OC bids farewell to dean of Biblical studies

 

Alan Martin, dean of the College of Biblical Studies, is leaving his home at Oklahoma Christian University to rejoin the Christian counseling ranks he helped create.

Martin recently accepted a ministry position at the Memorial Church of Christ in Houston, Texas, beginning early next year.

“This is going to be a marriage and family life ministry position,” Martin said. “I’m going to go to the front lines. At OC, I am on the base where I am training people to go and do that… but now I am actually going to do it.”

Martin began teaching at Oklahoma Christian in the fall of 2006 as an associate professor of family studies.

“I read the Christian Chronicle … put out by OC, and there was an advertisement in there for this position [at Oklahoma Christian],” Martin said.

After an interview process with the school, Martin had a trial run as a professor.

“They needed someone to fill in for this particular class,” Martin said. “That was a year before I was going to come here… I came for a few weekends, taught the class and after that they were sold. They said ‘we need to hire this guy.’”

Four years later, Martin applied to his current position as dean with the notion that he would eventually leave the role to go back into his professional field.

Many of Martin’s students, current and previous, said he will be missed.

“We are really going to miss having him here,” senior Elizabeth Henderson said. “Everyone who has taken his class has loved it and loved having him as a professor.”

Senior Tyler Robbins, preaching ministry major, is currently enrolled in Martin’s Christian family class.

“Taking him for the first time as a student this semester, I am really sorry I don’t get to take him for more classes,” Robbins said. “It’s been very enjoyable to have him as a professor.”

Henderson took Martin’s Christian family class her sophomore year and said it was her favorite classes thus far.

“My favorite class for the entire time I’ve been at Oklahoma Christian has been Christian family,” Martin said. “… because we are dealing with undergraduates that are coming from home and finding their way and looking for relationships and know very little about the stages of family life and it is just rewarding to see people’s faces light up when they learn something.”

According to Henderson, Martin has played a part in her post-graduation decisions.

“He is very willing to work with students,” Henderson said. “He is all about meeting with people and talking with people and helping them out. It kind of inspired me to think about doing marriage and family therapy in the future.”

Students who were unable to take the class with Martin will still have the opportunity through an online course next semester. Martin said he would continue to teach the course as long as he is able.

Robbins said he felt Oklahoma Christian will be successful in filling the empty position.

“I think that OC is losing a very good professor,” Robbins said. “I have faith in the people in charge that when they select a dean for college to fill Dr. Martin’s position; I know they’ll do a good job. But OC is losing an excellent professor, an excellent teacher, a great Christian leader. And Memorial Church in Houston is getting a great minister.”

Though both Robbins and Henderson said Martin would be missed, they each said they wish him well in his future endeavors.

“I am really excited about his opportunity that he has in Houston because I know he will be doing what he really likes to do,” Henderson said “He’s going to really have a chance to… bless a lot of people… doing what he really likes to do.”

Martin said he always planned on restarting his counseling and ministry career after holding a job in academics.

“If I didn’t have this life goal, this purpose, I would not be leaving,” Martin said. “This would probably be the place where I would end my life, just continue to teach until I am old like Stafford North and others. But I have plans, I have goals that I would like to achieve.”