Harris had a desire to form a community among students that nurtured commitment to following Jesus more radically. He believed there were a number of guys and women out there that would like to see how far they can go in their relationship with Christ and he knew the near impossibility of taking that on alone.
He started mentoring a group of guys on campus with the hope that they will collectively act as salt and light where they are now while developing an approach to life that will create habits and disciplines that can stay with them after they leave.
Seth Bouchelle, junior missions major from Amarillo, is a member of the group and said that Harris is very good at facilitating the kind of conversations that develop growth.
Bouchelle said Harris tends to bring about more questions than answers in those discussions.
“I always get the sense that he’s really deeply invested in the people around him,” Bouchelle said. “If I could describe him in one word it would probably be the word ‘available’.”
Bouchelle said that Harris’ office doors are always open to students and that Harris will always be very upfront and honest about how he is growing as a Christ follower.
Last year, students chose Randy Harris as the recipient of ACU’s teacher of the yearaward. Harris serves as an instructor in the department of Bible, missions and ministryand is the spiritual director of the college of Bible. However, he can be seen fillingvarious other informal roles on campus, from a preacher to a practical jokester to a group mentor.
Harris said he has known he wanted to be a professor since high school.
“I tended to be one of the nerdy scholar types in high school,” Harris said. “I really likedreading books and liked learning and I had an insatiable curiosity about things; so thenotion you could get paid for pursuing those passions was really appealing to me.”
However, Harris’ influence does not end in the classroom. He said the best learning takesplace outside of the classroom.
During his time in college, Harris was most deeply impacted by professors that investedin him outside of class. His graduate school teachers taught him rigor and how to askhard questions.
“Ages 18 to 22 is a very formable time in life. You do a lot of formation for better orworse during that time,” Harris said. “Being a critical thinker and an authentic follower of Jesus are the two things that I really want to instill in students and I try to do that in classand out of class.”
Harris had a desire to form a community among students that nurtured commitment tofollowing Jesus more radically. He believed there were a number of guys and women out there that would like to see how far they can go in their relationship with Christ and he knew the near impossibility of taking that on alone.
He started mentoring a group of guys on campus with the hope that they will collectively act as salt and light where they are now while developing an approach to life that will create habits and disciplines that can stay with them after they leave.
Seth Bouchelle, junior missions major from Amarillo, is a member of the group and said that Harris is very good at facilitating the kind of conversations that develop growth. Bouchelle said Harris tends to bring about more questions than answers in those discussions.
“I always get the sense that he’s really deeply invested in the people around him,”Bouchelle said. “If I could describe him in one word it would probably be theword ‘available’.”
Bouchelle said that Harris’ office doors are always open to students and that Harris willalways be very upfront and honest about how he is growing as a Christ follower.
