GREATer for the Greater Glory of God
On Feb. 24, Bethel internally launched GREATer, the first phase of the grand aspiration announced by President Gregg A. Chenoweth, Ph.D., during his inauguration last November. With the goal of becoming a top five most influential Wesleyan college in America by 2022, the first five years of the campaign focus on five specific priorities: growth, revival, encore, aesthetics and testify (G R E A T). By the end of January, each department on campus had created an action plan detailing how their specific department will support the aspiration. Here are just a few examples.
Bethel’s goal is to grow by 1,000 students — 200 traditional and 800 adult and graduate students. Here are some of the ways we’re accomplishing this:
- Offering new majors like applied politics, TESOL (teaching English to speakers of other languages) and graphic design.
- Innovative programs, like 2CU (Two Campuses, One Focus: You)
- Restructuring adult and graduate studies with a new recruiting process, year-round enrollment, an online MBA and a customized training program.
- Achieving new accreditation, which will enable us to open additional instructional sites.
Bethel is creating conditions for revival on campus, living in expectancy that God will move, by:
- Establishing a multi-year method of discipleship training.
- Holding a weekly corporate prayer time for faculty and staff.
- Developing a prayer calendar that focuses on a specific area of the college each day.
Faculty and staff came together in corporate prayer to close the GREATer launch. As President Chenoweth said, “We believe this agenda to be Godward, living in spiritual law. If it’s God’s, it will thrive.”
Bethel is striving for an encore, serving our constituents so well that they’re left wanting more. We aim to accomplish this by:
- Treating each guest to a “world-class” fan experience at athletic events (defined by surveys and focus groups).
- Teaching current students how to be 5-star alumni by speaking in senior experience classes, providing quality 3rd Thursday events and being involved with new student orientation (alumni office).
- Enabling students to receive library books from partner libraries within 48 hours through a new partnership.
Bethel is working toward improving our aesthetics on campus to reflect our best self, maximizing our service and our impact.
- This spring, Bethel will break ground on a new entrance at the east end of campus, complete with brick signage, estate fencing and lighting with banners running down Liberty and LaSalle.
- Plans are underway for an exciting new building project — stay tuned for more.
At Bethel, we’re testifying to who we are and what God can accomplish through us.
- Many offices and departments are creating videos to tell about the good things happening with their students and alumni.
- The marketing and communications office created a pride points brochure featuring stories, statistics and third-party endorsements that testify to Bethel’s success.
