ABOUT US
Just as a beacon offers a warning, guidance and celebration, bēkn's mission is to warn of current and growing needs of seniors and families in the church, guide and equip our church families to care for one another and celebrate the years of our aging loved ones.
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We work with church leadership to provide essential support for family caregivers and seniors by creating spaces for respite and renewal and facilitating meaningful conversations about wishes for the later years of life, illness or accident.
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We empower churches to become centers of compassion and care. This ensures that both seniors and their caregivers are supported in every aspect of their journey.
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Our mission is grounded in Scripture's call to honor our parents, care for the vulnerable, offer hospitality
and celebrate life.
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"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."
James 1:27
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"Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling."
1 Peter 4:9
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"Gray hair is a crown of glory; it is gained in a righteous life."
Proverbs 16:31
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"Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may go well with you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you."
​Deuteronomy 5:16
OUR TEAM
Our leadership consists of a dynamic mix of visionaries, strategists, and communicators. They come together from various backgrounds and expertise, but all have one common ground...care for our aging population and support for their families in a way that honors the image of God in each one.
C. Ben Mitchell, PhD.
Chairman
Dr. C. Ben Mitchell is an author and professor of ethics who served most recently for more than a decade as the Graves Chair of Moral Philosophy at Union University where he also served for three years as Provost & Vice President for Academic Affairs and Special Assistant to the President. Prior to joining the Union faculty, he taught ethics, including bioethics and contemporary culture, for a decade at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, where he was director of the Center for Bioethics & Human Dignity from 2006-2008. He continues to serve there as an affiliate professor of bioethics. He taught at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary from 1997-1999 and has led doctoral seminars in bioethics for Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, as well serving as an adjunct professor at Union University and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Ben brings a deep knowledge to the subjects of ethics of living and aging well in addition to recent experience of caregiving for his father during his last months of life in assisted living, in Chattanooga.