Introducing Master of Arts in Global Leadership Alumnus Hayden Garner

The M.A. in Global Leadership program was designed to equip students with the needed skills and credentials to pursue ministry in non-traditional settings. Alumnus Hayden Garner is one such student who uses what he has learned in the MAGL program to impact lives in a non-traditional way, all for the Kingdom.

Hayden Garner grew up in Austin, Texas, in a Christian home. He remembers fondly, "I was discipled to faith by my family and came to have a relationship with Christ at a young age." When asked what one word Hayden would use to describe God in his life, he answered, "Patient or steadfast!" He shared, "What a gift it has been to see the Lord's constant pursuit of me over many seasons. I would have given up on me long ago, but Jesus continues to draw me close to Him."

Hayden moved to Dallas to pursue a degree in marketing at DBU and stayed to get his M.A. in Global Leadership in 2017. Hayden is currently using the skills he learned in the MAGL program as the Area Director for Young Life North Texas Capernaum, where he leads their outreach program for young people with disabilities. He stated, "I would encourage you to consider inviting people with disabilities into your ministry and life- they are truly an unreached people group, and yet a population that crosses every socioeconomic and cultural category. Jesus spent much time with people with disabilities, and every kid deserves a chance to respond to the gospel."

The MAGL program challenged Hayden in his views of what a relationship with the Lord looks like and gave him the skills of cross-cultural communication and storying that he uses in his ministry today. When asked what advice he would give MAGL students, he discussed the importance of investing in relationships with professors and classmates noting that he is continually blessed by the relationships he built while at DBU. He also advised, "Take it to heart that prayer is the greater work and that your personal relationship with Christ is the most important factor in your life and ministry. If you aren't cultivating intimacy with Jesus, any work you do will be out of your own strength and not His!"