Dan Backens ’06
School of Divinity
As the founder and senior pastor of New Life Church, with three campuses in Hampton Roads, Virginia, Dan Backens leads one of the largest ethnically diverse congregations in America. A 2006 graduate of Regent University’s School of Divinity, Backens arrived in Virginia Beach 16 years ago, battling what he calls a “crises of ministry and faith.”
“I called out to my wife and said, ‘Honey, I think God has answered our prayers,'” he explains. “So we sold the house, brought every nickel I had to my name and came to school here. That changed the trajectory of my life.”
After earning his Regent degree, Backens started New Life Church inside a high school gymnasium in Virginia Beach. Now, it’s a growing multi-ethnic, multi-site congregation of more than 5,000 members with locations in Chesapeake, Norfolk and Virginia Beach, Virginia. It exists first to bless the Lord Jesus and then to enthusiastically serve locally and globally.
A frequent on-campus visitor and guest, Backens says of his alma mater, “There is a sense of divine preparation for a divine destiny here. This is what makes Regent University. … There’s something special about this place.”
Please join Impact staff and the extended Regent University “family” in praying for February’s Alumni World Changer, Pastor Dan Backens.
