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Dale Basham

By: Emily Neideck

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Basham[3232]Dale Basham is a 1973 graduate of Indiana Wesleyan with an impressive resume and a desire to help a hurting world. In an article written for The Columbian, Basham describes a moment in Bangkok, Thailand that changed his life. However, he knows that his calling was felt long before this moment – resulting in the reason he travelled to Bangkok in the first place.

Basham attended church camp when he was young and remembers a moment when two Wesleyan missionaries, Malcolm and Virgie Ellis, from Sierra Leone, came to speak at camp. He said, “They were family friends, and they were so passionate about their calling, education and health. One was a teacher, and one was a nurse. So, they both had their separate focus, but together, they made a powerful missionary package.” At the end of the service, Basham went forward and felt that God’s hand was on him as a call to service above self. This was the spark in a journey of servanthood for Basham.

He attended Indiana Wesleyan in hopes of strengthening his skills in servanthood. “My family has traditionally attended Indiana Wesleyan. I grew up attending Atwood Wesleyan Church in Louisville, Kentucky. When I was looking at schools, I applied for several and always felt that probably Indiana Wesleyan (then, Marion College) was going to be my school of choice.”

After his time at Indiana Wesleyan University studying English, Speech and Theater, Basham moved to Muncie, Indiana, and pursued a master’s degree. He stated, “It was at Indiana Wesleyan that it all came together for me.”

Basham’s spiritual life flourished during his time at Indiana Wesleyan. He became a part of the college choral group, primarily singing at local churches, but then becoming a part of the College Wesleyan Church, expanding their performances to different states and even different countries. Academically, Basham said, “My education was really second-to-none. Indiana Wesleyan prepared me for a bigger, more diverse, incredibly interesting world ahead of me.”

basham1[3233]Basham still currently lives in Muncie, where he has previously served as guidance counselor, associate principal, school board member, and now Governor of Rotary International District 6560 of Central Indiana. He became a member of the Rotary Club while he was employed elsewhere. Originally, he served as Secretary and has worked his way up to Governor. He stated, “Rotary’s motto is ‘Service Above Self’ and so, I really flourish. It speaks to my international and spiritual self. We do community work and international work.”

The Central Indiana District is the largest Rotary District in Indiana, holding 3000 members. Basham travels full-time for the Rotary Club. He said, “Hopefully, I am encouraging people to join this cause.”

 

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Written by Emily Neideck, writer for the Alumni Center and a junior Writing major at IWU. She is active on the cross country and track teams. She is passionate about using her writing skills to share the good news of Christ with others and writes often on her personal blog at www.emilylehner.wordpress.com.

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Ethan Linder: JWHC Graduate

By: Heather Cox

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Ethan Linder
Ethan Linder

Ethan Linder graduated from Indiana Wesleyan in 2015 as a Christian Ministries major with an Honors Humanities minor through the John Wesley Honors College.

Linder grew up in Seaford, Delaware in a Wesleyan church. Linder said his church valued Wesleyan higher education, which led him to consider Houghton College and Indiana Wesleyan University. After visiting the campus, Linder felt IWU was the place for him.

“I came on campus and heard the stories of the people who were Christian Ministries students, and talked with some of the profs about what the program was all about,” Linder said. “I became pretty convinced that the story IWU is writing was something I wanted to be a part of. The story that God was writing in my heart harmonized well with the story that IWU seems to encourage their students to write in the world, so that helped me clarify where I was supposed to be.”

Though Linder ended up majoring in Christian Ministries, he did not always have that major in mind. Linder said that throughout high school he had been planning on doing something with Marketing. A trip to a summer camp changed this for him, when he felt he was being called into Ministry instead.

“I was very set against it. I wasn’t all about the ministry life; I was about marketing and figuring out what it looked like to help people,” Linder said. “I kind of came to the realization that I was called to ministry, and I walked alongside my home church back home to figure out what that call looked like for me.”

Linder also had a positive experience being involved with the John Wesley Honors College. He said that he enjoyed learning from people who were in other majors outside of Christian Ministries and loved that the honors college values shaping students not only in knowledge, but in virtue.

“You’re not going to just be shepherding Christian Ministries majors in your church after graduation, you’re going to have people who think deeply about nursing and education and journalism and marketing and things like that,” Linder said. “So having the opportunity to engage with people who were outside my discipline and find out how the spirit would draw them to shepherd areas of their own influence was really helpful for me.”

Linder was also a Resident Assistant (RA) on campus while he was a student in South Hall. He was heavily involved in the community of South Hall while he was a freshman, and decided to invest in the residents’ lives as a sophomore. Linder loved investing in people through residential experience, and growing along with them.

During his time as a student, Linder has come to really appreciate Indiana Wesleyan’s willingness to dive into difficult discussions that are important to have.

Ethan Linder and his wife, Sarah.
Ethan Linder and his wife, Sarah.

“I think that IWU, at its best, sits at the intersection of culture and Christianity,” Linder said. “In a way that doesn’t reject what culture has to offer, but fully engages and leans in to the conversations and the needs and the difficulties that are happening in our community, starting in Marion, extending through the church, and then into all the world.”

Since graduating from IWU, Linder has worked for College Wesleyan Church, just right off the IWU campus in Marion. He was hired on full time as College Wesleyan Church’s College Young Adult Pastor and the Pastor of Hospitality and Connections this past April. He also writes and leads a staff of writers for the Wesleyan church headquarters in Fishers, IN. Currently, he is involved in IWU’s Kern Master’s program, through which he will earn his Master’s degree at the end of five years.

As for goals for the future, Linder hopes to be known for his ability to listen and love deeply.

“I want to cultivate the discipline of listening,” Linder said. “Then I want to help the church to elevate our ability to listen to people’s stories so that as people come into our church, as people come into the church, they feel cared for well, loved deeply, and they know because of the way we listen, their stories can harmonize with what God’s doing in His church and around the world.”

 

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Written by Heather Cox, guest writer for the Alumni Office. Heather is a Junior Journalism major at IWU. She is also the Editor of GrantCOnnected.net, a community news site run by IWU students. She is unsure of where life will take her after college, but she knows she never wants to stop writing!