Donald William Sweeting (born 1955) is an American university president, professor, and pastor. He is currently the President of Colorado Christian University, having previously served as President of Reformed Theological Seminary, in Orlando, Florida.
Video Donald W. Sweeting
Education
After going to a public high school, Sweeting felt the need to know what he believed as a Christian and why he believed it. Sweeting studied at Moody Bible Institute from 1973 until 1976. He sensed no call to pastoral ministry at the time, and thought he would transfer after a few years to a secular university to study government, history and law. Moody was a great place to finally get serious about school, and get a foundation in Bible, theology and basic Christian ministry.
Sweeting then went on to attend, Lawrence University, from 1976 until 1979 where he earned a Bachelors of Arts in History. Lawrence had a strong history program, and he had the desire to study as much history as possible. While there he spent a semester abroad with the University's London Study program and traveled Europe and Russia. Sweeting served as both the president of the university's student government and led the Inter-varsity Christian Fellowship group.
Sweeting earned his bachelors and masters from Oxford University, from 1981 until 1984 where he led the Theological Students Fellowship. Oxford is a tutorial based university. Where Sweeting read theology and church history in a very stimulating British University setting. He also took advantage of being in this University town by taking lectures in political science, literature and history. Along with leadership of TSF, he attended weekly debates at the student union, played rugby, soccer, rowed, basketball, cricket, hiked all over Britain, and drank way too much tea! While at Oxford, he was on a Billy Graham scholarship and was invited to attend Graham's Amsterdam congresses.
From 1992 until 1998 he earned his doctorate in Church History and Historical Theology from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Sweeting slowly worked on his PhD while serving as a pastor and planting a church in Northern Illinois. His dissertation focused on the changing relationship between Catholics and Evangelicals in the United States between 1960 and 2000.
Maps Donald W. Sweeting
Experience
Sweeting served as an intern for U.S. Congressman John B. Anderson in 1976.
Right out of college (1979), Sweeting served for a year with Chuck Colson and Prison Fellowship in Washington, D.C. he helped coordinate early efforts in prison reform, worked on public policy, and served as a traveling assistant to Chuck. It was during that year that he sensed a call to vocational ministry.
Sweeting was ordained at Christ Church of Lake Forest, Illinois in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church.
Shortly after he helped plant a church in the Chain of Lakes area and served as its first full-time pastor, and senior pastor from 1986-1997. During his time there he learned the basics of pastoral ministry and what it takes to grow a church from the ground up. Sweeting came to love the local church. He learned to disciple, teach, pastor, and preach. The church purchased over 50 acres of land and went through two building programs and had a vital outreach in northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin.
Sweeting served as senior pastor of CCPC in southeast metro Denver from 2010 until 2016. His work consisted of preaching, teaching, writing, leading, casting vision and shepherding. He led the church through a significant time of healing. Sweeting then cast a new vision for the church based on Acts 1:8. He helped lead the Strategic Africa Initiative involving community building in Uganda, church planting in Ghana, and infrastructure building in the DRC. He led the church through a major capital campaign and building program. In addition, Sweeting had the opportunity to teach church history on the side at Denver Seminary.
Sweeting was appointed as the President of Colorado Christian University in 2016.
References
External link
- Donald W. Sweeting on Twitter
- Central Christian University profile
Source of article : Wikipedia
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