Francis Chan’s anniversary gift to his wife blared through the speakers in the Biola University Chapel – a hip-hop song he wrote. Bethel Seminary professor John Dunne, an undergraduate student at Biola at the time, remembers the song file made its way to the Biola version of Facebook. 

“I thought he was really dynamic and engaging. You always felt like everyone was glued in while he’s talking,” Dunne said. “There’s an authenticity and genuineness to him where he will just lay everything out there that he’s struggling with personally.” 

Christian speaker and church planter Francis Chan will be speaking at Chapel Oct. 20 at 10:20 a.m. in Benson Great Hall. He is the first inaugural Karlson Scholar at the seminary.

The Karlson Scholar Program is a new initiative through Bethel Seminary that “provides funding for ongoing work to advance the Gospel in creative and culturally relevant ways,” Dean of the Seminary Peter Vogt said. It invites “influential evangelical leaders” to speak to graduate students and gain an association with an established seminary. In turn, the scholars will visit or teach classes, appear as guests on the Seminary’s “Whole and Holy” podcast and speak in Chapel. 

“It was very surprising,” Chan said. “My name and ‘scholar’ are not often used in the same sentence. While I have served God for many years and studied the scriptures for over 40 years, I don’t consider myself a scholar.”

So far his responsibilities as the Karlson Scholar have included recording a “Whole and Holy” podcast episode with Vogt about authentic faith and speaking in a Seminary for Everyone course at Bethel covering unity in the church. 

“My desire in accepting the award was to have the opportunity to influence younger believers,” Chan said. “I look forward to more opportunities to pour into the student body at Bethel.”

Vogt was looking for a scholar who emphasized living out faith, not just referencing doctrines. He sees this as integral to Bethel Seminary’s mission: to integrate biblical and theological foundation with spiritual and personal formation. Chan soon became Vogt’s first choice.  

“The mindset that we strive for is to say, ‘It’s not enough to just know your Bible and your theology,’” Vogt said. “If you’re not formed into greater Christ-likeness and if you’re not growing in your spiritual and personal relationship, then we’re wasting our time.” 

Vogt clarified that while “evangelical” is in the language of the Karlson Scholars, they are not political evangelicalists. Instead, Vogt used Bebbington’s Quadrilateral to describe evangelicalism, which suggests that evangelicalism has four points: sola scriptura, crucicentrism, conversionism and activism. In other words, it suggests a focus on Scripture, the cross and atonement, a vibrant relationship with Christ and a call to spread the Gospel and love your neighbor.

“Because of God’s grace, He keeps revealing more and more truth to me through His Word,” Chan said. “He has shown me so many things over the past few months. I’m not the most intelligent person to speak in Chapel, but I might be the happiest.”

Free tickets for Chan’s upcoming Chapel visit can be reserved here. 

For those unable to attend in person, the event will be livestreamed and the audio will be turned into an episode on the “Whole and Holy” podcast. The second episode in the Francis Chan series will be released at the end of the month and will be a Q&A with him about his call to ministry, accountability and fame. 

“As [A.W.] Tozer said, ‘Every man is as close to God as he wants to be,’” Chan said. “What you get out of Chapel has so much more to do with you than me. On my part, I’m excited to preach the sacred word of God.”

While Bethel is not guaranteed a Chan-original hip-hop number, Dunne encourages students to attend.

“He can relate to college students and I think that’s a mixture of his humor and personability,” Dunne said.