[Sly Fox]

Update on Eddie's boy ...

Profile: Bible scholar Kent Dobson
by Terri Finch Hamilton | The Grand Rapids Press
Sunday February 22, 2009, 5:29 AM


A new perspective: Bible historian Kent Dobson crouches in a monastic cell in the Judaean wilderness in 2006. He lived and studied in Israel for three years. "It changed my perspective on the Bible," Dobson says. "I realized I didn't know the Bible -- even though I grew up with it." He has brought his perspective to the high school classroom as a teacher, to church as a worship leader and to television as host of a Discovery Channel show on searching for the truth about Jesus. "My passion for the Bible, I hope, comes through."

Kent Dobson is in his element, talking to teens about life, Facebook, slowing down, asking questions and savoring stuff.

He's leading the weekly chapel at Grand Rapids Christian High School, talking to 1,000 students about a survey he took: What would the seniors do differently in high school if they had it to do over?

"'I should have taken more risks and pulled off awesome pranks,'" he reads from the student survey as the auditorium full of teens erupts in laughter.

"There's still time," Dobson notes with a grin.

Notes his LU time and since ...

His parents insisted he go to a Christian college.

"I refused," he says. "Later, they said, 'OK, you don't have to.'" He smiles. "Then I changed my mind."

He went to Liberty University, where things started to turn around for him, he says. He met inspiring friends and professors as he pursued a degree in English. He joined an Evangelical Free Church.

"It was a local, small church community. I had never had that," he says. "Church was always big, a big production. Never a small local body of believers. That was really good for me.

"My life has been tiny, small moments of mercy, not some big dramatic turn-around," he notes.

He applied to graduate school, married Mandy, then moved back to Grand Rapids, intrigued by the new Mars Hill Bible Church in Grandville.

Dobson's volunteer work at Mars Hill turned into a job as worship leader. He left there in 2002 for Jerusalem, to study religion, archeology and the Old Testament and work as a tour guide. He and his family spent three years there.

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[Cider Jim]

He went to Liberty University, where things started to turn around for him, he says. He met inspiring friends and professors as he pursued a degree in English.

Shows that you can go a long way with an English degree from old LU.