Dr. Beth Seversen is the former evangelism director for the Evangelical Covenant Church. She has served as associate pastor at Hillcrest Covenant Church and Elmbrook Church in the suburbs of Kansas City and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. A former church planter and campus ministry staff, Beth is an experienced ministry practitioner and academic.
“I appreciate a Christian liberal arts education that teaches students to think broadly and deeply and to engage culture critically. Students at North Park University learn to analyze the world from more than one lens. The Christian Ministries Studies major seeks to equip students with a deep commitment to the Christian scriptures and a fuller understanding of the gospel of Jesus and the whole mission of God. We prepare them for church and civic leadership, to become lifelong followers of Jesus, and to behave as servants not consumers. We call them to God’s mission to those far from God and to commit to justice for all ethnicities as they live lives of love, justice, faithfulness, racial righteousness, and reconciliation and belong to God’s witnessing and worshipping community, the church.”
“I’m crazy about my family. My young adult kids and their spouses inspire me to dream bigger and to do better. My husband Mark and I love to travel, and two continents are still on my bucket list. If you can’t find me, I’m likely deep into a book—I like reading all kinds of genres and gathering with my neighborhood book club. Film fascinates me as does art. Probably what I love doing more than anything is experiencing community and chatting it up with people.
“The first Black President of South Africa, anti-apartheidist, and Nobel Prize winner Nelson Mandela is high on my hero list. He never gave up on God, humanity, or his dream. ‘Difficulties break some men but make others. No axe is sharp enough to cut the soul of a sinner who keeps on trying, one armed with the hope that he will rise even in the end.’
“Mentors that inspire me most and influenced the course of my life are English-American pastor and Bible teacher Stuart and Jill Briscoe and their passion for youth, the church, and mission—connecting the three—especially street kids and punk rockers and seeing their lives transformed by Jesus. Their love for young people far from God is contagious, and I caught it. I love helping the church connect to young adults and young adults connect to the church and God’s mission. And I’m passionate about students. Their passions inspire me, their openness challenges me, and their courage to innovate emboldens me. I love Jesus, and I love teaching at North Park University for its rootedness in Christ and its commitment to diversity, inclusion, and growing in intercultural appreciation and competencies.
Beth Seversen. Not Done Yet: Reaching and Keeping Unchurched Emerging Adults. Downers Grove: IVP, 2020.
Beth Seversen, “Churches Reaching Emerging Adult ‘Nones’ and ‘Dones’” in Secularizing North America” in Against the Tide: Mission amidst the Global Currents of Secularization. pages 83-105 (chapter 5), edited by W. Jay Moon and Craig Ott, Littleton, CO: William Carey Publishing, 2019.