Gardner-Webb University
Paul Foster, Assistant Dir.
Univ. & Media Relations
704-406-3221
August 18th, 2006
BOILING SPRINGS, NC - “At the beginning of our academic year, our university president, Dr. Frank Bonner, encouraged the university community to find ways to put our faith into practice,” Bugg said. “While many of our students are already involved in ministries in the community, Bugg added, “this gives us another way to say to people that we are grateful for their support of Gardner-Webb and that we want to be a part of making this area an even better place to live, work and worship.”
According to the United States Department of Justice, the Weed and Seed strategy “involves a two-pronged approach: law enforcement agencies and prosecutors cooperate in weeding out violent criminals and drug abusers and public agencies and community-based private organizations collaborate to seed much-needed human services, including prevention, intervention, treatment, and neighborhood restoration programs.” Two divinity students from Gardner-Webb have already begun efforts with Ted Alexander, mayor of Shelby, and Jerry Webb, chair of the Weed and Seed Steering Committee, to plant seeds in Shelby.
Rob Collins and Jesse Flynt, both second-year divinity students at Gardner-Webb, are no strangers to inner-city missions. Mayor Alexander asked Collins and Flynt to move into a house in a high crime neighborhood in Shelby as part of the revitalization strategy. The two young men intend to be active participants in the neighborhood, caring for the elderly and mentoring the young. Mayor Alexander expects Collins and Flynt to go about their usual activities, such as work and school, while simply being a positive presence in the neighborhood in which they live.
Various community groups, including the Boy Scouts of America, are working to restore the dilapidated house to make it livable for Collins and Flynt. “This house represents exactly what the Weed and Seed program is about….Restoration cannot be done by one person or even one group of people,” said Collins. Other divinity students, Brandon Juhaish of First Baptist Church (Shelby, NC), and Dara Lowe of Fallston (NC) Baptist Church have gotten their youth involved in rebuilding the house as well. It is a hometown mission. Mayor Alexander said there is great need for the skills of plumbers, carpenters, and electricians. “Just as this dilapidated house will be restored to a home to be proud of, so too will Shelby be transformed and restored through the combined efforts of caring and compassionate people,” said Collins.
Although Collins and Flynt are waiting until the house is restored to call the neighborhood their home, Flynt has already moved into the community. Flynt began working with the youth at Roberts Tabernacle Christian Methodist Episcopal Church (Shelby, NC) on a volunteer-basis this summer. Pastor Jerry Webb said, “Our kids simply want someone to care and listen to them, and he [Flynt] has done that.” Flynt’s investment in the youth will make for an easy transition into the neighborhood once the house is restored.
With the fall semester at The School of Divinity at Gardner-Webb underway, students are returning to campus. Many of them are eager to join their colleagues in the hometown mission of intervention, restoration, and prevention. Collins said, “I believe this community is full of good people with big hearts and God has huge plans for all of us.”
Bugg stated that the Reverend Deborah Gaddis, a graduate of the divinity school and currently assistant to the dean, deserves much of the credit for the alliance between the school and the Weed and Seed program. “Deborah has worked hard to take an idea and turn it into a reality,” Bugg said.
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The School of Divinity at Gardner-Webb University is Baptist in origin and commitment, ecumenical in outlook, and has as its purpose the preparation of persons for Christian ministries. To achieve this end, the School of Divinity offers courses of study in which, under the leadership of dedicated and competent teachers, students engage in the study of and reflection upon the data, meaning, and implications of the Christian faith, beginning at its biblical base; enter into thoughtful and critical assessments of church history and theology; become involved in the process of spiritual formation personally, socially, and vocationally; and participate in the study and practice of various expressions of Christian mission and ministry. The School of Divinity offers two degree programs, the Master of Divinity (M. Div.) degree and the Doctor of Ministry (D. Min.) degree.