蘑菇传媒

We are assembling multiple cohorts of faculty mentors and student leaders who want to gather once a month for lunch (or dinner) and to discuss 鈥淭hings That Really Matter.鈥�

And you 鈥� the students 鈥� get to choose the topics. What matters to you? So far students have expressed interest in time management, work/life balance, living an unhurried life in a digital age, developing empathy, becoming better listeners, and how to have healthy conversations around difficult or divisive topics.

Spring 2026 Dates

Lunches take place from 11:30 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. in Room 115 of the Onstead Packer Biblical Studies Building.

• January 21 (Autumn Sutherlin – The Transformational Aspects of Travel)
• February 18 (Jon Camp – Civil Discourse – How to Disagree Better)
• March 18 (Dorothy Andreas – Living an Unhurried Life in a Digital Age)
• April 15 (Richard Beck and Claire Frederick – A Theology of Joy)

Each time you attend, you鈥檒l get chapel credit, and we鈥檒l even have a retreat聽 at later this spring. There we will explore spiritual disciplines like slowing down, meditation on Scripture, unplugging from technology, and contemplative prayer.

If you want to know more, please email Dr. Frederick at claire.frederick@acu.edu.

Miroslav Volf

The Saunders Center for Joy and Human Flourishing welcomes Dr. Miroslav Volf, acclaimed author and founding director of the Yale Center for Faith and Culture, to 蘑菇传媒’s campus on March 16, 2026.

He is the author of Exclusion and Embrace; Life Worth Living: A Guide to What Matters Most; and most recently, The Cost of Ambition, which won Christianity Today’s award for Best Book of 2025-26 in the Popular Theology category.

, if you plan to attend. We hope to see you there.

Schedule

11 a.m. 鈥� Chapel

Dr. Volf will speak to a campus-wide audience during chapel at 11:00 a.m.

6 p.m. – Reception (Open to all)

Public reception with heavy hors d’oeuvres in the lobby of the Williams Performing Arts Center.

7 p.m. 鈥� Public Lecture

Public lecture to follow in the Fulks Theatre at WPAC. Dr. Volf will be signing books immediately afterwards. During the evening, books will be sold by Seven and One Books.

Dr. Beck is offering a 3-hour summer course for undergraduates based on his most recent book, . Talk to your advisor if you are interested in registering. He is also creating a video-based curriculum on The Shape of Joy for small groups and churches to utilize. The video and of this series may be viewed on Vimeo.

From May 12鈥�26, 2027, Dr. Richard Beck and Dr. Claire Davidson Frederick will co-teach a course in Ireland exploring the Celtic Christianity, Contemplative Spiritual Practices, and the Good Life. Taking a cue from Beck鈥檚 book, Hunting Magic Eels, they will explore how the Celtic Christian tradition, with its deep reverence for nature, mysticism, and seeing the sacred in everyday life, can help modern Christians reconnect with a sense of awe, wonder, and reverence for the divine in the world around them. In this unique Saunders Center offering, students will follow Beck and Frederick on a journey that takes them into the heart of ancient spiritual traditions that will reinvigorate their current Christian practices with a sense of mystery and attention to the sacred.

Visit 蘑菇传媒’s website to learn more about this program.

During the Fall 2025 semester, Dr. Claire Davidson Frederick will teach a ministry workshop in Theological Songwriting for the College of Biblical Studies. Students will co-create songs for worship and devotion that are musically compelling and spiritually formative for the church.

This course is open to both music and ministry majors.

Join Dr. Claire Frederick of the Saunders Center and Tryce Prince, Director of the , as we travel to Tulsa, Oklahoma, this fall (Oct. 23-25, 2026) to visit the historic Greenwood community known as “Black Wall Street.” You will examine Greenwood’s rich history, consider what human flourishing means for a community that was the site of one of the largest acts of racial violence in U.S. History, and bear witness to ongoing efforts to recultivate the flourishing that was denied over 100 years ago.

This course will be open to students in the Honors College.