Center Point, a Gainesville non-profit agency providing support and treatment services for local youth and families, has named Andy Shaffer as Director of Religious Education.
Shaffer will lead the religious education program with plans to expand it to include more classes in the newly opened Center Point office in South Hall.
“We’re excited to have Andy join our staff,” said Center Point Executive Director David Smith. “He has a strong background in religious education that will be an asset to our students.”
Shaffer, a graduate of Ohio Northern University and Candler School of Theology at Emory University, is a Pennsylvania native who currently lives in Atlanta.
According to a news release from Center Point, Shaffer has a strong research background. His current research focuses on racial injustice in the context of religious organizations and practical theology. His previous research includes religious responses to violence and pacifism, post-modern readings of Ecclesiastes and theological-ethical approaches to climate change. He is deeply influenced by the work of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Reinhold Niebuhr, Paul Tillich, Albert Camus, and Wendell Berry
