(Presentation to the Board of Trustees Andrews University 2009)
Thank you for allowing me the opportunity and privilege of sharing some meditative thoughts with you this morning.
Let me begin by saying that I don’t think anyone in this room believes that he or she is here as a result of chance, happenstance, or random events in his or her life. We all take faith in scripture that tells us that if we acknowledge Him In all our ways, He will direct our paths. What others see as coincidence or probability; we see as evidence of the guiding hand of Providence. We believe that God determines the times set for us and the exact places where we should live.
My own life speaks to the immutable truth of this declaration, as I’m sure does yours. I’m here this morning to share with you from my experience why I believe God has drawn me to this place at this time. More specifically, I want to describe the difference between being a teacher at Andrews versus being a teacher at a secular university where I taught for 19 years.
The most obvious difference is the occasion and means by which you can witness to your faith. We are all called to be salt and light wherever we are, and to fill the places we occupy with the love of Jesus, so the expectations are the same. However, at a state university, in a classroom I cannot use the privilege of my position as a platform to express the reason for the hope that is in me, thus making unnatural what is the most natural of all impulses. I could make confession of my faith in my office in private conversation with students or colleagues but had to be very circumspect when in a classroom.
Here is just an example to illustrate my frustration. As a marketing teacher, I teach a course in Consumer Behavior, where I have occasion to talk about Materialism as a personality trait. In a state institution after discussing the research that has been done on the topic, the most I can do is state that religions have a different point of view when it comes to materialism and quote a Bible verse or two to illustrate the point.
At Andrews, I can begin discussion of this topic by asking students what the Bible has to say about this, asking for chapter and verse, and what they think is the intended meaning of the verse. I can share my own personal struggles with materialism, and then tell how God can give us the victory over the siren’s call of materialism that can shipwreck a life. Then, I can pray in class for Divine intervention in the lives of the students and myself to grant us eyes to see the deceitfulness of riches, the desire to store our treasures in heaven rather than on earth, and the faith not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of our minds to know His good and perfect will for us.
This is no mean difference in classroom pedagogy. At a state school I am a teacher who is a Christian. At Andrews I am a Christian teacher. This is a distinction with a very real and profound difference. Here I am whole and liberated. There I was fragmented and frustrated.
Teachers at Andrews can pursue Christocentric teaching that is forbidden at secular institutions of higher learning. I should stress that we are able to do this while excelling at the standards used by accrediting bodies to measure the quality of the educational process. One example supporting this assertion is that the Andrews University Teacher Preparation Program was the only institution to receive a perfect score by the State Board of Education out of 32 public and private colleges and Universities in the state of Michigan. I could cite many other examples that demonstrate that “Seek Knowledge, Affirm Faith, Change the World” is an operating philosophy rather than just a catchy slogan.
I should also say that we are not just talking about differences between Christian colleges and public universities. Other private universities that were founded as sectarian universities have chosen to pursue secular goals. In Harvard Yard there is the original university seal with the word “Veritas” surrounded by the phrase Pro Christo et Ecclesia. By the start of the 20th Century the seal reads only Veritas; as though it is possible to separate Truth from Christ. This change in educational philosophy ironically results in a place where, as Paul described to Timothy, people are “always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth” (2Tim 3:7).
When I was a student in the graduate school at Northwestern University, the Graduate bulletin had these words on the back cover: “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”
They have since removed this from their bulletin. I do not know whether they no longer believe it to be a valid guide for the intellectual life, or it lost its marketing appeal. Northwestern may point to its history and say that it was founded out of the Methodist tradition, but it has now become a secular university.
Secular does not mean neutral; it means that at that university search for truth is not centered on the conviction of the university community that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the life. Secular universities have governing convictions that repudiate the belief that God is the source of all truth. At Andrews, we are more than a university arising out of a Christian tradition, and more than a university affiliated with the Adventist Church. We are a community governed by the conviction that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.
When our motto says “Affirm Faith” we are declaring that the university exists for the purpose of affirming that search for truth begins with a personal relationship with the author of truth. Declaring that at a secular university would result in censure, for it violates the university community’s understanding of truth.
Our mandate is to provide a partisan perspective; theirs avoids it at all costs. Secular universities ensure that Christian philosophy is not privileged over secular worldviews. At Andrews, Christian philosophy is championed in every curriculum on campus.
The words of a familiar song go like this: “If you cannot preach like Peter, if you cannot Pray like Paul, you can tell the love of Jesus and say he died for all” Now, thanks to Dr’s Andreasen and Knight, Stembridge and Fortin, Schwab and Swanson, and the people in this room, I won’t get fired for doing that in a classroom.
At this very moment as I am speaking to you here, all across this campus in classes in biology and elementary education, in social work and graphic arts, in nursing and business, in architecture and agribusiness, and in scores of other subjects, teachers are lifting up the cross of Christ and seamlessly integrating faith and learning in ways that cannot be duplicated in secular universities.
The faculty at Andrews know that the most important lessons are learned when you do not separate Truth (capital “T”) from truth (Lower case “t”) in their disciplines. That is what makes Andrews that city on a hill whose light cannot be hidden, and that is why I am so thankful that God has called me back here again.
Prayer:
Dear Lord,
This is Your school, employing Your people, dedicated to Your Service, and not ashamed of proclaiming Your Truth for Christ and the Adventist Church.
Please bless the members of this, Your Board of Trustees, who are such a blessing to this place. Grant them wisdom and fill them with your Spirit as they deliberate. May your will be done in our lives and the life of this institution. These things we pray in the name of the author of all truth, Jesus Christ. Amen.
