Dr. Tiberius Rata to Travel to Lima, Peru March 3-8

Dr. Tiberius Rata will be traveling to Lima, Peru on March 3 - 8 to teach pastors and missions staff on the topic "Following Jesus on the Way:  Principles of Discipleship from the Gospel of Mark."  Dr. Rata will be going on behalf of World Reach, which is the organization in which he also serves as a member of the board of directors.

Dr. Tiberius Rata, Professor of Old
Testament Studies

Dr. Tiberius Rata Publishes Book Review of "A Commentary on Micah" by Bruce Waltke

Dr. Tiberius Rata's book review of Bruce Waltke's A Commentary on Micah has been published on the Review of Biblical Literature web site.   A copy of the review is available at:

http://www.bookreviews.org/pdf/5829_6154.pdf

Pastor and Grace Seminary Student Zach Doppelt Works to Save Historical Sign at the Ghent Grace Brethren Church in Roanoke, VA

Pastor Zach Doppelt of the Ghent Grace Brethren Church in Roanoke, Virginia is working to have repairs made to have their church's historical "Jesus Saves" sign on top of their building at the corner of Maiden Lane and Wasena Avenue.  The sign was damaged during a windstorm on February 10.   For more information visit the article below.

Source: (cited 02-21-2008)
http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/151574

Grace Appoints new Dean of Enrollment and Marketing

Mark D. Weinstein has accepted the position of Dean of Enrollment and Marketing, effective April 1. He is a 1982 Grace College alumnus and also holds his M.S. degree in organizational leadership from Geneva College. In his new position at Grace, Mark will lead undergraduate and graduate enrollment and marketing. Mark comes to Grace from his position as Director of Marketing and Public Relations at Maryville University in St. Louis, Missouri. Prior to that, he was Director of Public Relations and Enrollment Marketing at Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from 1999-2005, and Director of Marketing and Public Relations at Geneva College in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, from 1990-1999. Mark and his wife, Lisa, plan to relocate to the Winona Lake area later this spring.

Dr. Jeff Gill to Attend National Evangelical Dean's Meeting 2/14 - 2/16/2008

Dr. Jeff Gill will be attending the 38th Annual Evangelical Seminary Deans' Meeting & ITS Deans' Council on February 14-16, 2008 at the Adam's Mark Hotel in Dallas, Texas.  The featured speaker will be Dr. Walter C. Kaiser, who is the Colman M. Mockler distinguished Professor of Old Testament and President Emeritus of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Massachusetts.  More information is available on the ITS Web site:
http://www.itscourses.org/esdc/#program

Glimpse of Grace Event and Scholarship Competition to be Held on Friday, March 28, 2008

Grace Seminary will hold the 2008 Glimpse of Grace event and scholarship competition on Friday, March 28.  Incoming Fall 2008 students will be able to compete for 11 different scholarships as listed below.   This event will take place during the afternoon of March 28, 2008 on the campus of Grace Theological Seminary in Winona Lake, Indiana.  All contestants must be present to win.  The following is a list of the scholarships that will be awarded for the fall of 2008.

Scholarship Awards:

• Three trustee scholarships of $2,000 each
• Three faculty scholarships of $1,000 each
• Five achievement scholarships of $500 each

Requirements:

1) Have an application turned in, or you may turn your application in on the day of the Glimpse of Grace event on March 28th.

2) Planning to enroll for the Fall 2008 semester.

3) RSVP and attend the Glimpse of Grace Seminary event on March 28 and go through an interview process during that afternoon.  Anyone that has inquired to Grace for either the fall 2008 or spring 2009 semester will be invited.  Others that have not inquired to the seminary are also invited.

4) Write an essay that is no longer than 500 words on the topic "Why I have Decided to Attend Seminary"  The essay must be turned in before your interview on the 28'th of March.

5) Only residential students are eligible for the Trustee, Faculty, and Achievement Scholarships.

Criteria for the Scholarships:

1) Ministry potential and experience

2) Spiritual life

3) Academic achievement

Schedule:

Friday March 28

• 2:00 - 5:00 p.m.  Student Interviews in McClain Hall, 3rd Floor, Seminary Office
• 5:00   Glimpse of Grace Event begins at Westminster Hall
• 5:45 - 6:45 Complementary Dinner with Grace Seminary Students and Faculty Members
• 6:45 - 7:30 Questions and Answers About Grace Theological Seminary & Life Here
• 7:30 - 8:00 Small Group Prayer with Faculty and Current Students
  

 

More details will be follow here, but please watch the scholarship page on the GTS web site. 

Dr. Matt Harmon to Speak at Ohio University 2/21

  Dr. Matt Harmon will be speaking at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio on Thursday, February 21, 2008.  He will be speaking on the last of a three part series held by Campus Crusade entitled Reasonable Faith.  Matt's talk is titled “God of Vengeance, God of Love: Is the God of the Old Testament the same as the God of the New Testament?”  Brian McCollister, director of Campus Crusade, said, “It’s to expose our students that come to our weekly meeting to some of our best and brightest graduates and to address topics that are of interest both inside and outside of the Christian community.

Source: (cited 02-21-2008)http://www.thepost.ohiou.edu/Articles/Culture/2008/02/21/23008/

Seminary Wives Meeting to be Held on Monday, February 25 at 7:00 PM

A New Beginning…

Seminary Wives, You are invited…

…to join us for a night of new beginnings.  Join us for coffee (and maybe a few sweet treats) as we make new friends and share together in creating the new seminary wives fellowship. 

Monday, Feb. 25^th at 7:00 pm

Jamie Hartley's Home

110 Southfield Rd., Winona Lake

Come with any ideas you may have on issues that relate to this life season of being a wife of a seminary student and the ministries that lay before us!  If you can not attend this first get-together and are still interested in knowing more about our plans please follow the below contact information.  We're excited to see how God may use this ministry in each of our lives!

To RSVP and for more information, please contact Kristen Humiston:

E-Mail: mom2iek@gmail.com

Phone:  (574) 269-1531

Dr. Jeff Gill Attending "Change Without Compromise" Conference Feb 7 - 9 in Plymouth, Michigan

Dr. Jeff Gill, Dean of the seminary will be attending the Change Without Compromise Conference in Plymouth, Michigan on February 7 to 9. This event is being hosted by NorthRidge Church under the director of Pastor Brad Powell. For more information visit the page for this event at:
http://www.changewithoutcompromise.com/conference+info.aspx

Grace Seminary Marketing to Visit Indiana Wesleyan University on Feb. 26

Jim Hill from the Grace Theological Seminary marketing team will be visiting the Spring Career and Internship Fair at Indiana Wesleyan University on Tuesday, February 26, 2008 from 11 am to 3 pm. He will be speaking with students interested in master's level theological training in both the main campus in Winona Lake, Indiana as well as the online seminary program. For more information please visit the IWU web site regarding this event: http://clcl.indwes.edu/Display.asp?Page=CareerFairSP08.

More Details on the Academic Restructuring at Grace College and Seminary

In recent talks with students, faculty, and staff, senior administrators discussed the recently announced academic restructuring, providing more details about the changes as they are decided. This is a summary of information from these discussions.

The program changes at Grace are taking place after a long study by an ad hoc committee of administration, faculty, and staff management. The committee's objective was to examine every aspect of our academic structure, including degree programs and departmental alignments, and recommend changes that would enable Grace to achieve the objectives of its strategic plan, to better serve our market of prospective students and the majors and career paths they are choosing, and to increase efficiencies at Grace. None of the program changes have had to do with academic quality or any other issues of integrity or orthodoxy.

The committee’s recommendations were presented to the administration in the fall of 2007, and in consultation with the committee, department heads, and faculty, the administration made the decisions for changes that were announced December 14. As a result of the decisions, several faculty positions will be dropped and other faculty positions added. The changes are effective the fall 2008 semester.

Foreign Languages and Cultures Department
The German and German Education majors have been discontinued due to low enrollment and limited market demand for these majors. Grace will not offer German language programs after this semester. The department currently is developing curriculum changes to maintain the International Languages major. Majors fields of study in the department are French, French Education, International Languages, Spanish, and Spanish Education, with minor fields offered in French and Spanish.

Social Work Major (B.S.W.)
Grace College’s Social Work program gained accreditation from the Council of Social Work Education, which is an extremely significant accomplishment, is difficult to achieve, and is evidence of high quality.
But the Social Work program, like social work programs at many colleges and universities, has attracted relatively few majors. The Grace administration recognizes that academic programs with low enrollment have an adverse financial impact on the Grace ministry. Like all of the decisions we have made regarding program changes, the issue with Social Work has not involved quality, but low enrollment.
The faculty and administration have planned an orderly transition that will serve the needs of current juniors and seniors working toward their BSW degree. A major feature of the program has been that it requires social work majors, all of whom are juniors and seniors, to have been formally admitted to the social work major via an application and interview with faculty. All of these students will be able to complete the program and graduate with an accredited BSW degree. This includes all the required upper-level course work and the field experience. No additional students will be formally admitted to the program.Therefore, the tentative closure date for the BSW degree program is May 2009, at which time the current juniors who remain fully admitted to the program and complete the academic requirements will graduate.
Social work faculty will assist prospective students and accepted students in exploring other options for them at Grace College. We also will be happy recommend other Christian colleges and universities to prospective students who strongly desire to pursue social work as a major field of study.

Management of Information Systems Major
The Computer Information Science Department will be merged into the Business Department and offer a major in Management of Information Systems in place of the current Information Technology and Management of Information Technology majors. In addition, the Information Processing major will be eliminated.
The new Management of Information Systems degree program, currently being designed, will be a blended degree that focuses on preparing students for Information Systems careers within an organizational setting. Potential careers for graduates will include business application programming, systems analysis, web development, and other positions that integrate technical and business skills.
The Business Department also will add four faculty—Dr. Darrell Johnson in Sport Management, Prof. Rick Koontz in MIS, and two new Ph.D. faculty in accounting/finance and marketing.

Physical Education Department
The Physical Education degree program decision also is market driven.There are increasingly limited job opportunities for physical education graduates, but there are expanding opportunities in sport management. The administration made the decision to discontinue the Physical Education Department and degree program and expand and enhance the sport management program, with this degree program being placed in the Business Department.
Not only will a Sport Management degree program in the Business Department offer programs that are more desired in the market, but also this gives Grace a better chance to grow and operate more efficiently.
While the curricula are still under development, we are looking at a degree program that can offer preparation for several career tracks, when the Sport Management major is combined with different minor programs or part of a double major. These include sport business management, fitness management (such as YMCA, youth clubs, or personal training), coaching management (coaching at all levels through professional sports), sport ministries (Fellowship of Christian Athletes, missions, youth work, international sports teams), sport medicine, and sport media (print and electronic media reporting and management).

History and Social Studies Department
We are studying the feasibility to add a major in Political Science and we will add one full-time Ph.D. faculty member.
Mathematics and Science Department
This new department will include the present Mathematics Department, Biological Science Department, and Physical Science Department. One major was dropped, the General Science major, due to low enrollment.

School of Ministry Studies
One of the major changes is the creation of the School of Ministry Studies, which will include the current seminary programs and the undergraduate programs now in the Religious Studies Department. This is being done to take advantage of opportunities for significantly improved efficiencies in faculty resources and to better integrate the undergraduate and graduate theology and ministry programs under the seminary’s focus on preparation for practical ministry.
There will be some curriculum changes that are being studied now, as well as tentative developmental work on a new joint bachelor of arts/master of arts and/or master of divinity program that could be highly attractive to undergraduate students planning on entering seminary.

Online Education
Grace Seminary has begun a pilot program this semester with two online seminary courses. Grace will start marketing Grace Online in April, with some seminary programs and a Master of Arts in Education degree program to be offered through the new School of Adult and Community Education later this year. Significant growth in the online program is expected in the near future, with additional classes to be offered each year.In the future, students will be able to take Grace Online courses as well as on-campus courses to complete degree programs in less time. Additional online and on-campus courses will be developed as part of the community education program.