By Michael Freeman, Managing Editor

Lectureship will have more than a new name this year; it will have new featured speakers, meetings and opportunities for student involvement.

For 91 years, ACU’s annual week-long Bible lecture series was called ” Lecture ship”, but this year, the name for the event will be “Summit”.

“‘Lectureship’ is not really a word that people on the outside have any knowledge of,” said Brady Bryce, director of ministry events. “It is also a word that communicates a one-sided conversation- there is an expert at the front speaking down to a group of people.”

The focus of this year’s event will be to involve more people in a conversation on daily ministry, biblical matters and moral issues, Bryce said.

Bryce researched the history of Lectureship and realized students were heavily involved in the event when it first began. Over the years, Lectureship centered on church leadership and history and slowly became more of an alumni event.

“My desire is [to] bring the students back,” Bryce said. “For alumni, I think that they’ve been excited to hear about how students will be involved.”

Instead of in the mornings, most Summit meetings and classes will occur in the afternoons and evenings, a change tailored to work into students’ academic schedules.

Twenty-three Chapel credits also will be available for students during Summit, and in some meetings, students will have the chance to text in questions to the speakers to add their voices to the conversations, Bryce said.

The three featured speakers for Summit will be Brian McLaren, J. Matthew Sleeth and Sam Solomon.

McLaren is a Christian author and church planter who has appeared on Larry King Live, Nightline and Religion and Ethics. Sleeth is an environmentalist and former emergency room doctor who has written the book Serve God, Save the Planet: A Christian Call to Action.

Solomon is a former Muslim terrorist who converted to Christianity and became a lawyer and adviser to the United Kingdom’s Parliament.

Students played a role in helping to bring all three speakers to the campus.

“This is a great event,” Bryce said. “We need places where we can talk. I don’t want to have safe conversations; I want to create safe places for conversations to take place and I feel like ACU can model that.”

For more information on Summit, students can visit www.acu.edu/events/summit.