July 14–16 saw Andrews University’s Chan Shun Hall suited up and bustling with business teachers eager to subscribe to comprehensive excellence during the fifth biennial Adventist business teachers summer conference, “Commitment to Scholarship, Spirituality, and Service: Business Education Today.” Jointly sponsored by the Andrews University School of Business and Adventist Midwest Health, the conference drew a global representation of Adventist business faculty.

Morning plenaries jump-started each of the conference’s three days and regularly drew audiences in excess of the forty officially registered attendees. Plenary presenters David Neff of Christianity Today International, and Samford University’s professor of ethics, Wilton Bunch, urged attendees to anchor their business interactions in a solid biblical vision.

After morning plenaries, each day featured several breakout sessions led by faculty from nine schools. According to Ann Gibson, School of Business dean, these personal research presentations “provide an opportunity for [Adventist] business teachers to network and discuss issues of common concern.”

The conference’s first day culminated with a Thurs. evening banquet for attendees, their spouses, and various members of Andrews University’s faculty and staff. Following the dinner, banquet attendees benefited from Sybil Jordan Hampton, Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation president, whose life experiences illustrated the conference’s dictum and encouraged attendees to actively pursue spirituality, scholarship, and service in the face of an increasingly secular business environment.

One attendee shared this about the conference's impact, “Attendees walk away with many benefits, not the least of which is a total re-commitment to excellence in business higher education in the Seventh-day Adventist Church.”

Elizabeth Lechleitner, University Relations student news writer