Dr. Paul L. Owen, Chair and Associate Professor of Biblical and Religious Studies
Paul has served on the Montreat team since 2001. He is a graduate of Life Pacific College (B.A., 1993), Talbot School of Theology (M.A., 1997), and the University of Edinburgh (Ph.D., 2000). He also did graduate studies at Dallas Theological Seminary (1993-1994). After being raised by a single parent in southern Idaho within a Mormon sub-culture, God took his life in a different direction at the age of 15 after the loss of his mother to cancer. This change happened through the love and witness of an evangelical foster family. As a result of his new experience of the grace of God, his early years of Christian formation were shaped within the Pentecostal community. But while studying as a Bible major in college, he also drew heavily from the soil of Reformed and Calvinistic spirituality, devouring the writings of the English Puritans, and modern authors like R. C. Sproul, J. I. Packer, John MacArthur, John Piper, and D. Martin Lloyd-Jones.
While studying abroad in Scotland, Paul fell in love with the Presbyterian tradition, worshipping for several years in a Free Church of Scotland congregation, and gaining a summer's experience as the interim pastor of a vacant Church of Scotland parish. He and his wife Alice (a native of the Isle of Lewis, Scotland) were confirmed into the Anglican Church in 2005, and Paul is a Postulant for ordination to Holy Orders within the Anglican Province of America. He has published numerous journal articles in places like Trinity Journal, the Calvin Theological Journal, the Journal for the Study of the New Testament, and the Journal of Biblical Literature. He has also contributed to several books in the field of religion, including Of Scribes and Sages: Early Jewish Interpretation and Transmission of Scripture (Continuum, 2004), To Everyone an Answer: A Case for the Christian Worldview (IVP, 2004), and The New Mormon Challenge (Zondervan, 2002), which he co-edited with Francis Beckwith and Carl Mosser. His hobbies and interests include dogs (he owns four of them!), reading about wild predators like grizzlies and wolves, fiction dealing with nature themes (The Call of the Wild by Jack London is his favorite book), and watching boxing and soccer on the TV (his favorite boxer is Ricky Hatton and his favorite soccer team is the Glasgow Rangers).
powen@montreat.edu
Mr. Donald R. Shepson, Assistant Professor of Bible and Christian Education
Don has a B.A. in Sociology from Wheaton College (1990); M.Div. from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (CE emphasis, 2001); and a Ph.D. (candidate) from Talbot School of Theology, Biola University. Don joined the Montreat family in 2006 with several semesters of teaching. He is interested in the process of spiritual formation and has published on the subject in Growth: The Journal of the Association for Christians in Student Development. Don's doctoral dissertation addresses various academic factors that influence a student's spiritual formation. He spends a lot of time with his students discipling, mentoring and teaching toward that end.
Don grew up in Northern Illinois and after attending college spent a number of years in minsitry as a camp and conference center program director, camp director and assistant pastor or Christian education and youth. He married in 1998, to Sara, and they now have 3 children: Emory, born in 2001, Tabitha born in 2003, and Wyatt born in 2005. Don loves spending time with them camping, hiking and playing baseball. Individually he likes reading, running, cycling and participating in traithlons. His life of faith started as a result of a Christian family who always participated in the life of the church (Christian & Missionary Alliance). During seminary on he moved into a more liturgical style of worship and is now also an Anglican Priest (The Anglican Mission in the Americas).
dshepson@montreat.edu
Dr. Mark Wells, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Ethics 
Mark came to Montreat College in August 2006 with several years experience teaching philosophy, ethics, theology, and leadership studies. He is a graduate of Friends University (B.A., 1990), Fuller Theological Seminary (M.A.T., 1996), and Baylor University (Ph.D., 2004). He is currently working on a book of essays on Christ-centered Servant-Leadership. His philosophical and theological interests include classical philosophy, apologetics, ontology, theology of worship, and theological anthropology. He is keenly interested in the theology of Diterich Bonhoeffer and the Swiss Reformed theologian Karl Barth. He spent the summer of 2007 on a fellowship as a visiting scholar at St. Olaf College studying and writing on the works of Soren Kierkegaard. He has also done a great deal of work on the early Church Fathers and creeds of Christendom.
Mark grew up in Seattle, Washington. He comes from a large family--three brothers and three sisters--and family is very important to him. Married to his wife, Julie, in 1993, he now has two boys--Austin, born in 2000 and Caleb, born in 2002. He spent several years working at Christian summer camps and several more years working as a youth pastor and choir director/worship leader at Baptist, Christian, and Congregational churches. He currently attends Montreat Presbyterian Church. In his spare time Mark enjoys running, singing, soccer, hiking, reading classic novels, as well as attending concerts, ballets, operas, and sporting events.
mwells@montreat.edu
Rev. Stephen L. Woodworth, Chaplain, Preaching Instructor
Steve has a B.S. in Outdoor Education from Montreat College (1999); and an M.Div. from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (2006). Steve returned to the Montreat College in 2003 to serve as both an RD and as an assistant to the previous Chaplain. As the Chaplain Steve’s primary responsibility is to foster the spiritual development of each student through the Chapel program, student ministries, mentoring and pastoral counseling. In addition Steve teaches in the area of Preaching and Biblical Communication.
Steve grew up in a small rural town in New Hampshire and first came to Montreat College in 1995. He married in 1998, to Carrie, and they now have 3 young boys: Luke, Andrew and Zachary. In addition to making swords, forts and bows and arrows, the Woodworth family spends much of their time hiking, camping, and cheering for the New England Patriots. Steve’s two heroes are Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Henri Nouwen who have fostered his passion to see college students make the transition from the inherited faith of their parents to a vibrant faith of their own. Steve is an ordained Teaching Elder in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC).
swoodworth@montreat.edu |