Garry DeWeese is a professor of philosophy. Although philosophers tend to be a feisty lot, reminiscent of the "Herding Cats" Super Bowl commercial, I suppose most of us would agree that we live in a time and place where everyone knows how they feel about everything under the sun, but very few know how to think about things. So we would wish everyone knew how to think critically — how to construct logically valid arguments with premises clearly stated and defended, and how to analyze opposing arguments fairly and accurately. Most philosophers, and certainly those of us at 51ÂÜÀò, would say that such skills are essential to the pursuit of truth, the activity of loving the Lord with our minds. As a corollary, I'd say that we wish everyone knew how to apply such critical thinking not only to matters scientific and mathematical, but also to issues in ethics, philosophy of religion, theology, aesthetics, political philosophy and so on. 

Les Harman is a professor of marketing. Marketing is a lot more than merely advertising and sales. The essence of marketing is solving problems in order to effectively meet customer needs.

Deborah Taylor is a professor of education. Every student is naturally curious about something, so the key to motivating them to learn is to become familiar with their interests and then intentionally connect examples and assignments to their interests. A high school math teacher had an interesting assignment to capture the interest of her unmotivated students. After finding out that they were avid skateboarders, she asked them to design a mathematical model of a skateboard ramp to help them learn the practical applications of quadratic equations, parabolas, gravity and slope.

Paul Kuld is a professor of biological sciences. I wish everyone knew how incredible DNA is. It provides the most profound example of an intelligent creator that I know of. It contains information, using a language with four letters, that controls the synthesizing of thousands of different proteins. For it to work, it requires the making of mRNA to transport a message on how to build a protein from the nucleus to the cytoplasm. Then it requires 61 specific different tRNA molecules to transfer the appropriate amino acids over to the ribosomes as raw materials to build the specific protein. All living cells that have been studied, from bacteria to our own, use this same complex information system. There is no simple version of this. The only logical explanation is an intelligent creator.

Gary McIntosh is a professor of Christian ministry and leadership. I wish people understood that the heart of church growth is basic evangelism. It is not about marketing, business practices or a host of other misperceptions. The field of church growth is all about helping church leaders become more effective in leading people to faith in Jesus Christ and to active participation in a local church. Since all people are lost apart from a saving relationship with Jesus Christ, every church must be concerned with church growth that is accomplished through conversion evangelism. This is the heart of church growth thinking today.

Annette Browning is a professor of nursing. I wish greater numbers of people
fully acknowledged the long-term effects of poor lifestyle choices. A significant percentage of those cared for at the end of their lives have contributed to their illnesses by not maintaining optimum health through poor dietary choices, lack of sufficient exercise, cigarette smoking, stress and substance abuse leading to a predisposition to heart and lung disease and stroke. Another very significant issue I would like to see greater numbers of people knowledgeable in is the area of Advance Directives. Less than 25 percent of people in America prepare their end-of-life choices ahead of time. Many elderly people are inappropriately resuscitated and placed on mechanical ventilation, prolonging their suffering at end-of-life, whereas if their wishes were made known in advance, life-sustaining measures could be more appropriately limited, facilitating end-of-life experiences more in keeping with what individuals desire.

Jenny Pak is a professor of psychology. Science and religion are not fundamentally incompatible, but both serve to further human understanding. The positivists assumed a single, logical structure to science, but understanding the human realm calls for alternatives to this naturalistic approach. Because the rules that govern human behavior are often specific to particular historical times and places, you cannot neglect the influence of culture on those rules. Moreover, human science cannot ignore moral concerns because explanations of human actions need to include the reasons and motivations of the person who undertook the action.