Mouw to speak at institute's launch

Dr. Richard Mouw, a 1959 Northwestern College alumnus who is president of Fuller Theological Seminary and a prolific author, will present a lecture at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 26, in Northwestern’s Christ Chapel. Mouw will speak on faith in the workplace as the official launch of Northwestern’s Franken Servant Leadership Institute.

Mouw will also speak in chapel at 11:05 that morning. Both events are free and open to the public.

Mouw has served as president of the seminary in Pasadena, Calif., since 1993, after having served Fuller as provost and professor of Christian philosophy and ethics. He previously taught philosophy at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich., for 17 years. He is the author of 16 books, including Called to Holy Worldliness, Consulting the Faithful, Uncommon Decency: Christian Civility in an Uncivil World, Calvinism in the Las Vegas Airport and Praying at Burger King. Mouw received Princeton Theological Seminary’s Kuyper Prize in 2007 for his contributions to Reformed public theology.

After studying at Northwestern Junior College, Mouw graduated from Houghton College and earned a master’s degree in philosophy at the University of Alberta. His doctorate in philosophy is from the University of Chicago.

The Franken Servant Leadership Institute was established through the generosity of donors in memory of Jim Franken, a 1975 Northwestern College alumnus and board member who was president and CEO of Interstates Companies and Harbor Group in Sioux Center when he died at the age of 48 in 2001. The program seeks to enhance leadership development among students to better prepare them for the roles they will play after college.

Drs. Jennifer Feenstra, associate professor of psychology, and Jeff VanDerWerff, associate professor of political science, serve as co-directors of the Franken Servant Leadership Institute. The program has an experiential component, seeking to develop students’ leadership skills through such efforts as the pre-orientation Portage trip for freshmen to Minnesota’s Boundary Waters and opportunities to work with local youth. A second focus of the institute will be to help students anticipate the challenges of living out their faith in the workplace.

“There are a lot of leadership development efforts taking place on campus,” says VanDerWerff. “We want to offer assistance to those efforts and provide opportunities for other students to focus on leadership and faith-at-work integration.”