While Samford University has long been committed to the integration of faith and learning, a coordinated, university-wide emphasis began in 2021 through Academic Affairs’ Faculty Success Center with the launch of its Faith and Learning Initiative.[1] A year-long process led a faculty taskforce to develop four emphasis areas—personal spiritual growth, vocational exploration, pedagogical integration, and scholarship development—designed to support faculty in advancing the university’s faith mission. These areas were identified to coordinate with Samford’s three focus areas of promotion and tenure review: teaching, scholarship, and service. This wholistic approach moves beyond a philosophical conversation about faith integration and focuses on praxis.
When coordinating this themed issue with faculty members from the College of Health Sciences (CHS), we believed it was important to not just highlight an aggregate of articles but to gather many of them all together to discuss how they lived out the praxis associated with integrating faith and learning across various aspects of their vocation as educators in the healthcare field. As part of this exercise, authors from this themed issue participated in a ninety-minute focus group discussion to discuss how their Christian faith informs their teaching, scholarship, and relationships with students and faculty. A summary of the focus group follows.[2]
Summary of Focus Group Discussion
In this conversation, faculty discussed how their Christian faith influences their approach to teaching, including being mindful of students’ emotional states and modeling compassion and mentorship. They explored together how faith shapes both their research and scholarship, with some faculty members emphasizing the importance of doing work with excellence and ethical considerations. The group also discussed how faith informs their interactions with colleagues and students beyond the classroom, such as participating in community service projects and leading by example in their professional practices.
Emotions in Learning and Teaching
The group began by discussing the role of emotions in learning and teaching. Amy Broeseker (Pharmacy) emphasized the importance of acknowledging students’ emotional states to better support them. Amy Cameron (Public Health) shared a personal story about a student she helped during a difficult time, highlighting the impact of mentorship and emotional support both inside and outside of the classroom. Dennis McCay (Public Health) described his approach as being that of a shepherd, where he focuses on guiding and helping students to succeed rather than being authoritarian in his approach. McCay believes this method helps students face real-world challenges in a healthy, supportive environment.
Faith Integration in Healthcare Education
They also discussed integrating their Christian faith into education and patient care. Sarah Ross (Health Professions) emphasized viewing students as individuals made in the imago Dei, while Brad Cantley (Health Professions) shared his approach of modeling a consistent, authentic faith expression through interactions with students in both the classroom and the clinics. Both Cantley and Ross agreed that consistently modeling faith throughout their programs helps students transfer these values into patient care, aligning with Samford’s reputation as a school of compassionate practitioners.
Faith Integration in Academic Excellence
The group discussed how they integrate faith in their teaching and scholarship. Scott Bickel (Health Professions) highlighted the concept of serving others as a response to the gospel rather than trying to gain influence or favor over another person. Emily Bourne (Public Health) and Broeseker noted the unique opportunity to show love and compassion to students, particularly in health sciences, where they teach about the amazing design of the human body. Cameron commented on how graduate students have been inspired to pursue scholarly work through mentoring from fellow faculty members and their faithful modeling of what it means to be a Christian who pursues excellence in academics. McCay also discussed how his research on rural health issues in Alabama helps illuminate stewardship and efficiency in healthcare to students.
Faith-Driven Academic Mentorship
Bickel shared his personal journey of reorienting his approach to scholarship from focusing on personal recognition to prioritizing the development and mentorship of other junior faculty, aligning this shift with his faith and the values of stewardship. Faculty also suggested that by associating their work with Samford University, researchers can contribute to the broader narrative of the institution, which aligns with their faith-based commitment to storytelling and community building.[3] Members of the group emphasized the importance of doing meaningful work that reflects Christian values and for Christians to engage with their work earnestly.
Christian Faith in Academic Roles
The faculty shared personal experiences and perspectives on how their Christian faith influences their academic roles. Two members described instances where they declined research opportunities due to ethical concerns, emphasizing the importance of doing work with integrity and explaining the reasons behind their decisions. The group also explored ways faith informs teaching and mentorship, highlighting their unique environment that encourages spiritual growth and collaboration among faculty and students.
Digging Deeper
After the focus group, our faculty authors responded in writing to three questions: “What ways does faith inform your teaching?” “What ways does faith inform your research and scholarship?” and “What ways does faith inform your interactions with fellow faculty and students?”
What ways does faith inform your teaching?
AMY BROESEKER: Faith is an important part of my teaching in various ways. First of all, I desire to display the fruit of the Spirit, especially patience, kindness, and gentleness. Also, I want to practice the hospitality of Christ by entering the classroom with a smile, calling students by name, walking around the room to greet students before the session starts, being respectful of them by starting and ending on time, and being sensitive to the reality that all learning is emotional. It is hard for a student to learn if his mom is in the hospital, he is having roommate issues, or he just finished a test in another course in which he did not do well. Akin to God’s judgment and mercy, there are times when students need to be held accountable and times when grace is warranted. Furthermore, Jesus’s masterful teaching skills, particularly about asking insightful questions and using common elements to make His point, spur me on to do the same.
AMY SNOW: While many individuals who do not share my faith serve with distinction as educators, leaders, and professional role models, I cannot envision fulfilling my vocation apart from the calling I understand through my relationship with Christ. In a profession where an alternative career path offers much greater financial reward with fewer demands and less stress, I remain persuaded that my work in higher education is a divine appointment. Scripture continually reorients my perspective: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.”[4] It is this conviction that sustains my commitment to teaching and to remaining in higher education as long as he purposes.
RACHEL HAGUES: I pursued my discipline (social work) because of my faith. I felt drawn to social work because of its emphasis on valuing the worth and dignity of each person, its commitment to serving those in need, the vulnerable, the marginalized, etc. My faith and my discipline have overlapping values. In my teaching, it is not hard to be passionate about my discipline because it so aligns with my faith that when I teach these same principles to students, I know I am fulfilling my calling. I know I am honoring Christ by making known the things He cares about—justice, mercy, caring for those on the margins.
BRAD CANTLEY: Faith shapes my work in ways I do not always name explicitly, but it influences how I teach and relate to students every day. As a clinician and educator, I have learned that medicine is not only about doing things correctly, but about doing them with care. When I work with students in a clinical setting, I often remind them that the patient in front of them is more than the problem list on the screen. That perspective has shaped how I teach clinical reasoning, communication, and professionalism.
KAMERON CARDEN: As a Christian academic, my faith not only influences my sense of purpose; it also inspires the virtues I hope to instill in my students. I believe that education should be formational for character as well as informational for the mind. As a Samford faculty member, regardless of each student’s background or spiritual maturity, I endeavor to embody and promote Christian principles such as honesty, integrity, service, hard work, and wisdom. I strive to interact with students using equal measures of grace and truth by expecting high standards of performance while offering the necessary support to enable students to rise to those standards. From Samford’s recent, more strategic emphasis on faith and learning, I have grown in this area this year from the small group book study I participated in for On Christian Teaching.[5] I learned how to more intentionally allow my faith to inform my teaching.
As an example, my first-year graduate students were struggling to manage challenging behaviors in their clinical contexts. I observed several of them expressing disparaging attitudes toward the children as a result of those challenging interactions. I shared this with my small group book study. Haelim Allen, an art professor I had the pleasure of getting to know through the book study, shared a teaching strategy she uses in her art class. I took what I learned from Haelim, along with the concepts of imago Dei and lingua Dei that informed the article I wrote for this project and created a presentation about an imago Dei approach to challenging behavior. I thought this would be a review for my students since most have been lifelong Christians. However, I received so much positive feedback from the students for the rest of the semester [on the project]. In the weeks following that lesson, many of them shared in their clinical reflections that they were in the middle of a challenging session and recalled how the lesson helped them recenter their perspective of the child and the session.
What ways does faith inform your research and scholarship?
BROESEKER: Faith informs my scholarship and research through following ethical practices and wanting to share knowledge with others. I believe that Christ wants us to leave things better than we found them, and contributing to the literature about a certain topic is a way to do that.
HAGUES: In similar ways, my faith is what compels my research questions and my efforts around my scholarship. The questions I ask are all related to wanting to understand brokenness in the world so that the answers I get can move towards kingdom-oriented solutions. How can the interventions we, as social workers, implement bring us closer to the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven?
CANTLEY: In my scholarly work, faith has influenced how I think about responsibility and purpose. Developing curriculum, writing cases, or contributing to research is time-consuming and often unseen work. I approach it as stewardship rather than obligation. I want the work to be useful, honest, and reflective of the trust placed in me as an educator. This has guided much of my focus on assessment, clinical preparation, and educational practices that support students who will serve in a wide range of settings.
CARDEN: During my time at Samford, I have tried to live out the School of Health Professions’ mission, inspired by 1 Peter 4:10, to prepare leaders to use their gifts in service to others for the glory of God. This past year, my colleague, Kelly Jackson, and I received a 1 Peter 4:10 grant to work in partnership with a local organization to expand Spanish services and resources in Alabama for families of children who are deaf/hard of hearing using listening and spoken language (the focus of the imago Dei contribution I wrote in our paper). These are critically underserved families in our state. This grant has provided much-needed resources to them, as well as the opportunity to teach future speech-language pathologists how to serve Spanish-speaking families, by honoring their home language (lingua Dei)and identity (imago Dei) through evidence-based practices. I see scholarship as a fulfillment of my calling to equip future practitioners for excellence, as well as to optimize outcomes for marginalized and underserved groups.
In what ways does faith inform your interactions with fellow faculty and students?
BROESEKER: Since the Christian life is about relationships, as evidenced by the three persons of the Trinity, faith is at the heart of my interactions with others. Every person desires to be seen and carries burdens of various kinds; some are shared, others are not. The gospels depict the compassion of Jesus and provide many examples of how He interacted with others. His love, concern, humility, and forgiveness are aspects that I try to emulate in my relationships with fellow faculty and students. Everyone needs encouragement, and I seek to pay attention to both the verbal language and body language of others to sense when some words of support may be needed.
SNOW: Christ’s love enables me to extend patience, creativity, and thoughtful problem-solving on behalf of my students, particularly in the rigorous context of graduate education. My faith compels me to regard each student as a beloved child of God, worthy of both compassion and high expectations, so that they may be fully prepared to serve others with excellence. It also provides a moral framework that resists complacency, calling me beyond what is merely sufficient by the world’s standards toward what is faithful and responsible. Finally, my faith grants me the courage to engage in difficult, sometimes uncomfortable conversations—those necessary moments of honesty and accountability that, though demanding, often yield growth and restoration. Absent this spiritual grounding, such conversations might be avoided for the sake of convenience or comfort; through faith, they become acts of stewardship, undertaken for the good of both the student and the calling we share.
HAGUES: In terms of how my faith informs my interactions with colleagues and students, I try to always remember that my colleagues and students are fellow image-bearers. I also believe that, as the body of Christ has many members that make up different parts of the body, we all bring different giftings, talents, and skillsets to our work and to the University as a whole. I respect my colleagues for all the things they bring to the table—we are each uniquely given different, though perhaps similar callings, and it is our privilege to steward these things so at Samford.
CARDEN: My faith also informs the way I engage professionally with my colleagues. Contributing to a Christ-honoring professional environment sustains morale and bears witness to our faith. I place a high value on trusting and healthy relationships with my co-workers, and I have been blessed to find like-minded colleagues in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders here at Samford. Christian practices like sincerity, kindness, gentleness, and compassion help to strengthen and unify our team, and I am grateful to be part of a department that equally values “trellis work,” through building a strong academic department, and “vine work,” through encouraging mutual accountability and discipleship among one another and our students.
CANTLEY: My faith is most visible in how I mentor students. Clinical education is demanding, and students often carry uncertainty, stress, and self-doubt as they move through training. I try to be present in those moments, whether that means walking through a difficult evaluation or simply listening when a student needs perspective. Over time, mentorship has become one of the most meaningful parts of my role. Taken together, teaching, scholarship, and mentorship reflect a Christian commitment to service, integrity, and the formation of clinicians who care deeply about both competence and compassion.
Being shaped by God as we shape students
In our final reflection, faculty were asked how they are being shaped in the imago Dei as they strive to do the same with their students.
CANTLEY: As I help shape students to recognize the image of God in every patient they encounter, I have realized that God is shaping me just as intentionally. Walking alongside students in the clinical setting keeps me honest. They watch closely how I speak about patients, how I respond when things are stressful, and how I balance competence with compassion. Their questions often push me to examine my own heart. Am I still seeing patients as bearers of God’s image, or have I grown too comfortable, too efficient, too task-oriented? In mentoring students through the Service and Mission track and other rotations, I am reminded that formation is not a one-way process. Their reflections, their struggles, and even their idealism recalibrate me. God uses their growth to refine my own, calling me back to humility, to servant leadership, and to the kind of presence that values people before productivity. In many ways, teaching has become one of God’s primary tools for shaping my character, not just my career.
CARDEN: My clinical years in early intervention, preceded by a childhood spent watching my mother navigate my sister’s diagnosis of deafness, deeply attuned me to the caregiver’s journey, especially the raw, acute expressions of grief in those early years following a diagnosis. In my practice, I have always sought to honor the imago Dei within every caregiver, even when their pain manifested as frustration directed at me. Now, as a faculty member at Samford, I strive to infuse my teaching with this narrative, equipping students to meet grieving families with profound empathy rather than clinical detachment. However, this process of shaping students has become a mirror for my own soul. While recognizing the divine image in a struggling caregiver feels intuitive to me, God is using my role as an educator to challenge my limits. He is asking me a difficult question: Can I extend that same grace and radical empathy to those outside my area of natural compassion? Through my students, I am learning that the imago Dei is not just a concept to be taught, but a reality I must be willing to see in every person I encounter, without exception.
ASHLEY TURNER (nursing): Working at Samford University as a nursing faculty member is an honor. Being a part of a faith-based institution and nursing program keeps the bar of responsibility high. Students are required not only to meet university and program requirements, but also to be image bearers of Christ. Supporting students in this endeavor requires that I not only remain committed to excellence in nursing education, but to my own spiritual growth and journey. Not being committed to a Christ-centered mindset would be like teaching in our nursing program without a nursing license. God is shaping me in this process as a faculty member at Samford because I continuously invite Him in to guide my life and work. This is nurtured through a commitment to my personal relationship with Christ and continuous opportunities for collaboration with others. This occurs in my personal life with family, friends, and church body, but also at Samford. In an undergraduate faculty meeting last week, a conversation prompted a new faculty member to share about a painful experience currently being encountered in her life. The meeting paused, and we asked permission to pray over her. Faculty members electively moved across the room to place hands on this faculty member as we prayed. The tone of the meeting changed after this, a step toward being united in Christ. God is shaping me as a faculty member at Samford through honest and authentic relationships with administrators, faculty, staff, and students.
AMY CAMERON: I start each class with a scripture (or quote) and prayer. I do this to remind the students and myself that we wouldn’t be in class today if it weren’t for sin. There is no need for nutrition education or dietitians if we weren’t people who needed a Savior. My hope is that it reminds students they won’t be “pure” through a perfect dietary pattern. Additionally, I hope they see each potential client or fellow student on a group project as someone with worth and value because they are made in God’s image. I am also reminded that each of my students (whether they are listening in class or not!) is valuable and worthy of respect and dignity. Most of the time, the “spiritual lessons” I think will most benefit my students are really the lessons that I need to hear myself.
SCOTT BICKEL: Teaching at a Christ-centered institution is both challenging and humbling at the same time. The challenge comes as a healthcare professional, teaching according to strict specialty accreditation standards, we need to infuse faith content into practical and theoretical concepts, where the faith aspect may not be as obvious as what occurs in the liberal arts. Faculty can be focused on teaching the content that is critical for passing licensure exams and providing excellent clinical care. However, at Samford, our mission is front and center, and we lean into the Christian worldview in all aspects of our work. The humbling part comes when we may not feel fully equipped to integrate faith into the classroom. Most discipleship programs in the local church are rooted in theology and doctrine, with less emphasis on a direct link between God’s attributes and the workplace. As a Christian faculty member and leader, it is important to continue to grow in our faith, so that the things we do in the classroom are simply an overflow what the Lord is teaching us at any given moment. Thus, as we grow in Christ, our teaching should animate Him even more from class to class and year to year.
MAEGAN POWELL (health professions): As a faculty member, God is using my role as a mentor at our student-run physical therapy clinic to teach me about humility. A spiritual trap that I frequently fall into at work is pride—a feeling that students look to me for support and answers, and that because I often have them, I am in control. However, as mentioned in the article, the patients that we serve at our clinic can be extremely complex; as such, there have been times when the students ask me for guidance that I do not feel equipped to provide. Initially, these situations were confidence-shaking, especially given the “fake it until you make it” mantra that I adopted at the beginning of my academic career; however, God has used these occurrences to dispel me of the notion that I am ever truly in control. I have learned that there is tremendous value in being able to say to a student, “I am not sure either, but let’s problem solve through it together and come up with the best plan we can.” Putting my own pride aside gives the student permission to do the same, ultimately opening the door for God to use these moments to teach us both something important.
BROESEKER: Through considering the relationships among the Persons of the Trinity and given that we are all made in the imago Dei, my work as a faculty member is shaped in my relationships with various people, i.e., students, other faculty, staff, alumni, and applicants. In doing this, my spiritual formation is enhanced by several main aspects:
- desiring to remember the names of others (for Jesus calls each of us by name)’
- reminding myself that everyone is carrying a sack of rocks (for Jesus knows that we all have burdens that He asks us to lay down);
- spending time in prayer and solitude before a challenging situation (for Jesus certainly did this often);
- remembering the power of emotions in the educational process (for Jesus surely expressed emotions in impactful ways);
- and extending grace to others (for Jesus clearly does this for us each day).
Without question, I am a work in progress and seek to continue to grow in these areas as I remember that each person is made in God’s likeness.
SNOW: Walking alongside students as they grow academically, professionally, and spiritually has opened my eyes in new ways to where God is actively at work in my own daily life. This process has reinvigorated my commitment to share truth with others and continually reminds me to view my work not simply as a job, but as a ministry. As I help students recognize the image of God in those they serve, I find that the Lord is also shaping my own perspective—teaching me to look more closely for his presence and purpose in the ordinary moments of teaching, mentoring, and caring for those entrusted to me. It has also deepened my gratitude for the blessing of serving at Samford University, a place where honoring Christ is integral to who we are. The opportunity to work in an environment where faith and learning are intentionally woven together feels like a true bestowal of grace, one I do not want to take lightly. Each day offers a renewed opportunity to appreciate the privilege of participating in the shared calling of pointing others to Christ, a perspective that continually refocuses my heart on the deeper purpose behind even the most routine rhythms of academic life.
Through this process, these faculty members came to understand the imago Dei not simply as a theological affirmation of human dignity but as a formative lens. In their teaching, scholarship, and relationships, they increasingly recognized students, patients, and colleagues as image-bearers whose own formation requires both their excellence and compassion. This realization has deepened their understanding of vocation itself. Although these faculty members may not prioritize professional achievement as a marker of vocational success, they envisioned a broader understanding of vocation as participating in God’s redemptive work—marked by stewardship, ethical faithfulness, institutional integrity, and a commitment to serve others without bias. At the same time, they discovered that this process of formation is inherently mutual. As they encouraged students to see and honor the image of God in others, they found themselves being formed—challenged in the normal faculty inclinations toward efficiency, pride, or detachment, and instead drawn toward humility, attentiveness, and Christ-like presence. In this way, vocation became more than just the motivation to do their job well; it became a means through which God continues to shape who they are.
[1]. See “Faith and Learning Initiative,” Samford University, accessed on March 18, 2026, https://www.samford.edu/departments/academic-affairs/faith-and-learning-initiative.
[2]. The focus group was recorded and initially summarized by artificial intelligence (AI). The authors used this summary as the basis for this edited report on the focus group outcomes. Christian Scholar’s Review does not publish work generated through AI. However, since the conversation itself was not created by AI and is therefore original content, we are publishing the summary with the explicit acknowledgment that AI technology was used solely for documentation purposes.
[3]. Storytelling is an important aspect of faculty development. During the first year of the Christian teacher scholar program, faculty are encouraged to reflect on their own story of how God has led them to Samford. In this process, faculty members deepen their understanding of their own stories and how those stories intersect with others within the Samford community. They also learn how to assist students in discovering their stories through vocational discernment questions and reflection, both in the classroom and in advising.
[4]. Isaiah 55:8, NIV.
[5]. David I. Smith, On Christian Teaching: Practicing Faith in the Classroom (Eerdmans, 2018).
