Is There a Connection?

As many of you are aware, I took a couple of weeks off to start working on my final project for my D. Min. degree.  Having successfully completed all of the coursework, this is my last requirement before graduation in May of 2011.

My schedule is fairly tight.  The first draft of my paper has to be delivered to my faculty committee by March 1.  However, because of the nature of my project, it will need to undergo a series of independent reviews before being submitted.  Given the holiday season and the extent of my project, this could take some time.

Thankfully, I did get some good work accomplished during my time off.  The final paper is to be four chapters and 80-120 pages.  I am well into chapter three and, hopefully, will have 50-60 pages by the end of this week.

The question my project is addressing is an important one for our time and place.  "How may a Presbyterian, liberal arts college keep faith with God's call to transfigure human reason through the reflection of the divine revelation, Jesus Christ, in our present culture?"

Using Monmouth College as my example, my contention is that, as a church related college, Monmouth College has a calling which transcends simply being an excellent liberal arts college.  MC is called and created to be "distinctly Christian."  What this means in our time and place is an open question.  However, it is an important question, not only for Monmouth College, but the culture at large.  While we may be hard pressed to determine which came first, I believe there to be an irrefutable relationship between the waning cultural relevancy of a liberal arts education; the increasing vulgarization of western culture; and, the continuing decline of mainline Protestantism.

In his inauguration speech, Claims of the Bible, President Wallace spoke of the "solemn trust" the college had been granted, by God, to be a "fountain of living water" to provide for the "intellectual and moral wants" of present and future generations who would make their way through this vast wilderness.  "The intellectual and moral wants of our sons and daughters - of the teeming millions that shall one day throng these broad prairies - forbid us to hesitate.  A solemn trust has been committed to us; God grant that we may be found faithful...  I call upon you, Christian men and women, to pray for our college.  From out of thousands of earnest, devoted hearts, let daily petitions rise to our Father in Heaven, that we all, Board of Trust, Faculty and Students, may be blessed and made a blessing - that those who go forth from among us may be richly furnished with the most important wisdom and knowledge - that their powers may be developed by the highest culture - that, above all, they may be adorned with the beauties of holiness, eminently good and might to do good; that Monmouth College, be its students few or many, may be a truly a Christian College."

People of faith, as I consider the culture in which we live, and the influence a faithful Monmouth College may have upon our quality of life, I pray for the day that the excellence Monmouth College demonstrates as school of the liberal arts is matched by its faithfulness to its divine vocation.  In that day, MC will become, once again, "What Monmouth College is meant to be."

See you in church!

Pastor Myers

revhaggis1@hotmail.com