They are stewarded carefully in one season, launched in another. One season in a quiver, and the other as arrows in flight. And if the Lord is pleased they will emerge as the biblical contenders for the faith once given to the saints—in Jesus, part of our hope for years to come.
Many of the parents and grandparents of Bethlehem College and Seminary students have demonstrated both steadfast faithfulness in raising children up in the way they should go and a shared desire to arrest extended adolescence and launch young adults quickly into life, vocation, ministry, and civic responsibility on the completion of higher education.
These are the parents and grandparents of Bethlehem students and alumni who are and have been dutiful to their own faith and family, but who see all Bethlehem students and alumni as “our children,” progeny of the household of God.
And so these godly parents and grandparents persevere in prayer, service, and sacrifice of treasure for the sake of the Gospel, the furtherance of Bethlehem College and Seminary’s mission, and the life-long sturdiness of the rising generations.
• The fellowship of like-minded friends with whom you will be in relationship forever.
• A helpful and appropriate engagement with student life.
• A front-row seat from which to observe what God is doing at and with Bethlehem.
• Regular, opt-in communications.
• Partnership in prayer with other parents and grandparents.
• Discounts on The Parents Partnership and other school-branded apparel.
• Discounts on registration fees at Godward Life and Serious Joy: The Bethlehem Conference for Pastors.
We are deeply grateful for the investment Bethlehem has made in each of our four children as they launched from home. The intentional mentoring, education as soul and life formation, and involvement in Christ-exalting real community has prepared them for a life of gospel proclamation. It has been a gift to us to join other parents in praying over and serving alongside our students’ new cloud of witnesses as together we seek the advance of the gospel in and through the next generation.
Our involvement over the years with Bethlehem College and Seminary has been in supporting The Serious Joy Scholarship, praying, attending chapel, interacting with students and professors over lunch, and volunteering at events. Now with great joy, we look forward to one of our own grandchildren becoming a student this fall. We’ve watched the Godward projection of students from a small school to all the world, spreading a passion for Christ in all of life.
We are so thankful for Bethlehem College. It’s not just the content of the education our children are receiving at Bethlehem (although it is that), it’s also the character and virtue they are developing through the discipline of a rigorous classical education. Studying the great books in light of the greatest book is not just a tagline, it permeates all they do. We need young people who can retrieve centuries-old wisdom and wield it with courage and clarity in a world gone mad—that’s what Bethlehem College is training our kids to do.
By God’s grace, Bethlehem has had a glorious impact on the Gray family. Being a working-class family with little to no higher education, the fact that God has opened our eyes to Classical Christian Liberal Arts Education has been and continues to be a blessing. Our Bethlehem graduates, enrollees, and those of us still in our Southern Illinois home have learned to read the great books in light of the Greatest Book! We love Bethlehem and the Bethlehem “family.”
We were parents of seminary students well before we were employees of the school. Two of our sons emerged from Bethlehem Seminary as well-equipped heralds of the gospel under whom we could gladly sit were they our pastors. So astounded were we at the fruitful work of this school that we’ve dedicated what energy and ability is left in our lives to serving its mission and seeking its well-being.