A friend of mine is a few classes into the Ph.D. Program in Innovative Urban Leadership at Bakke Graduate University. Before she started in our program, she was doing remarkable work around the world as the Lord had called her to serve in some hard places. She is the kind of person who is willing to go anywhere that the Lord calls her to go. She is a fierce prayer warrior. She is a natural leader, and she is extremely capable at the work that she does. She is just the type of high-capacity person who would make a perfect match to enter into BGU’s specialized training on transformational leadership for the global city.
I crossed paths with her recently, and, when I asked her how the program was going, her eyes got kind of big and she took a deep breath before answering, “It’s a lot!” I am very familiar with that response. Our graduate degree programs are intense at BGU, and that is especially true of our Ph.D. Program. Yes, our school is rigorous. But, more than the pace or amount of content, our degree programs are “a lot” because of the transformation that our students experience as they go through the meaningful content in each of our courses.
Good leaders become great leaders as they progress through BGU. The Lord refines the callings of many of our leaders and often causes them to change away from strategies that they had been utilizing previously in order to implement more effective practices in their impact with their leadership. That was the case with this student as we discussed what she was going through. She was in mid-transformation. She was being deeply challenged and preparing herself to make big changes. As she continues in her program, the Lord will take her life and work to new levels. She will soar! I was thankful for the opportunity to hear about where she is at mid-journey, to encourage her, and to pray with her.
This student is just one example of hundreds of leaders from different parts of the world who are being transformed by their time spent at BGU through our five degree programs and our certificate programs. BGU is growing. Our strategy with the BGU 4.0 Vision to model new approaches of leadership development through collaboration and building up regional ecosystems is expanding with each new term. We are now offering courses for world-class leaders in English, Spanish, Korean, and French, and we are working on adding additional languages as soon as we reach deep into other parts of the world.
Our students, faculty, staff, and alumni at BGU truly make a difference in the world because we build leaders up in Christ who is our strong foundation. Our leaders stand strong, thrive, and grow when things get difficult. My encouragement to our BGU family is to keep going!
“Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.” – Colossians 2:8-9, ESV
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In Christ,
Dr. Bryan McCabe
President
Bakke Graduate University