Every house has a foundation. The core values of BGU also have a foundation. As part of the BGU family, those values are now part of your own foundation. On Monday Oct 3 for 3 hours starting at 6pm EDT Your Time Zone  and on Tuesday October 4 for 31/2 hours starting at noon EDT, you have a unique opportunity to explore BGU’s roots, and thus your own roots in an unique, once-in-a-lifetime reflection by our founding families. You can register for the Zoom webinar event at ccda.org/thinking

BGU’s foundation comes from two deeply rooted sources. The first is the Lausanne movement. In 1982, Ray Bakke was asked to serve as the Lausanne Urban Sr. Associate and spent his next 3 decades traveling to 100’s of nations to learn how God was working in global cities. For Ray, the 1974 Lausanne Covenant was his key theological foundation. The Lausanne Covenant was initiated by John Stott, but it was Rene Padilla, a Latin American theologian, who added much to the Lausanne Covenant that took it far beyond just proclaiming the gospel to also demonstrating the gospel through incarnational ministry in cities.

The other source is John Perkins and the Christian Community Development Association (CCDA). It was rare to hear any message by Ray that did not in some ways mention the leaders and principles of CCDA.

Today, BGU partners with Rene’s daughter, Ruth Padilla DeBorst for BGU’s integral mission MATL in Spanish. Each year BGU has a large group who attends the national CCDA event, and many students use CCDA events throughout the year in their coursework. The event on Monday and Tuesday will feature two BGU graduates, Dr. Vatreisha Nyemba and Dr. Joel Aguilar speaking on the practical implications in the present of these roots established so long ago.

I hope you can join the conversations on Monday and Tuesday. It will be like a family reunion telling the stories of our ancestors. It will provide new reminders and new inspiration of what is so valuable to you today.

More information and registration at  ccda.org/thinking