Goshen College President James E. Brenneman spoke during the opening convocation on Wednesday, Sept. 5.
Photo by Jodi H. Beyeler.

Related links:

• View photos from the 2012-13 opening convocation and Applause Tunnel.
• Read a full transcript of President Brenneman’s speech “On Becoming a Passionate Learner” (as prepared for delivery).

GOSHEN, Ind. — Goshen College President James E. Brenneman opened the new school year with an impassioned call to action – that all Goshen students fulfill their God-given potential by becoming life-long passionate learners.

“As you enter Goshen College for the first time or as you get ready to graduate this year or if you are anywhere in between, I implore you, while you are here, catch the contagion of passionate learning. Become the passionate lovers of learning that God invites each of us to be. If you do, you will never be the same for the rest of your days,” he said.

Speaking on Wednesday, Sept. 5 at the first all-campus convocation of the 2012-2013 academic year, the president offered faith, academic and career advice during an address titled “On Becoming a Passionate Learner.”

Brenneman, a 1977 graduate of Goshen College who is starting his seventh year as president, began by welcoming students, faculty and staff to a new school year. He led the crowd in cheering for seniors, juniors and sophomores, first-year and transfer students, fans of technology and those who love books, newspapers and learning.

The president’s primary message focused on passionate learning, one of the college’s core values, and a subject for in-depth discussion and reflection during the coming school year. The college’s other core values are Christ-centeredness, servant leadership, global citizenship and compassionate peacemaking.

In introducing the topic, Brenneman recalled the colorful life of Professor Emeritus Merle E. Jacobs, an avid researcher of dragonflies, fruit flies, fish and birds. Jacobs, who taught at Goshen from 1953-54 and 1964-85, died in April 2008.

Brenneman said that when Jacobs was a boy, growing up in the Appalachian Mountains of southwest Pennsylvania, he loved all birds but was most passionate about yellow canaries. From a pair of birds, Jacobs developed a flock of 67 canaries – all living inside his family’s home. Fifty years later, Professor Jacobs was Brenneman’s genetics professor at Goshen College.

“Professor Jacobs was still obsessed with canaries and other birds, but he had branched out making quite a name for himself studying the genetics of aging in fruit flies. He loved his fruit flies almost as much as his canaries and almost as much as current Assistant Professor of Biology Andy Ammons loves his honeybees,” Brenneman said.

“If any of you haven’t yet stood in the midst of thousands of honey bees swarming all around you, while Dr. Ammons gives a lecture on the sex lives of honey bees, you haven’t yet lived on the edge of learning,” he said. “Professor Jacobs embodied, as Assistant Professor Ammons still embodies, the core value of passionate learning.”

Besides helping to develop greater expertise in one’s chosen vocation, Brenneman said that a passion for learning would have practical career implications for graduates.

“I can almost guarantee, that when you go to your first post-graduation job interview, one of the top questions you will be asked is this: ‘What are you passionate about?’” Brenneman said. “In his best-selling book, Corner Office, Adam Bryant interviewed over 700 leading CEOs in America and asked them: ‘What qualities do you see most often in those who succeed?’ Their overwhelming response was ‘passionate curiosity.’”

Although many people may believe a passion for learning is commonplace, Brenneman said in fact it is a “revolutionary” idea: “In the western philosophical tradition, the juxtaposition of passion with learning was damnable. The word passion, or pathos, was associated at one extreme with intense suffering, as in ‘the passion of Christ.’ Indeed, for nearly 2,400 years or so in learning circles, the idea of passion or pathos was considered a counterpoint to thinking or learning, like two magnetic learning poles repelling each other.”

Brenneman said the western tradition idealized thinking and belittled feelings, because it was believed that ideas were best accessed through reason, whereas passions were dangerous and misleading and operated on the lower level of human nature.

“God, by contrast, was considered ‘Pure Thought’ whose divine essence was thinking. God was above joy and sorrow and passion,” Brenneman said. “So it was that for nearly 2,000 years, Christian and Jewish theologians were embarrassed by the God portrayed in Scripture – a God full of passion; sometimes angry, sometimes elated, sometimes jealous, sometimes forgiving, at times weeping, showing compassion, intimate, personal.”

Given those longstanding biases, Brenneman said that Goshen College’s decision to claim passionate learning as a core value, “goes against the grain of the old story of western learning tradition and reclaims a missing piece – supported by Scripture – of a truly comprehensive liberal arts education.”

Brenneman pointed out that Albert Einstein had many passions outside physics, including sailing, playing his violin and building elaborate houses of cards. Einstein stated that his varied experiences sparked his creative imagination. In fact, Einstein credited the musical perception he developed as a child as the creative force behind his greatest insight, the Theory of Relativity.

“I find it rather ironic, then, that in our quest these days to strengthen science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) programs in our schools, we are more and more inclined to cut budgets for the arts and music, somehow imagining that those programs should be extracurricular and play second fiddle to the hard sciences,” Brenneman said. “So to our shame and to the long-term learning deficit at the highest levels of learning, students are getting more math without music, more science without images, more engineering without poetry, more technology without intuition and knowledge without imagination.”

Fortunately, Brenneman said, passionate learning is celebrated at Goshen College among students and faculty. He described a number of faculty members who are living out their passions for learning by exploring the physics of sound and shapes of bells, connecting with God and others through art, discovering a gene that causes blindness in homing pigeons and much more.

He also paid tribute to Rocio Díaz, the community outreach coordinator for the Center for Intercultural and International Education (CIIE), who is pursuing a bachelor’s degree at Goshen College despite great odds. “Here is a Latina first-generation immigrant to the United States, a mother who first helped put her own two daughters through college, and then, while working full-time, taking classes in her second language, has managed to go to GC and keep her GPA up to 3.7. Wow! That’s a passion for learning.”

Brenneman encouraged students to pursue passionate learning with all of their senses — a quest, he said, that was grounded in the teachings of Jesus Christ.

“When Jesus claimed that all of Scripture could be summed up in two phrases, the first of the two, pretty much defines, theologically, the meaning of being passionate: ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your might.’

“Jesus uses the word love and adds intensity to it. Love combines with passion to multiply endurance, discipline and self-sacrifice – all the ingredients you need to succeed over time,” Brenneman said. “So Jesus says, to love, desire, with all your senses. Love with every ounce of your mental powers. Love with every tensile of every muscle. Love passionately, love intensely, love with all you got.”

Brenneman’s remarks were preceded and followed by music. Assistant Professor of Music Christopher Fashun performed a percussion solo on a marimba. Afterward, Department Chair and Professor of Music Beverly Lapp and a string quartet led the campus community in singing the Alma Mater.

Afterward, and in what has become an 11-year tradition, the Goshen College “Tunnel of Welcome” or “Applause Avenue” was formed — two lines departed the sanctuary led by faculty and staff, who applauded the seniors, juniors, sophomores and finally the first-year students. Normally, the line progresses outside the building, but rainfall prompted a change in destination and all were treated to popsicles in the church Fellowship Hall.

–Written by Richard R. Aguirre

Goshen College President James E. Brenneman spoke during the opening convocation on Wednesday, Sept. 5.
Photo by Jodi H. Beyeler.

Related links:

• View photos from the 2012-13 opening convocation and Applause Tunnel.
• Read the press release about the convocation

Fall Opening Convocation message, delivered by Dr. James E. Brenneman, President of Goshen College, on Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2012, in the Goshen College Church-Chapel (as prepared for delivery)

Little Merle Jacobs was absolutely passionate about canaries. He loved all birds really.  For example, he loved chickens, even hypnotizing one once. He built his own telescope, not so much to watch stars, but to watch birds. And there were plenty bird species to watch in the Appalachian Mountains of southwest Pennsylvania, where he was born into a family of 11 children.

Merle loved birds, but was obsessed with yellow canaries. His aunt gave him a male and a female canary once and it wasn’t long until he had 67 canaries – all living in their house. Yep. His mom and dad aided and abetted his passion, giving up a closed in back porch that opened into his bedroom. The canaries were free to fly in and out of his bedroom at leisure. He also kept mice in the room as the scavengers cleaning up the fallen seeds, which the canaries dropped. I wonder who cleaned up what the mice dropped? (See his autobiography, Mr. Darwin Misread Miss Peacock’s Mind).

Some 50 years later, I had the privilege of having Professor Merle Jacobs as my genetics professor here at Goshen College. Professor Jacobs was still obsessed with canaries and other birds, but he had branched out making quite a name for himself studying the genetics of aging in fruit flies. He loved his fruit flies almost as much as his canaries and almost as much as current Assistant Professor of Biology Andy Ammons, loves his honeybees.

If any of you haven’t yet stood in the midst of thousands of honey bees swarming all around you, while Dr. Ammons gives a lecture on the sex lives of honey bees, you haven’t yet lived on the edge of learning. Let me just say, if humans were more like honey bees, look out men. And long live women, especially the queen bee. Professor Jacobs embodied, as Assistant Professor Ammons still embodies, the core value of passionate learning.

In our last convocation at the end of the last school year, I announced that the core value we would focus on together this school year was Christ-centered passionate learning. I can almost guarantee, that when you go to your first post-graduation job interview, one of the top questions you will be asked is this: “What are you passionate about?” If asked that question today, would you have answer?

In his best-selling book, Corner Office, Adam Bryant interviewed over 700 leading CEOs in America and asked them: “What qualities do you see most often in those who succeed?” Their overwhelming response was: “passionate curiosity.”

So, what are you passionate about? I won’t ask you to respond to that question today, but I would recommend that by the end of this year, and certainly by the time you go for your first job interview, you might have a ready response.

Let me tell you how revolutionary the core value of passionate learning truly is! In the Western philosophical tradition, the juxtaposition of passion with learning was damnable. The word passion or pathos was associated at one extreme with intense suffering, as in “the passion of Christ.” Indeed, for nearly 2,400 years or so in learning circles, the idea of passion or pathos was considered a counterpoint to thinking or learning (a-pathos/ without passion), like two magnetic learning poles repelling each other.

Literally, since the time of Plato in 400 BC, on through Philo, Aristotle, the Stoics, Maimonides, Aquinas, Descarte, and Kant, the standard story of learning in the whole Western tradition idealized thinking and belittled feeling. It was thought that ideas were best accessed only through reason, whereas passions were dangerous and misleading and operated on the lower level of human nature. God, by contrast, was considered “Pure Thought” whose divine essence was thinking. God was above joy and sorrow and passion. God was the Unmoved Mover. Apathy –  not sympathy or empathy – was said by Maimonides (Spinoza/Kant) to be the supreme core value. Impassionate learning and the capacity for impersonal objectivity became the norm for learning, especially in the sciences.

So it was that for nearly 2,000 years, Christian and Jewish theologians were embarrassed by the God portrayed in Scripture – a God full of passion; sometimes angry, sometimes elated, sometimes jealous, sometimes forgiving, at times weeping, showing compassion, intimate, personal, sympathetic was a crudity. Even more intolerable to such a world-view, was a God who came into this world of passions in human form: God-in-Christ. Given the standard philosophical assumptions of what by then had become the whole scientific world view, and given the bad insertions of theology into science from time to time, it became pretty easy to separate such a pathetic (pathos-filled) God from the rational enterprise of learning.

So when Goshen College goes on record saying a core value of ours is passionate learning, it is a wonderful, amazing confession that goes “against the grain” of the old story of Western learning tradition and reclaims a missing piece (supported by Scripture) of a truly comprehensive liberal arts education. Fortunately, over the past 50-60 years, a new story is being told of amazing new learning styles and methods that include the whole range of human experience.

If we would have asked Albert Einstein what his passions were, he probably would have answered, sailing, playing his violin, smoking his pipe and building houses of cards (he once built a house of cards fourteen stories high). All of these experiences, he said, sparked his creative imagination. Einstein once told the great music educator, Shinichi Suzuki, that the theory of relativity came to him by intuition and only because his parents had him play the violin since he was 6. It was his musical perception, Einstein said, that provided the venue and the creative force behind his greatest insight, theory of relativity.

Since music has both a spatial dimension (hearing in space) and a time dimension (meter), it may have been this relative connection between time/space that would aid him in creating his famous time/space equation – after the fact as it were. Einstein once claimed that language (including the mathematical equations he came up with) were only secondary explanations (second order learning) of what he intuited or subconsciously felt or discovered to be true.

I find it rather ironic, then, that in our quest these days to strengthen science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) programs in our schools, we are more and more inclined to cut budgets for the arts and music somehow imagining that those programs should be extracurricular and play second fiddle to the hard sciences. So to our shame and to the long-term learning deficit at the highest levels of learning, students are getting more math without music, more science without images, more engineering without poetry, more technology without intuition and knowledge without imagination (something Einstein said was an oxymoron). Let me underscore why then, here at Goshen College, we celebrate the core value of passionate learning as the best form of learning available to us. (See, “Imagine That! Einstein on Creative Thinking” by Michelle and Robert Root-Berstein, Psychology Today, 03.31.10).

I marvel at the fact that Goshen College Professor of Physics John Buschert is so very passionate about the connection between the physics of sound and shapes of bells. I love that Chad Coleman, our director of residence life, also known as ‘iChad,’ is so passionate about technology that he can make luddites like me and you get goose bumps when he talks about the amazing gift technology is to the world of learning.

I stand in awe at how Rocio Diaz, Community Outreach Coordinator for the Center for Intercultural and International Education (CIIE), embodies passionate learning viscerally.  Her enthusiasm and dogged determination to pursue her very own B.A. at Goshen College is truly amazing and against all odds. Here is a Latina first generation immigrant to the United States, a mother who her first helped put her own two daughters through college, and then, while working full-time, taking classes in her second language, has managed to go to GC and keep her GPA up to 3.7. Wow! That’s a passion for learning!

I am deeply moved by Assistant Professor of Art Kristi Glick’s passion for beauty in the particular enables her to connect with others and to God in amazingly profound ways as a maker and creator; or Professor of Bible, Religion & Philosophy Jo Ann Brandt, whose love of drama and movies led her to an amazing new way of reading St. John’s gospel impressing the scholarly world.

And then there is Professor of Chemistry Dan Smith, the “Bird Man,” a Chemist excited by homing pigeons, who, in the process of his pursuing his passion for the color of pigeons (not a chemical quest), discovered a gene for blindness in homing pigeons with possible historic implications for blindness more generally. Of course, the list of passionate professors and administrators and students could go on endlessly as it should be here at Goshen College.

So, what are you passionate about? What is it that invites your whole self to get all your senses involved in the joy of learning? In his book, Teaching that Transforms, Professor of History John D. Roth rightly argues that the outcomes of a good Christ-centered education must involve all our senses: sight or perception, touch or embodiment, taste or discernment, hearing or listening, finding one’s voice or vocation, and smell or attending the unseen presence around us. Such embodied learning must never be simply about student learning outcomes, but also must ring true to the way of learning and teaching all along the way.

When Jesus claimed that all of Scripture could be summed up in two phrases, the first of the two, pretty much defines, theologically, the meaning of being passionate: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your might.”

Jesus uses the word love and adds intensity to it. Love combines with passion to multiply endurance, discipline, and self-sacrifice – all the ingredients you need to succeed over time. The passion hormone, dopamine, isn’t enough to sustain such a rigorous commitment to learning. The love hormone oxytocin, sometimes called the trust hormone, the empathy hormone, the sympathy hormone, helps us truly learn during those times the passion ebbs and flows, as it must.

So Jesus says, love (desire) with all your senses; love with every ounce of your mental powers; love with every tensile of every muscle; love passionately, love intensely, love with all you got.

As you enter Goshen College for the first time or as you get ready to graduate this year or if you are anywhere in between, I implore you, while you are here, catch the contagion of passionate learning. Become the passionate lovers of learning that God invites each of us to be. If you do, you will never be the same for the rest of your days.”

President Jim Brenneman

Baccalaureate sermon, delivered by Dr. James E. Brenneman, President of Goshen College on Sunday, April 22, 2012 at the Goshen College Church-Chapel

Scripture Reading: 2 Corinthians 5:16-20

What a delight to be present together in God’s House with family and friends of our graduates from all around the world. I am reminded that the canopy of God’s grace is wide and broad, ancient and ever new creating at Goshen College that sacred space of learning, transformation and hope. Thank you for being here to celebrate with us the joy of a great commencement day.

2008, the year when many of you graduating today first came to Goshen College, was the year of Joe the Plumber, Barak Obama’s election, the year Puppycam went viral, the buzzword “Tweet” came into its own, 7” high heels were cool in Hollywood, and High School Musical 3 came out. Now, high heels lost an inch, maybe; texting has become the lingua franca; we’re in the middle of another Presidential campaign and Zac Efron has come of age in a new movie – thankfully, not HSM4. How time flies.

Don’t be surprised, however, if, someday, when you are a grandmother or grandfather and after your grandchild figures out when you came to Goshen College, they exclaim, “Wow, grandma, you mean you lived through the Great Recession of 2008? You probably don’t need reminding that just two months after most of you arrived on campus, the second biggest stock market crash in history shook our world, which quite literally made the usual first year stressors of college (new roommates, time management, relationships, grades, homesickness) seem like a whole lot of piling on.

To top it off, you began and endured throughout most of your college years two wars, non-stop political campaigning, and a near total loss in our national and civil discourse. And bookending your experience in this your last year, we experienced the unprecedented tragic death of our esteemed Professor of Biology, Jim Miller.

Wendell Berry, in his essay, “The Purpose of a Coherent Community,” [in The Way of Ignorance, 76-77]. reminds us that “there is no escape from the issue of context.” If it is true, as he says, that “the context of everything is everything else,” then the context and times of your college experience have meant that all the usual debates that happen on every college campus almost every year – conversations about the meaning and practice of faith, justice, patriotism, decision-making, identity, inclusion, politics — took on the zeitgeist (the spirit) of the times in which we live. Even though we sometimes like to see ourselves as not being swept up by cultural norms (i.e., being counter-cultural), it seems we have not been immune from the cultural influence of our fragmented times.

In times like these, various fears and paranoias are nourished in the extreme by prophets on all sides of the ideological spectrum, exacerbated by the likes of Rush Limbaugh on one side and Bill Maher on the other. Today, even our churches, while less segregated by race (at least ideologically speaking) than in the past, are more segregated by political ideology and political party than ever before. We are quite literally, “Divided by God” as a recent NY Times article declared [Ross Douthat, The New York Times, Sunday Review, April, 8, 2012, 1 & 6.]. Christ seems less and less the center of our common faith, than whether we are Democrat or Republican or a Tea Partier or Occupy Wall-Streeter. Into this milieu, your college careers unfolded.

So, I find it wonderfully refreshing that the Baccalaureate Committee of your peers chose for our sending message, the wonderful, powerful, liberating call of the Apostle Paul writing to the Corinthian church and so also writing to us. St. Paul calls us to become Ambassadors/Diplomats: “Ambassadors of Christ!” Ambassadors of hope. Diplomats of Reconciliation!

In a world where everyone on all sides of every issue in whatever profession considers himself or herself a prophet, do we really need more prophets running around? In a world where everyone on all sides of every issue considers himself or herself to be “rightly dividing the Word of Truth,” do we really need more clever exegetes and historical deconstructionists? In a world gone wild with moral ambiguity and indulgence, do we simply need ever more rigid legal and ethical guidelines, judicial decisions, and coercive moral arbiters? In a world of ever more selective identity politics, do we really need more excommunications by the right or left, the red or blue, the purple or other-than-purple? I sincerely doubt it.

In the closing days of our lives together here on this campus, our sending scripture reminds us that we part having been called to be God’s representatives on earth as in heaven: Ambassadors for Christ; Diplomats of Reconciliation. We are called to bring former enemies together, to unite friend and foe alike. How radical is that? In a world fraught with ideological conflict, being an ambassador, a diplomat, may just be the most radically counter-cultural calling one could ever hope to have. To be a diplomat of reconciliation is more radical than that of an apostle, a prophet, a priest; more so than a preacher, a teacher, a nurse; beyond that of an artist, an engineer, or judge. Whatever one’s major or profession, there is no greater vocation on earth. No more timely calling. None. Than the call to be an Ambassador, a Diplomat. An ambassador of Christ. A Diplomat of Reconciliation.

Jesus said in his great Sermon on the Mount, which underlies the mission of Goshen College, “if we are only friends with friends, how are we different from anyone else? Anyone can do that. Rather, it is when we are able to befriend foes that the true miracle of our faith is made plain for all to see.” It is that ‘second-mile’ love that demonstrates whether or not we are truly Christ-followers.

Here’s how it works – as simple and as difficult as this. God came to us in Christ, while we were still enemies of God, in order to re-establish a right relationship with God. And now, God has given each and every one of us this same “ministry of reconciliation.” Our greatest challenge going forward, especially in the day and age in which we live, may simply be to deeply befriend someone with whom we have profound disagreements.

The late great ethicist and theologian, Dr. James McClendon, a long-time friend, and sometime attender of our congregation in Pasadena, wrote a three volume systematic theology from an Anabaptist perspective. This work was his “last will and testament,” his magnum opus, the crown jewel of his life’s work. In his dying days, he literally thought he might not be able to finish the third and most significant volume of this trilogy. And so he turned to someone he trusted who knew him so well as to be able to complete his work for him. Someone who would write with the same voice, the same feeling, who would defend and reason with the same force and sense as he himself would were he to do so. The great irony of this relationship was that he and his friend disagreed on some of the most profound issues of life and faith. You see, his friend was an atheist. And at Dr. McClendon’s memorial service, his atheist friend eulogized Dr. McClendon by saying he knew of no other person who so profoundly showed him the meaning of the Christian call to be an Ambassadors of Reconciliation, a Diplomat for Christ.

I just returned from leading a group to one of the most conflict-riddled places on planet earth, Palestine/Israel. While there, we visited one of the great Christian leaders of that region, Rev. Zoughbi Zoughbi, founder and director of Wi’am, the Palestinian Conflict Resolution Center. He also happens to be the father of GC Junior, Marcelle Zoughbi. [I know some of you students here this morning spent last summer helping with Wi’am’s summer programs for kids. Zoughbi asked me to bring you greetings and heartfelt appreciation for your labor of love in this troubled land]. Wi’amin Arabic simply means, “cordial relationships” – developing relationships across profound differences. That is exactly what Zoughbi Zoughbi and his team do, day in and day out, year after year.

In the greatest of ironies, in the birthplace of Jesus, the little town of Bethlehem – where this Center is following Apostle Paul’s call to break down the walls of separation between enemies – a 30 foot high dividing wall between Israel and Palestine literally passes right along the property line of the Center. There in the garden, with a machine-gun laden watch-tower looking down on us, we gathered to have coffee with Zoughbi and his staff. You see Wi’am believes peacemaking and reconciliation often happens over coffee – sip by sip – in what Zoughbi calls ‘citizen-diplomacy.’ Zoughbi and his team have worked a lifetime to break down walls of separation between people – especially between Jews, Christians and Muslims — people who claim a common God through their common ancestor, Abraham – now locked in and traumatized by years of violent confrontation. In our parting, he presented me with the stole I am wearing today (red stole with Jerusalem crosses). I told him I would wear it at this service as a visual reminder of our common bond in Christ, our common call to be “Ambassadors of Reconciliation” and our solidarity with him in his holy work.

In a world of division, demonization, and polarization without end, as Wendell Berry reminds us, “the ground of our reconciliation will have to be larger than the ground of our divisions” going forward. The role of prophet may just have to give way a bit to that of diplomat, ambassador, and reconciler.

I know many of you. I have watched many of you work hard to befriend and get to know others who are very different than yourselves. Keep up the good work. You are an inspiration to me and others who see such gracious love on display and in action. I hope all of us leave GC with friendships of a lifetime, not just with those who are a lot like us, but also, those with whom we still have significant differences.

Being Ambassadors of Reconciliation isn’t about being the perfect diplomat. Rather, it’s a calling to live the kind of life that models what it means to be forgiven by and reconciled to God so that we can do the same for those around us, foe and friend alike.

As you depart, may you leave as diplomats, ambassadors of a life-changing story – hopefully learned and reinforced throughout your years here – a story shaped by the five core values of which you are now so familiar: to be compassionate peacemakers, passionate learners, servant leaders, global citizens, centered in the life and teachings of Christ (Christ-centered).

Would that you find that friend or better, make a friend, who is so different from you that the opportunity to be an Ambassador of Reconciliation, a Diplomat of Hope, is truly an opportunity of a lifetime. Would that you make a friend – someone you trust or trusts you no matter your profound differences. In so doing, your lives will truly manifest the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven. In so doing, healing and hope will be born anew in this broken world little by little, peace by peace.

• TRANSCRIPT: Speech delivered by President Brenneman at the Fall 2011 Opening Convocation

GOSHEN, Ind. – Goshen College President James E. Brenneman opened the new school year by encouraging first-year and continuing students to become “servant leaders” in the local community and the wider world.”Every one of you has been given a high charge to become servant leaders, a calling that may take you to the highest leadership positions in the world, or to the hovels of a refugee camp, or many places in between,” Brenneman said. “Martin Luther King, Jr., said of his calling, which is true of your own, my own, our own, ‘After you have discovered what you are called for, you should set about to do it with all the power that you have in your system. Do it as if God Almighty ordained you at this particular moment in history to do it.’”

Brenneman estimated that each year, Goshen College students, staff, faculty and administrators provide at least 30,000 hours of service in various ways nearby and all around the world. “And I believe we can do even better than that and will,” he said. “So go for it, servant leaders. Lead as if God ordained you to do so at this particular moment in history, and with all the power you can muster.”

Brenneman, speaking Wednesday, Aug. 31 at the first all-campus convocation of the 2011-2012 academic year, offered a humorous, reflective and challenging call to action during an address titled “Culture for Service Leadership: A Paradox Worth Living.” His 20-minute message, which contained numerous scriptural references and was illustrated with PowerPoint slides, was delivered to more than 600 people in the Church-Chapel.

Brenneman, a 1977 graduate of Goshen College who is starting his sixth year as president, began by welcoming students, faculty and staff to the “second happiest place on earth (after Disneyland).” He led the crowd in cheering for new and returning students as well as faculty and staff members.

He also gave a special welcome to Kennard Martin, a Physical Plant employee who will complete 50 years of service to the college on Sept. 6. “He embodies a servant’s heart. His is a labor of love,” Brenneman said of Martin. “He gets up before dawn, stays late when needed. He has mown our lawns, plowed our walks in the winter, day in and day out, for 50 years.”

Brenneman presented Martin with a plaque and proclaimed 2011-2012 as “The Year of Kennard Martin, Leader in Service.” Brenneman congratulated a visibly surprised Martin and the audience responded with a standing ovation that lasted for several moments.

The president’s main message focused on servant leadership, one of the college’s core values, and a subject for in-depth discussion and reflection in the coming school year. Goshen’s other core values are Christ-centeredness, passionate learning, global citizenship and compassionate peacemaking.

In his introductory remarks, Brenneman pointed out that “servant leadership” presents a paradox — a statement or concept that is seemingly contradictory, inconsistent or opposed to common sense or logic, and yet is true.

“The juxtaposition of ‘servant’ with ‘leadership’ creates a paradox, an odd coupling to be sure,” Brenneman said. “‘Servant’ suggests vulnerability, one who serves, or performs duties for another person or master or employer. ‘Leadership’ suggests king of the beasts or a person who takes charge of a situation or workplace. A leader leads, directs or has commanding authority or influence over others. A servant follows. A leader has followers. Servant leadership is a paradox.”

Brenneman explained that the paradox of “servant leadership” was introduced into the modern lexicon in 1970 by business leader Robert Greenleaf, who had worked for AT&T for 40 years and came to believe that the old styles of command and performance leadership were outdated, outmoded, and ultimately, unproductive. Combining the words “servant” and “leadership,” Greenleaf believed, would result in something more profound.

In doing so, Greenleaf acknowledged that he was borrowing from the paradoxical leadership style found in the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, who was king, but of an upside down kingdom where the last was to be first and the first, last, Brenneman said. “It was Jesus who said to his disciples when they were arguing over who would be top dog in the kingdom, ‘Here I am among you as one who serves (Luke 22:27).’ Jesus: servant leader/God becoming convict, Author of Life, dying on a cross. A paradox.”

Another business leader, Max Dupree, former chairman of Herman Miller, Inc., boiled down servant leadership to one of responsibility and gratitude, Brenneman said. “The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say ‘thank you.’ In between, a leader is to be a servant.”

Brenneman went on to suggest several characteristics of Christ-centered servant leadership that he recommended become central to the lives of Goshen students.”First, a servant leader embraces vulnerability as a strength. One of the great images of such vulnerable strength is that of water. Water is paradoxically soft and strong; it yields, caresses, soothes, heals, bathes, quenches, and sustains, yet water can wear a solid, rigid immovable rock into sand and patiently chisel a loamy riverbank into the Grand Canyon,” the president said.

“Such a servant leader listens with willful patience to others whose opinions differ, whose perspectives may not be the same as hers, trusting in the power of the Spirit, or the imagination and creativity of new ideas, to emerge by being openly vulnerable.”

He also encouraged students to live with joy — and laughter. “Laughter at oneself or one’s predicament is a ready sign of a Christ-like servant leader,” he said. “Nelson Mandela turned his own history into a humorous aside when he answered a reporter’s question with a quip: ‘In my country we go to prison first and then become President.’ Mother Teresa said of her labor of love, ‘I know that a loving God will not give me anything I can’t handle. I just wish that God didn’t love me so much.’”

Brenneman said a servant leader also shapes culture by defining reality or influencing culture for the common good. “A servant leader promotes a vision that is expansive, contagious and inviting. When Neil Armstrong stepped from the lunar module onto the moon for the first time, he wasn’t thinking about himself or simply his own national identity or parochial perspective, he simply said, “One small step for (a) man, one giant leap for (hu)mankind.”

“Servant leaders do not stand on the sidelines or harp from a distance. They work to implement their vision in real life situations and times and bear the responsibility of its burden. They do not simply deconstruct hegemonies or critique domination systems,” he said. “They take up the harder challenges, like moon walking (both kinds), constructing new paradigms and practices always with a view for the common good.”

Brenneman challenged students to move beyond being “counter-cultural” and to become “intercultural,” and to lead culture or cultures to the better place and a nobler calling. “When Jesus said we are to ‘love our enemies,’ he was defining reality and went to work to create it. His goal never was to be counter-cultural, so much as to pull culture forward to that place where former enemies become friends.

“As Goshen College students, as future graduates, you now have been given a calling to become servant leaders, across disciplines and intellectual and cultural silos, to become truly intercultural leaders in service — whatever major or profession or career path you take. I am calling on each one of you to become  ‘Culture for Service’ leaders — leaders in service.”

Brenneman concluded by reminding students of the power and value of prayer. He cited two favorites prayers from Anne Lamott, a novelist and nonfiction writer. “Praying both together make them ideal for all would be servant leaders. Simply put, they are: ‘O Lord, help me, help me, help me!’ And ‘Thank you, thank you, thank you!’”

After Brenneman’s remarks, Assistant Professor of Music Scott Hochstetler led the audience in singing the Alma Mater.

Afterward, and in what has become a 10-year tradition, the Goshen College “Tunnel of Welcome” or “Applause Avenue” formed outside the church, in two lines that eventually converged. Faculty, staff and students walked past their peers to sustained applause, and then joined and extended the lines for seniors, juniors, sophomores and first-year students to pass by. The applause of welcome continued until the Church-Chapel emptied and the line stretched into Schrock Plaza. Once there, students and faculty were treated to popsicles and given buttons that proclaim “I love GC.”

–Written by Richard R. Aguirre

Editors: For more information about this release, to arrange an interview or request a photo, contact Goshen College News Bureau Director Jodi H. Beyeler at (574) 535-7572 or jodihb@goshen.edu.

### 

Goshen College, established in 1894, is a residential Christian liberal arts college rooted in the Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition. The college’s Christ-centered core values – passionate learning, global citizenship, compassionate peacemaking and servant-leadership – prepare students as leaders for the church and world. Recognized for its unique Study-Service Term program, Goshen has earned citations of excellence in Barron’s Best Buys in Education, “Colleges of Distinction,” “Making a Difference College Guide” and U.S. News & World Report’s “America’s Best Colleges” edition, which named Goshen a “least debt college.” Visit www.goshen.edu.

Each year for the whole year, as a campus community, we focus our attention on one of our five core values within the context of being a Christ-centered liberal arts college. This year, we are considering the core value of “Servant Leadership.”

This particular image (slide showing two physicians) not only illustrates whom we might consider prototypical  “servant leaders.” It also illustrates the struggle of defining the meaning, itself. What we have here – don’t groan – is a “pair o’docs.”

As you know, a paradox is a statement or concept that is seemingly contradictory, inconsistent or opposed to common sense or logic, and yet is true. Some paradoxes, for example, are of an oxymoronic nature (images of plastic glasses and eyeglasses, the “Senate Intelligence” Committee and a self-described anarchist with the statement “Anarchists Rule!”).

Some paradoxes have to do with reality not quite fitting our categories. For example, the  “platypus”  — mammal, reptile, bird? Its recently mapped genome has reptilian, mammal and bird genetic coding. A paradox.

The literary paradox includes verbal irony, where the speaker or writer communicates the opposite of what they mean. For example, when we say, something is “as clear as mud.”

Then there is the “buttered cat paradox” based upon the tongue-in-cheek combination of two adages: “Cats always land on their feet.” And, “Buttered toast always lands buttered side down.” Put the two together and, voila, you get a perpetual motion hovercraft.

The juxtaposition of “Servant” with “Leadership” creates a paradox, an odd coupling to be sure.   Servant suggests “vulnerability, one who serves, or performs duties for another person or master or employer.” “Leadership” suggests “king of the beasts” or a person who “takes charge” of a situation or workplace. A leader leads, directs, or has commanding authority or influence over others. A servant follows. A leader has followers. Servant-leadership is a paradox.

The paradox, “servant leadership” was introduced into the modern lexicon in 1970 by business leader Robert Greenleaf, who had worked for AT&T for 40 years in many different leadership capacities and believed that in the information age, where service and technology industries rule, the old styles of command and performance leadership were outdated, outmoded, and ultimately, unproductive.

By intertwining the word “servant” and “leadership,” Greenleaf believed, that together the words said something far more profound, and true than either word separately and alone.

Of course, Greenleaf acknowledged that his formulation was simply a borrowing of a much older paradoxical leadership style found in the life and teaching of Jesus. Jesus brought together the paradoxical nature of God as Creator and Creature, Transcendent and Immanent, Almighty and Vulnerable, Divine and Human. Jesus was king, but of an upside down kingdom where the last was to be first and the first, last. It was Jesus who said to his disciples when they were arguing over who would be top dog in the kingdom, “Here I am among you as one who serves” (Luke 22:27). Jesus, servant leader/God becoming convict, Author of Life, dying on a cross. Paradox!

Greenleaf said, “Servant leadership begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead.” Emphasizing either half of the paradox, leader-first or servant-first, Greenleaf felt diminishes the infinite in-between varieties, blends, and shadings of strong and effective leadership. Context determines which side of the paradox to emphasize when.

Max Dupree, Chairman and CEO of Herman Miller, Inc., an innovative Fortune 500 furniture company, has authored a number of books on leadership (such as “Leadership Jazz”). He boils down servant leadership to one of responsibility and gratitude: “The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say ‘thank you.’ In between, a leader is to be a servant.”

Both Greenleaf and Dupree speak about the “in between-ness” of the paradox of servant leadership. With those definitions as a backdrop, let me suggest several characteristics of the kind of Christ-centered Servant Leadership that I hope will become a core part of your lives as you study, learn, and later graduate from Goshen College.

First, a servant leader embraces vulnerability as strength. One of the great images of such “vulnerable strength,” is that of water. Water is paradoxically soft and strong; it yields, caresses, soothes, heals, bathes, quenches, and sustains, yet water can wear a solid, rigid immovable rock into sand and patiently chisel a loamy riverbank into the Grand Canyon. As Job says of God’s strength, “You’re like water that washes away stones, (14:18).”

Such a servant leader listens with willful patience to others whose opinions differ, whose perspectives may not be the same as hers, trusting in the power of the Spirit, or the imagination and creativity of new ideas, to emerge by being openly vulnerable.

Steve Jobs in a commencement address at Stanford University, said that Apple would not have happened the way it did, had he not almost incidentally taken a calligraphy class that by all outward signs had nothing to do with his interest in computer technology. Calligraphy lies at the heart of the Apple phenomenon. What a wonderful case for the importance of a liberal arts education. He credits his success to an openness to see, listen, observe, imagine new things, in new ways, new ideas from new perspectives, often as not insights gained from others.

Another sure sign of a servant leader who embraces vulnerability as strength, is laughter. And not just any old laugh, but mostly laughter at herself or himself or laughing at the absurdities of immovable opinions or intractable positions. “Laughter at oneself” or one’s predicament is a ready sign of a Christ-like servant leader. Nelson Mandela turned his own history into a humorous aside when he answered a reporter’s question with a quip: “In my country we go to prison first and then become President.” Mother Teresa said of her labor of love, “I know that a loving God will not give me anything I can’t handle. I just wish that God didn’t love me so much.”

Patient observation, listening, observing, and laughing – all signs of strong servant leaders.

Second. A servant leader shapes culture  —  “defines reality,” influences culture, for the common good. A servant leader promotes a vision that is expansive, contagious, and inviting.  When Neil Armstrong stepped from the lunar module onto the moon for the first time, he wasn’t thinking about himself or simply his own national identity or parochial perspective, he simply said, “One small step for (a) man, one giant leap for (hu)mankind.”

Servant leaders do not stand on the sidelines or harp from a distance. They work to implement their vision in real life situations and times and bear the responsibility of its burden. They do not simply deconstruct hegemonies or critique domination systems. They take up the harder challenges, like moon walking (both kinds), constructing new paradigms and practices always with a view for the common good.

Being “counter-cultural” is settling for second best. A servant leader must have the courage to become truly “inter-cultural,” to lead culture or cultures to the better place, the higher plain, the nobler calling. When Jesus said we are to “love our enemies,” he was defining reality and went to work to create it. His goal never was to be counter-cultural, so much as to pull culture forward to that place where former enemies become friends. Such an outcome requires profound “inter-cultural” leadership at all levels of society now more than ever before.

As a Goshen College student, as future graduates, you now have been given a calling to become Servant Leaders, across disciplines and intellectual and cultural silos, to become truly intercultural leaders in service — whatever major or profession or career path you take. I am calling on each one of you to become  “Culture for Service” leaders — leaders in service.

Here at Goshen College, we are well on our way. By my estimate, each year, Goshen College students, staff, faculty and administrators provide at least 30,000 hours of service in various ways nearby and all around the world through our Inquiry programs, Leaf Relief, Celebrate Service Day, internships, Study-Service Term and more. Amazing! And I believe we can do even better than that and will. I have instituted an Employee Community Service program that invites any employee who wishes to do up to two days of community service annually to do so with pay as a token of our blessing and sign of our commitment to Service Leadership.

Every one of you has been given a high-charge to become Servant Leaders, a calling that may take you to the highest leadership positions in the world, or to the hovels of a refugee camp, or many places in between. Servant leaders all. Martin Luther King, Jr., said of his calling, which is true of your own, my own, our own: “After (you have) discovered what (you are) called for, (you) should set about to do it with all the power that (you) have in (your) system.  Do it as if God Almighty ordained you at this particular moment in history to do it.”

So go for it, Servant Leaders. Lead as if God ordained you to do so at this particular moment in history, and so with all the power you can muster.

A servant leader, also, abounds in gratitude. I recently received a note from Fallon Will Nyce, a 2005 graduate, who is a technology architect for the Fortune 150 Company, Whirlpool. She wrote:  “I’m thankful for colleges like Goshen that are nurturing graduates to look beyond themselves as they step out into the world. It’s those graduates who are changing lives everywhere you look, and sometimes in unexpected, unconventional ways.”

She recently blogged on her web blog, ITMillennial, how the core value “servant leadership” has become so important to her in the corporate context of her life. She always thought that “servant leadership” was mostly for NGO and Peace Corp types, who went into service in poverty-stricken areas in the United States and developing countries. It wasn’t really meant for “an ‘evil’ business major like me… was I wrong, so very, very wrong.”

For Fallon, “servant-leadership” works in the corporate contexts like hers where her role is to remove barriers from those she leads so that they become freer, wiser, more likely themselves to become servants. She writes, “I finally get that… Servant Leadership applies to me as much as anyone else who graduated from Goshen College.” “Thank you.”

End of story. Fallon’s thanks, her gratitude, seals her fortune and destiny as a true Servant Leader, one we can all be proud of. I commend her to you to emulate, who like Christ before her, embraces a vulnerable strength, boldly shaping the culture around her, and doing so with a touch of humor and a heart full of gratitude.

As we close our time together, I want to remind us of one last quality of all great Christ-centered servant leaders. They take time away to pray. Bob Yoder, our campus minister, reminded us at the all-employee retreat how Jesus did a whole lot of praying. I would like to leave you, then, with two short prayers that I have been praying lately that I got from Anne Lamott. These are, by her own account, her favorite two prayers. In praying both, side-by-side, a paradox is created in the praying. Praying both together make them ideal for all would be servant leaders. Simply put, they are:

“O Lord,
“Help me, Help me, Help me.”
And, “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

Thank you all for listening. Now, go out and lead the world.

• TRANSCRIPT: Speech delivered by President Brenneman at the Fall 2010 Opening Convocation
• AUDIO PODCAST: President Brenneman’s speech
• PHOTOS: Fall 2010 Opening Convocation and Applause Tunnel

GOSHEN, Ind. – Goshen College President James E. Brenneman opened the new school year by calling on members of the campus community to become a Christ-centered college defined by faithfulness, openness, reconciliation and unity.”If Christ-centeredness is first a modest and open conversation about Jesus Christ, to be Christ-centered must also be a threshold for reconciliation, not a wall of separation,” Brenneman said. “If the Apostle Paul is correct … that Christ is the great reconciler who breaks down walls of separation, then one of the most important criteria for assessing the authenticity of Christ-centered claims, is whether or not Christ has, indeed, broken down the walls of separation, the walls of segregation, walls between people who differ from each other, whether because of gender, social, racial, denominational or cultural factors of one kind or another.”

The degree to which one can claim to be “transformed by Christ,” Brenneman said, can easily be measured by assessing whether there are fewer barriers today between people who are different from each other in the community, in churches or at Goshen College.

“Can such a generous, contagious, inclusive ‘Christ-centeredness’ prevail on this campus? Can Christ really break down the walls that separate Mennonite from non-Mennonite students, staff and faculty?” Brenneman said.

“Can Christ break down the walls that separate us by racial, ethnic and cultural prejudices? Can Christ break down walls of separation between people from different social classes, philosophical and religious persuasions as well? I believe so. I have seen it happen here and elsewhere.”

Brenneman, speaking Wednesday, Sept. 1 at the first all-campus convocation of the 2010-2011 academic year, offered an inspiring and hopeful message during his address titled “Christ, the Core.” His 25-minute message, which contained a mixture of theology, scholarship and humor, was delivered to more than 800 people in the Church-Chapel.

Brenneman, a 1977 graduate of Goshen College who is starting his fifth year as president, opened by recounting his summer adventures and offering a warm welcome. He led the audience in cheering for new and returning students as well as faculty and staff members. He also expressed gratitude for the campus community and discussed the college’s five core values: Christ-centeredness, passionate learning, servant leadership, global citizenship and compassionate peacemaking.

The president’s main message focused on what it means to be a Christ-centered college. After offering introductory remarks, Brenneman paused while Associate Professor of Music Beverly Lapp played on the piano a medley of hymns about Jesus Christ accompanied by a slide show that featured a wide range of artistic depictions of Jesus — from the sacred to the silly.

Brenneman explained that there are as many different artistic representations of Jesus as there are people with imaginations, but it’s important not to turn Christ into a “ventriloquist’s dummy sitting on our laps, saying and doing Jesus-y things according to our whims and wishes.” The Bible can help provide some guidance as to the true nature of Jesus Christ, but even sacred texts have their limitations because of the differing accounts in the Gospels of Mark, Matthew, Luke and John.

“From these same four Gospels and other biblical texts, other historians and readers have declared that Jesus was a Galilean peasant, or a middle-class artisan or an apocalyptic prophet, a radical political revolutionary, the ultimate pacifist, the end-time judge and warrior, the wise-sage, the son of God, the son of man, Immanuel, Redeemer, Good Shepherd, Lord, Savior, the new Adam, the King of the Jews, Prince of Peace, God in the flesh, and Christ the divine,Ó Brenneman said. ÒFor over 300 years, the church argued over the various Scriptural claims about Jesus with a relative consensus now articulated in several ancient creeds — though even then, differences remain.”

Given the variety of descriptions of Jesus Christ in Scripture alone, Brenneman said that the meaning of the phrase “Christ-centered,” needs to be generous, expansive, inclusive and diverse.

“To be Christ-centered is an open invitation to a conversation about Jesus Christ. If God allowed such diverse points of view in Holy Scripture as to who the real Jesus Christ was, apparently unity of perspective on this question was not the highest priority for God,” he said. “I, for one, find this Scriptural norm, to be absolutely delightful. Scripture models for us a diversity of opinion about who Christ was. Scripture models for us a truly intercultural, intertextual, dialogical, conversation about what it means to be ‘Christ-centered.’”

Brenneman said it’s important not to “tribalize Jesus” to conform to cultural values or to read Scripture selectively in accordance with one’s cultural heritage. Doing so can lead to “the Mennonite Jesus, the Catholic Jesus, the Ethiopic Jesus, the Eastern Orthodox Jesus, the Baptist Jesus, the Pentecostal Jesus, the Episcopal, Presbyterian or Lutheran Jesus, or the ‘evangelical’ Jesus or the charismatic or nondenominational Jesus.”

Still, Goshen College students do learn what it means to attend a Christ-centered college — influenced by other core values — in the context of a liberal arts education and exposure to people of other creeds, denominations, races, cultures and opinions, Brenneman said.

“Whatever particularities we claim to have that separate us from each other, it seems to me, that being transformed by Christ will play itself out in a quite generous orthodoxy that lowers the walls of separation to thresholds of reconciliation to step across,” he said.

To test that commitment, Brenneman invited Goshen’s students who come from non-Christian faith traditions to share their perspectives on Jesus Christ — and his followers.

“I wonder, for example, whether you see those of us who claim to be Christ-followers truly living the Christ-like life, as you perceive it to be?” he said. “I’m convinced that those of us who claim to be Christian, if we simply listened, really listened to those of you here from other than Christian faith or non-Christian faith traditions and made a list of your perspectives on what a ‘Christ-centered’ person or college might look like, we might be quite surprised. And then, if we tried to live the Christ-like life described on that list, I am willing to bet that we would be so transformed — so very close to the Christ portrayed in Holy Scripture — that a spiritual awakening, a transformation, might, indeed, spread across this campus and the whole Christian church. Will you help hold us accountable to our claims?”

Brenneman concluded by challenging audience members to become “transformed by Christ” – the Campus Ministries theme for the school year – and be open to reinventing their lives.

“Transformation reshapes caterpillars into butterflies. It converts hell into heaven, changes what is meant for evil into good, turns sinners into saints, and breaks down ancient tribal, cultural, racial, social, and religious walls of separation to mere thresholds of distinction. Transformation requires a rewrite of our stories into a whole new story, little by little, peace by peace,” he said. “I invite you to join me and countless other Goshen College sisters and brothers across time and space to write an exciting new chapter in the transforming story of Goshen College.”

After Brenneman’s remarks, Assistant Professor of Music Scott Hochstetler led the audience in singing the Alma Mater. After a tentative start, first-year students joined other students, faculty and staff in filling the Church-Chapel with song.

Afterward, and in what has become a nine-year tradition, the Goshen College “Tunnel of Welcome” or “Applause Avenue” formed outside the church, in two lines that eventually converged. Faculty, staff and students walked past their peers to sustained applause, and then joined and extended the lines for seniors, juniors, sophomores and first-year students to pass by. The applause of welcome continued until the Church-Chapel emptied and the line stretched into Schrock Plaza.

–Written by Richard R. Aguirre

Editors: For more information about this release, to arrange an interview or request a photo, contact Goshen College News Bureau Director Jodi H. Beyeler at (574) 535-7572 or jodihb@goshen.edu.

### 

Goshen College, established in 1894, is a residential Christian liberal arts college rooted in the Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition. The college’s Christ-centered core values – passionate learning, global citizenship, compassionate peacemaking and servant-leadership – prepare students as leaders for the church and world. Recognized for its unique Study-Service Term program, Goshen has earned citations of excellence in Barron’s Best Buys in Education, “Colleges of Distinction,” “Making a Difference College Guide” and U.S. News & World Report’s “America’s Best Colleges” edition, which named Goshen a “least debt college.” Visit www.goshen.edu.

I. Introduction

As you know by now, here at GC we speak about five historic core values around which we try to orient our teaching and learning experiences: Christ-centered, Compassionate Peacemakers, Global Citizens, Passionate Learners and Servant Leaders.  You can read a short synopsis of each core value with a biblical reference on the Goshen College web site Home Page by clicking the tab “About GC,” then the “Core Values” tab on the right hand side.

Beginning this year, I have established a Core Values Institute that will help ensure that these values are more than clever words for describing ourselves. Check out the program details by clicking on “About GC,” then, “Core Values,” then “Core Values Institute.”  The Core Values Institute will help embed these core values into the fabric of our institutional life so that every student, faculty, staff and Board member is given the opportunity to discover his or her part in the unfolding creation that is the GC story. As a college community, one way we will engage these core values methodically and deliberately will be to give focused attention to one of the five core values each year for a whole year. This year we begin with the core value of “Christ-centeredness.”

Our Campus Ministries team is tackling this core value by focusing our attention on the theme of being “Transformed by Christ.” Today, however, I would like to begin a two-part presentation (Part 2 in the Fall) addressing the question, “What does it mean to be a “Christ-centered” college?”

II. A Christ Centered College

“What does it mean to be Christ-centered?” As teachers, staff, administrators, and students, we need to consider our response to what this particular core-value means for Goshen College as an institution and for each of us personally. As a way of engaging this question, let’s pause for a couple of minutes to encounter Christ visually, as imagined by different artists and others across the centuries. [Slide presentation of a whole variety of images of Christ from the pious to the kitch.]

Clearly, there are almost as many different images of Jesus as there are people with imaginations. What, then, is to keep us from simply creating a Jesus that we find compatible with our own individual tastes? What keeps us from turning Jesus into our “particular Jesus,” who is merely a ventriloquist’s dummy sitting on our laps, saying and doing Jesus-y things according to our whims and wishes? What keeps us from what Charles Hackett of Candler School of Theology calls “sinfully appropriating [Jesus] in the service of our cultural values”?

One helpful guide is Scripture, of course. But even then, when we open up the pages of Scripture, we soon discover that even there we find different portraits of Jesus. To begin with, even the title “Christ” is already one major step removed from the very real person, whose Mom and Dad named him Jesus (of Nazareth).

In Mark’s gospel, Jesus is portrayed by St. Mark as a miracle worker, full of mystery, not fully aware of his own calling at first (“Messianic secret”). Matthew’s gospel portrays Jesus as a rabbi, a teacher, particularly focused on his Jewishness, written for a primarily Jewish audience, complete with many references from the Older Testament (Jewish Scripture) that prophesy of a coming Jewish Messiah. For Luke, Jesus wines and dines with lowlifes/sinners. Jesus is poor, but fun to be around. He’s a first century party-animal of sorts, or as someone reading Luke described Jesus, “a wine swilling vagrant” (Borg), clearly an outsider, an itinerant preacher who plans his traveling ministry around eating here or there. St. John’s gospel, however, goes to the other extreme emphasizing Jesus’ divine nature. Jesus is the “Word of God, who was with God and was God” from the beginning, now “made flesh,” or as Professor Jo-Ann Brant in her award winning book on the gospel of John describes Jesus, a human actor in a divine drama. Jesus, the ultimate Savior of the whole cosmos.

From these same four gospels and other biblical texts, other historians and readers have declared that Jesus was a Galilean peasant, or a middle-class artisan or an apocalyptic prophet, a radical political revolutionary, the ultimate pacifist, the end-time judge and warrior, the wise-sage, the son of God, the son of man, Immanuel, Redeemer, Good Shepherd, Lord, Savior, the new Adam, the King of the Jews, Prince of Peace, God in the flesh, Christ the divine.

For over 300 years, the church argued over the various Scriptural claims about Jesus with a relative consensus now articulated in several ancient creeds — though even then, differences remain. Add up the different descriptions of Jesus in the Bible, the ancient creedal claims of who Jesus is, alongside our own varied and personal experiences of Christ and the responses to our question “What does it mean to be Christ-centered?” spin almost out of control.

One can easily understand the worried frustration of Irish poet William Butler Yeats at the unraveling over 20 centuries of what might have been the promise of centeredness that began in a cradle in Bethlehem. He writes:

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed . . .
Surely, some revelation is at hand
Surely, the Second Coming is at hand. . .

The Second Coming may be at hand, but until then, with Scripture as our guide, let us consider the question, “What does it mean to be a Christ-centered college?”

III. An Invitation to Conversation

Most simply put, given the variety of descriptions of Jesus Christ in Scripture alone, I would first of all argue that whatever else we mean by the phrase “Christ-centered,” its meaning, its semantic domain, must be quite generous, expansive, inclusive, and diverse.  To be Christ-centered is an open invitation to a conversation about Jesus Christ. If God allowed such diverse points of view in Holy Scripture as to who the real Jesus Christ was, apparently unity of perspective on this question was not the highest priority for God. I, for one, find this Scriptural norm, to be absolutely delightful. Scripture models for us a diversity of opinion about who Christ was. Scripture models for us a truly intercultural, intertextual, dialogical, conversation about what it means to be “Christ-centered.”

The down side of this Scriptural flexibility means that we tend to tribalize Jesus according to our own cultural values. Or we tend to read Scripture selectively in accordance with our cultural heritage. So we end up with the Mennonite Jesus, the Catholic Jesus, the Ethiopic Jesus, the Eastern Orthodox Jesus, the Baptist Jesus, the Pentecostal Jesus, the Episcopal, Presbyterian or Lutheran Jesus, or the “evangelical” Jesus or charismatic or nondenominational Jesus. And, we tend to believe that our particular tribal version is the right one or, at the very least, closer to the truth than the alternatives. Standing on the outside looking in on Christianity, an immediate visceral response to all these tribes of Christianity, these denominations or non-denominations, each claiming to be “Christ-centered,” a person might wonder whether “the center” truly holds or not. So, at the very least, whatever else we mean here at Goshen College about being a “Christ-centered” place, our first claim must be a modest one.

This does not mean that over the course of your time at Goshen College, we won’t share with you what a GC perspective is or what we mean by the description, “Christ-centeredness.”  We will. I am doing that in part today and will further develop this theme, including its relevance for understanding the liberal arts disciplines, in a second talk this fall. One short-hand version is simply to say, that from a Goshen College perspective, the other four core values provide some nuance, some clarity to the meaning of being a “Christ-centered” campus community.

In addition, in a few weeks we will hear from Professor of History, John D. Roth, on what a “naked Anabaptist” or “naked Mennonite” looks like from an historical point of view. I wonder if he’ll bring visual aids to that one. I hope he brings a fig leaf or two along as well. As mentioned, throughout the year, beginning with this Friday’s chapel, Campus Minister, Tamara Shantz will invite us to reflect on what it means to be “transformed by Christ,” something I hope everyone of us will consider strongly while here at GC.

I am not too worried, then, that you will not hear the particularity of the Goshen College perspective on what it means to be a “Christ-centered” institution. Indeed, if anything, our temptation might be to claim a bit too much and so tribalize Christ to our own liking or comfort zone as to become a caricature of true Christ-likeness. I hope that does not happen. Having more perspectives in the conversation may help us become more fully Christ-centered. That is my hope.

IV. A Threshold of Reconciliation

So if Christ-centeredness is first a modest and open conversation about Jesus Christ, to be Christ-centered must also be a threshold for reconciliation, not a wall of separation. If the Apostle Paul is correct in his second letter to the Corinthian church (2 Corin. 5: 11-6:2) that Christ is the great Reconciler who breaks down walls of separation, then one of the most important criteria for assessing the authenticity of Christ-centered claims, is whether or not Christ has, indeed, broken down the walls of separation, the walls of segregation, walls between people who differ from each other, whether because of gender, social, racial, denominational or cultural factors of one kind or another. Such a claim can be quite easily measured by asking the simple question: Are there fewer barriers, walls, obstacles between people who differ from each other by race, creed, culture, gender, denomination, or opinion, today in our churches, in our college and in our community, than there were yesterday? How we answer that question determines, in my opinion, to what degree one can claim to be transformed by Christ.

Whatever particularities we claim to have that separate us from each other, it seems to me, that being transformed by Christ will play itself out in a quite generous orthodoxy that lowers the walls of separation to thresholds of reconciliation to step across.

Can such a generous, contagious, inclusive “Christ-centeredness” prevail on this campus? Can Christ really break down the walls that separate Mennonite from non-Mennonite students, staff and faculty? Harder still, perhaps, can Christ break down walls that separate Democratic-leaning students, staff or faculty from Republican-leaning students, staff or faculty? Harder still, perhaps, though it may be a toss up, can Christ break down the walls that separate us by racial, ethnic and cultural prejudices? Can Christ break down walls of separation between people from different social classes, philosophical and religious persuasions as well?  I believe so. I have seen it happen here and elsewhere.

But I’d still like to put us to the test on just one of those categories.  If you are a person from another faith tradition, other than Christianity, we are so glad you are here. I would love to hear from you on how you see “Christ” from outside the historic Christian faith.  If I were to guess, I imagine your perspective might even challenge our own easy-belief in Jesus or what it means to claim to be “Christ-centered.” I wonder, for example, whether you see those of us who claim to be Christ-followers truly living the Christ-like life, as you perceive it to be? I’m convinced that those of us who claim to be Christian, if we simply listened, really listened to those of you here from other than Christian faith or non-Christian faith traditions and made a list of your perspectives on what a “Christ-centered” person or college might look like, we might be quite surprised. And then, if we tried to live the Christ-like life described on that list, I am willing to bet that we would be so transformed — so very close (or close enough) to the Christ portrayed in Holy Scripture — that a spiritual awakening, a transformation, might, indeed, spread across this campus and the whole Christian church. Will you help hold us accountable to our claims?

V. Transformed by Christ

Being transformed by Christ can be a wrenching feat for anyone. To be transformed by Christ may require that we reinvent life as we know it. Transformation reshapes caterpillars into butterflies. It converts hell into heaven, changes what is meant for evil into good, turns sinners into saints, and breaks down ancient tribal, cultural, racial, social, and religious walls of separation to mere thresholds of distinction. Transformation requires a rewrite of our stories into a whole new story, little by little, peace by peace. I invite you to join me and countless other Goshen College sisters and brothers across time and space to write an exciting new chapter in the transforming story of Goshen College.

“We believe we are Christ-centered, passionate learners, servant leaders, compassionate peacemakers and global citizens,” he told more than 800 people in the Music Center’s Sauder Concert Hall. “May we have the courage to integrate these values with our actions for the common good and so bring honor to God and to our alma mater.”

Brenneman’s message resonated with the students, who loudly cheered his introduction, laughed at the president’s jokes and quips and loudly applauded the conclusion of his 10-minute presentation.

“I just really appreciate Jim’s focus on the core values and that the school year always begins with the focus on what our school stands for and that that’s the first impression that we give to the first-year students,” said Lucy Roth, a senior from Bloomington, Ill. “And it’s a good reminder for the returning students.”

Michael Omondi, a senior from Nairobi, Kenya, said he appreciated the president’s endorsement of international education, diversity and intercultural understanding.

“I appreciate Jim’s emphasis on global citizenship and his passion for multiculturalism and anti-racism at Goshen College. His energy for that is something I really appreciate,” Omondi said. “We’re in this period of transformation and I’m looking forward to seeing that happening.”

Brenneman, a 1977 graduate of Goshen College who is starting his second year as president, offered a warm welcome and led the audience in cheering for faculty members, staff and new and returning students before issuing his call to action.

During the convocation, he compared and contrasted the whimsical beliefs of children — in Santa Claus and the tooth fairy, for example — with those developed with maturity and through the ages.

“Core values help us make difficult decisions, select majors, choose where to live or work, raise a child — and the possibilities are endless. Core values can even help us find common ground with someone with whom we disagree,” he said.

“At Goshen College, we have some ‘mighty precious values’ that have stood the test of time. … We believe that these precious values can help us make our world a better world. We believe that it would be a noble achievement, indeed, for every Goshen College student, faculty, and staff person to rediscover these mighty precious values for ourselves each school year and every year for the rest of our lives.”

Brenneman then outlined each of the college’s core values — Christ-centeredness, passionate learning, servant leadership, compassionate peacemaking and global citizenship. And though he gave equal time for all, his first emphasis was on Goshen College as a Christ-centered institution.

“Christ is the center that gives meaning to all our values. Christ offers a supreme example of how God desires us to live,” he said. “We celebrate all those who claim Christ to be divine Lord and Savior of their lives. We celebrate also those who choose to live out the values that Christ taught and lived, wherever your spiritual home resides.”

Before Brenneman’s remarks, Professor of Music Debra Brubaker led the audience in the singing of the college’s alma mater as well as “Teach me thy truth,” a hymn written more than 70 years ago by two Goshen College faculty members. The audience also enjoyed a slide and audio presentation in which members of the Class of 2007 shared their beliefs and described how they were influenced by Goshen College.

Afterward, and in what has become an annual tradition since 2000, the Goshen College “Tunnel of Welcome” or “Applause Avenue” formed outside the opening convocation. Faculty, staff and students paraded past their peers to sustained applause, and then joined and extended the lines for seniors, juniors, sophomores and first-year students to pass by. The applause of welcome continued until Sauder Concert Hall was empty and the line stretched west nearly to the railroad tracks and toward the heart of campus.

In a sermon Sunday to the Class of 2011 during New Student Days, also in Sauder Concert Hall, President Brenneman encouraged the students to consider the message of Psalm 46: “Be still and know that I am God.”

Brenneman noted that it was a paradox and a conundrum for busy people to consider being still, but he encouraged the new college students to consider a deeper message.

“The goal of the journey, you see, isn’t stillness per se as some religious traditions might suggest and some spiritual practices seem to promote. Rather, the goal of the journey is knowing God,” he said. “Let go, let yourself fall into the hands of the living God. Holy is the Firm. Firm is God’s infinite Christ-like love.”

Related links:

• Sermon text of opening convocation, “This we believe…” by President James E. Brenneman, Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2007
• Press release: Goshen College welcomes Class of 2011 this weekend, classes to begin, Aug. 22, 2007
• Sermon text of New Student Days Worship, “In Stillness…God” by President James E. Brenneman, Sunday, Aug. 26, 2007

Photo albums:

• Students depart for Study-Service Term in Peru, Aug. 30, 2007
• Opening Convocation & Applause Tunnel, Aug. 29, 2007
• New Student Orientation activities, Aug. 25-26, 2007

Videos:

• “This We Believe…” – Opening Convocation Sermon by President Jim Brenneman, Aug. 29, 2007
• Applause Avenue, Aug. 29, 2007
• New Student Days, Aug. 25-26, 2007
  Large Video (12.2 MB)  |  Small Video (5.9 MB)

Editors: For more information about this release, to arrange an interview or request a photo, contact Richard R. Aguirre, Goshen College director of public relations, at (574) 535-7571 or rraguirre@goshen.edu.

###

Goshen College, established in 1894, is a residential Christian liberal arts college rooted in the Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition. The college’s Christ-centered core values – passionate learning, global citizenship, compassionate peacemaking and servant-leadership – prepare students as leaders for the church and world. Recognized for its unique Study-Service Term program, Goshen has earned citations of excellence in Barron’s Best Buys in Education, “Colleges of Distinction,” “Making a Difference College Guide” and U.S. News & World Report’s “America’s Best Colleges” edition, which named Goshen a “least debt college.” Visit www.goshen.edu.