Navigating a suicide crisis requires a blend of spiritual grounding, community support, and concrete action. Join us for this Dean’s Forum to explore the key strategies for choosing life:

• Spiritual Grounding: Normalize suffering as part of the human and Christian experience, and anchor yourself in God’s unconditional love.
• Relational Support: Identify safe, trusted individuals and actively reach out for help.
• Actionable Hope: Cultivate hope and focus on building a life worth living.
• Practical Safety: Demonstrate your intention to choose life by creating concrete tools, such as a Hope Kit and a personal Safety Plan.

The Dean’s Forum discussion is free and is open to the public. No RSVP required for those joining online.

Registration is only required for those planning to attend in person at Gordon-Conwell—Hamilton. Lunch will be provided for those attending in person.

Register by Wednesday, October 14

The Dean’s Forum is hosted by the Academic Dean’s office. The event will take place in Alumni Hall in Kerr Building at the Hamilton campus of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. It will be streamed live through Facebook and at www.gcts.edu/live.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Karen Mason is a professor of counseling and psychology at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, where she has prepared students to be licensed mental health counselors since 2006. She is a native of Colorado (and loves to ski and hike). She learned French while growing up in France, some German while living in Austria, and some Haitian Creole while living in Haiti, teaching at Hope Academy. She has also lived in Pakistan, teaching at Murree Christian School. She completed an MA in Old Testament at Denver Seminary and an MA and PhD in counseling psychology at the University of Denver with a minor in industrial/organizational psychology.

In addition to being a licensed professional counselor and a licensed psychologist, she has managed teams and several high-impact projects at the Mental Health Center of Denver. Before moving to Massachusetts, she managed the Office of Suicide Prevention at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. She has worked in the mental health field since 1990 with clients across the age-span and in a variety of settings, including Lahey Behavioral Health. She is currently in private practice. Her research is focused on the clergy’s and faith community’s role in suicide prevention. She is a member of the American Counseling Association and the American Psychological Association.

Scott M. Gibson taught at Gordon-Conwell for 27 years, serving as the Haddon W. Robinson Professor of Preaching, before moving to Baylor University’s Truett Theological Seminary, where he held the David E. Garland Endowed Chair in Preaching and founded the PhD in Preaching program. After retiring from Truett in 2025, he continues to lecture there and, in 2026, returned to Gordon-Conwell as the Haddon W. Robinson Chair of Preaching. He remains active in teaching, lecturing, and preaching in churches, conferences, and seminaries.

An ordained Baptist minister, Dr. Gibson is co-founder and past president of the Evangelical Homiletics Society. His interests include contemporary issues in preaching, discipleship, pastoral ministry, and the history of preaching and evangelicalism.