Lavender to be recognized as 2008 OVU Alumnus of the Year
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Dr. Earl Lavender, director of missions and professor in the College of Bible and Ministry at Lipscomb University, is the 2008 Alumnus of the Year at Ohio Valley University in Vienna, W. Va.
Lavender will be recognized at OVU’s annual Alumni Awards Banquet, Saturday, February 23, during the University’s Homecoming ’08 celebration. A 1975 associate degree graduate of OVU, Lavender earned bachelors and masters degrees from Lipscomb, and he completed a Ph.D. in historical theology at St. Louis University in 1991. He has served on the Lipscomb faculty since 1990.
Lavender has authored numerous books and articles including entries in The Encyclopedia of Early Christianity, and in 2004 he co-authored Living God’s Love: An Invitation to Christian Spirituality with Gary Holloway. He is currently working with Holloway and Leafwood Publishers in writing and publishing a meditative commentary series on the New Testament. In addition, Lavender has published commentaries on Mark, Luke and Acts, and his commentaries on I and II Corinthians and the Prison Epistles will be available later this year.
Lavender was born on the mission field in Trieste, Italy. He and his wife Rebecca planted churches in Italy (1978-1984) and Illinois (1986-1990). They have three grown children, Rachel, Beth and David. Rebecca teaches 6th grade in the Lipscomb Campus School. For the last 12 years, the couple has coached the Lipscomb High School cross country teams, winning multiple state championships.