Gilbert Bilezikian is a French-born American Christian writer, professor, lecturer.
Education
Bilezikian earned his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Paris, his Master of Divinity from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and his Doctor of Theology from Boston University. He also pursued a seven-year post-doctoral program at the Sorbonne in Paris under Professor Oscar Cullmann.
Career
The publication further states that without Gilbert Bilezikian, "There would be no Willow Creek—no small groups, no women in leadership, no passion for service". He was reared in Paris, France by parents who were Armenian refugees. Bilezikian was drafted in the French army where he served as a medic in North Africa during the Algerian liberation conflict.
He first came to the United States in 1947, and then again in 1961 to serve for five years as pastor of the Loudonville Community Church in Albany, New York Returning to Paris for seven years, he taught at the European Bible Institute while serving, for part of that time, as Minister of Christian at the American Church in Paris.
Foreign 20 years he was a professor at Wheaton College. Bilezikian interrupted his tenure at Wheaton to assume for three years the presidency of Haigazian University in Beirut, Lebanon, and to teach two years at Trinity College in Deerfield, Illinois.
In 1992 he became Professor of Biblical Studies Emeritus at Wheaton College, having been designated Senior Teacher of the Year in 1981 and again in 1992. He is the only faculty member in the history of Wheaton College to have received this distinction twice within the span of a decade.
The authors included Bilezikian, West. Ward Gasque, Stanley Gundry, Gretchen Gaebelein Hull, Catherine Clark Kroeger, Jo Anne Lyon, and Roger Nicole.
He was a scholar with the Institute for Advanced Christian Studies. As a professional theologian and a church growth expert, Bilezikian is frequently called to lead seminars and to lecture in the United States of America and abroad. He is an approved speaker for the Staley Distinguished Scholar Lectures.