Enchanted Entrance
We
do not take responsibility for people disappearing”
reads the sign near the wardrobe
at Wheaton’s
Marion E. Wade Center.
Carved by C.S. Lewis’s grandfather more than a century
ago, this wardrobe has served as a “symbol of enchantment” at
Wheaton for more than 30 years, according to Wade Center Director,
Chris Mitchell M.A. ’86.Yet while the wardrobe itself stirs
the imagination, how it traveled from C.S. Lewis’s
home in England to Wheaton is a story with its own dramatic
details.
Robert Bartel ’53 and his wife, Shirley ’52, friends
of English professor Dr. Clyde Kilby (who assembled the C.S.
Lewis papers), happened to be traveling to England in October
of 1973. When Dr. Kilby learned of their plans, he asked them
to attend an auction in Banbury to buy some of Lewis’s
personal effects, especially the wardrobe. After securing funds
with help from Wheaton’s chief financial officer at the
time, William Pollard ’60, the Bartels began their adventure.
It was a cold winter night when we arrived in Banbury. That
evening, Shirley and I went over to see the items on display
at the auction. And there was the wardrobe. The wood was dark,
virtually black—its main distinction—the obvious
skill of a home craftsman.
We were thrilled to observe families with children standing
by the wardrobe, exclaiming with delight because they could now
actually see the wardrobe of Narnia that they had read about.
I was somewhat apprehensive about the assignment from Dr. Kilby.
After all, my funds
were limited, and there was no way the auctioneer would accept
anything other than “cash on the barrelhead.” I
also feared that others might be just as determined to buy
the wardrobe.
The following morning we arrived early. Concerned about proper
procedure, I asked
the auctioneer for advice. He cheerfully informed me that we
should sit in the front, waving a newspaper to make our bids.
He suggested that a copy of the London Times would be best suited
for the job. The auction began with hot cups of tea, and steam
floating in the air.
Anxiously, we watched as the auction proceeded. We were fascinated
by the rhythmic chant of the auctioneer. Finally we reached
the small cache of Lewis’s items. The bidding began briskly,
coming from all corners of the building, then finally narrowed
down to two—a tense experience.
At last, the other bidder went silent as the auctioneer announced
our successful bid.
We also purchased a table and smaller items from “the Kilns,” Lewis’s
home. That night,
we spoke with Lady Dunbar, the sister of Lewis’s military
comrade, who offered us Lewis’s desk, which we also purchased
for the College.
When Shirley and I arrived back in Chicago, we proceeded directly
to the Kilby’s house to share our good fortune.
We were also bringing to Wheaton the Lewis childhood papers
in an old, tattered suitcase. Clyde Kilby was particularly
eager to see these again. (The Boxen notebooks, along with
numerous family photographs, and the Lewis Family Papers were
willed to Wheaton College at Lewis’s brother’s
death.)
When we opened the suitcase, Clyde seized the papers and began
to spread them out over the floor of the living and dining rooms.
He floated about the rooms and danced
among the papers, and we talked late into the night. For Shirley
and me, this experience was among the most delightful of our
lives.
We believe the greatness of Wheaton lies not in structures or
reputation, but in teachers like Dr. Kilby, whose influence went
far beyond texts and assignments. The Lewis Collection is a fitting
tribute to the imagination and initiative of a remarkable teacher
whose vision has gifted us all beyond measure.
Editor's note: People sometimes ask, Is this THE wardrobe?
The obvious answer is that there is no one wardrobe—C.
S. Lewis owned numerous wardrobes throughout his lifetime and
each one of them could have played a role in his creative imagination.
The Lewis family wardrobe at the Wade Center is significant for
a variety of reasons: It was hand carved by Lewis’s grandfather,
and stood for many years in the family home of “Little
Lea” in Belfast. We also know that C. S. Lewis, his brother
Warren, and their cousins often played in it as children. Warren
Lewis told Dr. Clyde Kilby that this wardrobe inspired the
literary wardrobe in the Narnian tale.
Renaissance Men
 |
Dr. George
K. Brushaber '59, M.A. '61
President of Bethel University, St. Paul, MN
Dr. Judson Carlberg '62
President of Gordon College, Wenham, MA
Dr. Gregory L. Waybright '74, M.A. '78
President of Trinity International University, Deerfield,
IL.
|
In a recent issue of Christianity
Today,
author Michael Hamilton writes that the many new books on faith
and learning may “signal
a renaissance for the Christian college.”
While the secularization of Christian colleges has been a trend
since Harvard shed any semblance
of its Puritan roots centuries ago, Hamilton observes that
thanks in part to programs and publications that explore the
integration of faith and learning, we are also now seeing the
antithesis—the
re-Christianization of colleges across the country.
At the heart of this recent turnaround are some pretty telling
statistics. Between 1990 and 2002, the number of students attending
the 105 schools in the Council of Christian Colleges and Universities
increased 64 percent, while there was a negligible change in
attendance at secular schools over the same time period. The
fact that the CCCU has added 35 member schools since 1990 also
supports the conclusion that interest in religious higher education
is booming.
Hamilton cites Wake Forest University’s selection of
Dr. Nathan O. Hatch ’68 as its 13th president as an example
of how even many church-related schools “want to strengthen
key elements of their institution’s faith character.” And
many schools, Hamilton adds, are doing so under the direction
and leadership of their presidents.
So who are these presidents, and what do they feel are the
biggest challenges and opportunities facing Christian higher
education?
Interestingly enough, a number of them are Wheaton alumni.
According to the College’s most recent records, 23 alumni
currently serve as presidents of colleges, universities, and
seminaries across the nation and overseas, and nine of those
at CCCU schools. So if Christian higher education is experiencing
a renaissance, these alumni are among those leading the way.
We caught up with three of our CCCU alumni presidents (who
between them have 46 years of experience) to find out what
they make of this paradigm shift, how they learned to be effective
administrators,
and how their Wheaton experience prepared them to navigate
this new era in Christian higher education.
Q: What do you see as the greatest
challenge facing Christian higher education?
Brushaber: One of the greatest challenges is to maintain missional
integrity. It is important to be able to recruit faculty and
encourage and support and grow faculty who can bring a compelling
level of academic excellence to their teaching, but who, without
qualification or hesitation, embrace the mission of Christian
higher education.
My vision for Christian higher education is very holistic. It
entails not only mastery of the academic content and methodology,
but also the development of the emotional health and high moral
character as well as a transforming spiritual experience. It
means that people become authentic Christ followers. Maintaining
missional integrity means finding faculty. . . who are willing
to be part of this transforming community, which is more than
a mere academic community.
Carlberg: The greatest challenge is ideological, coming from
social liberalism and social conservatism. Some people feel
that they have the right to tell a school how to act and how
to carry out its mission—from the books the students read, to the
perspective that faculty have in the classroom. We have a clear
mission, and God has called us to carry out that mission. Our
obligation is to be true to our mission and not to external ideological
expectations. Romans 12:2 tells us not to be squeezed into a
mold. We must remain true to our history and to our calling as
an educational institution, not an advocacy group for one perspective
or another, one political party or another. And that stance can
raise consternation from people who don’t agree.
Q: How do you hope to shape the future
of Christian leadership and higher education?
Carlberg: Christian colleges and universities
are indeed an important part of higher education. . . . We
used to be marginalized, but now we are mainstream, growing
between 60 to 70 percent over the last decade. People want
to
know, Who are these evangelicals and what do they believe?
They realize that higher education is enriched when it is diversified—and
that does include institutions that are faith based, because
faith-based institutions have a totally different perspective
on faith and life. . . . We have to shape the future by recognizing
that we want students who graduate committed to biblical understanding
and faculty who are able to live out God’s Word.
Waybright: We are forming students to
transform the world for Christ. That has to happen in a community
where those things are actually experienced . . . a community
where the walls that separate people from people come down,
a community that operates with Kingdom values, and where there
is respect between faculty and administration, staff, and students.
That is my longing . . . . I believe that when the world sees
both diversity and love, then the Gospel will be authenticated.
Q: Over the years, how have
students/culture changed and how have these changes affected
your role?
Brushaber: When I went to Wheaton in the 1950s, Dr. Edman was
the president. While we often talked with him on the sidewalks
of the campus, we would never have dared to ask him some of the
questions students ask today. Questions about family, about hard
decisions, major life problems, values, about sexual identity.
. . questions about conflict resolution, about the application
of faith to life. There was a more formal, genteel, polite discretion
that was exercised 40 to 50 years ago.
Today, students have changed. Their family lives have been different.
Now students seem to covet and need a much higher degree of transparency
from faculty and administrators. They want to see how moral decisions
as well as disappointment and grief are processed, how family
relationships are handled. . . . They are eager to have models,
and to be coached and shaped.
I don’t resent this. I welcome it, because this is a time
when real transformation can take place in the lives of students.
And then they, in turn, can go out equipped to be the same kind
of transforming and reconciling people. But the challenge is
that many people become professional academics because they are
introverts. So today’s students are looking for a relational
intimacy that doesn’t naturally come from introverts. And
so, faculty have to step up to the plate and be mentors, role
models, and coaches. . . . It is an absolutely wonderful time
to be working with young adults, but the demands are so much
higher on faculty than they were 40 years ago. . . . To be there
to coach these people in terms of self-direction as well as to
give them very strong academic education is a wonderful challenge.
It’s a lot of stuff that isn’t going to happen at
a secular university. That’s part of the “value-added” of
[Christian higher education] that I try to communicate to parents.
Carlberg: My first professional experience of higher education
was at Michigan State University during the Vietnam War. There
were demonstrations, burning buildings, riots, tear gas. .
. . Students were much more socially engaged and strident in
those days. The 70s and 80s became a “me-first” generation—it
was more materialistic. And today students have changed again.
They don’t understand the values that their parents had,
so there’s a huge disconnect. Students are much more prone
to reach out in service to others than they are to be engaged
in culture. They’re much more egalitarian, and status
symbols and wealth mean less to them.
Students respect the president and they respect their elders,
but they don’t revere them anymore. . . . Position and
title mean little to them. At the same time, students are deeply
committed to building relationships with their elders. I’ve
mentored a number of students one on one. . . . In some cases,
my wife, Jan, and I talk with students about life challenges.
. . . When I was a student, it was just socially unacceptable
to ask for the president to be your buddy.
Waybright: The students we have coming
now are much more desirous of community. . . . I would add
that students are less ready to accept the word of one in authority
as the final word. They have access to just as much information
as anyone else—and
some can get that information perhaps even better than their
professors. The emphasis has to be on building a school that
doesn’t just focus on content, but also on community.
And I think the students are simply more transparent—they
love to spend time with people. They are coming from much more
fragmented, fractured backgrounds. We’re dealing with
people who are open with their needs, but they’re also
bringing with them real needs—including those who come
from strong church backgrounds. They desire ore dialogue and
mentoring, but the view of the president’s role as being
primarily a fundraiser wars against that. . . . There’s
a delicate balance, and you feel like you’re asking, ‘Would
you rather have a new football field, or have your president
at your football games?’
Q: What's the best leadership advice
you have received and how has that played out in your own experience?
Brushaber: One thing I do think is important for any leader
is to first learn to understand self-direction and self-leadership.
If one is not good at self-leadership, it is not going to be
easy to direct others.
Overall, I think I’ve gained the most from being surrounded
by leaders of great strength—Drs. Harold Ockenga, Kenneth
Kantzer LH.D. ’88, Arthur Holmes ’50, M.A. ’52,
and Dick Gross ’53—these men have been life-long
mentors to me. So, I guess rather than singling out any one piece
of advice, it’s been putting myself in a position to learn
from others. I’m 66 years old and I’m still try-ing
to learn from people like this—as well as from younger
people.
Carlberg: Working as a presidential fellow for MSU’s Clifton
R. Wharton, the first African American president of a major U.
S. university, was one of the most formative experiences of my
life. I realized that I wasn’t cut out to be a dean of
students because I enjoyed academics more than co-curricular
life.
I met with President Wharton for two hours every two weeks,
and we would discuss what was important in terms of leadership.
He said to build a team of leaders around you; don’t isolate
yourself from others who have different viewpoints—when
they challenge my presuppositions, I grow. Watch that you don’t
build a career over the dead bodies of others. As you climb the
ladder, resist the extremes in leadership, seek consensus. .
. . Don’t be a stubborn isolationist.
If someone were to ask me to give advice, I would urge them
to focus on the inner life, spiritual life—one’s
relationship to Christ. Avoid getting caught up in the busyness
of life and losing the core of what you believe. Always take
time for rejuvenation and reflection.
Q: What's the most valuable element
of your Wheaton experience that has helped you in your position
of leadership?
Carlberg: The most valuable parts of my Wheaton experience
were the personal relationships I had with people on campus,
especially with Dick Gross ’53, the dean of men when I was a student.
Dick was my mentor—I wanted to become a dean of students
like Dick. He left Wheaton in 1967 to become the chief academic
officer at Gordon. And when he eventually became president,
he suggested my name as his replacement for chief academic
officer.
As a president, Dick also said it would be advantageous to
have a seminary degree. . . . This is extremely helpful in
a Christian college context, because so many of the issues
we have to deal with are theological and biblical and relate
to the church. It gives us a perspective on life and Christian
higher education that you can’t get any other way.
Waybright: At Wheaton
I internalized the idea that developing the life of the mind
was not antithetical to having a vibrant faith. My time there
helped me see how the matter of the Lordship of Christ permeates
every part of faith, learning, and life. Christ is the central
point for all human endeavors—through
Him all things were made, and we identify Him as Truth, whose
own life is the measure of what is good and right, moral, and
ethical. That realization touches the whole of the educational
process. There’s something about the Wheaton experience
that makes you think about these things.
Provost to President
What are the accomplishments that Notre Dame has made over the
last nine years of which you are most proud?
I think it’s been the balancing of complicated goals. .
. ensuring that we are both better academically and religiously
faithful. It’s been forthrightly seeking Catholic intellectuals
while at the same time asking how we can be as good as other
top 20 universities. It is becoming a better research institution—and
research funding is up—and a better teaching institution
at the same time. It is becoming more diverse while over 20 percent
of the students are children of graduates. In the end, more than
anything else, I think it’s the people that you recruit.
I do take pleasure in having recruited great academic leaders
and faculty. This is what’s going to determine the kind
of teaching and scholarship that takes place. And of course,
part of recruiting good people involves creating an environment
that is appealing for them—one that is supportive of
their work.
Describe what you think the
major differences will be between being second in command
at a major university, and being “where
the buck stops”?
As provost you’re mainly concerned with academic life.
As president, your reach becomes the full scope of the institution—all
of student life, all of athletics, fundraising, and public
relations. It involves thinking about the broadest goals of
the university. . . . The public dimensions of the presidential
role are also much greater. People watch what you say and how
you act. It is a very symbolic role for an institution and
has to be handled accordingly.
You are cited as one of the most influential scholars in the
study of the history of religion in America. How will your background
influence your new role?
I’m fundamentally a faculty member, and I think an institution
improves by improving its faculty. I know academic life from
the inside, and I think that will be useful. I think my background
as a student of American Christianity and culture and religion
will also be useful. Wake Forest was once affiliated with the
North Carolina Baptists. It will be interesting to learn what
that means in an ecumenical environment—and to work with
others to clarify what that means.
What about your Wheaton experience prepared you for where you
are today?
In terms of the commitment of the faculty and the students,
Wheaton is a model that I hold up as an ideal. It’s a
model that Wake Forest has as well in that they talk about
a teacher/scholar ideal. I learned what quality collegiate
education is at Wheaton. There you have faculty who are deeply
interested in learning, but also deeply interested in students.
Back to table of contents
Behind the Q & A
Dr. Nathan O. Hatch ’68 joined the history faculty at
Notre Dame in 1975, and became the first Protestant to serve
as the University’s provost in 1996. He earned national
acclaim for his 1989 book, The Democratization
of Christianity in America, cited as one of the two most important books in
the study of American religion. Dr. Hatch assumed the presidency
of Wake Forest University on July 1, and will be officially
installed on October 20.
Dr. George K. Brushaber ’59, M.A. ’61 served as
both vice president and dean of Bethel University in St. Paul,
Minnesota, before becoming the president in 1982. Prior to these
positions, he was vice president and dean at Westmont College.
Dr. Brushaber received an M.Div. degree from Gordon Divinity
School, and a Ph.D. from Boston University Graduate School. In
addition to his administrative roles, he has taught philosophy
and theology, contributed to many scholarly journals, and was
the founding editor of The Christian Scholar’s Review.
The former executive editor for Christianity Today, he now
serves as senior advisor for the publication.
Dr. R. Judson Carlberg ’62 was appointed dean of the faculty
of Gordon College in Wenham, Massachusetts, in 1976, becoming
the College’s seventh president in 1992. He holds a master’s
degree and a doctorate in higher education administration from
Michigan State University, and an M.Div. degree from Denver Seminary,
where he is currently on the Board of Trustees. A member of the
Annapolis Group (a select group of presidents of the nation’s
top liberal arts colleges), Dr. Carlberg also serves on the
boards of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation, the
Council of Independent Colleges, the American Association of
Presidents of Independent Colleges and Universities, the Association
of Independent Colleges and Universities of Massachusetts,
and the Christian College Consortium.
Dr. Gregory L.
Waybright ’74, M.A. ’78 became president
of Trinity International University in Deerfield, Illinois, in
1995. He has a Ph.D. in New Testament theology from Marquette
University, an M.Div. degree from Trinity Evangelical Divinity
School, a master’s degree in com-munications from Wheaton
College, and a diploma in pastoral studies from Moody Bible
Institute. He has also studied and done research at Tyndale
House and Cambridge University in England. Prior to 1978, Dr.
Waybright served in ministry roles with youth and music in
churches in Wisconsin and Illinois, and was a music director
and soloist for the Guenter Tesch Evangelistic Association
in Hamburg, Germany. He is a member of the Evangelical Theological
Society and the Society of Biblical Literature, and serves
as chair of the board of the Evangelical Free Church Mission
and a representative of EFCM to the Evangelical Free Church
of America Board of Directors.
Back to table of contents
In Good Company
Who’s who among Wheaton’s alumni presidents
- Dr. H. David Brandt ’60—George Fox University;
Newberg, OR
- Dr. George K. Brushaber ’59, M.A. ’61—Bethel
University; St. Paul, MN
- Rev. Dr. Philip W. Butin ’77—San
Francisco Theological Seminary;
San Anselmo, CA
- Dr. R. Judson Carlberg ’62—Gordon
College; Wenham, MA
- Rev. Elisha Lin-Nun Cheung M.A. ’86—Calvary
School of Theology;
Dublin, CA
- Dr. Malcolm O. Couch ’68—Tyndale Theological
Seminary &
Biblical Institute; Forth Worth, TX
- Dr. G. Blair Dowden, Jr. ’74—Huntington
University; Huntington, IN
- Dr. Shin Funaki ’53, M.A. ’57—Japan Bible
Seminary; Hamura,
Tokyo, Japan
- Dr. W. Ward Gasque ’60—Pacific Association
for Theological Studies;
Stanwood, WA
- Dr. Norman L. Geisler ’58, M.A. ’60—Southern
Evangelical Seminary;
Charlotte, NC
- Dr. Nathan O. Hatch ’68—Wake Forest
University; Winston-Salem, NC
- Dr. Walter C. Kaiser, Jr. ’55, B.D. ’58—Gordon
Conwell
Theological Seminary; South Hamilton, MA
- Dr. Peter Kuzmic M.A. ’72—Evangelical Theological
Seminary;
Osijek, Croatia
- Dr. Bruce G. Murphy ’64—Northwestern College;
Orange City, IA
- Dr. Niel Byron Nielson ’76—Covenant College;
Lookout
Mountain, GA
- Dr. Michael T. Nietzel ’69—Southwest Missouri
State University;
Springfield, MO
- Dr. Frank William Parsons M.A. ’73—Christ Baptist
Bible College;
Philippines
- Dr. Charles William Pollard, III ’85—John Brown
University;
Siloam Springs, AR
- Dr. William P. Robinson M.A. ’75—Whitworth
College; Spokane, WA
- Dr. John Samuel Thannickal M.A. ’66—New Life
Bible College;
Bangalore, India
- Dr. Ronald R. Thomas ’71—University of Puget
Sound; Tacoma, WA
- Dr. Gregory L. Waybright ’74, M.A, ’78—Trinity
International University;
Deerfield, IL
- Rev. M. Lee Kung Yu ’52—Christian Witness Theological
Seminary; Berkeley, CA
Back to table
of contents
Opening Doors and
Hearts - Betty
Knoedler
Last spring Betty Burtness Knoedler
'50 was honored by the Alumni Assoication as the Wheaton College
Alumna of the Year 2005 for Distinguished Service to Alma Mater.
Nearly 100 Wheaton women gathered to honor her at a tea in
April, and she was honored again at Alumni Weekend in May.
Several years ago, Betty Knoedler ’50 and her husband of
nearly 55 years, Gunther “Bud” Knoedler ’51,
were vacationing in Colorado when their Jeep broke down, high
on a remote mountain trail. Amazingly enough, another Jeep came
along. Pulling over, the driver immediately noticed Bud’s
Wheaton College sweatshirt. It turned out that he and his
wife were also Wheaton graduates.
“It didn’t matter that we had never met this couple
or that they were decades younger,” Betty remarked. “All
of a sudden we had found new friends.”
For Betty Knoedler, Wheaton College has always been a lifeline
of friends and family—rich connections that transcend
place, time, and generations.
The daughter of Wheaton trustee Thorstein Burtness, Betty
established her ties to the College at a young age, and never
even considered attending another school. As a Wheaton student,
she majored in home economics, played field hockey, and met
her husband, Bud, who also served as trustee for 34 years and
president of the Alumni Association board. Since their marriage,
the couple has enjoyed close relationships with four of Wheaton’s
presidents and their wives: the Edmans, the Armerdings, the
Chases, and the Litfins.
Wheaton’s former first lady, Mary Chase, remembers, “We
stayed with the Knoedlers when we first visited the College
at the time of our initial interview, and they were wonderful
to us. They were our first friends here.”
Mary says it was Betty’s thoughtful attention to details
that made them feel more at home in the early days of Dick’s
presidency. “We were moving from California, and so she
had bought avocados for us—even though she herself had
never had one before,” Mary says. “Betty has been
a wonderful encourager, friend, and prayer partner.”
From administrators and faculty to students and alumni, the
Knoedlers have opened their home countless times to their Wheaton
family. Betty regards this outpouring of hospitality as just
one way of returning the blessings she and Bud received from
other Wheaton couples. She estimates that 95 percent of their
close friends have some relationship with the College.
Through the years, Betty has seen her ministry to the College
and the greater community as an encourager. Phone calls, cards,
visits, and meals are all ways that she has extended herself
to friends and neighbors. She has also been a member of the
Wheaton College Women’s Club intercessors (a prayer ministry that
meets on campus every week) for more than 40 years. “She
has probably been one of the most faithful members,” says
Mary Chase, who also notes that Betty keeps a prayer list, and
it’s not unusual for people to approach her and ask to
be added to it.
Facing even the toughest situations with confidence in the faithfulness
of God, Betty has been a support to many people. Through the
tragic death of her college roommate as well as serious illness
and divorce in her own family, Betty has not only grown to understand
the importance of encouragement firsthand, she has also been
able to see the great things God can orchestrate through pain
and broken-heartedness. As a volunteer in the divorce recovery
ministry at College Church, Betty has helped many grieving the
loss of their marriages.
“Sometimes there are no solutions to the difficult things
in life,” Betty acknowledges. “If I can do something
that illustrates God’s love, even to simply be there for
a friend, then that can have a big impact. If your spiritual
antenna is up, you don’t have to look far to find people
in need of this kind of love, care, and prayer.”
Betty believes that trusting the Lord to work through difficult
experiences directly relates to knowing and applying biblical
truths, and thus sharing God’s Word is a significant part
of her outreach. Her daughter, Ruthie Howard ’75, says
that she can’t remember a time when her mom wasn’t
teaching Bible studies—in fact, one that she started
40 years ago is still thriving today.
Citing one of her favorite quotes, Betty explains, “You
may be the only light in someone else’s darkness. I decided
long ago, that with God’s help, that’s what I wanted
to be.”
Describing his wife as the embodi-ment of the Proverbs 31 woman,
Bud presented her with a plaque nearly 30 years ago (signed
by her children), as a tribute of appreciation to “a
loving wife, devoted mother, godly example, wise teacher, counselor,
companion, and friend.”
“It’s even more true today than it was then,” Bud
says.
Back to table of contents
Continuing the Race -
Jack Swanson '49
During Alumni Weekend, Jack Swanson '49 received the Alumni
Association's Wheaton Colelge Alumnus of the Year 2005 Award
for Distinguished Service to Society
While he was in high school, Daniel Swanson went on a short-term
missions trip to Mexico, which changed his life. The experience
left him so concerned for the needs of under-resourced people
that he spent many of his weekends in Chicago serving meals,
advocating for people in court, and helping the downtrodden any
way he could.
But to his father, John (Jack) Swanson ’49, the most
significant thing his son did during those years was to challenge
his parents about what they were doing to help people in need.
At that time superintendent of Oak Park-River Forest High School,
Jack was widely acknowledged in the community for leading and
maintaining a nationally respected institution. A business
and economics major at Wheaton College, he earned an M.A. in
guidance and counseling and a Ph.D. in school administration
from Northwestern University.
Jack built his career in education as a coach, counselor,
principal, and superintendent, but in 1987, prompted by his
son’s
actions and the Lord’s leading, he retired early so that
he and his wife Eleanor (Ellie) McKnight Swanson ’49
could pursue a different avenue of service.
After a weekend of prayer and meditation in 1986, Jack and
Ellie had the distinct sense that God was calling them to a
foreign country to work with the impoverished. A short time
later, when a woman from Ellie’s Bible Study Fellowship class asked
if the Swansons would be interested in going to the Philippines
to start a mission in a squatter area, they felt that they had
received God’s answer.
In March 1987, Jack traveled to the Philippines with Rose and
Melo Biron to visit Manila and to make plans for a year-long
stay. Overwhelmed by the poverty, Jack knew this was where he
and Ellie were called to go.
“There were 200 people with shacks for homes, no toilets,
no electricity, nothing,” Jack recalls. “When you
see that kind of poverty—one water spout and children living
in terrible filth—it just leaves you speechless and
makes you so appreciative for what
you have.”
Over the next year, the Swansons and Birons poured their energies
into the squatter area, starting a co-op grocery and a preschool;
building recreational areas with basketball hoops and playgrounds;
installing toilets; and teaching the adults (particularly the
women), skills that could help make them self-sufficient, such
as candle-making and sewing.
Today, the mission, established as Christian Action for Reconciliation
and Evangelism (C.A.R.E.) Philippines, continues to enhance life
and bring hope to those in the squatter area, with medical and
dental clinics and some permanent buildings.
Jack notes that many of the people there have become Christians
through the mission, including some women outside the squatter
area who were part of a Bible Study Fellowship class Ellie started
in Manila.
The experience not only touched the lives of the Filipinos,
it had a profound effect on Jack as well. Having left family,
friends, church and familiar surroundings, the Swansons had to
trust the Lord completely for the first time in their lives.
“When everything you know is cut away, there is only one
source,” says Jack. “I had lived 60 years and never
known what it meant to be utterly dependent on God.”
After their return from the Philippines, Jack continued to
minister to the under-resourced as the interim director of
several inner-city programs in Chicago and through the Evangelical
Child and Family Agency, taking adopted children to meet their
biological parents. He also served on the trustee boards at
Trinity International University and Wheaton College, and as
secretary-treasurer of John Stott Ministries, an organization
that provides scholarship and literature for Christian leaders.
Today, as a resident of Windsor Park Manor, Jack helps people
who don’t have family
or who are unable to
get around.
When asked about the most satisfying result of his work and
ministry, however, Jack points to his three children: Robert,
a clinical psychologist at Cook County Hospital; Daniel,
a missionary in Mexico; and Kathryn Swanson Soneson ’77,
an organizer for the P.A.D.S. ministry and foster parent.
“The fact that all three of my children show a deep concern
for the needy means more to me than any degrees I have or money
I could make,” says Jack. And he knows that his wife Ellie,
who passed away in December 2004 after a long battle with Alzheimer’s,
would agree.
“The Distinguished Service to Society award is really
a co-award with Ellie,” Jack notes. “She was a partner
in all of our endeavors, and she did so much good on her own.
I use her Bible now and recently found a verse she had underlined
and dated the year she became ill, Acts 20:24. To ‘finish
the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me’—this
is what I want to do while I am still able.”
Back to table of contents
A Pilgrim’s
Progress
by David Malone, Archivist and Head of Special Collections
Many have read his devotional classic,
but few know much about the life and
ministry of Oswald Chambers. Now, thanks to a generous
donation from
the Oswald Chambers Publications Association of England,
a collection of the artwork, published writings, and correspondence
of this author, teacher, and preacher
may now be found in Wheaton’s Archives and Special
Collections.
During his lifetime, Oswald Chambers didn’t rub shoulders
with presidents. Few people would even have recog-nized his name.
But nearly 90 years after his death, Chambers has been heralded
as President George W. Bush’s favorite devotional writer—and
his posthumous classic, My Utmost for His Highest, ranks
in the top ten religious bestsellers.
“So many millions of us have read his words—been deepened
by his prayers, been brought before God by his writing,” writes
Eugene H. Peterson, professor of spiritual theology at Regent
College.
Wheaton recently acquired the author’s papers, most of
these collected by Chambers’ biographer David McCasland
M.A. ’75, author of Oswald Chambers: Abandoned to God.
From McCasland’s book and these papers, we may glean not
only more insights into how Chambers’ work earned
recognition, but also more about the man himself.
That Oswald’s sermons and lectures endure today is thanks
mainly to the efforts of his wife, Biddy (Gertrude Hobbs), whom
Oswald affectionately nicknamed after the letters B.D., for beloved
disciple. Following her husband’s untimely death
in his early 40s, Biddy, who was a trained court stenographer,
transformed her verbatim short-hand notes of nearly all
of his lectures and sermons into magazine articles, pamphlets,
and dozens of books.
What’s missing from these, McCasland says, is a feeling
for Chambers’ sense of humor and love of life. “She
left out all of the little comments and asides that any speaker
would use, and as a result, we lose a little bit of Chambers’ personality,” notes
McCasland.
He adds, “A lot of people picture him as an old man who
lived on top of a mountain and never came down.” The biographer
clarifies that quite the opposite was actually true. “He
was not an aloof person,”
McCasland says, noting that he
loved children and instead of
sending them away, often
entertained them with sketches. In fact, McCasland’s one
and only acquaintance who knew Chambers personally
described him as “eternally young.”
The biographer recounts the story of a man who first met Chambers out
on a moor in Yorkshire. “He had a spirit stove and invited the man to share
a cup of tea in his Heavenly Father’s dining room,” says
McCasland.
Born in 1874, Oswald became a Christian in his teen
years after hearing the renowned nineteenth-century preacher, Charles
Spurgeon. Desiring to become an artist, Chambers studied at London’s Royal College
of Art, in spite of his father’s stern objections. Even though they both
sought to serve the same Lord, Chambers saw the world differently than his
minister father. He believed that one could serve God through artistic expression
and that use of the arts made the pilgrimage in this world bearable. In addition
to being an accomplished artist, he loved music and played both piano and organ.
Adds McCasland, “He also was a voracious reader who read across disciplines—philosophy,
drama, the classics. . . . ”
The tension of being a pilgrim, especially as a Christian in the arts,
and the sense of a growing call to enter fulltime ministry took its toll
on Chambers. He left his art studies at Edinburgh University to attend
the small Dunoon Training College in Scotland. His theological studies
only intensified his soul searching.
In The Pilgrim’s Song Book, he wrote, “We do not immediately realize
that we are pilgrims; when a child is born into the world it is welcomed and
for a time it feels perfectly happy and at home. Neither when we are born again
do we realize at once that we are pilgrims; rather, we feel more at home on
the earth than ever; we have come into contact with the Creator of it all.
. . . But as we go on, this sense of at-home-ness disappears and ultimately
we realize a deep alienation to all that the world represents, and we recognize
that we are ‘strangers and pilgrims on the earth,’ that ‘here
we have no continuing city’ (Ps.120). ”
But this soul-searching also increased his resolve to encourage others
toward the celestial city. He followed the call of God, preaching in
camp meetings and working within the Holiness movement briefly in America
and Japan, and then primarily in the United Kingdom.
He and Biddy later helped to found the Bible Training College in London,
where he would serve as principal.
When World War I erupted, the school closed as Chambers
left London with Biddy and their young daughter, Kathleen,
to become chaplain to the thousands of soldiers stationed
in Egypt. In mid-November 1917, after suffering a blood
clot while recovering from an emergency appendectomy, Chambers died at
age 43. The telegram that his wife sent
home to his family in England read simply, “Oswald in
His Presence.”
Nearly a century later, the written expressions of Oswald’s spoken words
have been translated into numerous languages and continue to reach millions
of people. From his collected papers, students and visitors to the College
may learn more about Chambers’ place in history, as well as about the
minister, teacher, father, and husband who lived a life that was at its essence—recklessly
abandoned to God.
In a letter to a friend, Chambers summed up the extent of his surrender.
He wrote, “Holiness is not an attainment at all, it is the gift of God .
. . He makes holy, He sanctifies, He does it all. All I have to do is come
as a spiritual pauper, not ashamed to beg, to let go of my right to myself.
. . . It is a case of ‘hands up’ and letting go, and then
entire reliance on Him.”
(left): New Zealand troops camped in Cairo, Egypt, where Oswald served
as a chaplain during World War I. (opposite page): Oswald and Biddy,
and the typewriter Biddy used to transcribe her husband’s sermons.
Back to table of contents
Besting the Bullies
The author of the book Sticks
and Stones: A Parent and Teacher Guide to Bullying offrs proactive, practical advice for
both parents and children.
A skinny seventh-grade boy left school every day in fear
of yet again being thrown into the secluded dumpster next
to his school.
Every day for three weeks, the same
seven guys would pick him up, strip off his backpack, and
toss him into the dumpster.
Finally an acquaintance and his buddies
decided to help out by walking with the victim. They
did this for two weeks. This nonverbal show of force stopped
the bullying entirely.
What happens if a bystander doesn’t
step in? The results can sometimes be fatal, with the victim
either becoming suicidal or seeking violent revenge.
What can we do when bullying affects our children? How
can we motivate our Christian
kids to be careful, but courageous, intervening bystanders?
First,
we can understand the problem. Bullying has become an
epidemic at schools over the last 15 years. Metal detectors,
police presence, student identification cards, and lock-down
procedures
have had a dramatic and positive influence on reducing
potentially lethal situations. In addition, numerous anti-bullying,
character development, peer mediation, and staff intervention
programs have been developed and implemented to address the
problem.
But while the school homicide rate has declined dramatically
overall since 1994, incidents of students threatened or injured
with a weapon at school have remained the same. About 282,000
high school students are physically attacked in school each
month. And although the lethal nature of these attacks has
been reduced, the bullying problem is still significant. About
77 percent of high school students experience mental, verbal,
or physical bullying according to a 2003 survey conducted by
the American Justice Department. Of those, about fifteen percent
suffered severe reactions to the abuse, requiring hospitalization,
medical treatment, or school changes. The stereotype that
these incidents occur primarily in inner-city schools was
dispelled after the Columbine shootings of 1999.
What is bullying?
All children have moments of thoughtlessness and disregard for
others. A bully, however, typically comes from an emotionally
and/or physically abusive background and uses intimidation
and cruelty to dominate others and gain social status.
While boys and girls are targeted equally, bullies themselves
are more often male students, using violence, threats of harm,
name-calling, and derogatory language to trap their victims.
It is clear to both the victim and the bully that the two are
enemies.
Female bullies often use more subtle means to taunt their
victims, leveraging friendship as a commodity to lure a girl
in and then set her up for rejection. This is often repeated
with
alternating disingenuous interest and humiliating rejection,
leading to pain and confusion for the victim that prolongs
the bullying.
Sexual harassment in the form of hallway grabbing, pinching
of private parts, lifting skirts, and sexual name-calling is
also
on the rise. The Internet takes all these actions to a new
level,
as kids are now putting recorded bullying acts on Web sites
for
all to see.
With bullying incidents making headlines
around the nation, the question then becomes what can we do?
What can Christian parents do?
Parents need to start with their own children, and strike a
balance—by
being over-protective, they risk robbing their children of
developing valuable coping skills, but at the same time, they
are responsible for the safety and protection of their children.
Following are a few tips:
First things first. Begin by discerning whether or not your
child is a victim. Kids often won’t speak up—especially
to parents. Dr. Sarah Shea, director of the Child Development
Clinic in Halifax,
Canada, recommends asking indirect questions—checking
out how children are spending their lunch hour, or what life
on the bus or walk home is like. Many bullying incidents occur
on the bus, in the gym locker room, and on the way home from
school. Ask your children if they have seen other kids bullied
and what happens to
the bully afterward.
Warning Signs. Consider following up with direct questions
if you see the following signs: reluctance to go to school,
fearfulness,
anxiety, stomach aches only on school days, sleep disturbances
and nightmares, vague physical complaints, or belongings that
do not
return back home.
What if your child is being bullied?
- Control yourself. When we hear about our kids being picked
on, our natural response is to want to strike
first and talk later. If we’re more mature, we might
just want to lecture the bully. Sometimes
the anxiety of hearing that a child is in harm’s
way leads a parent to minimize or dismiss the
situation. We need to put aside our
own emotions and be available to listen, help,
pray, and believe in
our children.
- Listen carefully. Don’t jump
directly into problem solving. It is critical
that you first truly listen to your child. What
do they think triggered the bullying? What have
they done to try to solve it? What worked and
what did not work? What else do they think could be done?
Asking them questions teaches them that they are full participants
in figuring out what to do.
- Assure your child that it is
not his or her fault. Part of growing up involves figuring
out how to fit in and get along, and children naturally feel
anxious about their status. So if a bully is picking
on them, it is easy for them to think that they deserve the
harassment. You are their reality check. No child deserves
to be on the receiving end of malicious acts.
- Offer advice
when it is requested. It is tempting to tell your
child how to solve the problem. Don’t. Become a partner
and wait for an invitation to help. You are teaching
them a life skill and you don’t want them to miss the
lesson that comes from facing the challenging
aspects of life. Ask your child how you can help
and listen to the answer.
- Validate their experiences. Many bullying victims report
that their parents refused to take the situation seriously.
Kids need to know that you hear them and believe them;
that you are the safety net.
- Admire and affirm. Tell your child specifically why you
like the way she is handling the situation. Encourage your
child to step out boldly and carefully to advocate for
other kids who are getting bullied.. Pray and tell. Pray
for your kids daily and let them know you do. Prayer is a
meaningful way to connect with and without words. Light a
candle together and ask God to speak to you and your child
about how to handle a specific bully in quiet prayer.
- Empower. Start with the strategies your child comes up
with and think through together how to implement the plan.
Help your child avoid the situations that expose him or
her to bullying. If it occurs on the way to or from school,
find a safe route and arrange for an older child companion.
Also, point out places the child can go for help. Develop
a list of kids and specific strategies for each target time.
- Role model. As parents, we need to model positive and
respectful behavior to our kids. Teach your kids how to talk
about feelings and enemies. Avoid sarcasm and blaming language.
Demonstrate respect and compassion.. Partner with your school.
In selected situations, especially with elementary-aged
children, it is important for parents to talk with other
parents, teachers, and school administrators to improve the
situation. Do this in coordination with your child and with
his or her input. Review the results together. If you have
worked with your older child without much success, or if
the situation is dangerous, consider working directly with
the school.
Working with your school
- Communicate. Parent-school communication is vital. Start
with the teacher most directly involved. Don’t
assume teachers know about specific incidents. If
further help is needed, call the school social worker,
counselor, dean, or principal.
- Develop a strategy for your meeting. Have accurate information;
ask your child for details about the incidents, including
where they have occurred, how often, when they started, and
your child’s
responses to the bullying. Be concise and open to looking at
how your child’s behavior may be contributing
to the situation.
- Look for a way to solve the problem together. Practice
what you will say beforehand to make sure you come across
in a positive manner.
- Advocate with the administrator to adjust schedules, seating,
and/or locker assignments to limit interaction
between the bully and your child. You may want to request
additional supervision and/or monitoring be provided in targeted
areas..Follow up with the school personnel about both progress
and difficulties with the situation.
- Serve on the character committee. Many middle schools have
committees that look at ways to address character issues
through academic curriculum, discipline, in-class skits,
or a student leadership character team.
. . . . <>. . . .
For many years, character issues have been deliberately
set apart from the curriculum in public schools. Times
have changed. Christian parents can have a powerful and
dynamic impact on their communities that improves the
school environment for all kids, including our own. For
more information on bullying, interventions, and the
status of schools in your state, check out www.bullybeware.com,
www.eric.ed.gov, and the Bureau of Justice.
Karen L. Maudlin
M.A.’84, Psy.D. has been a licensed clinical
psychologist for over 20 years and is owner of a family
practice with several associates in both Wheaton and Barrington,
Illinois. She has been an adjunct clinical faculty member
in Wheaton’s
doctoral program in clinical psychology, and has also been
an advice columnist for a national parenting magazine.
She is the author of Sticks & Stones: A Parent & Teacher
Guide to Bullying (W Publishing, 2002). Dr. Maudin is also
an executive coach, providing corporate leadership assessment
to a variety of businesses.
Back to table of contents
Profiles
Beauty and the Bees
Few Wheaton students can create a buzz like Sarah Kornfield ’07.
That’s because when Sarah travels these days, she’s
often accompanied by a demonstration hive of bees.
As the 2005 American Honey Queen, Sarah is responsible for educating
Americans about the $15 billion beekeeping industry.
In addition to her college coursework, she travels around the
country to state and agricultural fairs, schools, camps, and
clubs answering every possible question about bees and their
impact on agriculture. Did you know, for instance, that there
are more than 3,000 varieties of honey? Or that the almond, citrus,
clover, and alfalfa industries are all dependent on honeybees?
Though she’s only held the title since January, Sarah’s
at ease with her humming schedule since last year she served
as the Texas Honey Queen, traveling throughout the state. Her
most demanding presentation to date? Speaking to a crowd of day-campers
at a Texas ranch in a storm. “The wind was howling through
the ends of the barn and clouds of dust were swirling. Capturing
the kids’ attention despite the conditions was a real challenge,
but it also made it one of my most rewarding experiences,” she
notes.
Homeschooled in Plano, Texas, by her parents, Bill ’79
and Jennie Brown Kornfield ’78, Sarah joined a beekeeping
club in high school after being introduced to the hobby by
friends from church.
She’s tended two hives in her backyard for the past three
years—checking each month to be sure the queen is healthy
and laying eggs at a good rate. Last year, she harvested her
first crop—about 50 lbs. of honey. She explains, “The
average hive will yield about 75 lbs., but since mine are new,
they yielded less.”
Though most people are intimated by the thought of bee stings,
Sarah isn’t fazed. In fact, she finds the hum of the hives
soothing, and the lives of bees fascinating. She’s also
quick to admit that she never imagined where donning her veil
and helmet would lead.
Today she’s pursuing a double major in literature and
communications, and says that her experience as Honey Queen has
directly influenced her future plans. “I’m a more
confident person because of the program,” she reflects,
adding that she’s uncertain at this point whether she
will pursue a doctorate in literature or put her interest in
rhetoric to some other use.
Sarah’s beekeeping hobby has “stuck” in other
areas of life as well—influencing everything from her favorite
snacks to her skin care regimen. She keeps honey sticks (straws
filled with honey) on hand in her dorm, and makes her own moisturizer
from beeswax, olive oil, and propolis (the sap that honeybees
use to seal off their hives). “Beeswax naturally seals
in moisture,” she explains.
Perhaps a bee or two in the bonnet isn’t such a bad
thing after all.
As the 2005 Honey Queen, Sarah’s mastered her bee trivia.
One of the questions she’s most frequently asked gives
her a chance to share her faith regularly. “When people
ask how the bees know to gather the nectar, I’m able to
respond that when God made the bees, He made them with those
instincts,” says the former Bible quiz team member, pictured
above in her tiara and helmet.
As the 2005 Honey Queen, Sarah’s mastered her bee trivia.
One of the questions she’s most frequently asked gives
her a chance to share her faith regularly. “When people
ask how the bees know to gather the nectar, I’m able to
respond that when God made the bees, He made them with those
instincts,” says the former Bible quiz team member, pictured
above in her tiara and helmet.
Back to table of contents
A Higher Education
Just call her likkle but tallowah.
This epithet has followed Jamaican-born Andrea Scott ’93
since she was a little girl—in the patois dialect, the
colloquialism represents one small in size or stature, but powerful
in essence. It is one of many elements of her cultural heritage
that remain integral to Andrea’s personality, even after
more than 20 years in the United States.
“Jamaicans have a genuine appreciation for life, a strong
sense of family and community, and a lot of national pride .
. . almost to the point of arrogance,” laughs Andrea,
who adds that respect for authority was also central to her
upbringing.
Now an assistant professor of marketing at Pepperdine University,
with an M.B.A. from Emory University in Atlanta and a Ph.D. from
the University of South Florida, she is the one commanding respect.
“I was always interested in teaching,” explains
Andrea, noting that the greatest reward is watching her students
progress from knowledge to understanding.
Nevertheless, as an interdisciplinary studies major at Wheaton,
Andrea used to envision herself as a manager of her own advertising
agency in Miami—not a professor at a university in
Malibu. Although Wheaton did not offer a marketing degree,
her interest in the field prompted her to focus on graphic
arts and communication as an undergraduate, and ultimately
inspired her dissertation on intimacy and relationship advertising.
“I had no idea how much I loved research until I started
doing it,” says Andrea, relieved, she jokes, that one “could
become a doctor without cutting people open.”
An interesting discovery during her doctoral research occurred
with the help of a visually impaired colleague, whose perception
of the messages conveyed by her advertising samples differed
from those who could both see and hear them. “This man,
who was seeing impaired, taught me the value of imperfection,” Andrea
reflects, realizing that her strong visuals were weakening the
effect of her marketing efforts by interfering with what was
being verbally communicated. “God makes no mistakes, even
when we see limitations,” she says of human disabilities.
Andrea understood this truth on a personal level when she
was diagnosed with lupus in 1996, a chronic disease that inhibits
proper functioning of the immune system. Battling the disease,
she says, has been both her greatest challenge and greatest
triumph, forcing her to rely on God instead of trying to accomplish
tasks in her own strength. “I don’t doubt that God made
me ambitious—He just wants me to use it for His glory,” Andrea
says. “My ambition should be yielded to Him.”
She concedes that moving to California to join the faculty
at Pepperdine was a step in that direction, although she was
reluctant to move so far away from her parents (who reside
in Clearwater, Florida), as well as her younger brothers Quentin
and Shane ’96,
and her sister-in-law Sarah (Thompson) ’96. Still, having
recently bought her first home, Andrea is grateful for all
of her blessings and accomplishments.
“Most days I love getting out of bed to do what I am doing,” she
says. “Nothing is perfect, but to feel fulfilled, and called,
in what you do—for me, that is the measure of success.”
Get in touch with Andrea at Andrea.Scott@pepperdine.edu.
Back to table of contents
Jake Armerding
While other students took notes as Dr. Sharon Coolidge ’72
lectured on Homer’s Odyssey, singer-songwriter Jake Armerding ’00
sat in class dreaming up song lyrics. The result, Ithaca, became
one of the signature songs that led the talented folk-and-bluegrass
musician to two CDs and national acclaim by age 27. It may have
also drawn the “ire” of English teachers nationwide.
“I have a tough time finding an excuse for that,” says
Jake with a laugh, regarding the song’s reference to the
non-existent daughters of Odysseus. “I had a line about ‘otters’ and
a line about ‘waters,’ and I could go with either ‘sons’ or ‘daughters’ .
. . Do you know how hard it is to rhyme something with ‘Telemachus’?”
Few pop musicians face such conflicts with classical literature,
but few bring as rich an array of influences to their music as
Jake, who currently performs on fiddle, mandolin, guitar, and
vocals at 100 shows a year from Wheaton to Alaska. With 33 recorded
songs under his belt and a new CD scheduled to release in September,
Jake is busy earning a living at something he has done since
childhood: making music.
At age four, he learned to play classical violin from his
father Taylor ’70, an accomplished bluegrass musician, but began
to chafe under its formality. “At some point I just realized
that classical music was kind of like playing cover songs,” explains
Jake. “You were tied to another man’s work.”
Desiring to make his own music in his own style, he made the
jump to bluegrass, and at 13 began playing fiddle in his father’s “newgrass” group,
Northern Lights. He successfully self-released his first CD,
Cagèd Bird, while still in college, selling 2,500 copies
literally out of his trunk and capturing the 2001 Best New Artist
award at WUMB, Boston’s premier folk radio station.
After graduation, Jake played dozens of performances around
New England and then moved to Nashville (“that old singer-songwriter
cliché”) before returning to his native Massachusetts.
He landed a record deal with Compass Records in 2003 and released
a successful second CD, self-titled Jake Armerding.
“You just keep playing shows, writing songs, making CDs,
and earning fans one or two at a time,” Jake says. “It’s
actually much tougher than you might think, though at the same
time it’s a dream job. I feel like I never really get a
vacation, but . . . I never really have to go to work—or
at least get up early.”
His years at Wheaton provided Jake with a student audience that
embraced his music, fellow musicians to make it with, and, most
of all, classes that influenced his person, his faith, and the
songs he writes.
“The responsibility of any artist, but especially one
who calls himself a Christian, is to try to put some beauty and
truth into the world that wasn’t there before,” says
Jake. “I think that’s what God expects of the artist—why
he was given the ability in the first place—and I try
to live up to that.”
Back to table of contents
Ken Taylor
Funeral Celebrates Life of Living Bible Publisher
WHEATON, Illinois—“Precious in the sight of the
Lord is the death of His faithful ones.”
This Scripture, found in Psalm 116:15, is the parting sentiment
that Dr. Kenneth Taylor ’38, Litt.D ’65 chose to
leave with family, friends, and members of the community, who
nearly filled Edman Chapel at his June 15 funeral. Reflecting
on the verse in a videotaped message that was played for the
congregation, he emphasized the happiness that surrounds being
welcomed into the Kingdom of Heaven. And to ensure that his service
would illustrate such joy, Dr. Taylor himself selected each hymn
for the program, including special instructions in print for
those gathered not to “drag it like a funeral dirge!”
When Ken began paraphrasing portions of Scripture for his
ten children during their family devotions back in the 1950s,
he never anticipated that his paraphrase, now The Living Bible,
would sell more than 40 million copies and lead readers around
the world to a deeper understanding of God’s Word.
Much of the work was done on the train as he commuted from
Wheaton to Chicago, and after self-publishing the first 2,000
copies of Living Letters, he released the complete biblical
text in 1971.
Involved in Christian publishing for 65 years, Ken began his
career in 1943 as the editor of HIS magazine (published by
InterVarsity Christian Fellowship), while completing his studies
at Northern Baptist Theological Seminary. Over the next 20
years, he worked at Good News Publishers and then became the
director of Moody Literature Mission, while con-currently serving
as the director of Moody Press. He and his wife, Margaret (West) ’39,
founded Tyndale House Publishers in their Wheaton home in 1962.
Ken went on to receive four honorary doctorates, publish a
number of children’s books, establish the Tyndale House
Foundation, and found Living Bibles International, which sponsored
Bible translations in 100 major languages.
Not wanting to make a profit from the Word of God, the Taylors
frequently donated to charitable causes. Those who knew Ken
well are quick to praise both his generosity and his humility.
Business colleague Paul Mathews noted, when told he was admired
for being humble, Ken would say with a twinkle in his eye, “When
I think of how humble I am, I feel so proud.”
In addition to serving on the Bible Translation Committee
for the Holy Bible’s New Living Translation, Ken was also the
creator of The One Year Bible, another top seller internationally.
On the date of his death, June 10, the day’s passages
included Psalm 128, which his son, Mark, shared at the funeral.
“You will eat the fruit of your labor; blessings and prosperity
will be yours,” the psalm describes. “Your wife will
be like a fruitful vine within your house; your sons will be
like olive shoots around your table. Thus is the man blessed
who fears the Lord.” Ken, who celebrated his 88th birthday
on May 8, is survived by his wife, 10 children, 28 grandchildren,
and 22 great-grandchildren.
Back to table of contents
In the News
Professor Named Journalism Administrator of the Year
CINCINNATI—The Scripps Howard Foundation, which annually
honors the best in journalism education as well as in print,
Web, and electronic journalism, has named Dr. Will Norton, Jr. ’63
its National Journalism Administrator of the Year.
The award, which includes a $10,000 prize as well as an additional
$5,000 grant to the university from the foundation, was presented
on April 15 at the National Press Club banquet in Washington,
D.C.
Dean of the college of journalism and mass communications
at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Dr. Norton has served
with national organizations such as Freedom Forum and the Accrediting
Council on Education. Since he became dean in 1990, he has
not only expanded the UNL college of journalism’s endow-ment
by 1,000 percent, he also helped raise $6.5 million to fund
facility renovations and the acquisition of new equipment.
“The Scripps Howard Foundation presents the National Journalism
Awards to celebrate and honor excellent work by America’s
media and the part journalists play in a free and democratic
society,” said Judith G. Clables, Foundation president
and chief executive officer. “The journalists and educators
we recognize have achieved the highest levels of dedication
and professionalism. Their work makes a difference for each
and every one of us.”
Two Universities to Inaugurate New Presidents
SOUTH BEND, Indiana—Former provost of Notre Dame University
Dr. Nathan Hatch ’68 became the 13th president of Wake
Forest University on July 1. Dr. Hatch spent 30 years at Notre
Dame, where he specialized in the history of religion in America,
and has served as provost since 1996. Earlier this year he told
the Chicago Tribune that “a certain bittersweet sense” surrounds
his decision to come aboard at Wake Forest, but explained that
the university and its academic programs foster “a nurturing
of heart as well as in mind, and in that sense is very similar
to Notre Dame.”
MUSCATANE, Iowa—After 32 years with the University of
Kentucky, Iowa native Dr. Michael T. Nietzel ’69 has been
named president of Southwest Missouri State University in Springfield.
Before becoming Kentucky’s first provost in 2001, Dr. Nietzel
also served as director of the university’s clinical
psychology training program, chair of the department of psychology,
and dean of the graduate school.
Moreover, when he was inaugurated at SMSU on July 1, he joined
the faculty as a tenured professor in the psychology department.
His research interests include forensic psychology, jury decision-making,
and the assessment of psychotherapy outcomes. Dr. Nietzel has
written several leading books and more than 85 scholarly articles
in these areas; has served on the editorial board of numerous
clinical and legal psychology journals; and has been elected
a Fellow in both the American Psychology Association and the
American Psychology Society.
Police Receive Confession to Lefkow Murders
CHICAGO—Almost two weeks after Federal Judge Joan Humphrey
Lefkow ’65 found her husband, labor lawyer Michael Lefkow,
and 89-year-old mother, Donna Humphrey of Denver, murdered
in her Edgewater home on February 28, a 57-year-old Chicago
man confessed to both killings in a suicide note, before taking
his own life.
The suspect, Bob Ross, shot himself when police pulled over
his van on a rural Milwaukee street.
Judge Lefkow had ruled against Ross in a civil case involving
a malpractice lawsuit, a decision that was upheld by a federal
appeals court in January.
WMAQ-TV Chicago said it also received a hand-written note signed
by a Bart Ross before the suicide, in which the writer admitted
to breaking into the house of Judge Lefkow around dawn on February
28, with intent to kill her. Serving on the United States District
Court, Judge Lefkow was once the target of another assassination
plot for which a white supremacist was convicted last year.
In addition to the demands of her career, the Judge remaines
a devoted mother of four daughters. While she says it is unlikely
she will return to the house where the victims were discovered,
the New York Times reported that she refuses to “be intimidated
off of the bench.”
Chemistry Prof Pioneers Renewable Energy Breakthrough
MINNEAPOLIS—Dr. Lanny Schmidt ’60, Regents Professor
of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at the University
of Minnesota, has invented a reactor that extracts hydrogen from
ethanol—a discovery that offers the first hope of harvesting
hydrogen inexpensively as a potential energy source.
The reactor does not burn ethanol like standard combustion,
which would produce water and carbon dioxide; rather, it produces
hydrogen gas instead of water. Ordinarily, hydrogen as a fuel
does not represent much of an advance, unless it comes from renewable
sources like ethanol.
“This work has attracted enormous interest in Minnesota
because the state is a huge ethanol producer. . . . The rural
economy depends on it,” Dr. Schmidt reported in an article
for Inventing Tomorrow, a UMN publication. A former chemistry
student at Wheaton, he earned his Ph.D. in physical chemistry
from the University of Chicago, and came to the University
of Minnesota in 1965.
“Right now Lanny is doing the best research of his career,” chemical
engineering department head Dr. Frank Bates said of his colleague
in Inventing. “That’s very unusual for someone who’s
been doing so well for 35 years. . . .We’re absolutely
thrilled and we’re all jealous.”
As Dr. Schmidt explained, ethanol is fermented from corn,
which is abun-dantly produced in the Upper Midwest. The carbon
dioxide generated by the combustion of the ethanol would ultimately
be reabsorbed by the following year’s crop during photosynthesis,
and the reactor would feed the hydrogen gas into a fuel cell,
where it would be burned to produce enough power to supply
an average-sized home.
While Dr. Schmidt sees homes in rural areas as the first beneficiaries
of this new technology, eventually, homeowners may be able to
buy ethanol and use it to power small hydrogen fuel cells in
their basements.
New Book Recognizes 32 Wheaton Notables
WHEATON, Illinois—Mary Anne Phemister, wife of Wheaton
College piano professor Dr. William Phemister, recently used
her 31 years of experience living in Wheaton to publish the book
32 Wheaton Notables, highlighted in The Daily Herald. The compilation
features short biographies (complete with early photos and drawings)
of 32 well-known individuals with connections to Wheaton, Illinois—from
former president John Quincy Adams, to astronomer Edwin Hubble,
to actor James Belushi. About half of the group is comprised
of Wheaton alumni, which includes Margaret Mortenson Landon ’25
(Anna and the King of Siam); Todd ’91 and Lisa Brosius
Beamer ’91; Dennis Hastert ’64; Billy Graham ’43,
Litt.D. ’56; Kenneth Taylor ’38, Litt.D. ’65;
Elisabeth Howard Elliot (Gren) ’48; and others.
Published Alumni - Fifty Years
Since Wheaton
Walt
Kaiser, JR. '55, B.D. '58
The future must always be broader than the past when we consider
the whole work of the Kingdom of God, and Psalm 66:16 expresses
my story since I graduated from Wheaton College in 1955: “Let
me tell you what [God] has done for me.”
I just began my ninth year as the president of Gordon-Conwell
Theological Seminary. During my initial interview, when the
Board asked me why I wanted to be president, I told them that
I didn’t
want to—I had never raised money and I didn’t know
how to play golf, which I heard is how one does it! Thinking
I had talked them out of choosing me, I was surprised when they
announced they had elected a new president, before even asking
if I would accept. (Nine years later, I still haven’t
technically said yes.)
But I’ve learned that being a leader has less to do
with our personal abilities and what we bring to the job, and
much more to do with who God is and what He can do through
us.
When I look back on my time at Wheaton, I see all of the experiences
that He has used to train me. I have many wonderful memories
of nights working in the dining hall with the dish crew—we
solved all kinds of theological and intellectual problems
while washing dishes. As a Bible scholar, I took the equivalent
of philosophy and Greek minors with electives from almost
every department.
I am deeply grateful to my Lord, and to Art ’50, M.A. ’52
and Alice Holmes, for their superb counsel, pushing me into areas
of study that I otherwise wouldn’t have undertaken. Also
invaluable were the Sundays I spent with 45 other Wheatonites,
visiting up to 800 children from the city’s housing projects
at Salem Sunday School in Chicago. Ten-year-old Freddy accepted
the Lord on Sunday and died in a hit-and-run accident on Wednesday.
The time for ministry was now!
Upon completing my bachelor of divinity degree in August 1958,
I was offered a one-year contract teaching in Wheaton’s
Bible department (which was later extended to three years),
and after two subsequent years of study at Brandeis University
under a Danforth Teacher Study Grant, I returned to teach
at the College until the fall of 1966, when I went to teach
at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois.
That too was a difficult decision, for I loved college teaching,
but felt convicted that the famine of the Word of God in
the Church had to end quickly. From 1980-1993 I served as
academic dean at TEDS, until I came to Gordon-Conwell Theological
Seminary in South Hamilton, Massachusetts. By the providence
of God, I was asked to become president four years later.
God has certainly led me in a different direction than I expected
when, at 15 years old, I dedicated my life to Him at a Youth
for Christ rally with the desire to serve on the mission field.
Reflecting on the Lord’s guidance over the last 50 years,
my wife, Marge, and I continue to be surprised every day
with the joy of ministry, the power of the Word of God in our
times, and His merciful preparation through my Wheaton education.
Back to table of contents
Sent to Serve
The following is an excerpt of the
undergraduate commencement address delivered to the Class of
2005 by Joni Eareckson Tada,
with an introduction from President Duane Litfin.
The Academy Award for Best Picture this year went to the
movie Million Dollar Baby. It’s the story of a
young woman named Maggie Fitzgerald, who turns to boxing
as a way out of a dead-end life. She rides her boxing train
to success, only to see her dreams vanish in a tragic accident
that leaves her paralyzed from the neck down.
In the end, her trainer, in an act that the film portrays as
both tragic and heroic, takes her life as an act of mercy. After
all, the film seems to be telling us . . . in circumstances such
as hers, what else is there to live for?
The life and ministry of Joni Eareckson
Tada is the answer to that question. Injured in a diving
accident in 1967, Joni was also a vigorous athlete who became
a quadriplegic. What Maggie needed most lying there in that
hospital bed was not someone to end her life. What she needed
was hope—the very hope
that transformed Joni’s quadriplegia into a worldwide ministry
that has touched literally millions of lives. It’s an eternal
hope—a hope of heaven that transcends this life, but it’s
also a hope for today—the hope that came when
Joni realized that God wanted to use her for His
glory, even in her paralyzed condition. For it was
precisely her paralysis that opened for Joni such
an astonishing opportunity for ministry.
I must confess, as I listened to Dr.
Litfin speak about Maggie, I’m thinking to myself, “I
remember the time when I was first injured in that diving accident,
when I would wrench my head back and forth on the pillow at
night, hoping to break my neck up at a higher level, so that
I might kill myself that way.
But there were Christian friends who came to my hospital,
sat on the edge of the bed, brought in their guitars. They
opened up the Word of God. And finally one night, maybe a year
or so into that tragedy, I whispered a prayer to the Lord Jesus,
and I said, “Oh, God, if I can’t die, will you please
show me how to live?” And I have been living well since
then.
My wheelchair, and the wheelchairs of others for that matter,
began to take on a different perspective, especially as I
examined the life of Jesus Christ in Scripture. Every time
I flipped through Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, there He was,
hanging out with someone else with a handicap—hob-knobbing
with people with disabilities, reserving His most gentle touch
for the blind and counseling the fathers of little boys with
seizures. He seemed to go out of His way to strike up conversations
with guys who were paralyzed on straw mats by the pool of Bethesda.
And the Lord seemed to be saying to me, “Joni, these
are the people I want you to serve among.”
I stumbled across a convicting verse in Philippians 2:3-5,
where it says, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition, or
vain conceit, but in humility, consider others better than
yourselves. Do not look to your own interests, but look to
the interests of others.”
And friends, this is why you have invested these years at
Wheaton. God did not bring you here to prepare you simply for
a “job.” God
has prepared you to share His Good News with people, and to
do it as He did it, with warmth and passion, and zeal and affection.
Earlier this week, I read a quote from a Harvard study. Students
in the M.B.A. program there were assigned to create a strategic
plan for their lives, and it was titled, “What Do I Hope
to Achieve in Life After Graduation?” After they tabulated
the priorities, it was ascertained that number one was wealth.
Number two was notoriety. . . . And number three was status.
Interestingly, none of the strategic plans had anything to
do with serving people.
After years teaching countless disability workshops, working
on the National Council of Disability to pass the Americans
with Disabilities Act . . . visiting rehab centers and residential
facilities, I have learned that it’s a passion for God
that will give you a passion for people. And this utter delight
in Him will come from the toughest of trials that you are about
to face. Our affliction becomes that which pushes and shoves
us down the road to the cross. . . . And that’s what
it means to become like Him in His death.
Don’t think that the cross is simply the wheelchair, or
an irritating job, or an irksome mother-in-law. No—the
cross is the place where you die to the bitterness about the
wheelchair, or the ho-hum attitude about the bad job, or the
anger against the mother-in-law. The cross is the place where
you die to sin and live to God.
When I was in Ghana, delivering wheelchairs and Bibles not
long ago, I met a disabled man who said, “Joni, welcome to our
country, where God is so much bigger. He is bigger here, Joni,
because we need Him more.” God always seems bigger to
those who need Him most. And to be intimate with the Savior
is to wake up in the morning, needing Him desperately.
Maybe the really disabled people are those who wake up in the
morning; and when their alarm clock goes off, they scarf down
breakfast, take a quick shower, and head out the door on automatic
cruise control, not needing God so desperately.
And if you’re the type who goes out the front door,
to pursue the self-fulfillment and the self-promotion, and
the self-ambition and the vain conceit, please know that God
opposes you. But He gives grace, upon grace, upon grace, to
the humble. And who are the humble? Simply, people who are
often decimated by their own weaknesses.
So graduates, family members, friends, today, feed on Him.
Would you but taste the bread of heaven in your affliction?
Would you but die to sin, and live to Jesus? It’s all about putting
His heart in your service from this moment on. Ephesians 6:7
puts it this way, “Serve whole-heartedly, as if serving
Christ.”
That verse echoed in my mind not too long ago when I entered
a residential facility for disabled young people. I was trying
to listen to this mentally handicapped girl, who had approached
me, and wanted to tell me all about her Jesus. Although dishes
were clattering, others were calling, and wheelchair motors were
grinding, this kid had my heart. It seemed that she was the most
important person in the world, saying these profound things.
She was talking about the Savior.
And over by the wall, where a nurse was calling me to talk with
someone else, I pictured Jesus. There he was ahead of me, delighting
in the smiles of each one of those residents in that home. And
as sure as I was there, He was there, carrying their cares, touching
every need, returning every gesture, ministering to every hurt.
Jesus was there serving with all His heart. And that meant that
I could do that too.
And the wonderful thing is, you don’t have to break
your neck to serve the same way.
Back to table of contents
Conflict Resolution
As the lights dimmed to black in Arena Theater’s last
play of 2005, the audience was left with the image of a young
couple gazing at one another across a divide, their future
together suspended in the distance between them.
Discussions following this production, The Cover of Life, by
R.T. Robinson, have been engaging. What happens to that couple?
It seems that the playwright does not intend us to know.
Furthermore, as the director of the play I was committed to
creating a final image that would leave all of us squarely in
the middle of the question.
Why? I am sometimes asked why so many of the plays we produce
in Arena Theater do not resolve neatly, or sometimes even positively.
Why not offer our audience encouragement by doing plays that
offer more definitive resolutions? Are we trying to discourage
or frustrate the faithful friends who come to support our work?
No, nothing could be further from my intent in choosing and
directing plays. But I am fervent in this belief—“theater” operates
or works most powerfully at the level of our shared and ongoing
questions. There is immense value in evaluating a play not
only by what message or moral it might offer, but also by the
quality of the questions it leaves us asking.
So much of what we call “entertainment” is not meant
to affect us in this way. Questions, if there are any, are beautifully
crafted to resolve completely. One can practically know what
time it is in an hour-long television drama by the story’s
proximity to its resolution, which is usually very simple.
When we are fed a steady diet of this type of ending to a story,
what becomes of our ability to trust God in a world where endings
so often seem, from our human perspective, to be unresolved
or ambiguous?
Theater is intended to land differently —to leave a different
kind of impression. It relies absolutely on writing that demonstrates
honest conflict springing from opposing points of view. If a
play is to succeed, these opposing views must be brought to life
by actors advocating honestly for their character’s choices.
Additionally, theater demands that an audience struggle with
its own presuppositions. Unlike film or television, where a
camera focuses our attention for us, we decide where to look
and whom to incline to. We may disagree completely with a character’s
point of view and the actions it leads her to, but a good play
asks us to lend our attention to that character’s story,
and to consider it, for better and for worse.
Hamlet says, “The purpose of playing was and is. . . to
hold a mirror up to nature, to show virtue her own feature, scorn
her own image.” We need to be open to seeing our image
in both parts of that mirror if an experience in the theater
is to fulfill its potential to reflect and challenge us.
Back to table of contents
A Calculated Life
To observe Stephen Hruska ’05 on the field playing in
an intramural soccer game, or at his church coaching the Bible
quizzing team, one might never guess that this typical college
student is the “math genius” that friends and classmates
describe. But ask the introspective senior about graph theory
in combinatorics—or any tough math question, for that matter—and
don’t be surprised if he responds with the same casual
facility as when asked to comment on the morning weather.
Recognized as the outstanding senior mathematics major, Stephen
has had an impressive four years at Wheaton. “I’ve
felt a calling that math is where I’m supposed to be,” he
says.
As a sophomore, Stephen co-authored an award-winning mathematics
article with Rebekah Johnson ’03, Ryan Yates ’03,
and their professor, Dr. Paul Isihara. He has another article
in review for the prestigious Discrete Mathematics journal.
And after participating in the Research Experience for Undergraduates
sponsored by the National Science Foundation last summer, he
won a cash prize in January for his presentation on his research.
“Even though math has been hard to understand at times,
God has helped me through it, and I know he will continue to
do so,” Stephen says. This fall he will begin a doctoral
program at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where the
graduate programs in mathematics are among the nation’s
most distinguished and competitive.
An aspiring professor, Stephen has a heart for helping students
understand the complicated concepts of advanced collegiate-level
math, and encourages his classmates until they are able to discover
answers for themselves. Although often quiet in large social
settings, Stephen knows most of the math majors, either through
working alongside them, or as the patient teaching assistant,
helping them with homework and infamous calculus drills.
Yet considerably more noteworthy than these aptitudes is his
love for Christ and desire to glorify Him with his abilities.
His conversation is peppered with scriptural references, which
isn’t surprising for someone who has spent four years coaching
the Bible quiz team at Lombard Church of the Nazarene. “Memorizing
Scripture makes it always available for the Spirit to use to
correct, rebuke, and train in righteousness,” he notes.
One of the mathematicians Stephen admires most is nineteenth-century
Christian scholar Georg Cantor, who asserted, “The essence
of math lies in its freedom.” It’s a formula in
which Stephen is quick to substitute his faith.
“Because of Christ’s death and resurrection, we
are free from sin and free to serve Him,” he explains. “I
see that by becoming a mathematician and a teacher I will be
able to serve Christ with the gifts He has given me. In a subject
where it is so easy to see the material as completely independent
of God and dependent only on our own logic, I will be learning
and working beside people who need to see beyond that to the
freedom that Christ offers.”
Back to table of contents
Wheaton in the World
After flying halfway around the world, sleeping in a strange
hotel, and then waking up jet-lagged and disoriented, one
doesn’t
expect to bump into friends on the first foray onto foreign
city streets.
But that’s just what happened when psychology professors,
Drs. Robert M.A. ’86 and Terri Smith Watson M.A. ’86,
traveled with their children to the island city-state of Singapore
two summers ago to teach marriage and family classes at Singapore
Bible College.
Staying within walking distance of the National Botanical Garden
of Singapore, the family headed out to tour the garden, only
to meet two Wheaton Graduate School alumni arriving to take their
engagement photos.
“It was such a great illustration of the breadth of the
body of Christ for our children—here we had traveled so
far, and the first people we meet are our brothers and sisters
in Christ,” notes Terri.
Robert and Terri are unique among Wheaton’s faculty
as they share one tenure-track position, allowing them to split
duties in their clinical practice as well as at home with
their children.
When they met, they shared common interests in missions and
psychology, but neither knew quite how the two might fit
together. Years later, the couple managed to balance these
interests, and were delighted to find that Wheaton’s
psychol-ogy department shared a similar vision.
The Watsons’ trip to Singapore marked their second missions
trip as a family, and last summer, they took yet another
trip to the Ukraine to teach classes at a newly formed graduate
program.
Each of the couple’s summer mission experiences has come
at the request of students or visiting faculty, and each has
another shared thread of continuity. Explains Robert, “No
matter where we travel—whether it’s to the first
world or the two-thirds world—the universal request has
been for us to focus on marriage and family.” He notes
that this was no different in Singapore, where the divorce
rate is so high the government has identified it as a social
problem.
Arriving at the tiny island, about 225 square miles inhabited
by more than 2.5 million people, the Watsons remember being impressed
by the cleanliness and order of the former British colony, where
high-rises and other buildings mingle with lush, tropical greenery.
The couple taught classes at Singapore Bible College (SBC) and
led workshops at the Care and Counseling Centre, a state funded
agency staffed by Christian therapists. Though the population
of the island is racially diverse, most of the students at the
college are Chinese.
“I feel like we have a lot to learn from the East,” Terri
says, noting that they were there shortly after the SARS epidemic
killed many medical professionals on the island. “In
the West, we feel entitled not to suffer. But for these Chinese
Christians, to follow Christ means to experience suffering,
and as a result, their faith is very resilient.”
Traveling internationally has given the couple glimpses into
the unique ways other cultures integrate psychology and the
Christian faith. Robert notes, for instance, that the students
in Singapore helped shape his focus in advising and counseling
students at Wheaton. “The (SBC) students were striking to me not only
because they were bright, but also because they had such clear
vision for what they wanted to do in life. . . Since then I’ve
been trying to encourage Wheaton students not only to strive
to be competent scholars, but also to listen for and articulate
God’s call in their lives.”
The first faculty members to take advantage of the Alumni
Association’s
Timothy R. Phillips Endowed Scholarship (created to fund mission
trips for entire families in memory of the late Tim Phillips ’72,
who died of cancer), the Watsons have become enthusiastic advocates
for these types of trips. Their hosts in Singapore reinforced
these ideals. “When we asked for feedback about our teaching,
they told us that seeing our children’s openness to new
people and experiences, as well as their willingness to engage,
brought credibility to our words,” notes Robert.
The children, Alec and Elise (then 11 and 8), most enjoyed
the times when they could play an active role in the ministry.
For Alec, the highlights of the trip were the worship experiences. “I
think he came away with a new understanding of the church—he
realized that he can experience God powerfully even halfway around
the world,” says Terri. As for Elise, the now 10-year-old
has decided that she would either like to attend Wheaton or
SBC.
Looking toward the future, the family hopes to return to Singapore
next summer, taking another Wheaton faculty family with them. “That’s
one of the goals of the Faculty Missions Program at Wheaton—to
encourage fellow faculty members to contribute to missions and
come alongside to help,” explains Terri. Assistant professor
of psychology Dr. Derek McNeil and his family plan to make
the journey with the Watsons next summer. In addition to teaching
at the college, the two families will work with the counseling
center at Wesley United Methodist Church to discover how to
best meet the psychological and spiritual needs of the congregation.
Terri adds, “Derek will hopefully also be able to work
in the area of racial reconciliation, since in Singapore, four
distinct cultures coexist without a lot of blending.”
The Watsons also look forward to the trip for more than just
professional reasons. Explains Terri, “We love that our
children are learning to have hearts for the world as they
begin to think about what they want to do with their lives.”
Back to table of contents
Presidents’ Commentary
Bucking the day’s prevailing currents can be a difficult
business.”
In his beautifully written book on the Arctic, Barry Lopez reports
that in the waters of the far north different types of ice, though
side by side, will sometimes appear to be flowing in opposite
directions. This is not, however, merely an optical illusion.
The shallow floe ice is often driven by the winds and surface
currents, while the icebergs, with most of their bulk hidden
beneath the surface, are driven by the deeper currents of the
sea.
It’s a useful image for Christian scholars, I think, and
for Christian colleges in general. There are those who aspire
to Christian scholarship from a sincere desire to fulfill the
so-called “creation mandate.” Their desire is to
transform the world for Christ, not by force, mind you, but
by the sheer depth, integrity, and winsomeness of their intellectual
or artistic work.
I heartily embrace this aspiration. Christians are to be salt
and light in their culture. But I also want to be careful with
this sort of talk. We must indeed be about the business of
loving God with our minds; we want to use our artistic gifts
for Christ and embody Him in serving our neighbor and society.
But our prime motive for doing so cannot be the transformation
of culture. Our primary motive must be obedience to Jesus Christ.
Only this deepest of currents will provide, in theologian Miroslav
Volf’s
words, the “courage of nonconformity” required
to buck the surface winds of our day:
In contemporary de-Christianized, pluralistic, and rapidly
changing Western cultures, only those religious groups that
make no apologies about their “difference” will
be able to survive and thrive. The strategy of conformation
is socially ineffective in the short run (because you cannot
shape by parroting) and self-destructive in the long run
(because you conform to what you have not helped shape).
A good deal of courage in nonconformity is needed both to
preserve the identity of Christian faith and to insure its
lasting social relevance.
Bucking the day’s prevailing currents can be a difficult
business, which is why our motivation for cultivating a Christian
mind must be intrinsic, not extrinsic. We do it out of allegiance
to Christ, out of obedience to His command to love God with our
minds. Then, if the living Christ graciously chooses to use our
efforts to mold our culture into more of what He wants it to
be, we will be grateful. On the other hand, if He does not so
choose—and let us be clear about it, He does not always
so choose—we are not cast down. Our core motivation was
never the acceptance of our culture in the first place; it was
the approval of the Lord Jesus Christ. Only in that approval
can we discover the requisite “courage of nonconformity” Christian
colleges must demonstrate if they are to hold their course
amidst the contrary winds and currents of our day.
This is the sixth in a series
of President Litfin’s
reflections on the nature of Christ-centered higher education,
and what this means for the mission and future of Wheaton College.
Back to table
of contents
