Come and See!

I know I am a bit biased when it comes to students at Point University. So I recognize that it is possible that my loyalty to and admiration of them sometimes reflect that bias. I don’t say that as some sort of confession or apology – why would someone be in the role I am and not feel that way?

Probably, more than any other person on campus, I know our students aren’t perfect. In some ways I’m glad they aren’t, because if they were, I wouldn’t be qualified to work here! And if they were absolutely perfect, then what need would they have for coming to this institution in the first place?

I just spent Sunday afternoon through Tuesday afternoon at Woodland Christian Camp and Retreat Center with our Campus Life Ministers – the student group that works with student development at Point University to help create and nurture the Christian community that we want our campus to be. These students apply for the opportunity to serve as campus life ministers, get references, go through a process of interviews, and are chosen to make this commitment. In obvious ways, they are representatives of the kinds of students that make up this campus.

This retreat was one of the most rewarding few days I’ve spent in a while. I couldn’t be more impressed with the quality of the students with whom my office will be working this year and the commitment they all have to making Point University “the college of choice for students seeking a Christian learning community that is academically challenging, spiritually vibrant and globally engaged.” (Point University Vision Statement)

In preparation for the retreat, our summer reading assignment was "The Next Christians" by Gabe Lyons. Our theme for the year is “Renewing and Restoring: How Things Ought to Be.” We talked a lot about the implications of that book and its message on how we do ministry this year. Interestingly, Lyons calls the kinds of Christians he believes will be crucial in transforming our world “restorers.” Among the qualities of “restorers” as he sees it are that they are:

Provoked, not offended
Creators, not critics
Called, not employed
Grounded, not distracted
In Community, not alone
Countercultural, not “relevant.”

I wish that all the critics of young adult Christians in our culture could have heard our discussions about these six statements. I especially wish all the critics of Point University could have listened in to our discussion. As Paul describes it in Ephesians 3:20, 21 – God can work through young adults like this “far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think.”

Are Point University students fully mature and absolutely perfect? No. But the simple truth is that they never have been. I recently saw a letter written to students at Atlanta Christian College by President Redmon in 1968. It was in response to the fact that even back then in the good old days, students weren’t perfect. One line from the letter makes that obvious: “Some have broken college rules and have engaged in conduct unbecoming of Christians.”

I have no idea who those particular students were – it was written before my own student days. It could have, however, been written during my student days; and while we tend to talk about our covenant more than we do rules, it could be written today. That’s the story of all humans – and to pretend otherwise, especially to pretend that our own struggles didn’t exist, is to live with blinders that betray the truth.

Our Covenant for a Christian Community introduces life at Point University identifying several issues that are foundational to what we want to see happen on our campus. Words and phrases like young Christian adults, maturity, community, redemptive, spiritual oversight, and openness to growth describe how we hope to advance the Kingdom of God, both on our campus and around the world.

If what I saw the past few days at are treat is indicative of what this final year on the East Point campus for the traditional program will be like, then I have to say Paul was right – it is more than we can “ask for or think about.”