The John Wesley Honors College Student Association held a series of lectures called the Kingdom of God Symposium Nov. 19 to help students get to know their professors.

The event featured Dr. Dennis Brinkman, Professor Ron Mazellan, Dr. Mary Alice Trent and Dr. Jack Wheeler in the Century Dining Hall.

The HCSA academic committee planned the event and invited professors from a wide range of departments in order to appeal to a variety of students. Attendees could just come in for the time period during which their chosen professors or subject areas were featured.

Each professor had 30 minutes to talk about how he or she reflects the kingdom of God both in and out of the classroom, followed by a 15-minute Q-and-A.

Before each professor spoke, a student introduced him or her and asked to have a word of prayer in thanks of the opportunity to listen to the professor speak and to bless the words he or she would give.

Dr. Brinkman, professor of chemistry and associate dean for the School of the Physical and Applied Sciences at Indiana Wesleyan University, began the event.

He said that “outside of teaching content to students, you must use your field of study to: worship God, minister to people, or otherwise serve the Kingdom of God.”

“It’s very easy to fall into the trap of, ‘My career is paramount, and I’ll get to my family when I get to it.’ That’s the trap that I fell into, but I’ve gotten a lot better at it,” said Brinkman. “In many cases I don’t even know what direction I’m going, but I know what the next step is.”

Mazellan, professor of art at IWU, said God called him into two careers: being a teacher, as well as an artist. But Mazellan said the path that brought him to IWU was full of risks.

“When it feels like it is so over the top that you cannot do it,” said Mazellan, “that’s what God wants you to do. He has called you to ‘unpredictable.’ Even your best dreams don’t compare to the dreams God has for you. If there’s anything that I fear, it’s that I do not live up to the dream that God has for my life.”

Dr. Trent, chairperson of the Division of Modern Language and Literature at IWU, focused on the idea that because God is love, revealing His kingdom starts with love, so Christians ought to reflect His love toward one another.

“As a Christian professor,” said Trent, “I must demonstrate the love of Christ through my teaching and coaching of the classroom. I must foster a Kingdom of God mindset. It’s so crucial that my students see the Kingdom of God in my interaction with them.”

“I’m a workaholic and that’s OK. I work for his glory,” said Trent.

Dr. Wheeler, assistant professor of accounting and business, began with the presentation of his life verse, Ephesians 2:10: “We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

Wheeler explained the verse by saying that there is no such thing as mass production in God’s creation. He has created humans with great thought, exactly the way He wanted us to be. He doesn’t make any mistakes when He creates us. He believes God made each of us with a purpose and then gave us with certain characteristics to accomplish that purpose.

Calli Williams (fr), a member of the HCSA academic committee, said the committee hopes the symposium an annual event, featuring new professors each year to talk about their own ideas of what it means to reflect the Kingdom of God in their work.

Since the tradition began more than 10 years ago, students in the John Wesley Honors College “World Literature” classes have written, directed and starred in original 30-minute plays in the Black Box Theatre. This semester’s productions — three, which make up a trilogy — took place Wednesday evening, Nov. 30.

This year, for the first time since Dr. Mary Brown, professor of English began the tradition, there were two sections of the course, meaning students had to collaborate with students outside their class.

“It’s a little more of a challenge [this year] because they’re not [all] in the same class,” said Dr. Paul Allison, who has been teaching the honors course since 2007. “I think it’s worked out really well. It’s been a nice way to combine the classes, and get students to know one another.”

At the beginning of the semester, students in Allison’s and Dr. Charles Bressler’s “World Literature” classes were divided into three groups of six or seven students. Each group was responsible for writing a play, finding props and costumes, creating original music, directing and acting in it.

“It’s totally student-driven,” Allison said. The professors set only a few guidelines at the beginning. Neither he nor Bressler knew much about the plays until opening night.

Jaki Breuggen’s (jr) group created “One Flat Tire,” a play about community, said Brueggen, specifically on how to build it with non-Christians.

“As Christians, how do we reach out to non-Christians and facilitate community when we are stressed out?” Breuggen said the plays asks. “We can’t use that as an excuse to just not let community happen.”

While community is an important theme of the play, “One Flat Tire” is still meant to be a comedy. One of its writers, David Priest (fr) said the play’s format was based somewhat on Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot.”

As for its plot, “One Flat Tire” spoofs personalities of four honors college professors and their car’s flat tire.

Priest played the part of Rodney, a character based on Bressler, Priest’s “World Literature” professor.

Priest clarified that the professors characterized in “One Flat Tire” are “caricatures” of professors in general.

“Both my parents are professors. I … probably got more from living with my dad the past 18 years than actually knowing Dr. Bressler,” Priest said.

When it came to the creating process, Breuggen said the hardest part for her was forming the initial idea. She said the group had to meet several times before deciding on a theme and concept.

To help the process along, Breuggen said Priest, an English and writing double major, wrote the initial draft and the rest of the team added to it. The process of adding and developing the script was Brueggen’s favorite part of the project.

“It’s been really fun to kind of like flesh out the characters and like, add funny, silly things,” she said.

The other two plays of the trilogy were “The Game of Life” and “In Love and War.”