David Copeland

Thanks for taking the time to check out my staff page. This is what I’m passionate about in life, and therefore I enjoy sharing it with others. I have a Masters in Educational Ministries, with a certificate in Leadership and Camp Ministries, from Wheaton College.  I love creation, my beautiful wife Elizabeth, my dog Dakota, and the writings of Nouwen, Palmer, Bonheoffer, Helprin and Wendell Berry. Someday, I will craft my own canoe.

I see education and leadership as being synonymous. I don’t mean the education of facts and formulas, although those can be an imperative tool of a leader. By education, I mean the ability to observe the place where students are, to know where they need to go, and the ability to facilitate them along that journey. One of the greatest challenges of any Christian leader is to realize that it is not the teacher that defines who students are as well as who they need to be, but it is Christ and Christ alone that claims that right. What a high demand of responsibility it is for leaders to bring those they are leading to that place that Christ defines, because the environment and manner in which the leader facilitates this growth can have a life altering impact.

Bighorn is a place to enter fully into that process. We use adventure and community as an environment to allow growth to occur.  We teach skills so that students can continue to use this environment to deepen their growth. We teach leadership, to show the students how to usher others into that life altering growth in Christ.