Dr Wendy Jackson joined Avondale’s Faculty of Theology this year following a career change from medicine to ministry.
After completing degrees in human biology and medicine at the University of Auckland, Dr Jackson became a specialist paediatrician. She is a Fellow of the Royal Australian College of Physicians in Paediatrics and has completed a Pediatric Endocrine Fellowship at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Centre, USA. She has researched and published extensively in paediatrics, especially in the field of child endocrinology and diabetes.
Over time Dr Jackson sensed a growing call to ministry as a career. She at first resisted, but as the conviction strengthened she realised she needed to respond. This led to a radical career change that took her to Andrews University, Michigan, where she completed a Master of Divinity degree, the recognised route to employment as a Seventh-day Adventist minister in the United States.
Avondale then encouraged her to proceed to a PhD at Andrews, with joint sponsorship from Avondale, the South Pacific Division and Women in Ministry. She has now almost completed her PhD in theology, with cognate studies in Old Testament. Her doctoral dissertation explores the unity of the church in the writings of Ellen G White and Alexander Campbell (a leader in the nineteenth-century religious awakening from which the Churches of Christ emerged).
Dr Jackson has been deeply involved in church ministry as an elder/senior elder and in small group ministry, prayer ministry, teaching and Bible studies. When asked about her vision for teaching, she said, “I want each student to experience God’s love in the contours of theology, to understand God’s passion for them. It is imperative that theology be linked to a personal experience with Christ, and that it impacts the life of the individual and the church.”
Share
Author
