Alumni Spotlight
Scott Abbott, 1999
Majors: Music and
Missiology
Minor: Psychology
Occupation: Counselor,
Writer, Actor, Musician, Missionary
Scott Abbott graduated from Evangel in May 1999 with a double major in Music and Missiology and a minor in Psychology. What may have seemed like a young man in a moratorium of “major” indecision was actually the quintessential example of Evangel’s uniqueness.
“Where else could I pursue everything I felt called to do and study it all within the context of my faith?” asks Scott. “Friends at Evangel would joke with me about my various studies: ‘So what are you gonna do, music therapy in Africa?’ Well, switch the continent to Asia and they called it.”
Since graduation, Scott has worked as an actor, private music instructor, counselor, missionary, writer and musician. He left Springfield in 1999 to take on a youth pastor/worship leader position back home in Canton, Michigan. Continuing the interest in psychology that was sparked during his Introduction to Psychology class with Dr. [Grant] Jones, Scott pursued an external Master’s Degree in Professional Counseling from Liberty University. To help pay for the degree, he did theater and taught trumpet lessons, using techniques he learned from his EU instructors Mr. [John] Shows and Dr. [Michael] Kolstad. Had he known he would someday get paid to act without “making it” in Hollywood or on Broadway, he just might have furthered his theater experience at Evangel!
In 2002, finally giving in to a missions calling he strongly felt during Spiritual Emphasis Week his freshman year, Scott headed off to join Youth With A Mission. While with YWAM, Scott ministered in 28 states and three countries. It was a prime display of Evangel’s Interdisciplinary Missions Degree Program, as he incorporated music into missionary work. In Cambodia, he led worship and taught music in orphanages, villages and churches. In America and Mexico he traveled with a pop rock band, using concerts as a means of spreading the Gospel.
Scott currently resides a few blocks from Central Park in Manhattan and works at New York City Rescue Mission, counseling homeless men. On the side, he is a freelance writer for publications such as On Course magazine; he gigs; and he ministers to Christian models, actors, musicians and other artists trying to be a light in a largely dark industry. “It’s amazing how God put passions in me years ago,” Scott says, “and then used education and experiences to help me realize my dreams.”