In addition to being deeply invested in our students’ lives, WTS professors are heavily involved in congregational ministry – and several offer the unique perspectives of having served as pastors.
WTS students enjoy a 14:1 student to professor ratio, and each student is assigned to a mentor professor throughout his or her seminary studies. Students will have the chance to study with professors who are published authors and experts in their fields. Our faculty is diverse in age, gender, and race, and there is an air of mutual encouragement and collegiality among them, forming a highly supportive learning environment.
Dr. Chuck DeGroat is the Professor of Pastoral Care & Counseling at WTS and has spent the last 20 years in a fluid combination of pastoral ministry, seminary teaching, and clinical counseling. He has written extensively about the intersections of psychology, theology, and Christian spirituality.
His first book, Leaving Egypt: Finding God in the Wilderness Places (Square Inch), represents his narrative biblical paradigm for understanding counseling, care, and formation. His second book, The Toughest People to Love (Eerdmans) focuses on caring for the most difficult people leaders encounter. Most recently, Chuck released Wholeheartedness (Eerdmans), which brings a vision of wholeness amidst our perfectionism and shame-based culture.
Chuck is an avid speaker, counselor, and social media enthusiast. Follow him on twitter @chuckdegroat.
In addition to teaching Old Testament at WTS, Dr. Carol Bechtel plays the harp therapeutically for patients at the local hospital. She is teaching a group of students to play, as well.
“You’re probably remembering the story of David playing for Saul,” she says. “That’s obviously a story I know well as an Old Testament professor, but I appreciate that story a lot more now. It talks about how David’s harp playing soothed Saul’s spirits, and I’ve seen that happen over and over again, not only with hospital patients but with family and staff. Nothing changes the mood in a room faster than the harp.”
