{"id":982,"date":"2025-09-26T08:25:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T08:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/2025\/09\/26\/2025-09-26-bars-rebrands-majors\/"},"modified":"2026-10-06T23:09:52","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T23:09:52","slug":"2025-09-26-bars-rebrands-majors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/2025\/09\/26\/2025-09-26-bars-rebrands-majors\/","title":{"rendered":"BARS rebrands\u00a0majors"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Lucy Aderholt<\/a> · Contributing Writer<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Biblical and Religious Studies (BARS) Department of Grove City College made changes to the BARS and Christian ministry majors, which have gone into effect this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christopher Ansberry, chair of the BARS Department, said the two specializations merged to form the new biblical and theological studies (BTS) major, which has five concentrations: biblical exegesis, biblical studies, Christian ministry, global Christianity and pastoral and theological studies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“By virtue of the different concentrations, we’ve looked at what we’re already offering, developed a few new classes, but not too many and have intentionally tried to identify how what we already offer fits with different concentrations that are oriented toward different career ends or goals,” Ansberry said. “From an advising perspective, it helps faculty talk with students about what their sense of calling is.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The concentrations also better use the strengths of professors in the department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We have a lot of people with different experiences from around the world, and they’re all here in Grove City, which is not something that you might always initially expect,” BARS Professor Alden McCray said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The department plans to create several new classes according to Ansberry, but one required class on the status sheet is Bible 100: Scripture \u2014 Text and Canon, which BARS Professor Josiah Hall teaches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It ran as a trial course last semester for upperclassmen and is now one of the first courses every BTS major will take, regardless of concentration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We want students to have a foundational understanding of Scripture,” Hall said. “And that’s what we’re trying to give them the opportunity to do is wrestle with hard questions in a safe space, so they can be equipped to minister to other people.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Faculty explained how the new structure also allowed the department to recode courses, adding more intentionality to the order of students’ classes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They will begin with foundational topics to build on as students advance through the tament overview courses no longer exist because of new requirements, but McCray said the department is intentional in moving lost content from those courses to other classes, as well as adding new classes in the future to fill potential gaps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An external review done last spring helped decide the restructuring of the department. “Dr. (Seulgi) Byun really led in that respect,” Ansberry said about last year’s BARS Department chair. “He brought in external reviewers from other institutions who looked over our curriculum. \u2026 (They) examined those materials in advance, came here and did two days with us as a department, sat in on some classes, asked questions and made some recommendations on a report afterward.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The department then considered the report and made changes based on department-wide conversations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We’re really excited with the opportunities to increase the value of the students’ degree and to hopefully equip them better for ministry,” Hall said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Biblical and Religious Studies (BARS) Department of Grove City College made changes to the BARS and Christian ministry majors, which have gone into effect this year. Christopher Ansberry, chair of the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[184],"tags":[14,81,31],"class_list":["post-982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-administration","tag-front-page","tag-lucy-aderholt","tag-issue-2025-09-26"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Ian Schartner","author_link":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/author\/schartnerij23\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"The Biblical and Religious Studies (BARS) Department of Grove City College made changes to the BARS and Christian ministry majors, which have gone into effect this year. Christopher Ansberry, chair of the","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=982"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/982\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1991,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/982\/revisions\/1991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}