the center of everything Bethel does and Bethel students still encounter Him at every turn. "At Bethel University, many classes start with a prayer and students can ask questions of faith as they wrestle with physics or literature," opens a recent Minneapolis Star Tribune article.
• Passionate as both teachers and mentors, faculty seek to instill in students a compelling theological worldview comprising thorough confidence in the authority and reliability of Scripture; unwavering conviction regarding the uniqueness of Jesus Christ; deep longing for the salvation of the lost; winsome clarity in witnessing for their faith; and commitment to lifelong growth in knowing God.
• "Bethel has so many great professors who have encouraged me," says one student. "It's a place where Scripture is taken seriously and where course work is integrated so you can really start to see how things fit together."
• In residence halls, students gather on every floor for Wednesday night Bible studies. Chapel, offered three times a week, attracts enthusiastic College of Arts & Sciences students to hear outstanding Christian speakers and artists. In the College of Adult & Professional Studies and the Graduate School, many students are encountering a biblical worldview and its implications for the first time.
• Observers cite Bethel Seminary's "entrepreneurial ethos"—the innovative ways it equips leaders-in-training and deepens the impact of those already serving. For example, the seminary's annual Tranformational Church Series draws church staff from all over the country who want to learn compelling, culturally sensitive ways to share the gospel from models such as Willow Creek and Mosaic.

*"Ferment and Change: Higher Education in 2015," by Daniel Yankelovich,
The Chronicle Review, Nov. 25, 2005.

We are Christ-followers– evangelical and rooted in the authority of Scripture. Megan Riggott nurses tender feet at the Home for Homeless Elderly in Tijuana. "It's not just about preaching His Word," she says, "but also about serving others in tangible ways so that they can know God has drawn near."

Strategic Steps

• 1: Make disciples of Jesus Christ.
• 2: Emphasize quality scholarship.
• 3: Reconcile cultures and races.
• 4: Integrate new technologies.
• 5: Serve a longer-living population.
• 6: Be relevant to society.
• 7: Remain sound and affordable.
• 8: Equip students before college.