“If you’re teaching with love, you can’t always put cookies on the top shelf and expect students to reach them,” Dr. Mat Loverin ’98 says.
“There will always be a student that can reach that level, but if I only teach that student, then I’m going to have another dozen students in the class who are frustrated. The real magic of the classroom is when you can curate an environment that’s transformational for everybody.”
Mat has been teaching at Grace Christian University for nearly two decades, with a classroom philosophy focused on transformational relationships. After graduating from Grace Bible College in 1998, he went on to the University of Notre Dame where he earned his master’s degree and eventually his PhD in theology with an emphasis in moral theology and Christian ethics. With a wide breadth of knowledge and a foundation in the Bible, Mat teaches theology, philosophy, and ethics at Grace today. But for Mat, it’s not just about the content; it’s also about the context.
“The classroom is a gateway to mentoring,” he says, and his track record with students proves his commitment. In addition to mentoring, Mat and his wife, Michelle, provide premarital counseling to couples before Mat officiates weddings—a rich and rewarding way to impact students.
“I just got an email from a student who said, ‘Your words of affirmation to me and my performance in class have been one of the most meaningful things.’ I don’t necessarily feel a personal connection with every student,” Mat says. “But the fact that this student would say this to me, showed me that my feedback to that student was transformational.”
Theologically equipped
When Mat was a student, he says the emphasis on academic rigor was exactly the environment where he excelled. Pursuing his degree in biblical studies, he describes his undergraduate self as “academic,” “critical,” and “a handful.” He wasn’t satisfied with the answers everyone else accepted, and he pursued truth with an uncommon fervor. He pushed boundaries with doctrinal and denominational beliefs but was always well-intentioned. He wanted his faith—and Grace’s beliefs—to conform to Scripture in a way he could understand.
“I benefited tremendously from language studies,” he says. “I felt like I got a world-class education.”
He learned to read and translate Greek from Dale DeWitt, professor emeritus of Bible and theology, who wouldn’t accept his students’ “slapdash” translations and demanded higher quality work. The high-level expectations forced Mat to have high-level performance, and he benefited from it.
“And so when I got to Notre Dame, I felt extraordinarily well prepared,” he says. “There was nothing that came at me that I wasn’t theologically equipped to at least negotiate.”
While at Notre Dame, Mat returned to Grace’s campus for an alumni weekend with hopes to introduce himself to the new staff and faculty, which had changed since his time as a student.
“I came to meet the new administration and say, ‘Hey, this is who I am and I’m finishing my PhD, and I’d like to come teach here at some point.’ Just to get my foot in the door.”
During that alumni weekend, he met Michelle (Spykerman) ’04. A year and a half later, they were married and moved to Grace’s campus where Michelle was a resident director in the women’s dorms. Mat began teaching part-time while finishing his dissertation.
Teaching it forward
His teaching style was impacted especially by his professors at Notre Dame. He had been a teaching assistant; mentored by a professor, he learned teaching and grading techniques he still practices. One professor in particular, he recalls, would seamlessly incorporate student questions into his lecture, which made students feel heard and valued.
“I would be sitting in class thinking what he did was really cool. I wanted to be like that,” Mat says. From these experiences, he crafted his own classroom philosophy and prepared to teach. But the classroom today is a little different than when Mat was a student. It’s more than just education. With fewer college-ready high school graduates, and with the decline of biblical literacy, demanding academic excellence isn’t always helpful for every student.
“I was fortunate to grow up in a church with a lot of biblical literacy, so I was well-trained as a teenager coming to Bible college for the first time,” Mat says. “But that’s not the story of every student who comes to Grace.”
Transformational Relationships
Although there are many students who attend Grace for its biblical rigor and scholarly expectations, for the students who are already motivated to educate themselves, Grace’s community is key.
“You can learn anything through the internet or AI now—with good search terms, you can learn whatever you want, and you don’t need the classroom. But what you do need is someone who knows how to draw out of you something that couldn’t be drawn out any other way.”
Grace’s classes provide opportunities for transformational student-professor relationships that fosters growth and excellence, both academically and personally.
“There’s an ‘aha!’ moment in the classroom where you can see on people’s faces that they get it in a new way,” he says. “There’s a moment of illumination.”
With a college environment where the professor-to-student ratio is more manageable than most universities, Grace professors have more opportunities to connect with students on deeper levels, like spiritual and personal development.
“You know, in conversations that happen at 10 o’clock at night, when I come to my office to get a book that I forgot, and I happen to run into a student, and we have a 20-minute conversation that is life changing. That’s my impact. And it wouldn’t happen unless the student felt a relationship with me that comes from the classroom.”
For professors like Mat, those moments, however big or small they may be, are the most rewarding.
“I just want to make a little contribution. Maybe that little contribution for some people will be a life-changing contribution.”
Mat’s goal is to see students fulfilling their calling in whatever capacity that looks like. Maybe it’s starting a business, or being part of a church, or going to graduate school to pursue an academic career, or coming back to Grace to pay it forward. This is what success looks like for Grace graduates. There are certainly other aspects of life at Grace that impact students’ spiritual lives: chapel, athletic teams, student events, and peer relationships. But the impact of transformational relationships with professors like Mat is crucial for students, and it’s what sets Grace apart. Because at Grace, the goal goes beyond academic credentials: “I want my students to be transformed into the image of Christ.”
Sarah Cross ’24 holds a B.S. in Communication from Grace. Now she works in the Christian publishing industry and is a freelance writer and editor.
Read more stories like this in The Journey Magazine | Spring 2025 >
