Dr. Mike Luper – Dean of School of Christian Ministries
Dr. Scott Ellington- Professor in School of Christian Ministries
Scott Ellington is an ordained minister in the Church of God and, together with his family, he severed for fourteen years as a missionary educator in Mexico, England, and Germany. He is currently a professor of Christian Ministry at Emmanuel College, having joined the faculty in 2008. When not teaching, Scott enjoys travel, acting, and writing poetry. He has a particular interest in prayer in the Bible and his first book is entitledRisking Truth: Reshaping the World Through Prayers of Lament. Most recently he has contributed the chapter on ‘Lamentations’ in The Oxford Handbook of the Writings of the Hebrew Bible.
Dr. Mark Trump – Professor in School of Christian Ministries
Greetings to you all. My official name and title is Mark L. Trump, Ph.D., Rev., Associate Professor of Christian Ministries at Emmanuel College. But really, I am just someone on the journey of faith who has chosen to try to make the most out of, and be faithful with, the interests and abilities that God gave me. I enjoy teaching. I think that it is what God has created me to do. I also enjoy being around learning environments where people want to wrestle through the issues of Christian faith, theology, and practice. I also thoroughly enjoyed the 12 years that I served as a pastor in various ways.
I began my college career in art school first at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh and then at Savannah College of Art and Design before finishing my undergraduate degree, after a change of major and submitting my life to Christ, at Messiah College. I received a BA in Biblical Studies and a minor in Art. Academics was my gift, as was pastoring people, so I knew that I always wanted to keep these two worlds together. So after spending several years as a youth pastor, I returned to school and completed two Masters Degrees, one in Biblical Studies and the other in Theological Studies at Asbury Theological Seminary. For some of my time at Asbury, I also served as a Youth Pastor at a church outside of Detroit Michigan and then taught Hebrew and Greek at Asbury Seminary before completing my education (a Ph.D.) in Religious Studies with a concentration in New Testament at Marquette University. Yet even while I was working on my Ph.D., I served as the Lead Pastor of two United Methodist churches in Racine and Union Grove Wisconsin. I came to Emmanuel in 2012 with an interest in training up the next generation of leaders for God’s Kingdom.
When I am not teaching or grading, I am doing a lot of things. I paint and design sets for my son’s theater company, I enjoy riding my mountain bike, I occasionally run (the latest adventure is preparing to run my first 5K), and I really love fishing for trout in the North Georgia Mountains. That is probably the best way for me to “recharge.” Basically, I love being outside in creation, it is the Sacred Pathway that I use to connect with God and to relax. I also spend a great deal of time with my wife of over 20 years and our two children.
Patrick Ballington – Adjunct Professor of Christian Ministries
My passion and purpose is to help people discover and maintain a meaningful connection between faith in Christ and everyday life. A primary way I fulfill that purpose is helping current and emerging Christian leaders in local churches, businesses, and non-profit organizations become more effective leaders. I provide leadership education, training, coaching, and mentoring that integrates best practices and is practical, culturally relevant, theologically conservative, biblically based, and academically sound. I provide consulting services to pastors, executives, churches, ministries, and Christian non-profit organizations through Better Church Leader LLC, a company I founded in 2015. I have also served as the lead pastor of The Bridge Church in Cleveland, GA since 2007. My wife, Krista, and I were married in 1994 while leading a church youth retreat (she literally married into the ministry!) and we have 4 awesomely children: Isabelle, Isaac, Ireland, and Israel.
