Class Offerings

Over the past 25 years Joe Beck has been one the most successful and prolific creators of Inspirational based music in the world. Composing over 2,000 new copyrights. He has had 65 hit songs and over 650 major cuts in all markets from Adult Xontemporary, Rock, Inspirational, Southern Gospel, Country and Black Gospel. He has contributed to six Grammy nominated projects including the writing the Grammy winning song “The Reason” for Diamond Rio in 2010 and has been nominated a dozen times for Dove awards having won with Michael English for the song, “Holding Out Hope To You”. He has received multiple BMI awards for airplay including the 2004 most performed song of the year, “To Ever Live Without Me”.

Not only has he had dozens of his songs made into hits by some of the top artists in Christian music, like Michael English, Avalon, Gaither Vocal Band, Jody McBrayer Phillips, Craig & Dean, Larnelle Harris, his songs have also been recorded by pop artist like Oleta Adams and country artist like Diamond Rio, He has also produced over 50 albums, won awards, and performed with some of the top names in music.  Not content to rest on any of his many laurels, Beck decided to explore the other side of the music business. He took a job as head of publishing for Springhill Music a company owned by Bill Gaither. While there he helped launch the Springhill Worship Label a direct to church marketed copyright driven label.

After moving to Nashville in the mid-80s, Beck was part of the major-label country rock band, “Ride the River.” The Group released four major singles and although their lifespan as a group was short-lived, doors were opened that allowed him to write for a major publisher in town.  While Beck had no aversion to Christian music, having grown up in a missionary family, he had no intention of writing songs for the Christian market.  Until one day when his publisher invited Christian songwriter Brian White to write with he and Beck. The first song they composed together was the Multi-award winning No. 1 single “Holding out Hope to You” Performed by Michael English. “The next thing I new I was in the inspirational market place. God does move in mysterious “ says Beck

Joe and his wife Chris live with their three children, Lindsey, Michael, and Parker in Brentwood, Tennessee, where Joe is involved in a number of business and musical projects. He also continues to compose over 100 new copyrights a year.

Jessica Van Dyke is a criminal defense attorney in Nashville where she has practiced since 2011. Van Dyke graduated from the University of Tennessee College of Law, where, as a law student, she learned about post-conviction work in the university's Wrongful Convictions Clinic.  She has remained passionate about wrongful convictions.  After eight years at the law firm of Parker Lawrence Cantrell & Smith, she left private practice to launch the Tennessee Innocence Project and serves as Executive Director.  Van Dyke received her Master of Arts in Political Science from Vanderbilt University in 2007 and graduated from Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois in 2005.

Alan Griggs is a senior manager of communications with diverse experience including television news reporting and management, political, corporate and crisis communications as well as teaching.  Griggs is Chair of the Department of Communication and Journalism at Lipscomb University where for the last nine years he has taught classes in television, multimedia journalism and speech communication.

A native of Newnan, Georgia, Griggs received his ABJ in Mass Communication from the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia.  He holds an MA in Organizational Communication from Western Kentucky University.  Griggs has served as an associate professor at Tennessee State University and adjunct professor of communications at the University of Tennessee, Western Kentucky University and Lipscomb University. He has published academic research and business articles, and has served as president of the University of Georgia Journalism Advisory Board.

Griggs has an extensive background in broadcast news and marketing.  He was a reporter and anchor at WAPI-TV in Birmingham, Alabama, before moving to WSM-TV, later WSMV-TV, in Nashville.  Beginning as a reporter, he worked his way up to news director, a position he held for nine of his 20 years at the NBC affiliate.  During his tenure as news director, WSMV-TV was officially recognized as the winner of more awards than any station in the country.  Leading a newsroom of 80 people, Griggs oversaw a news operation that consistently ranked number one in the nation’s 30th largest television market.  His television career also includes political assignment work for NBC News and a stay at WBZ-TV in Boston, where he was an investigative reporter and manager of its investigative unit.

Individually, Griggs has received most of broadcast journalism’s top awards including three Peabody awards (the broadcast equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize), a duPont-Columbia citation for a documentary on the Ku Klux Klan, two National Headliner awards, the George Polk award, the Edward R. Murrow award for broadcast excellence, several Emmys, and the Robert F. Kennedy award for a year-long effort on race relations. He is the recipient of the John Holliman, Jr., Lifetime Achievement Award from the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia.

In 1994, Griggs served as the communications director of a U.S. Senate campaign.  He later became a marketing director for Film House, Incorporated, handling strategic positioning and marketing for television stations around the country.  In July, 1995, Griggs was named Director of Media Strategy for United Methodist Communications, an agency of the worldwide United Methodist Church. He was a reporter and producer for the PBS program “The Wild Side” and a senior consultant with the Institute for Crisis Management, helping organizations worldwide handle business crises.

Griggs is the author of two books: Flying Flak Alley: Personal Accounts of World War II Bomber Crew Combat and The Life and Tales of Pony Maples, Jr. A third book about former Tennessee governor Frank Clement is in the writing stage. He resides in Nashville with his wife, Sandra.  

Dr. Robert E. Hooper, professor emeritus of history and political science at Lipscomb University, is the author of six books. A Call to Remember: Chapters in Nashville Restoration History; Crying in the Wilderness: The Life and Influence of David Lipscomb; A Distinct People: A History of Churches of Christ in the Twentieth Century; with Jim Turner Willard Collins: The People Person; with G. David England A Century of Memories: Centennial Celebration, David Lipscomb University 1891-1991; and If Your Enemy Hungers, Feed Him: Church of Christ Missionaries in Japan, 1892-1970.

Hooper was married to Virginia Anderson Hooper for 49 years(1954-2003). They were parents to three children and five grandchildren. After her passing, he married Bonnie Williams Cone of Little Rock, Arkansas, in 2005. They met while traveling in Scotland. Hooper has received the Avalon Award for Creative Excellence from Lipscomb University and the Christian Service Award from Pepperdine University.

Earl Lavender earned undergraduate degrees from Ohio Valley College and David Lipscomb College (Lipscomb University).  He is married to the former Rebecca Nance of Nashville, Tennessee.  They have three grown and happily married children, Rachel, Beth, and David. They also have been blessed with six grandchildren. Rebecca and Earl have planted churches in Italy (1978-1984) and Illinois (1986-1990).

Lavender has an M.A. in Biblical Studies from Lipscomb, and a Ph.D. in Historical Theology from Saint Louis University (1991). He has taught at Lipscomb University since 1991 and for the last twenty years has served as Director of Missional Studies and as a professor in the College of Bible and Ministry. He has served adjunct professor for the graduate school of theology of Abilene Christian University, as well as visiting professor at Pepperdine and Oklahoma Christian University. As director of missional studies at Lipscomb, he has led mission and education efforts and seminars in Italy, Germany, Scotland, England, Australia, India, Mexico, Russia, Brazil, Ghana, Lithuania and China. The last ten years he has delivered the final keynote for the international Festival Biblico in Vicenza, Italy, held annually the last of May.

He has authored numerous books and published articles, including entries in The Encyclopedia of Early Christianity (Everett Ferguson, ed., Garland) and The Encyclopedia of Ancient History (Wiley-Blackwell, 2012).  He is a regular lecturer at the International Conference of Patristic Studies held at Oxford University in England. In 2004 he co-authored Living God’s Love: an Invitation to Christian Spirituality with Gary Holloway. He is also a main contributor to the Meditative Commentary series on the New Testament (Leafwood Publishers). His commentaries on Mark, Luke and Acts, and 1 and 2 Corinthians, and Paul’s Prison Epistles are now available. He authored "Un Viaggio Nel Vangelo di Luca" published in 2011 by Perciballi in Rome, Italy. It is a meditational commentary written specifically for the Italian culture.  He is currently working several new writing projects concerning living daily in God’s missional and redemptive story for the world. His latest published work is a chapter entitled, “Dreams, Visions, and Real Life” in Owning Faith: Reimagining the Role of Church & Family in the Faith Journey of Teenagers, Leafwood Publishers, 2017.

John Lewis is an associate professor of Biology in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Lipscomb University. He received his bachelor of science degree in Wildlife and Fisheries Science from Tennessee Technological University in 2002 and his master of science in Wildlife Science from Auburn University in 2005 where he studied the effect of tropospheric ozone on plant nutrition. His doctoral work was completed at Texas A&M - Kingsville where he focused on factors influencing antler size in white-tailed deer. Lewis joined the biology faculty in 2011 and has taught Principles of Biology: Diversity and Ecology, Biology Capstone, Field Zoology, Ornithology, Limnology, Vertebrate Zoology, Desert Ecology and has co-taught Exploring Nature (a general education course integrating literature and science). His current research involves avian ecology through Warner Parks Nature Center where he mentors summer research students and student projects facilitated through the courses he teaches. 

Attorney Brad MacLean focused on civil litigation for more than twenty-five years before setting his sights on criminal justice reform. MacLean attended Stanford University and Emory University before earning his law degree from Vanderbilt University Law School in 1981. MacLean was court appointed to his first capital post-conviction case in 1990, which resulted in the vacating of the petitioner’s conviction and sentence. In 2007, MacLean left his partnership at Stites & Harbison in Nashville to become Executive Director of the non-profit Tennessee Justice Project, which worked to increase fairness and accuracy in the Tennessee indigent criminal justice system with a focus on Tennessee’s death penalty system. 

In 2009, MacLean became a post-conviction defender for the State of Tennessee, representing death row inmates in state post-conviction proceedings – a role he held for the next four years.  For the past decade, post-conviction and death penalty litigation has been the center stone of MacLean’s practice.  He has published numerous articles about the death penalty in peer-reviewed journals. MacLean has served as an adjunct professor at both the University of Tennessee College of Law and Vanderbilt University Law School. MacLean has represented clients in numerous state post-conviction and federal habeas corpus cases.

Rob McRay received his B.A. from Abilene Christian University and his M.A. in Biblical studies from Wheaton College, and did further graduate study in the Ancient Mediterranean World at the University of Chicago. Rob is an adjunct instructor in Bible at Lipscomb University and the Executive Director of Youth Encouragement Services in Nashville.  He served for more than 30 years as the senior minister for several congregations, including the Donelson Church of Christ.  Rob has lived in Israel and traveled extensively in the Middle East, including leading several Holy Land tours. 

Pat Ryan is founding president of the Tennessee World Affairs Council (TNWAC.org), a nonprofit, nonpartisan educational organization that seeks to inform community members about the world. He and his wife Connie launched that effort in 2007 by organizing speaker events, high school and college outreach programs and competitions, seminars, online resources, Podcasts and other methods to inform citizens and inspire young people to understand America’s place in the world and global challenges.

Ryan enlisted in the U.S. Navy at age 17 where he served a 26-year career, assigned first in the Persian Gulf in 1973 followed by assignments in the Submarine Service where he attained the rank of Chief Petty Officer. He received a BA degree at the University of South Carolina, in 1981, majoring in International Studies followed by commissioning in the Navy as an Ensign. He served aboard numerous ships, headquarter staffs and overseas assignments before retiring in 1998 as a Lieutenant Commander. Among his assignments were the Joint Staff in the Pentagon, the Center for Naval Analyses, US Central Command headquarters and as a fellow in the Director Central Intelligence Exceptional Intelligence Analyst Program. He has lived and worked in Bahrain, Italy and Japan and has traveled to about 50 countries for work and leisure. Following his Navy career he established a newsletter publishing business in 1999 focused on Middle East affairs. His decorations include Joint Meritorious Service Medals, Navy Meritorious Service Medals and numerous campaign awards. Ryan is Qualified in Submarines and a qualified Surface Warfare Officer.

Billy Sprague is Dean of Dreaming at Songwriting University as well as a prolific songwriter, author and editor. He first toured with Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith before pursuing his own recording and writing career. Debbie Boone, Kathy Troccoli, BeBe and CeCe Winans, Sandi Patty, Susan Ashton and many others have recorded his songs. "Via Dolorosa," earned him a "Song of the Year" Dove Award and “Man After Your Own Heart” also won inspirational song of the year. He has composed music for TV including the theme song to America’s Dumbest Criminals and is currently co-writing a musical aimed at Broadway.

Two of his books, Ice Cream as a Clue to the Meaning of the Universe, and Letter to a Grieving Heart are published by Harvest House. Letter to a Grieving Heart continues to be a source of comfort for those facing the loss of a loved one. Billy created “Songs to a Grieving Heart” as a companion CD.

As a recording artist, Sprague's solo recordings passionately reflect his life journey, including “Soundtrack of My Soul” and his newest “Songs in the Key of Awe” available at billyspraguemusic.com and iTunes. His friends also know him as a connoisseur of ice cream, especially homemade, but his favorite title is 'daddy' to three remarkable children Willow, Wyatt and Sawyer.

Kay Wyatt is from Winchester, Tennessee. She graduated from Franklin County High School, David Lipscomb College (Lipscomb University) with a B.A. in English, and Middle Tennessee State University with a M.A.T. in English.

She is married to Fred Wyatt of Carthage, Tennessee They have three grown children, Christopher (Melissa), Andy (Lauren), and Kelly, all (including daughters-in-law) graduating from the University of Tennessee Knoxville.  They have five grandchildren.

Wyatt’s work career includes teaching English in junior high school, teaching preschool and kindergarten, teaching eleventh and twelfth grade English at David Lipscomb High School, and coordinating children’s education at West End Church of Christ.

In retirement she enjoys leading classes from time to time in the Lifelong Learning program on the English language, Jane Austen, and book clubs. She also likes to read and travel, especially to Europe.