Dallas Vandiver, NGU’s new associate vice president of CMSE
Photo by C.J. Eldridge.
C.J. Eldridge, News and Features Editor
Campus Ministries and Student Engagement (CMSE) recently appointed Dallas Vandiver as their new associate vice president, and he’s got some tweaks he’s looking forward to making with his newfound title.
Vandiver, while working on his doctorate in Systematic Theology, taught at a Christian middle school in Louisville, Kentucky, before the move to North Greenville University. He began his tenure at NGU in 2021 teaching master’s program classes in theology, hermeneutics and church history.
His move to CMSE has shifted him from a mainly online position to being in person on the main campus much of the time – and it’s a change he greatly enjoys.
“I’m very thankful for that,” he said. “I’m a people person.”
Even though this new position puts him in a more administrative role, Vandiver plans to continue teaching as well.
“I love [teaching] so much. I told them when I was interviewing . . . ‘This sounds great, but I’ve got to be able to teach too.’ I love helping people know and trust Jesus [and] understand the Bible,” he said.
He will be teaching Christian Worship in the master’s degree program and worship for undergrad students as well.
This passion for worship will be more relevant than ever to Vandiver’s duties as associate vice president, as he will be directly over scheduling chapel speakers. He is hoping to plan out speakers who will have more connected ideas that build on a topic across multiple chapel services and explore a single book of the Bible deeper.
Vandiver was recently at a conference in North Carolina and encountered some speakers he would like to schedule to come to chapel.
He said, “One that I’ve been . . . working on is a worship conference that can coincide with chapel and bring somebody like a Matt Boswell or a Matt Papa to campus to speak about worship and also talk to my worship classes.”
A mix of faculty, local church pastors and farther away personalities that have published books and spoken on various topics are also in the works.
He will also give oversight and strategy to what mission trips NGU goes on, what Bible studies look like and what the curriculum looks like for chapel and Fount.
Community outreach and service related programs are also on the docket. Right now there are students this past semester who have worked in various ways with the community, but Vandiver wants to reintroduce and grow impact teams.
“Before COVID, we had what sounds like pretty strong running impact teams,” he said.
Sports ministry is something else that Vandiver wants to improve upon. He wants to make sure athletes are ministered to well and that there is a Christian presence on the teams, preferably in the form of the team members themselves.
He said, “We’re wanting to make that more robust, better, stronger.”
Vandiver wants to use his position to ensure that the experience of students on campus helps further their relationship with and trust in Jesus.
