34 new Divinity students honored at annual commissioning, pinning ceremony
Campbell University Divinity School celebrated 34 new students and their decision to follow their calling at the annual commissioning and pinning ceremony Tuesday at Butler Chapel.
Vice President for Student Life and Christian Mission Rev. Faithe Beam delivered a call to action to the students — following degrees in Master of Arts in Christian Ministry, Master of Divinity, Master of Arts in Faith and Leadership Formation and Doctor of Ministry — encouraging them to follow path and answer the challenge God has laid before them.
Beam centered her lesson on the Book of Jeremiah and his calling to be a prophet to the nations — God’s intent for him all along, “before I formed you in the womb.”
“When the word of the Lord comes, God calls and God lives our faithful response,” Beam said. “Listen to this call on our lives. How have you responded?”
Beam called the first weeks and months of a Divinity School education “precious days,” but also a time of challenge as many graduate students return to the rigors of theological education — many several years or decades after their undergraduate days.
“In the scriptures, you don’t see people jumping up and down in the face of God and saying, ‘Choose me! Choose me!’” she said. “There’s usually some hesitation involved. But God knows us intimately, and God still calls us. God’s word may be loud in your heart and mind, or perhaps you hear a faint refrain of doubt … I am only from a small town. I am only a C-level student. I am only a Carolina Panthers fan …
“We must be careful not to allow those doubts to get in the way of God’s promises of our lives. Our calling. It is not focused on any deficiency or lack, but in the gifts enriched in us. Our perceived limits do not limit God. That’s why God calls us — even when God knows us — the call is beyond who we are to who we are becoming.”
The “wonder of it all,” Beam concluded, is the promise that lies ahead when God’s call is answered.
Master of Arts in Christian Ministry And Master of Divinity
Spring 2024
- William Samuel Bryan
- Berna Deneen Jacobs
- Jamie Caitlin Reed
- Julie Summers Tapp
Master of Arts in Faith and Leadership Formation
- Willa Neal Cline
- Thomas Ray Farrow Jr.
- Kathy Jane Gentry
- Beverly CB Lauther
- Lynn Patrice Quick
- Veronica Stephaniie Rankin
- Madria DeAnn Spivey
- Ruth Love Szucs
- Kimberli Rae Timmons
Master of Arts in Christian Ministry and Master of Divinity
Fall 2024
- Jennifer Deneen Bland
- Lenora Campbell
- Michael Jonathan Campbell
- Samantha Leigh Carson
- Sandra Kayce Cox
- Sara Elizabeth Heath
- Jacqueline McClam Kehinde
- Amarah Leigh Owens
- Anna Elyse Parish
- Erin Jessi Stewart Parks
- Joshua Blaine Pittman
- Lynn Yvette Plater
- Anna Victoria Sample
- Thaddeus D. Smith
- Benjamin Curtis Wright
Doctor of Ministry
Fall 2024
- Thomas Hart Allen
- Paul Leon Anderson
- Meagan Lorraine Greene
- Thomas Jeffery Greene II
- Jonathan Thomas Howard
- James Douglas McDonald