MYADDRESS WAS CHANGED WITHSO PROFESSIONAL
Who’d you think about: Parents or other family members? Professional mentors or co-workers? How many of you thought of a teacher or professor? I’ll let you know when the half-minute is up… We’re short on time, but let me give you a silent gift of 30 seconds to do likewise: think about someone - near or far, living or dead - who helped you become who you are today through their love and encouragement. But wherever they are, if they’ve loved you, and encouraged you, and wanted what was best in life for you, they’re right inside yourself. Some, like my astronomy professor, may even be in Heaven. A gift of a silent minute to think about those who have helped you become who you are today. I’d like to give you all an invisible gift. Rogers had invited Dartmouth students to do at the end of his 2002 commencement address:
At the end of the film, director Morgan Neville borrowed a trick from his subject and asked each of his interviewees to do what Mr. So what does that mean? Let me try to illustrate it through the two best movies I’ve seen this year.įirst, Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, the acclaimed documentary about Fred Rogers, the gently powerful Presbyterian pastor ordained as an “evangelist to television” in the 1960s. We are not peddlers of God’s word - or even of any subject matter that came into being through the Word of God - but persons of sincerity sent from God as what Paul later calls “ambassadors for Christ” (2 Cor 5:20), not regarding our students from a “human point of view” - as customers or consumers - but as new creations being reconciled to their Creator. We can’t avoid that talk entirely, but my friends, that is not who we are.Īs the apostle Paul says in the verse that follows our theme verse for this retreat, “we are not peddlers of God’s word like so many but in Christ we speak as persons of sincerity, as persons sent from God and standing in his presence” (2 Cor 2:17). We faculty are assured that we are valuable, in the way that late capitalism assigns value to any assets - according to the demand of consumers, who in this case understand education to be a transaction: a purchase, or at most an investment. I want to explain what I think it means to be a member of this faculty.īecause especially in a time of economic stress, we’re being given another way of understanding who we are and what we do: In a million ways, we are told that we are employees of a company selling a service to customers. But now that today is here, I want to use my time for a different purpose, knowing that it’s probably my only chance to address nearly the entire faculty as president. We’ll get to such details soon enough this fall. When I first requested this time back in the spring, I expected to get up here and talk about Bethel’s fiscal challenges, or the Faculty Senate agenda for the coming year. I think it’s important that you hear from your elected faculty leaders, as well as our president, provost, and dean. Thanks to our Retreat Committee for their hard work leading up to today, and for giving me an opportunity to speak.
I didn’t reflect on the theme verse (“For we are the aroma of Christ to God,” 2 Cor 2:15), but instead took a bit of inspiration from one following it… Today is the first day of fall classes here at Bethel University, so I thought I’d share the brief address I delivered last Tuesday at our faculty retreat, as our faculty president for the coming year.
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