Multnomah Videos
In 25 short videos, Dr. Garry Friesen recounts God's work in faculty, staff, and students to establish a Kingdom legacy. As donations come in, we will create more Multnomah history videos.
In 25 short videos, Dr. Garry Friesen recounts God's work in faculty, staff, and students to establish a Kingdom legacy. As donations come in, we will create more Multnomah history videos.
In this episode, Dr. G reflects on what he believes was the single most significant turning point in Multnomah’s biblical mission — a moment he witnessed firsthand from inside the room. While many small decisions shape a school over time, this one marked the end of an era and the beginning of a new direction.
In this episode, Dr. G shares a lighthearted yet telling story about traveling with his mentor, Dr. John Mitchell — a man who loved driving almost as much as he loved conversation. Though his hearing was failing and his health declining, Dr. Mitchell insisted on staying behind the wheel of his beloved Buick, making one thing very clear: he was driving — but Dr. G was coming along “just in case.”
In this episode, Dr. G shares a tender, bittersweet story from the final months of his mentor, Dr. John Mitchell. Watching the slow decline of a man so strong — physically, intellectually, spiritually — took a deep emotional toll. But one hospital visit, in particular, revealed just how much trust, humor, and humanity still remained between mentor and student.
In this episode, Dr. G shares a simple moment that reveals a profound truth about mentoring, legacy, and spiritual parenthood. John and Mary Mitchell were never able to have children of their own — a fact that could have been marked by loss or silence. Instead, it became the backdrop for one of the most beautiful definitions of family Dr. G ever witnessed.
In this episode, Dr. G shares a tender and deeply moving story from the final days of Dr. John Mitchell’s life — a story that reveals where much of Dr. Mitchell’s quiet greatness truly came from.
In this episode, Dr. G reflects on a deeply personal mentoring relationship that shaped his life and ministry. Surrounded by greatness at Multnomah, he realized something was missing — he was learning from remarkable leaders, but he wasn’t truly being mentored. In particular, he longed to learn from Dr. Mitchell, one of the founders of the school, even as Dr. Mitchell’s hearing and health were beginning to fail.
In this episode, Dr. G reflects on one of the greatest challenges facing any leadership team: how to make decisions efficiently while preserving deep unity. Many organizations prefer a single, decisive leader who points in a direction and says, “Follow me.” Group leadership, on the other hand, can feel slow, messy, and difficult. But Dr. G believed that the Academic Dean’s Council could function with both shared authority and strong momentum — if they committed to the right values.
In this episode, Dr. G shares one of the most important — and most challenging — responsibilities of the Academic Dean’s Council: deciding what truly matters when evaluating and hiring faculty. While Multnomah’s evaluation categories looked similar to other colleges (scholarship, pedagogy, and mentoring), Dr. G knew the key wasn’t the list itself but the weight each category carried.
Dr. Garry Friesen, beloved professor at Multnomah University shows Bible College students in his 2011 Pentateuch class the same "Walk Through" exercise that he's been showing all his students for 36 years!
In the summer of 2008, Africa New Life Ministries (founded by Multnomah Biblical Seminary graduate Charles Burgeya) was awarded a grant to start a Bible college in Kigali, Rwanda
When Dr. G stepped into the role of Academic Dean, he knew one thing for certain: he didn’t want to lead alone. Coming from a deep conviction shaped by biblical leadership — especially the model of multiple elders — he set out to build a team that would share both the authority and the responsibility of guiding Multnomah’s academic direction.
In this episode, Dr. G answers an obvious but crucial question with complete honesty: will alumni support be needed to move the Multnomah library to ABC in Africa? His answer is simple and emphatic — yes, yes, and yes. A project of this scale has never been attempted before in this context, and it can only happen through the shared commitment of people who love Multnomah and believe in the future of Bible training in Africa.
In this episode, Dr. G addresses a question many people have asked: is ABC in Africa taking the entire Multnomah library collection? His answer reveals both the scope of the vision and the heart behind it. ABC’s Bible teaching ministry is deeply interested in the full breadth of the collection — not only theology and Bible resources, but also the liberal arts materials that support Christian education as a whole.
How Special Is the Multnomah Library? — A Treasure Built for Generations In this episode, Dr. G reflects on why the Multnomah Library is far more than just a collection of books — it is a rare, carefully cultivated treasure that shaped his life, his work, and countless students over decades.
In this episode, Dr. G traces the remarkable and deeply personal connection between Multnomah and ABC in Africa, a story that began quietly with students and grew into an international partnership impacting an entire nation. As his time at Multnomah was coming to a close, four seminary students from Rwanda arrived with a clear vision: a growing ministry and a dream to establish a Bible college in their home country. What they lacked was one critical resource — books.
A Multnomah Bible College student taking part in a foreign studies program in Indonesia died after she was bitten on the heel by a pit viper. A group of her peers worked together to establish what would become the Holly Miller Memorial Scholarship.
Holding On To Great Faculty— Dr. G shares one of the most challenging and often overlooked responsibilities of an academic dean: not just finding exceptional teachers, but keeping them. At a small school like Multnomah, outstanding faculty inevitably attracted the attention of larger institutions offering higher salaries, better benefits, and more prestige.
In this episode, Dr. G expands on a key conviction behind his leadership as Academic Dean: if the best students will go anywhere the best teachers are, then finding those teachers becomes one of the most important responsibilities in the entire school. For him, that meant investing far more time than most academic deans to search out gifted, godly, student-loving faculty members.
In this episode, Dr. G shares one of the core convictions that shaped his decade as Academic Dean: great faculty are the heartbeat of a great Bible school. Buildings, programs, and organizational systems matter — but none of them compare to the impact of a gifted, Bible-loving teacher standing in front of students. As he puts it, “The best students will go to a barn if the best teachers are in the barn.”
In this episode, Dr. G turns the spotlight inward and shares how he approached evaluation during his time as Academic Dean. After challenging students to take faculty evaluations seriously, he asked himself a simple but important question: How should I be evaluated? The result was a new system that invited every faculty member to offer honest feedback in ten key areas — a process many had never experienced before.
In this episode, Dr. G reflects on one of his most important responsibilities as Academic Dean: evaluating the faculty. Known for saying “grading is the crabgrass in the lawn of teaching,” he didn’t love the task — but he understood how essential it was. And when he stepped into the role of Academic Dean, the weight of evaluating not just assignments but teachers themselves became even more significant.
In this episode, Dr. G shares a pivotal moment early in his teaching career — a moment shaped not by a classroom, but by the encouragement (and blunt honesty) of a fellow Multnomah professor. Struggling to complete his dissertation while preparing to leave for Kenya, he found himself teetering on the edge of becoming “ABD” — All But Dissertation— a place many doctoral students never return from.
Teaching the Pentateuch — Why It Never Gets Old
In this episode, Dr. G reflects on one of the questions he never expected to be asked: “Don’t you get bored teaching the Pentateuch after 30 years?” His answer — and the realization that followed — reveals the heart behind his decades of ministry at Multnomah.
In this episode, Dr. G shares the surprising and grace-filled path that led him to Multnomah — a journey shaped by missions, obedience, and one very unexpected job interview.
This video gives a tour of the Michell Library (formerly Central Theological Library). It explains how the library began and the services that it provides.