Name: Brent Peterson
Profession: Dean of the College of Theology and Christian Ministries
Hometown: Seattle, WA
Fun Fact About You:
I have the best office on campus (don’t tell anyone) and in this same office I contracted chicken pox as an NNU student from a faculty member’s grandson.
Favorite NNU Memory So Far:
It is all about the relationships. I loved playing intramurals with my friends, Club Volleyball, Braschworld, Senate and Crusader Choir. I loved hanging out with my professors outside the classroom. I loved the ministry relationships that began in college that continue to provide joy. I loved being “security” at the NAIA National Basketball Tournament. I am so thankful for the depth of love and support from this community that shaped my life and calling.
Favorite Thing About NNU:
There is a special blessing around the NNU community. Words can’t describe the joy and thankfulness from my time on this campus as a student to now being a professor who has the honor to partner, equip and encourage the next generation of students. Faculty, staff and fellow students poured into me with love, grace, hope and joy. I was forever blessed and formed by God through the community of NNU.
NNU continues to be a place of life transformation. This transformation is not just for an individual to pursue selfish ends but truly helped to shape me to be a creative and redemptive agent in the world. I have the honor of doing that exactly at a place that was so significant for me.
NNU students frequently express that we do college different. How do you believe NNU does college different?
NNU embodies strong academic rigor and demands a great deal from its students. The “different” is that we don’t settle for dispensing degrees, but seek to foster an environment for holistic transformation. While we want our students to engage the world to bless and innovate, the goal for an NNU graduate is not simply to get a degree to earn money to build an individual kingdom of things that will rust and decay.
The true calling is to see that the education and formation that is occurring is to help make you a creative and redemptive agent in the world. There can be no higher purpose. To see one’s life, work and calling participating in the new creation kingdom that is coming more every day.
The formation is not to control or coerce but to serve and have compassion. The goal is not to win by exploiting or beating others down, but by empowering and encouraging all to find hope.
That is our desire for each student.
That is doing college different.
