The Office of Dr. David Norman, President of Erskine College and Seminary, announced that Dr. Stephen D. Lowe, Sr. has been appointed Interim Executive Vice President for the seminary to replace Dr. Neely Gaston who resigned on Thursday.

Here is the text of that announcement from Dr. Norman:

I have asked Dr. Stephen D. Lowe, Sr. to serve as Acting Vice President for the Seminary. In addition to serving as Professor of Christian Education, Steve has also served as Dean of the Erskine Virtual Campus. He has done an excellent job helping us provide access to Erskine Seminary courses to students around the world.

At the upcoming Board of Trustees meeting in February, I will ask the board to name Steve as Interim Vice President while we continue to pursue a candidate to fill the position long-term. In the meantime, I am forming a committee to assist in the identification of several highly qualified candidates, one of whom will be presented to the Board or Trustees. I anticipate being able to permanently fill this position within eighteen months.

I appreciate Steve’s willingness to step into this role temporarily, and I am confident he will be a tremendous help to us during this transitional time. I trust you will keep us all in your prayers.

Dr. Lowe received a BS in Biblical Studies in 1973 from Calvary Bible College in Kansas City. In 1981 he received a Masters of Religious Education degree, magna cum laude, from Grand Rapids Baptist Seminary.

He began graduate work in the Michigan State University School of Education. In 1984 he became Assistant Professor and Head of the Department of Christian Education and Family Studies at John Brown University in Siloam Springs, Arkansas. In 1987 he received a PhD from Michigan State in Adult and Continuing Education. He remained at John Brown until 1991.

His next position was as the Director of the Academic Study Center and the University of Arkansas, a position he held from 1991 to 1994.

In 1995 he became the Dean of the Department of Christian Education at Trinity College of the Bible and Theological Seminary where he remained until 2001. From 1996 to 1998 he served as Vice President for Distributive Learning at TCB.

Steve is married to Dr. Mary Lowe, who with his appointment, has been named Dean of the Erskine Virtual Campus. They have three children and 5 grandchildren and live in Due West in the Smith House on Main Street.

He has been involved in many collateral duties at the seminary. He serves as Co-Director of Erskine Wellness, Chairman of the Reach Rwanda International Advisory Board, and member of the Due West Zoning Commission.

He also serves as the Director of the Self-Study for 2012 and was the Self-Study Director for the previous successful self-study leading to the Seminary’s Reaffirmation of Accreditation in 2001. Since the new accreditation visit is only months away, Dr. Lowe’s involvement with all facets of the Seminary make him a fairly obvious choice for the Interim EVP position.

Steve and his wife have just completed a three year grant from the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion to conduct research on the subject of student spiritual formation in online theological education. The result of that has been four published articles (three in peer reviewed journals and one in Christianity Today). More work is forthcoming as they publish the results of the design of their assessment instrument and attendant research.

He has been involved in writing, presenting and publishing a number of important papers in the field of Christian distance learning, including:

“Spiritual formation in theological distance education: An ecosystem model.” Christian Education Journal (Spring, 2010).

“Absent in Body”, Christianity Today (May, 2010).

“Allelon reciprocal commands and Christian development.” Christian Education Journal (Fall, 2010).

”Building community and facilitating formation in seminary distance education.” Christian Perspectives in Education (Vol. 4 Special Issue, December 2010)

Fellow of Oxford Round Table, Summer 2008, Oxford, England, resulting in the published paper: “Genocide and Reconciliation in Rwanda: From Complicity to Credibility,” Online Forum on Public Policy Online, Summer 2008.

Christianity Today-ACCESS Award for Hybrid Course of the Year in 2010 for my Doctor of Ministry course “Exploring the Missional Church.”

“Helping Students Learn How to Learn in Theological Distance Education,” 30th Annual Evangelical Seminary Deans’ and Institute of Theological Studies Deans’ Council Meeting, Phoenix, Arizona, February 5-7, 2000.

“Learning to Teach and Teaching to Learn in Theological Schools,” 2000 Teaching and Learning in Theological Education Conference, The Association of Theological Schools, March 31-April 2, 2000, Pittsburgh, PA.

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