The Siburt Institute at Abilene Christian University, established in 2012, is adding a Scholar-in-Residence program to its offerings.

The first appointment is Collin Packer, who will serve during the 2024-2025 academic year. Packer received his bachelor of arts in Christian ministry and master of divinity from ACU.He then served as the lead minister for prominent Churches of Christ in Littleton, Colorado, and Allen, Texas, for the next 13 years. As his calling evolved, Packer transitioned out of full-time church ministry in 2021. Since that time, he has served as the Director of Faith-Based Partnerships at CitySquare, a poverty-fighting nonprofit in North Texas, and as the Communications Director for State Representative Carl Sherman during Texas’s 88th Legislative Session.

Collin Packer

Packer also serves as the Co-Chair for MARCH (Ministry for Awareness, Relationships, Change & Healing), a Dallas-based, multiracial group of Christians who work to manifest the gospel through love, peace, and justice. He and his wife, Holly, are high school sweethearts. They were married in 2004 and have three children: Maddox, Addison, and Brooklyn. Though his family and passion for justice are his first loves, Collin enjoys golfing, reading, and avidly following Dallas’s Big 4 teams: the Rangers, Cowboys, Stars, and Mavericks.

The following is from a news release from the Siburt Institute:

“The Siburt Institute’s Scholar-in-Residence program will support practitioner-scholars doing significant applied research that meets the rigor of the academy and that serves the life and mission of the church. The goal of this work is to provide solutions to identified challenges or needs through 1) evaluation of existing solutions, 2) research and development of new possible solutions, or 3) action research—investigating an identified problem while simultaneously engaging in an intervention that seeks to attend to the problem. The research work coming out of the program will concretely attend to the life and practice of local congregational life and mission, and Collin’s particular focus is a theology of public witness for Churches of Christ in the 21st century. We look forward to working with Collin as he produces artifacts that will serve the academy and the church.”