Rev. Harvard Stephens
The Rev. Dr. Harvard Stephens, Jr., is the first dean of Siebert Chapel. He is a third generation Lutheran pastor and a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. He and his wife, Linda, are residents of Kenosha.
Pastor Stephens came to Carthage in 2003 after serving as Lutheran Campus Pastor at Howard University in Washington, D.C. He has also served parishes in Maryland, Ohio, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. He is a graduate of Harvard University and the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. He preached at Carthage's baccalaureate service in 2001 and received an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree. He also has earned a first degree black belt in tai chi chuan from the Dennis Brown Shaolin WuShu Academy in Silver Spring, Maryland.
Pastor Stephens is active in many national and ecumenical ministries of the ELCA. He has been a featured speaker for MOSAIC, the ELCA's video magazine, and he has written feature articles for The Lutheran Magazine. As a pastor in Columbus, Ohio, he organized pioneering ministries for youth and was honored by the State of Ohio and the National Council of Churches for developing the Young Men with a Future program. While serving in St. Thomas, he produced and broadcast public service announcements that addressed the spiritual needs of Virgin Islanders who faced a difficult season of recovery and rebuilding after the devastation of Hurricane Marilyn in 1995.
Pastor Stephens served as chaplain to the 2005 Conference of International Black Lutherans in São Leopoldo, Brazil. He also traveled to the Taizé community in France as part of a delegation of ELCA college pastors in 2007. He has served as chaplain for the ELCA Young Adults in Global Mission discernment events. During the 2009 ELCA Youth Gathering in New Orleans, Louisiana, Pastor Stephens was the music director for the Multicultural Youth Leadership Event (MYLE) and performed with the House Band as a soprano saxophonist.
Pastor Stephens has preached all over the United States. He believes in the liberating power of preaching, but he also teaches that the best sermons are proclaimed without words, outside of pulpits, written on the hearts of people who embody and share the grace of God as they live with wisdom, justice, and compassion. He wants all students to believe: "This is no time to live an uninspired life!"
A selection of Pastor Stephens' sermons are available below: