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NEWS DIGEST: Fusion teams return to Spurgeon College; Allen joins Mid-America


Fusion Teams Return from Missionary Service

By Brett Fredenberg

KANSAS CITY (BP)—Spurgeon College hosted the Fusion Commitment Ceremony in Midwestern Seminary’s chapel on July 29, welcoming back nine missionary teams from three months of overseas service.

“These Fusion students made a real, eternal impact this summer,” said Midwestern Seminary President Jason Allen. “Serving in some of the most difficult and spiritually dark places on planet Earth, they faithfully represented our Lord Jesus Christ, and faithfully presented his gospel message to countless individuals. I’m proud of these students, what they accomplished this summer, and what that portends for their future as men and women of the gospel.”

The Fusion Commitment Ceremony is designed to commemorate the service of each Fusion team and commission students to live out the Great Commission for the rest of their lives.

After welcoming attendees to the ceremony, Midwestern Seminary Provost Jason Duesing began by reading from Psalm 117. He also thanked God in prayer for his faithfulness in the work of the Fusion teams over the past year.

Duesing was one of many Midwestern Seminary and Spurgeon College faculty and staff to travel overseas during the summer to visit, encourage, and join Fusion students on mission.

Seeing their work firsthand, Fusion staff presented the Fusion students to family, friends, and the Midwestern Seminary and Spurgeon College community as having successfully completed their overseas service.

Erik Odegard, director of Fusion, began by explaining the purpose of the ceremony. “The Commitment Ceremony serves as a rite of passage for the students,” he said. “A rite of passage is a significant moment that marks a person’s progression into a new status. With every rite of passage, we look back and we look forward.”

The Fusion program consists of three rites of passage, each signifying major accomplishments and further commitments.

Students completed their first rite of passage after ground-school, an intense 2-week training at the beginning of the Fusion program. The second rite of passage, represented in the Commissioning Service, signified their successful completion of several months of physical, emotional, and spiritual training. The Commitment Ceremony represents the third rite of passage. “This rite of passage seeks to reinforce Fusion values. In this ceremony, we are calling students to a transcendent cause. Today, we celebrate all that God has done as we look back at their faithful service. And we also look forward to all God will do as each of us commit ourselves to the Great Commission.”


Allen joins Mid-America as Dean of Adrian Rogers Center for Preaching

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (BP)—Just days after announcing his departure from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, David Allen has announced he is joining Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary.

Allen made the announcement on Twitter saying he was “delighted to announce that today I begin serving as the Distinguished Visiting Professor of Practical Theology and Dean of the Adrian Rogers Center for Preaching @MABTS! I will teach DMIN & PHD students this academic year…”

Seminary president Michael Spradlin noted “Allen and Mid-America have essentially been on the same track since each of us began our ministries in the 70s. Both have majored on the importance of expository preaching that brings the text to life, and both have been training preachers to preach, teach, and reach the world for Jesus’ sake. We are honored and excited to have such a distinguished educator and preacher joining our faculty.”

The school celebrates its 50th anniversary this fall.

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