SAGU Practical Ministries professor Dr. Jeff Magruder was the keynote speaker for a conference entitled “Collaboration” April 4-6, 2008, at the University of North Texas, in Denton, Texas.  The conference was hosted by South Asian students of Intervarsity Christian Fellowship within a campus Bible Study called SALT (Servants After Living Truth).  Students were challenged by Dr. Magruder as they unpacked Biblical text from the fifth and sixth chapters of Ephesians. 

Many IVCF campus staff workers were in attendance at the conference.  Students are faced with many challenges on the university campus, and it is vital that sound Biblical teaching is presented to them in a practical, yet challenging, way.  According to host Linson Daniel, “Dr. Magruder did an outstanding job punctuating these lessons with humor, personal stories, and insightful illustrations.”

Dr. Magruder illustrated from Ephesians the necessity of “caring enough to confront” students on campus.  This challenge caused students to view outreach and evangelism as not only Jesus’ Great Commission, but also as a vital component of pragmatically caring for the needs of their campus.  Jesus is indeed the answer to life’s hard questions – especially for the questions of a skeptical, yet longing, university student.

Magruder also recently spoke at the J.A.M. Ministries 2nd Annual “No More Dead Lions” Men’s Conference.  The event was held at the Radisson Hotel in Fort Worth, Texas, April 11-12, and men traveled in from Oklahoma, San Antonio, Houston, and various areas around the Dallas metroplex.  The conference was based on Ecclesiastes 9:4, which states, “Anyone who is among the living has hope—even a live dog is better off than a dead lion.”

As the keynote speaker, Dr. Magruder opened up the conference with a message entitled, “Jesus Will Stand for You.”  His message defined Jesus as man’s propitiation and atonement.  Men flooded the altars in search of a Savior, an attorney, a defense, and forgiveness.  Dr. Magruder’s messages, along with those expounded by the conference panel of speakers, challenged the men to roar for their families, ministries, businesses, and futures.