Stories. I love stories and the people who tell them. I particularly like stories that are true. I want to invite you to listen to a story-teller tell a true story. Dr. Ben Fischer is one of the young professors at Northwest Nazarene University who makes me pleased and proud to come to work every day for I know that he is telling the true story of faith in his English classes in ways that are both memorable and formative.
Last Friday, Professor Fischer spoke in chapel at NNU. He told the story of the tragedy and comedy of life, how we as Christians in a fallen world are surrounded by the tragedy of evil, and yet how we are a part of the “divine comedy” that is made possible in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
I hope you’ll listen with interest as this gifted story-teller shares how he approaches life and the craft of teaching English. I hope you, too, are proud of what he does in opening the stories of life to NNU students through countless authors and story-tellers from across the years. Listen, think, reflect, enjoy and laugh. And remember, best of all the story is true.
That phrase captures one of my fondest memories of childhood vacations.
My dad would drive the Ford Galaxie 500, and my mom and we three children would take turns rotating between the back seat and front seat. I loved sitting in the front seat. I became the navigator. My dad would have me get the map out of the glove box, unfold it, find our present position, then find our destination and then determine the roads we would need to take to get there. Great adventures resulted from these readings and calculations—trips to Yosemite Valley, Crater Lake, the Columbia River Gorge, the Palouse of eastern Washington, the expanse of Big Sky Country, all the way to North Dakota and back.
In the simplest of terms, I was learning to read a map. I realize in hindsight, that my dad knew all along where we were going, but he was using those times to teach me, to help me learn a sense of direction. I was learning directions—giving directions—charting a course—reaching a destination.
Sitting in the front seat with a map on my lap… great memories and a great lesson.
Recently the University has been participating in a similar exercise. On a larger and grander scale, the Board of Trustees and our distinguished faculty have been looking at NNU maps. We revisited the Articles of Incorporation of 1913 and reviewed various iterations of the University mission from across the years, the most-recent version dating from 1984. In a very real sense, the essence of the NNU mission has not changed.
Yet we found value in taking out the map and seeing who we are and where we’re heading. It was important for us to check and make sure we’re still on course, still being guided by the things that have always directed our path. Inside this issue of The Messenger you’ll read an article written by Dr. Randy Craker, chair of the NNU Board of Trustees, and me highlighting the Board’s recent work in restating and reaffirming our mission. There’s also a companion article in which various alumni and friends reflect upon the newly approved NNU Mission & Values statement. I take great delight in reading about how their lives reflect the same values NNU holds dear.
I want you to know that we intend to be guided by the directions mapped out by our mission and values. They chart a course with an unchanging destination, a course centered in Jesus Christ.
Are you like me? Have you secretly learned the tricks of channel surfing extreme makeover reality TV? What do you mean you don’t know what I’m talking about? Sure you do! Just like me you want to take a peek. Here’s a tip. Don’t waste your time on the first 50 minutes; with just 10 minutes left in the hour, take a break from studying (or Wii), turn on the TV and see “the reveal”. The results. At no cost to the star of this week’s episode we see their new house on Extreme Makeover, their new look, or their TV-intended spouse. Neighbors scream as the bus is moved, children delight in their opulent new bedroom, families marvel at the wonder of fashion advise, remove this, add that, learning what not to wear, even seeing bachelors become husbands (I think that show’s 1-14). Life is wonderful. We are the entertainment masters of external reality.
Ever wonder what it would be like to have this experience, to appear as if your life had been transformed? Well, if you’re about to graduate from NNU, wait no longer! Your own version of the Extreme Makeover “reveal” is about to take place. Remember the question you answered over and over when you were getting ready to go to college, “What are you going to major in?”. There’s a graduation version of essentially the same question. Ready, here it is, “What did you do in college?” Uncle Charlie, Grandma and your snobby cousin Tiffany are coming to your graduation and they expect you to be different. They want to see the change. More knowledge, more direction, older, wiser, a list of accomplishments, an academic pedigree. This is what I did in college. Do you see the difference?
Truth be told, you may be asking yourself another extremely important question, “What am I going to do?” Here you stand. Diploma in hand. Your car packed, time to leave. What happens now? What are you going to do?
This is the question that doesn’t get answered in 60 minutes of TV air time. In fact, though you’ll reveal some of what you’ve “done” at your 10-year reunion, the answer to this question of goals of accomplishments, dreams and achievements accrues over time. Furthermore, as you “commence” on May 8th get ready to go out into the world and answer when people ask, “What do you do?”. It’s how the world will soon rate, categorize, stereotype and pigeon hole you. We hope we have equipped you to answer this question. As a university we have invested ourselves in you, challenged you, and required certain things of you, just as we hope that you have placed certain expectations on yourself. In fact, we hope you realize now, that you have done more, achieved more, than you thought possible.
But don’t leave here thinking that all these questions about external accomplishments, mingled with our culture’s obsession with outward appearance, are what we think are the most important things to take away from here. If there is any extreme makeover that we hope to have cultivated in you, we hope it is internal—inside out.
Far too often we become so driven with “doing” that we lose sight of the value in “being”. A question of ultimate significance may be, “Who do you want to be?” Performance does not necessarily create meaning. What you do may not be as important as who you are. Do you believe that? Is it possible that statement is true? As Christians, we hear the metaphors of old creature and new creature, take off the old, put on the new. How do we capture the extreme difference between the world’s way and Christ’s way? I confess that when I begin to understand that the most important attributes of life dwell within, I’m tempted to try and make them happen on my own. Can I cause the fruits of the Spirit to grow within me? Can I work to become more Christ-like? It’s as if I’m trying to cosmetically alter the “old creature” by doing good works, instead of the truly radical, extreme possibility of having God create a “new creature” within me.
God really does want to create a new way of being. His transformational model is so complete, so radical that Paul calls it dying. All of Paul’s accomplishments, all the things he had done which gave him notoriety, he counted them as loss compared to the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus as his Lord. Paul had died and his life was hidden in Christ. How radical is that? More extreme than a surgically-altered reflection in a mirror, isn’t it? Your extreme makeover, my extreme makeover, the one intended for us by God, takes a lifetime.
Becoming the person we pray for you to be will not occur through surgical sleight of hand, fashion sense or social station. If we have served you well as our students, our apprentice learners and most importantly our fellow disciples, we have humbly sought to model a life lived through Christ. As Dallas Willard reminds us in Renovation of the Heart, we must dwell on spiritual transformation (read these passages: Romans 12:1-21, I Corinthians 13, II Corinthians 3:12-7:1, Galatians 5:16-6:10, Ephesians 4:20-6:20, Philippians 2:3-16, Colossians 3:1-17 [memorize this one], 2 Peter 1:2-10, I John 4:7-21) and seek, by God’s grace, to become the “new person” the writers describe. Your inner transformation can and will only be made possible by the indwelling presence of Christ. Radical change happens as we “partake in the divine nature”.
We pray for you as you leave. We know accomplishments, trials and achievements will come. You will do good things! But beyond that we pray you leave here committed to continue learning the mystery of the Gospel, that Christ dwells within you. Realize that Jesus seeks to implant God’s love within you (John 17:26). Only then will you be transformed from within in order to share His love without. So go now, be His disciple, live in His reality.
Who are you following? Which way have you chosen? This season of the year we remember the choices made by Jesus. To follow the Father and drink the cup set before Him. It is fitting for us to do the same. To hear Christ’s call “follow me”. These are life changing words. Words that demand a verdict. The following video is a chapel message I recently shared with the student body. I hope you are captivated, as I am, with Christ’s call to us all. May I learn to “follow Him”, may we learn to follow Him together!
My father-in-law had a well-known saying. You know the kind. When the words are spoken, everyone around the table moans, rolls their eyes, and completes the saying. In my father-in-law’s case, it was: “I would give the last shirt off my back…to send my child to a Christian university.”
There are layers of history and meaning in that statement—a history of sacrifice, value and commitment. My father- and mother-in-law were graduates of a Christian university; he paid for his four children to attend a Christian university; and, he set up a fund to assist his grandchildren to follow in their steps.
As I write these remarks, I’m thinking of the families of faith of this generation—parents who have children that are seniors in high school. As well-trained American consumers, we tend to be focused on cost as we begin our process of college selection. I want to suggest we should do more than count cost in dollars—we should determine value. The cheapest is seldom the best.
This is the time of year when families gather around the table and look at college expenses. I want you to know I am praying for you as you gather ’round that table. We are committed to keeping the NNU experience excellent and affordable. As you weigh options, I hope you will do so with a sense that the decision reached is an investment in the years of a life.
I encourage parents to think about investing in the value of their child’s future. Good investments appreciate over time. My expenditure in my children’s college is a continuation of the investment I already made—my care, my values, my priorities and my faith have become a part of who they are. I want to invest in a university that will honor these values and continue what I have started while providing my children with an educational experience that focuses on the whole person—heart, soul, mind and strength.
NNU has ordered its institutional priorities to partner with you in investing in your child. Our team assesses academic promise, family need, travel and life circumstances, and then creates a customized financial aid award package.
I hope you will enter into a partnership with Northwest Nazarene University. If you do, we pledge to provide an affordable aid package that will yield dividends for a lifetime. Please call on our staff in Admissions and Financial Aid for guidance and assistance in this once-in-a-lifetime decision. Let us help you send your child to Northwest Nazarene University!
Thirty minutes from NNU’s front door to the foot of the hill; 30 minutes up the hill; a lift ticket; a lesson that runs from 4 to 6 p.m.; and then… it’s night skiing until 10:00 p.m.—how cool is that?
Check out the photo. My wife, Sandy, is taking the ski class, and yes, that is me playing hooky from the office so I can spend a late afternoon on the slopes with her.
NNU is a great place to go to college! Idaho is a great state to live in! The Northwest and Mountain States hold some of the most breath-taking sites and scenes in the United States. I am truly blessed to be a part of this place called NNU.
As a university we capitalize on what this place has to offer. In addition to SKI NNU, I’ve witnessed our students study birds of prey along the Snake River, seek to save the giant Idaho salamander in the Sawtooth Mountains and work to be good neighbors by painting the homes of local senior adults. We’ve gone on spiritual retreats and taken the whole freshman class on Fresh ’09—our get-acquainted getaway in McCall.
Last semester the Campus League intramural crowd held an NNU Survivor weekend beside a mountain stream, and I even tried my hand at fly fishing (I know, it’s impressive; and yes, it was catch and release).
In addition to the beauty of the Idaho outdoors, there are the cool places we like to gather: the Flying M coffee house; Brick 29 Bistro; a quick trip to P.F. Chang’s in Boise; or, a burger at Donnie Mac’s (as seen on Diners, Dives and Drive-Ins).
If this sounds like a commercial, it is. I’ve been here 20 months and I’m still making a list of the places I want to go and the things I want to see—my NNU bucket list.
You see, when our children were little, they would sometimes complain they didn’t have anything to do. So, we developed a family saying. It goes like this: “You are responsible for your own fun!”
I want people to know about the layers and layers of great things to do if you attend NNU. I haven’t even touched on watching the ’Saders play, or going to watch “Oklahoma!”, or taking in the Boise Philharmonic in the NNU Brandt Center (for free), or representing your intramural squad in flag football or the bowling tournament, or the chili-cook-off, or the NNU version of Amazing Race!
Come on, SKI NNU!
Across the past several months I have observed politicians and pundits prognosticate regarding the health and stability of our country. Some look backward, assessing causes and effects; some look forward, projecting outcomes and rebounds. We would all agree that these economic times have caused us to step back and consider our own place in all of this and the promise of 2010 and beyond.
I have been President of NNU for 20 months. During this brief span, my colleagues and I have also looked back and looked forward at the effect of these times. I want to take a moment to provide some insight and perspective on the health, position and promise of NNU—captured in three verbs.
To Thrive—I have had the opportunity to know NNU’s people and programs, and I am so pleased that in God’s providence I have come to serve at a place that is thriving! Over these last months, NNU has and continues to enjoy its largest enrollment in the school’s history, enrolling nearly 2,000 degree-seeking students. These young men and women have joined us to participate in a wide assortment of high-caliber academic programs delivered by teacher-scholars who are adept at their craft. This is possible because the University is fiscally sound. NNU enjoys cash reserves that are a testament to the generous heart of people who have invested in the long-term vitality of the University. NNU is thriving!
To Commit—new presidents have the responsibility of guiding the university forward. I have had the privilege of reminding each of us of our covenant commitments. The University is committed to placing Jesus Christ at the center of who we are and all we do. Accordingly, we have heightened our emphasis on spiritual formation and servant leadership. Across the campus and across our curriculum, we seek to wed faith and reason; this is who we are, what we commit to be. We have also taken steps to review our internal effectiveness and efficiencies. We know we are called to be effective stewards of what has been entrusted to the university. Most importantly, we have made commitments to our current and incoming students. Despite global downturns in investments, we have reapportioned budgets and funds in order to make a record number of scholarships and grants available. NNU is committed!
To Reach—I have been engaged in higher education for over three decades. In that time I have come to observe that individuals and institutions that reach forward and look up, prosper. The University is looking toward its centennial in 2013 and is positioned to cope with the present and invest in the future. Consequently, NNU continues to expand. We are enjoying our new Thomas Family Health & Science Center and laying plans for future expansion. We have added to our majors a degree in engineering to position ourselves to prepare for jobs that don’t yet exist. Concurrent with this, we seek to make an NNU education an accessible investment. I believe an NNU education is a value-rich experience, that we work to make accessible to as many as would join us in investing in the development of the whole person—heart, soul, mind and strength. For this is what we truly reach for—a life lived in relationship with and service to Jesus Christ. NNU reaches for Him!
If you’d like to contribute to this conversation, please comment on this post or email president[at]nnu.edu. May 2010 be a year in which you sense God’s presence, guidance and blessings.
Have you ever had an “Eli moment”? You remember the scene from the life of Samuel? The young boy lived in the temple. His mother, Hannah, had given her son to God’s service. He did the bidding of Eli the priest.
The account of First Samuel tells us that the boy Samuel was growing in stature and favor with God and with man. He was becoming an adolescent who sought God.
Then one night, as Samuel lay sleeping. He heard someone call his name, “Samuel”. Thinking it was Eli, he called out “Here I am,” ready to serve his master. However, Eli told him he hadn’t called Samuel. Go back to sleep. A voice calls Samuel’s name a second time, again, the response to Eli, again, it wasn’t me.
Yet the wise priest realizes, perhaps another is calling the boy. Eli instructs Samuel to determine if the voice calling Samuel’s name is the voice of the Lord.
A third time, the voice calls, “Samuel”. This time the boy answers, “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.”
Samuel went from confused to called. From wondering who was calling to placing himself in obedient readiness to the call of His Lord.
Several weeks ago, on the campus of NNU, young people, about the age of Samuel gathered for THE CALL. The Call is an event sponsored by NNU and Nazarene Youth International that seeks to come alongside young men and women who are seeking to determine who is calling them, and to what.
Students at The Call Conference
They are in the midst of their Eli moment. Seeking to sort out what God would have them be and do with their lives. The Call is designed to act like Eli, to help young people who sense a certain call of God upon them. Would God want me to serve him as my life’s vocation? Shall I prepare for this by pursuing a call to full-time ministry? Can I serve God best in this capacity or would He have me serve Him in some other role than pastoral ministry?
Sorting out voices is no small thing. It wasn’t for Samuel; it isn’t for these committed young people. We hear the voices of our parents, our pastor, our teacher, our favorite grandparent, our youth pastor, all calling our name. And we wonder, “Is this of the Lord?” The Call is an opportunity to gather and pray and listen and discern who is calling.
In another sense we all have Eli moments. Times in our lives when we seek to know what God would have us do and become. College is filled with “Eli moments”. Young people seeking to know the will of God for their lives. All these young people, so full of promise and passion for life. Seeking to discern God’s call upon their lives.
We have the privilege and responsibility, as the faculty of NNU, to stand alongside these young people and give guidance and provide preparation for life’s journey. Some students go through college with great clarity of purpose. Many, many more wrestle with the fact that a particular job doesn’t seem to be what should guide all of life’s choices. We stand to help them learn the wisdom of being broadly educated, able to solve the problems of life and work, all the while seeking to model lives lived in relationship with God.
Then, in the ripe times, the Eli moment times, we have the privilege of helping lead to an understanding of how best to answer God’s call to life’s opportunities and challenges. This sacred experience is different for every student, yet there is a thread of service that is woven through the spirit of NNU, our faculty and our students. A spirit of those called to serve God in any and all capacities. This spirit of obedience and eagerness to seek and serve Him is captured in the words of Frederick Buechner, in writing on work and vocation when he says, “the place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”
May God bless all those who listen, hear and answer.
The picture above this journal entry reminds me of a line in a song. Long ago, I used to have the privilege of conducting Handel’s Messiah. It’s nice work if you can get it. Perhaps you have had the opportunity to sing in a presentation of Messiah. Or at the very least, I hope you enjoy hearing its beautiful Baroque tones.
The picture reminds me of a line in the most famous segment of Handel’s Messiah, “The Hallelujah Chorus”. The lyric is taken from Revelations, Chapter 11, verse 15. Handel directs the orchestra and singers to softly perform in low tones the words, “the kingdom of this world [pause for dramatic effect]… is become”, and then with a roar of power and great contrast singers and orchestra are instructed to leap up an octave, play loudly, and proclaim, “the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ”. The statement doesn’t end there, Handel crafts melodic lines that gather momentum and intensity with the words, “and He shall reign forever and ever!”
Two kingdoms are represented in this picture. The Capitol of the State of Idaho. The manger. The kingdom of this world. The Kingdom of Our Lord and of His Christ.
There they were, living on this earth, doing their fallen, human best to make things work. Then it was Caesar Augustus and Pilate, now we have our own governors and magistrates. But it’s still the same. Around the globe, people doing their best, on their own to make things work in this fallen world.
And then…something happened, something completely outside of Rome’s strategic plan or Jerusalem’s power hungry hopes. A baby is born, down the road from the center of human authority, amidst dust and damp straw, infant tones. Into “the kingdom of this world” comes one beyond our imagining, power humbly wrapped in love. In His coming everything changes. The kingdom of this world becomes, the Kingdom of Our Lord, and of His Christ. Jesus, the Messiah, has come.
Either this is the new arch of history or a ridiculous myth or nice fable to share and celebrate. I believe, we at Northwest Nazarene University believe, it is the coming of God into His world. Word became flesh. Dwelling among us.
I believe that when Jesus taught us to pray, “Thy Kingdom come…” He was calling us to remember that He is the answer to this prayer. He has come and in His coming His Kingdom has been established. Yet it is not fully here. He has come. He will come. In between, He calls upon us to continue working on His behalf, to incarnate Him and in so doing to be His Kingdom agents, His Kingdom citizens.
That is what motivates us as a university. To continually discover where people are living in a lowly state and to go to them and gloriously proclaim that “the Kingdom of Our Lord and of His Christ” has arrived. We, and the world, will never be the same.
As you celebrate this Christmas, I hope and pray you will join me and the NNU community in remembering that He who came will come again. And until He does, He calls upon you and me to learn ways to sing His song of redemption, peace and good will.
He gave. At the heart of what we call Christmas is God giving. Not the gift of something, but someone. God, the One who spoke worlds into being, now gives a gift that reveals, reconciles and redeems. He gives Himself. World-creating word becomes human flesh and lives among us. His self-revealing gift of Himself.
I don’t claim to know the theological intricacies of the incarnation. But I know about being a father, receiving a child into the world and then participating in giving that child to the world.
Me, with the two children I had the privelege of receiving and giving.
That is, in effect, what happens with parents and children (that’s a photo of me, with the two children I had the privilege of receiving and giving). We are presented with this gift, this child. We receive the child into our midst, as if it is ours, and yet, in just a few short days, we come to realize that though this is our child it is “other”. The gift-child—fragile and vulnerable—with needs and cares quickly displays its tendency to choose and grow, express and become.
We make choices for the child, but we also guide the child in learning how to make its own choices. Choices for the child’s good. Choices that align with what we value and hold dear, yet always the knowledge that this child of mine, is learning to choose, and act, and be.
I know that it’s somehow silly to draw comparisons between heavenly Father and earthly parent, to say nothing of looking at Christmas and thinking of college. Yet that’s how I’m wired, so here I go.
God gave. We give. All that God was and had He revealed and gave to His Son. Likewise, we who parent, give and display ourselves for our children to see and become. And then, probably for reasons different than God’s, we end up at the same place God and His Son ended up, that time, that junction, when that which was gift-received must have the privilege and responsibility of choosing to leave. To become gift-given.
Philippians Chapter Two beautifully captures the wonder of the Jesus Child’s choice, leaving His place with the Father, setting aside His place of privilege and coming to fulfill His destiny. And there’s us, as we who have the privilege of being parents reflect upon the wonder of Christmas, may we, in a few moments of our time reflect upon how we too must give away our children. Allow them to make choices of destiny and eternal purpose.
May we look to the heavenly Father and learn from His loving, vulnerable example, that for our children to become fully alive we must learn the loving art of giving them away to fully become themselves.