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Lenten Reflections: Only One Thing Is Needed

Week 6: March 18th- 24th, 2018

An entry from the 2018 Lenten Devotional: Thoughts and Reflections by Eastern University faculty, staff and student leaders (produced by Eastern’s Watchmen Prayer Ministry)

“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:41-42)

Do you ever feel a lot like Martha? Can you imagine (I certainly can!) Jesus saying you name instead of Martha’s name here? If I am honest with you, my life has “MARTHA” (in capital letters) written all over it. In fact, I have been wrestling with living a very “Martha” life for quite a long time; there is always so much to do with a seemingly constant stream of assignments, meetings, tasks, and obligations awaiting my attention that my life often feels like a never ending frenzy of activity. I wonder if you sometimes feel this way too?

I also sometimes jealousy think of Mary... just sitting there. How can she possibly just sit there when there is so much to be done? And then I stop and listen... I think of Jesus’ voice and I hear my own name again. 

So let’s stop. 

Right now, wherever you are reading this, let’s stop together and just listen. “...you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed- or indeed only one...”

This Lent, let’s remember that only “one thing” is really needed- only “one thing.”

We do not have to constantly “do” or accomplish to be loved or valued by the Lord. Like Martha, we are already treasured and loved by Jesus just simply for who we are (actually in spite of our incessant “doing” even). So let’s take this time a preparation and reflection in anticipation of Easter to lay down all of the checklists , the appointment books, and the meeting agendas, and just go sit at His feet and rest in this relationship. Let’s focus on the “one thing” that truly matters as we prepare our hearts during this season of Lent.

Jesus, thank you that you love us in spite of our “doing”. Help us to lay down our need to do more this Lent and just sit with you.

written by: Dr. Tara Stoppa, Professor of Psychology and Co-Department Chair

Devotional produced by: Watchmen Prayer Ministry Watchmen Prayer Ministry is an Eastern University Campus Ministry sponsored by the Office of Faith and Practice. To learn more, click here.

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Lenten Reflections: The God Who Goes Before Us

Week 5: March 11th- 17th, 2018

An entry from the 2018 Lenten Devotional: Thoughts and Reflections by Eastern University faculty, staff and student leaders (produced by Eastern’s Watchmen Prayer Ministry)

Deuteronomy 31:8, “The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.”

In the rushing of our days, we forget so many things. During the fast freight train of February and the madness of March, there seems to be little time to be quiet and mindful of God’s presence. Yet, He is. He is fully present with us. He is mindful of us, He hears what prayers we muster. Even more, on our trials and triumphs, He is not only beside us, but He actually goes before us. 

Deuteronomy 31:8 and many psalms convey the theme that God being with us is also God going before us. How precious a promise that our almighty Creator meets us and leads us so that we can’t possibly be alone? That should slow us down. Help us live with less fear, less rush, more peace, more wonder. As we study the world around us, we can pray with the psalmist, “what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?” (Ps. 8:4).

As April advances with the celebration of Easter, let us rejoice in the hope of peace in the presence of God, with us and before us. 

written by: Dr. Jeanne Bundens, Professor of Chemistry and Department Chair

Devotional produced by: Watchmen Prayer Ministry Watchmen Prayer Ministry is an Eastern University Campus Ministry sponsored by the Office of Faith and Practice. To learn more, click here.

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Courage to Remain Positive: Doug Horton ’99

***article first appeared in the Fall/Winter 2017 issue of EASTERN, The Magazine of Eastern University. To see the full issue, visit eastern.edu/publications.***

When tragedy strikes, having the courage to move forward can seem almost impossible. Everyday life feels as if it’s crumbling around you and the anticipation of brighter days turns into a distant memory. But for Doug Horton ’99, the courage to remain positive in the midst of turmoil has become much more than a coping mechanism; it’s the constant reminder and critical push needed to start again, reflect God’s glory and ultimately make a significant difference in the lives of others.

The alumnus and current faculty member started his journey with Eastern in 1995 as a health and exercise science major. Coming from a Christian home, he immediately felt a connection with the University and was happy to find many opportunities open to him based on his interests and professional goals. It was at Eastern where he also met his future wife, Christine (Collesidis) ’02, whom he later married in 2001. “Eastern eventually moved from feeling like home to being my home,” Doug said. “The experiences I had along with the relationships I made formed the foundation for my professional career.”

After graduation, Doug moved on to do clinical work in the area, but soon returned home to join the faculty full-time in the fall of 2008. He is now Senior Lecturer in Kinesiology, Clinical Coordinator for the Athletic Training Education Program, and Director of the Life Fitness Program. But to Doug, working in his chosen field and molding young minds involves much more than just teaching them the facts. More than anything, he tries to be a source of inspiration and a true example of how to persist even when things get tough; a goal that has become particularly meaningful to him in the last three years.

In late 2014, Doug and Christine suffered the loss of their four month old son, Luke; a tragedy that shook the family to the core. “I realized first hand that life is fragile and can be taken from us in the blink of an eye,” he said. “I never truly experienced what a relationship with God was all about until I was completely broken.” The experience, he says, left him at a crossroads, forcing him to choose between bitterness and acceptance. In the end, he chose to rest in the character and promises of God and has since used his experience of pain and loss to help make a difference and share God’s glory with others. “When you’re broken and there’s nothing else that you have, that’s where God can be glorified and that’s where you can truly experience His promises and love,” he said in a recent testimonial. “That doesn’t mean the pain goes away and that doesn’t mean that we understand. God may not want us to understand, but what he does call us to is to have faith and trust Him.”

As a professor, Doug does this by imparting a missional mentality to his students. “I want to have them view their calling to this profession as a mission field,” he said. “They have a unique opportunity to reach their patients in a way that most people are not able to. When people question why they’re going through a difficult time being injured, that presents a great opportunity to discuss faith, reason and justice. As program director, my attitude will affect how my students respond to situations. I’m their example and I have to practice what I preach.”

Outside the classroom, Doug is involved in numerous projects that allow him to share his testimony while at the same time utilize his love of athletics and help alleviate the suffering of others. He is heavily involved and is on the board of Goliathon, a completely volunteer-led non-profit that uses obstacle course racing to help people in need around the world. With eight events held over the past few years, Goliathon has donated over $149,000 to fund clean water projects in Ethiopia, Nepal, Bangladesh and Malawi.

More recently, Doug has also taken on the role of radio host in the new ESPN 610Sports radio program, Faith on the Field Show. Along with friend and local radio personality, Rob Maaddi, Doug appears on the show weekly, which interviews professional athletes who are also people of faith. The program allows these players to share their testimonies while also tackling the tough questions they face as believers both on and off the field. Since its debut in April 2017, Faith on the Field Show has even hosted two events on Eastern’s campus, including their most recent live broadcast with Philadelphia Eagles Carson Wentz, Trey Burton and Stefen Wisniewski. “To be able to do awesome things with people you care about and enjoy being with is a tremendous blessing,” Doug noted. “There is also a sense of fulfillment knowing that we’re making a difference and that God is using Goliathon and Faith on the Field for His glory.”

When he’s not teaching on campus, running a race, or interviewing star athletes, Doug still finds time to spend with his wife and four daughters, all the while remembering and loving the one they lost only three years ago. “My prayer when Luke passed away was that God would use him. Our family refers to it as ‘Luke’s Light’ when his story affects others and God is glorified. My courage to remain positive is so ‘Luke’s Light’ can continue to shine… That’s my story now and with all the things God is allowing me to do, the story of His love is the thing that deserves the most attention.”

To learn more about Goliathon, visit goliathon.com

To hear past and future broadcasts of Faith on the Field Show, visit faithonthefieldshow.com

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Lenten Reflections: Be Not Afraid

Week 4: March 4th- 10th, 2018

An entry from the 2018 Lenten Devotional: Thoughts and Reflections by Eastern University faculty, staff and student leaders (produced by Eastern’s Watchmen Prayer Ministry)

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7)

Lent is a time of self-reflection, and therefore self-discovery. When I look inward, I find a disturbing amount of fear. Even more disturbing is the degree to which I allow fear to dictate my actions. 

Fear is a gripping emotion that blocks out the truth. It portrays an image of the worst possibilities, insists that they are real, and even demands that we “take responsibility” for dealing with the situation. Ultimately, fear is a clear indicator of failure to trust in God, his goodness, or his love. 

God seems to have remarkable patience with this lack of trust in him. When angels appeared in the Bible, their first words were commonly, “Be not afraid.” Jesus also reassured his disciples when they were afraid, and spoke gently to them during the storm on the Sea of Galilee when they feared for their lives. 

I have not found it possible to fight fear directly. It seems to work best to simply let it wash through the body, and turn the mind and heart, gently, to Christ. The good news is that our fear is truly unnecessary. When we rightfully “fear” the Lord, he cares for us as he does for the smallest things. Jesus said, “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?” (Luke 12:22-26).

Dear Lord, you know and understand the fear that is within us better than we do ourselves. Help us to not allow fear to block out the truth of your trustworthiness. Give us that glimpse of yourself that will rejuvenate our faith, and replace our fear with love. for “perfect love casts out fear.” Amen.

written by: Dr. Eloise Hiebert Meneses, Professor of Cultural Anthropology, Director of the MA in Theological and Cultural Anthropology Program

Devotional produced by: Watchmen Prayer Ministry Watchmen Prayer Ministry is an Eastern University Campus Ministry sponsored by the Office of Faith and Practice. To learn more, click here.

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Courage to Grow: Courtney Davis ’18

***article first appeared in the Fall/Winter 2017 issue of EASTERN, The Magazine of Eastern University. To see the full issue, visit eastern.edu/publications.***

Senior nursing student, Courtney Davis ’18, was beyond terrified. She was only 10 years old at the time, was away from her family, and in the hospital with several wounds on her face and arms. She had been attacked by a dog, and the care given to her by a specific nurse made a monumental difference in her ability to cope. “After the long night and finally receiving my stitches, the nurse told me I was still beautiful, and by doing so she actually got me to smile.” Courtney still has the scars that remind her of that day, but she came away with the dream of pursuing a career in nursing.

And there was another dream, too. As a high school athlete, Courtney aimed to play soccer at the college level. She was driven, competitive and tough. Her father is a police chief with the skills to profile criminals and make judgments about people. Some of this rubbed off on Courtney over the years, making her a bit pessimistic and suspicious at times. Occasionally, her dad would tease her about becoming the type of cranky nurse depicted as Nurse Ratched in the movie One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest!

Although Courtney chose Eastern University, she was not fully on board with the level of Christian faith integration that is a part of the college experience here. She was hesitant and shielded herself from many of the experiences embraced by other students.

I first met Courtney as her professor in the first-year introductory course entitled INST 150: Faith, Reason and Justice.  It was obvious that she was having difficulty relating to many aspects of the course content, and was resisting opportunities to reflect on personal experiences. “The intro course was overwhelming and slightly intimidating for me. It was one of the very first courses I took at Eastern and I worried that I was not going to be able to fit in to the school since there was such a heavy focus on Christian faith, and I had limited knowledge about Christianity.”

Throughout that course, Courtney was very honest about her discomfort, and displayed a lot of integrity in her process, and wisely did not allow herself to be pushed into anything that was not authentic for her. Her journey needed to be her own, and it needed to unfold in its own time.

Time passed and Courtney made friends. She found a niche on the soccer team and new dorm mates. These folks had a relaxed approach to faith that felt comfortable to her.

More time passed, and Courtney began taking nursing major courses. “This was the big transformation for me. My eyes were opened to the body-mind-spirit connection. The other nursing students, the faculty, and the environment- they are so supportive, empathic and loving. I want to be the best nurse I can be. I am so focused on that goal. Now I am focused on nursing, and soccer is extra,- never thought I’d say that! And I loved my junior clinical experiences, they also made me more accepting and welcoming! And I am now Vice President of my nursing class. ”

Looking back on that intro course, Courtney likes the fact that the course gave her the opportunity to meet other nursing majors, many of whom she is still good friends with today, and with whom she now shares similar views on Christian faith. She mustered the patience to persevere, and this has yielded the fruit of the spirit in her life.

Courtney likes her caring side. Rather than feeling like the stoic athlete so often, it is “nice to be able to express all sides of myself, and not always have to suck it up!” Her Dad is happy she is here at Eastern too and notices this softening process that has been taking place.  “My Dad knows I will be a softer, kind-hearted nurse, and not a battleaxe!”

Courtney is in her senior year, and loves what she is learning. She also likes the transformation she is experiencing inside, and sees it as an extension of her faith journey. “I don’t think I’d be at this point if I went to another school….I feel so much more confident, and see myself embracing my nursing role. I love my kinder, empathic self!  In my faith, I have reached a good understanding of what Christianity means to me and my connection to the Lord. Although it may still differ from many, I am happy with it and I can truly see that I am much more mature than I was years ago when entering Eastern.”

article by: Dr. Christina Jackson, EU Nursing Department

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Lenten Reflections: Hope Despite Our Failure

Week 3: February 25th- March 3rd, 2018

An entry from the 2018 Lenten Devotional: Thoughts and Reflections by Eastern University faculty, staff and student leaders (produced by Eastern’s Watchmen Prayer Ministry)

“Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever hollows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12, NRSV)

Historically, the Church has marked the Lenten season by participating in fasting, repentance, prayer, confession, and other spiritual disciplines. The disciplines can strengthen and train us for our Christian journey. But more often than not, I have found that the spiritual disciplines push me to my limits and make me realize just how weak I am. Without the strength of Christ and the gifts of the Holy Spirit, I am too weak to walk in obedience, and I fail to love God and my neighbor. During Lent, I recognize my deep need for God’s grace. 

Some days- most days- my prayers sound like those of Gregory of Nazianzus, a fourth-century church father (leader in the church) from present-day Turkey. Gregory’s morning prayer pleads that he would give his day to God: he prays to honor God, control his passions, and offer praise. Gregory’s lament at evening, however, testifies to his failures, for he admits that he has failed to live as he’d pledged in the morning and laments that he has stumbled and walked in darkness. 

If Gregory, one of the Church’s greatest theologians, can admit that he has failed to live up to what he’d hoped to be and do, then we’re not alone, and there’s hope for us. I find great comfort in learning from other Christians, those both alive on earth now and those present in the great cloud of witnesses. They encourage me to repent and to begin again despite my failures. Gregory ends his eventing lament with a request that Christ would shine his light upon Gregory once more. When we stumble, we have a choice: we can pray that Christ would shine his light on me again, or we can give up. With Gregory, we can pray that Christ would forgive our sins and shine his light on us once more, and we can start the next day praying that it would be consecrated to God. 

This great cloud of witnesses, of whom Gregory is a part, also serve as a reminder that eventually we will experience a life free from sin, in the presence of the Lord. The end of Lent- Easter Sunday, when Christ is victorious over sin and death- points to the final resurrection of us all, when we will experience the light of Christ and freedom from darkness. As we enter into Lent, may we both discover our great need for repentance and realize the hope of Easter Sunday more fully, looking forward to Christ’s return. 

With Gregory, we can pray, “May you shine your light on me, Christ, as you appear once again.” Amen. 

written by: Dr. Sandy Lynn Haney, Assistant Professor of Biblical Studies

Devotional produced by: Watchmen Prayer Ministry Watchmen Prayer Ministry is an Eastern University Campus Ministry sponsored by the Office of Faith and Practice. To learn more, click here.

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Lenten Reflections: Fix Our Eyes on Jesus

Week 2: February 19th- February 24th, 2018

An entry from the 2018 Lenten Devotional: Thoughts and Reflections by Eastern University faculty, staff and student leaders (produced by Eastern’s Watchmen Prayer Ministry)

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfector of faith.” (Hebrews 12:1-3)

Life is like a bumpy roller coaster. In one moment in life you can be headed upward and in another moment, you can be spiraling downward. Life can also be unpredictable. I would love for life to go the way that we want. However, it does not. So many times life throws us curves. One day your car may break down, one day your children may become sick, one day you may be on the verge of losing your home or job or you may get faced with an enormous amount of bills to pay. Similarly, society may try to define us based on their standards and preferences. This is not easy to deal with and when all of these situations occur, we usually tend to focus on the problem. We magnify the problem, which redirects our vision from the true source that can help us. What about Jesus? Do we ever take a moment and think, “How do I see Jesus in this situation?” When fear overwhelms us because we’re about to lose our jobs, do we ever say, “God, I am going to keep my eyes on you and trust you regardless of what is going on to happen.” When our car breaks down on the side of the road on an important day, do we say, “Jesus, my eyes are not fixed on this problem, but are fixed on you and completing your assignment today”? When society says we are one thing, do we let that define us or do we keep our eyes focused on Jesus and allow him to define who we are?

Let’s take a moment and reflect back on the crucifixion. Even up until the day Jesus got crucified, he kept his eyes on God. He was mocked, tempted by the devil, severely whipped, spit on, and bruised with nails in his hands. Despite this, he did not lose focus on his assignment on earth, nor did he lose focus on the Father. There were so many distractions and so many obstacles he had to overcome. People did not believe he was the true Messiah. He could have turned away and said, “Lord, I do not want to finish this command; It is too painful to be nailed to a cross.” However, he was the Messiah, sent to save the world and therefore he underwent the suffering and kept his focus on God because he knew that his present suffering would bring victory for all mankind. Thank God he did! Let’s imagine if he did not! What would life look like? But because he kept his focus on God, our Father, we can receive his grace and forgiveness. He saw me and you being able to be with the Father eternally and he saw sin being destroyed. He never lost sight of where he was headed. So, let’s keep our eyes focused on Jesus as he did on the Father while on the cross.

Keeping our eyes on Christ is not an easy thing to do. Distractions are all around us and we are caught in the midst of a sinful world that is in opposition with the Creator of the world. But if we do practice this task, our lives will be transformed for the better. Having our eyes set on Christ can bring clarity to who we are and what our purpose is, eradicate fear as God pours out his peace upon us, help us grow abundantly in love and open the door for a tremendous amount of blessings. 

Say this prayer with me- Lord, help me to keep my eyes fixed on you and your victories. Help me Lord to focus on you when I wake up in the morning, through the business of my day, and when I lie down to rest at night. Help me not to allow my attention to be redirected away from the things that are eternally important to the temporal temporal distraction of this world. Help me to see you in every good situation and in every bad situation. For we know that all things work together for good. And help me not to grow weary in doing so, but keep my heart and mind set on things above. Amen. 

written by: Devon Gaines, Student Leader and Vice President of Watchmen Prayer Ministry

Devotional produced by: Watchmen Prayer MinistryWatchmen Prayer Ministry is an Eastern University Campus Ministry sponsored by the Office of Faith and Practice. To learn more, click here. 

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Lenten Reflections: Be Still, My Soul

Week 1: February 14th- February 17th, 2018

An entry from the 2018 Lenten Devotional: Thoughts and Reflections by Eastern University faculty, staff and student leaders (produced by Eastern’s Watchmen Prayer Ministry)

Be Still, My Soul 

In 1725, Katharina Amalia Dorothea von Schlegel wrote the hymn, “Be Still, My Soul,” which was one of 29 that she wrote in her lifetime. Little is known about her, aside from the the aristocracy her name suggests. A hundred years after von Schlegel wrote the original in German, Jane Borthwick, a Scottish poet, discovered her writings and translated “Be Still, My Soul” into English. Though a century passed between von Schlegel and Borthwick, a thread bound them together: their love of words, and a common desire to express the plight of an anxious heart. 

Though there is much to explore in this hymn, I am especially drawn to the second verse, where the narrator grounds the majesty of God in forms that inside my earthly imagination: winds and waves, the brightness of understanding, the surety of solid ground. The hymn echoes Psalm 46:10, where the Lord declares, “Be still, and know that I am God.”

Be still, my soul; thy God doth undertake To guide the future as He has the past. Thy hope, thy confidence, let nothing shake; All now mysterious shall be right at last. Be still, my soul; the waves and winds still know His voice who ruled them while He dwelt below. 

Stillness was, I suspect, as difficult to come by in 1752 as it is in 2018. Although studies show self-care and mindfulness practices can bring calm to our bodies and brains, often our default settings fall more to worry and panic. When faced with adversity, human instincts rarely point to stillness; we opt for fight or flight. The idea of stopping, even for a moment, in our blaring, 24/7 world seems counterintuitive. If I choose to be still, others will keep moving forward, and I will fall behind. Like the titular character of the musical Hamilton, I must keep on “like [I’m] running out of time.” Too often, my Twitter and Facebook feeds remind me of all I have not yet done- from engagement rings to published novels- and show me places- around the world and in my own zip code-- wracked by poverty and pain. Endless swiping doesn’t generally prompt my soul to a pose of quiet trust. God’s command to stillness runs perpendicular to the attitudes of our world: stop, find peace in Me. Don’t forget who I Am.

I don’t know what happened to von Schlegel that caused her to write, “Be Still, My Soul,” but these are the words of a woman who has been shaken. She’s been battered by winds and waves; she’s known pain. She’s tried the path of worry and fear, and this hymn is a shield against both, a reminder that there is another way. Her spirit can choose stillness instead of restlessness, hope instead of dread, solid rocks instead of sand. The modern Church only sings one of von Schlegel’s hymns, but her words echo over centuries and connect us to our frail human beginnings: the greatness of our God overshadows our past and our future, and in that provision and loving-kindness, our souls can dwell. 

Lord, in this Lenten season, give us the courage to allows ourselves to be still in your presence. In this stillness, we ask that you grant us the peace that comes from trusting you, knowing that the mysteries of this life will be made bright in your time. Let our souls rest in Christ, who took on the sins of the world to save it, and whose hands reach out to us in love, even now, steadying us, and drawing us ever closer. 

written by: Sarah Todd, Director of the Office of Talent and Career Development

Devotional produced by: Watchmen Prayer Ministry Watchmen Prayer Ministry is an Eastern University Campus Ministry sponsored by the Office of Faith and Practice. To learn more, click here. 

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Courage To Say Yes: Lauren Snodgrass MA ’17

***article first appeared in the Fall/Winter 2017 issue of EASTERN, The Magazine of Eastern University. To see the full issue, visit eastern.edu/publications.***

What would you do if God invited you to support refugees in your hometown? Lauren Snodgrass MA ’17 said “Yes, God. I’ll do it.” What if God pushed you to hand deliver a petition to your Senator voicing opposition to legislation that would limit refugee resettlement indefinitely? Lauren said “Yes, God” to that too. And what if God brought a gifted Latina pastor into your life and ministry and you realized she was at risk of deportation? Would you advocate for her? Would you share her story with the media , make phone calls, write letters and show up at the local ICE office with protest signs? By now, you can probably guess that Lauren said “Yes, God” to all that too. 

Courage to Become Friends

Lauren is no stranger to saying “Yes, God,” even when it feels hard or unfamiliar. Lauren spent her childhood in Cote D’Ivoire as a missionary kid, speaking French and experiencing the joys and challenges of cross-cultural ministry. Lauren has since relocated to Bentonville, Arkansas with her husband who was called to pastor the local Church of the Nazarene congregation. 

A transformational friendship with pastors in the Dominican Republic inspired Lauren and her husband to question what good, healthy partnership should look like, both internationally and right in their own backyard. The church in Bentonville continued to send teams to the DR, but inspired by their Dominican friends, they began to engage with the needs of their neighbors back home too, building relationships with young mothers and those facing food insecurity. 

As Lauren stepped intentionally into this outreach ministry, she realized she needed more tools. “I wanted to do more than just help... I wanted to know best how to use my passions.” Lauren was drawn to the MA in International Development program because of the focus on practical application, but still felt nervous about starting grad school. “During that first residency I thought, ‘what have I gotten myself into?’ I knew Eastern would equip me for something. I just didn’t know what that would exactly look like, but I knew this program was what God wanted for me.”

Courage to Speak Truth to Power

Around the time Lauren began at Eastern, she started to engage with refugee issues in their community. Together with some leaders at her church, she began to volunteer with Canopy Northwest Arkansas, a newly approved refugee advocacy and resettlement agency. The response from the congregation was overwhelmingly positive, as church members supported refugee families with supplies, financial support, and committed to mentor a refugee family. This initial step out in faith led Lauren down a new path, and she was soon working part-time with Canopy. 

Two weeks after she started her job as the Community Outreach Coordinator, the Travel Ban Executive Order was issued. Not only did this impact the work of Canopy, but it also had significant implications for the families in her community. Political activism was a new frontier for Lauren. “I had never been involved in politics...I had never even talked to a politician before!” But through her work with Canopy staff, a community leader, and a recently resettled refugee, she was able to meet with her Congressman personally. Lauren explains how she was able to refute the narrative of fear and scarcity by sharing how her congregation and other communities of faith had embraced refugee resettlement in their community. Today, her political advocacy efforts continue to grow, and Lauren is more committed than ever to developing productive relationships with her elected officials. While their ideas around immigration policy differ greatly, Lauren has seen a growing openness to dialogue. “I write them letters frequently. I’ll even send them cards when they are sick; anything to remind them that we are here!”

Courage to Prepare

Eastern has played a major role in shaping and preparing Lauren to continue to advocate and engage. Lauren explains, “Each class in the International Development program provided me with exactly what I needed for my next step. The Leadership course gave me confidence that I had something to offer and honed important leadership skills. It gave me the courage to step into a new area. Theology of Poverty helped me wrestle with how God really is good when all we see is brokenness. Community Development prepared me for the issues I faced at Canopy and propelled me forward into action. It gave me a new lens through which to see my community. The Advocacy course helped me with real world skills. I even developed an advocacy plan for my work at Canopy as part of my final project!”

Lauren’s willingness to say “Yes” to God is a testimony to God’s faithfulness in her life. She concludes, “I step back and see how all the seasons of my life have come together. My experience as a missionary kid in Cote D’Ivoire and my life here in Bentonville, AR are now linked. The world has come right here to me.”

article by: Leah Hood MS ’06

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Courage to Reconcile: Rev. Dr. Brenda Salter McNeil DMin ’00, DD ’17

***article first appeared in the Fall/Winter 2017 issue of EASTERN, The Magazine of Eastern University. To see the full issue, visit eastern.edu/publications.*** 

In her opening remarks 2017 Commencement speaker, Reverend Dr. Brenda Salter McNeil DMin ’00 DD ’17, told the graduates “I want to speak directly to you about what it means to be ‘Courageous Christians in catalytic times.’” Rev. Dr. McNeil gave the example of Captain Chuck Yeager, the pilot who broke the sound barrier after many who tried before him had tragically failed, some even losing their lives.  She continued saying, “here, on your graduation day, you’re about to begin the journey of breaking through your own sound barriers into the unknown. And it doesn’t come easy, it requires a lot of courage.”

Rev. Dr. Brenda Salter McNeil DMin ’00 DD ’17 knows how to demonstrate courage. With over thirty years of experience, she is a leader in the ministry of reconciliation. As a dynamic speaker, author and professor, her stated mission is to inspire, equip and empower emerging Christian leaders to be practitioners of reconciliation in their various spheres of influence around the world.

She is an Associate Professor of Reconciliation Studies in the School of Theology at Seattle Pacific University, where she also directs the Reconciliation Studies program. She previously served on the staff of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship for fourteen years as a Multiethnic Ministries Specialist.

She earned a Master of Divinity degree from Fuller Theological Seminary, a Doctorate of Ministry '00 from Palmer Theological Seminary and was awarded a Doctorate of Humane Letters from both North Park University and Eastern University. She is an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Covenant Church and is on the pastoral staff of Quest Church in Seattle. In addition, she serves on the Board of Directors for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship USA and formerly served on the Board of Wycliffe USA.

Dr. Salter McNeil was featured as one of the 50 most influential women to watch by Christianity Today in 2012. She is also the coauthor of The Heart of Racial Justice and the author of A Credible Witness and her most recent work, Roadmap to Reconciliation.

She is married to Dr. J. Derek McNeil ('78) and they are the proud parents of two young adult children.

So you might be thinking, “What exactly is the ministry of reconciliation?” On her website, saltermcneil.com, Dr. Salter McNeil has robust and very user friendly resources and teaching tools. In these materials she defines reconciliation as:   an ongoing spiritual process involving forgiveness, repentance and justice that transforms broken relationships and systems to reflect God’s original intention for all creation to flourish. (Dr. Brenda Salter McNeil copyright 2012).

Dr. Salter McNeil states that reconciliation starts with honest, vulnerable and personal conversation and she provides four ground rules to help people engage in the reconciliation process which include:

Use “I” statements

No Interrupting

Maintain confidentiality

Be full present

Her website also includes 22 Action Steps for Racial Righteousness filled with practical and doable steps such as “Vote for political candidates that support economic justice and racial righteousness” and “Volunteer to serve in a non-profit organization that promotes racial equality.”

I recently had the opportunity to ask Dr. Salter McNeil what led to her work in reconciliation and she replied, “My personal call to the work of reconciliation started with a burning question.  During my last year at Fuller Theological Seminary, I became an intern at Occidental College.  In this role, I was given an opportunity to focus my ministry at Occidental on anything I was interested in.  I was drawn to Gender/Women’s Ministry initially, but once I discovered that Oxy’s thriving Christian community of 200 students had only two students of color, I found myself pulled in a different direction.  That was when I started asking myself questions like:  What is it about Christian communities that cause students of color to not relate?  Where are they?  How do we repair the bridge that divides?  That was the beginning of my journey into the ministry of reconciliation.”

It seems she may have been drawing on her own personal experience when, in her commencement address, Dr. Salter McNeil advised the class of 2017 “to break through the sound barrier into this new reality that God has for you after graduation. You will need the courage to engage the complexity and diversity of the world around you, including nationality, gender, social class, age, ethnicity, politics and religious traditions in the world around you. And that’s scary! You will be tempted to play it safe and stay in your comfort zone where things feel safe and familiar. But I’m convinced that’s not where God wants us to be. That’s why catalytic events have to take place to move us from where we are to where God envisions for us.”

I was curious to know how Palmer Seminary may have influenced Dr. Salter McNeil’s current endeavors and she replied, “Interestingly enough, the book I wrote entitled, Roadmap to Reconciliation, began as my doctoral project at Palmer Seminary!  The Doctor of Ministry is a very practical degree.  My thinking and understanding of reconciliation was forged and shaped during my doctoral work, and eventually became more fully developed in the Model of Reconciliation which is the heart of the book.  My studies at Palmer greatly shaped and informed me as a minister, consultant and thought leader of reconciliation.”  

In these turbulent times in our country and world, the work of reconciliation seems to take a fierce courage.  When I asked Dr. Salter McNeil where she found the courage for her work she said, “That’s where the Holy Spirit comes in.  I once heard it said that, ‘Faith is fear that has said its prayers’ and I believe that.  What people see as courage is really my commitment to the path of discipleship.  It is faithfully trying to follow what God has called me to do.  It’s not that I’m braver or more courageous than others.  Discipleship is one faithful, fearful step at a time.  I’m just being obedient to God.  I am currently writing a book about Esther.  I see in Esther an example of the kind of bravery that I believe God is calling people to.  Let me tell you a little story:  many years ago when I left InterVarsity and started my own 501c3 ministry, I knew I would be focusing on reconciliation, but I was focused on a lot of other things too.  Because I was too diffused, I had a hard time raising money.  It was difficult to explain everything I did to donors.  A wonderful consultant guided me to focus on a single issue, and he encouraged me to concentrate solely on racial reconciliation.  Like Esther I thought, ‘I don’t want to do it. Why racial reconciliation?’  I knew I needed to seek God and went on a fast.  During that fast I clearly heard the Holy Spirit remind me of these words from Esther, ‘if I perish, I perish’.  So, like Esther, I went for it and Instead of killing my ministry it actually launched me into everything I am doing today!”

Dr. Salter McNeil left the 2017 graduates with these final words, which can be a call and an inspiration for us all to strive to be courageous Christians, “The role of courageous Christians is to discern the difference between a catastrophe and a catalytic event; and then to interpret what’s happening around us through the eyes of faith and not fear. You are graduating in catalytic times, both in our country and around the world. The dramatic changes taking place in our social, political and global contexts are calling for you to be courageous Christians who press pass the sound barriers in society that prevent us from breaking into the new reality of the Kingdom of God. It won’t be easy! Some people, even Christians, won’t believe it’s possible. But you will need to hold on tight and refuse to succumb to the divisive social and political rhetoric that seems to suggest that a world of unity and equity just can’t be done! Instead may you, the graduating class of 2017, be the generation that is empowered by the Holy Spirit to press through the resistance to break into the multi-national, multi-lingual, multi-ethnic kingdom of God where all people flourish and reach their God given potential!  Amen.”

article by: Denise McMillan

[easternuniversity]

Faith Alone and Grace Alone

**This message was originally presented to the Eastern University community by Dr. Philip Carey in February 2017 as part of the 2017 Faith Forum, titled “The Good News of the Protestant Reformation” **

We've had about 500 years of Protestantism, since 1517 when Martin Luther's famous 95 theses inaugurated the Protestant Reformation.  Actually, I don't think Luther's theology was really Protestant until some time in 1518, and the Reformation didn't really get underway in earnest until 1521, I would say.  But who's counting?  500 years is close enough, and lots of us are celebrating the Reformation this year.

What matters is what Martin Luther had to say when he really did start thinking like a Protestant—the first Protestant in history.  What should we make of the fact that the first Protestant in history, close to 500 years ago, is not the first Christian in history?  There were a lot of Christians before 1517, after all, and they weren't Protestants. I've spent most of my scholarly career writing about some of those Christians, especially Augustine, the bishop of Hippo in North Africa, who died more than a thousand years before Luther was born—saint Augustine, the Catholics call him.  I can assure you, even if you're the kind of Protestant who doesn't exactly believe in saints, that Augustine really was a Christian, though he wasn't a Protestant.  

So what do we need Protestantism for?  If Protestantism is new—which is to say, only 500 years old, which is not nearly as old as Christianity—and if the basis of Christian faith is Scripture alone, as Protestant theology regularly insists, then what do we need a new form of Christianity for?  To put the question in terms that have often made Protestants uncomfortable: what is the place of Protestantism in the Christian tradition?  Or to narrow it down to the specific question of Protestant theology, we could ask: what contribution does Protestant theology have to make to the larger Christian tradition?

That's the overall question I'd like us to consider in our Faith Forum events this week.  When you look at Protestant theology in the light of the whole Christian tradition, then it's not always obvious that it's actually needed.  What's more, Protestant theology is in a very bad way nowadays, with the mainline Protestant denominations often abandoning essential teachings of the Christian faith, and no longer looking very Protestant and often not even very Christian.  There is, I think, a pathway from liberal Protestantism to a post-Christian church, and some denominations are taking that path.  

And then there's the evangelical churches, which are often rather distrustful of theology entirely, which means that they don't teach central Christian doctrines, as a result of which many students come to Eastern University not knowing some of the basics of the faith.  I remember a student from a big nondenominational church in central Pennsylvania who came to Eastern not knowing the Lord's Prayer.  He's the one who told me about Veggie Tales, something I didn't know about.  At any rate, he's now Catholic.  You can see why, I suppose.  If your experience of growing up Protestant means not even knowing how to pray the prayer that our Lord Jesus gave us to pray, then it certainly makes more sense to want to raise your kids Catholic.  

Nonetheless, I think there's something indispensable that Protestant theology offers the larger Christian tradition.  And it's not some new teaching added to the Bible only 500 years ago.  It's a new understanding of something that Christians have always done, which arose because Christians 500 years ago in the West were asking new questions and suffering from new anxieties.  What Luther did, I think, was give biblical answers to questions that had not been asked in the Bible itself, questions that were powerfully on people's minds in the 16th century, back in 1517 and thereabouts.  I think they are questions that remain with us in distinctively modern variations, some 500 years after Luther.  

The most distinctive answers that Luther is famous for are summed up in the phrases “faith alone,” “grace alone,” and “Scripture alone.”  That's what I'll be talking about today and tomorrow morning.  They're often called “the Reformation solas,” because other Reformation Protestants like John Calvin and later John Wesley, adopted them after Luther, and they got put into Latin, the standard language of Western scholarship in Luther's day, and in Latin they are: sola fide, sola gratia, sola Scriptura (when you see “sola” think “sole,” as in “only,” and you'll get it).  Behind all three of these sola's is a conviction that can be labelled “solus Christus,” Christ alone.  And that actually explains why Protestant theology is not based on a new doctrine, but rather is a new understanding of the way Christians have always believed.  Solus Christus means Christ alone is our savior, our hope, the one in whom we put our trust for redemption and salvation and blessing and eternal life.  Whatever else Catholics and Eastern Orthodox churches may say about the saints, and Mary, and bishops and monks, if they look to them as a source of salvation apart from Christ, they have surely gone too far, and I do think Catholics and Orthodox have in fact needed Protestants to pull them up short some times, and remind them that Christ alone is their hope and their salvation.  It's a reminder of what they already know.  That's the kind of contribution Protestantism makes to the Christian tradition.   

What's new about Protestantism is the conviction that because Christ alone is our savior, faith alone is the way we are saved.  That means, of course, Christian faith, faith in Jesus Christ.  Now of course, other forms of Christianity have a central place for faith in Christ, but they don't add that little word “alone.”  So if you want a two-word summary of what is distinctively Protestant, “faith alone” will do it.  “Grace alone” really follows from “faith alone.”  And again, other Christian traditions also put a huge emphasis on the grace of God.  But they don't add that word “alone.”   So let's start with “faith alone.”  Luther's key doctrine, which I am suggesting is the key contribution of Protestant theology to the rest of the Christian tradition, is the doctrine of justification by faith alone.  “Justification” means: this is how we become just or right or righteous in God's sight.  This is how we come before the judgment throne of God as those who are worthy in God's sight to receive blessing and life, not condemnation and wrath.

Notice, the original phrase was justification by faith alone.  As you can kind of see just by looking at the word, “justification” is about justice.  Unfortunately, for those who are just beginning to study this, the word for justice that is used by Luther and other theologians of the time has often been translated “righteousness.”  And justice and righteousness seem like very different concepts nowadays.  If you talk about a just man, you're talking about a person with the virtue of justice in his soul. But if you call someone “righteous,” as in “you think you're so righteous, you righteous hypocrite!” well, you're actually calling them self-righteous.  Whenever my mother calls someone righteous, for instance, she's insulting them.   So when you read English translations of Luther and other theologians of the time, you have to adjust, every time you see the word “righteous” and “righteousness,” that you're looking at the word for justice.  It's justitia in Latin, or Gerechtigkeit in German. The point is that Latin has only one word for this, whereas English has two, and the same goes for German: only one word where English has two, and in English those two words have drifted apart over the centuries so that they no longer mean the same thing, as they used to do.  And by the way, the same thing is true of New Testament Greek, which has only one word, dikaiosyne, which is often translated “righteousness” but is in fact the word for justice.  You know, as in “faith, reason and justice.”  

But it's important to realize, “justice” does not just mean a just society.  For the ancient world in the days of the Bible, and for most of the Christian tradition, “justice” is a virtue.  That is to say, it is a quality of the soul, a habit of the heart, a way our hearts and minds are formed in justice.  You find justice not only in just societies but in just people.  And the old way of saying that in English is to say such people are righteous—and that was not an insult.  It is what makes a person just or good on the inside, someone whose heart God can look at and approve of.  

Now when we ask about the meaning of justification by faith alone we have to ask what that word “alone” excludes.  “Faith alone” means only faith and not something else.  Only faith and not—what?   Here's where things may start to get pretty familiar.  Luther insists that people are justified before God by faith alone, apart from the works of the law.  Faith, not works.  We become good and just people in God's sight not by what we do but by what we believe—that is, by believing in Christ alone. Or, to switch from the language of justification to the language of salvation: there's nothing we can do to save ourselves, because Christ alone saves us, and we accept Christ simply by believing him.  It is by faith alone that we accept Christ into our lives.  All this is very familiar, I hope.  But what may be unfamiliar is how far Luther will go when he insists on what is excluded by that word “alone.”  One of the most important things it excludes, for example, is love.  For the good works that don't save us are works of love, the works of love that are commanded by our Lord Jesus when he tells us to love God and our neighbors.  And Luther's point is that neither the works nor the love are what make us good, just or righteous people.  The love in our hearts is not how we are justified in God's sight, for we are justified by faith alone.  Luther insists on that, and it's the Catholics who insist that a certain amount of love is required here.  

^Martin Luther at the Diet of Worms, 1521

Do you begin to see why this might be an issue?  Do you begin to see why what Protestant theology teaches is not obvious?  After all, don't we become better people by practicing love?  To that, Luther says a resounding No.  That's the foolishness of that pagan philosopher Aristotle, who thinks you become just by doing just deeds.  He says that, right there in the Nicomachean Ethics, as some of you know.  Luther says: that's fine if you're talking about how you become a good citizen, but it's nonsense if you try applying it to how you stand before the judgment of God.  We are all sinners, Luther insists, every one of us born in Adam, and every single one of our deeds is sin.  This is one of the things that really got the Pope mad at him.  They had a big fight about this one.  

Luther insisted that the best works or things done by pious Christians are always, in their essence, sins.  And it's not just that they're a little imperfect.  They are, in Catholic terms, mortal sins, which means they make us worthy of nothing but eternal damnation.  That's what our good deeds earn us, if God were to judge us in strict justice.  Even our love, such as it is, earns us nothing but damnation.  For our love, like everything good in us, is never good enough to face up to the judgment of God.  Hiding behind all our love is a perverse selfishness that we never get rid of in this life.  All our love is secretly turned in on ourselves, so that everything we do is really about me, me, me—even my works of love, which I'm doing out of fear of punishment or desire for reward, and not because I really love God or my neighbor from the depths of my heart. We've got this sin problem in the depths of our heart, and the goodness in our hearts is not strong enough to overcome it.  Only Christ is—Christ alone.    

This leads to the point about grace alone, because what the word “alone” excludes in the phrase “grace alone,” is merit, which is to say, any kind of deserving or earning a reward from God.  By all our good deeds and works of love, we earn nothing but damnation.  We deserve nothing but God's eternal wrath. That's all the merit we have.  And therefore we have no hope for salvation except grace alone, which is to say the grace and mercy of God in Jesus Christ, received by faith alone.     

Now in the Catholic view, grace and merit are not mutually exclusive.  If you go back to Augustine, that great Catholic theologian I study, you find him teaching that we do merit salvation and eternal life from God, but we do so by grace.  The grace of God, Augustine teaches, is more than just God forgiving our sins.  It's how God inwardly changes us, when love for God is poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Rom. 5:5).  So grace is the Holy Spirit working in our hearts so that we grow in love for God and neighbor, and this love, which grows out of the grace of God in us, actually does merit God's approval, according to Augustine and Catholic teaching.  As we grow in love, we become better Christians, and this is the process of justification.

^Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany. Where Luther posted the 95 Theses.

That's the view Luther rejected.  Again, I want you to see how radical his teaching is.  Luther agreed with Augustine, emphatically, that Christian love grows out of the grace of God given to us in Christ, through the work of the Holy Spirit in us.  He agrees, just as emphatically, that faith in Christ always results, by the grace of God, in love for God and neighbor.  And he thinks this love earns us nothing, has no merit in God's sight, because all our works of love are really, at heart, mortal sins, meriting nothing but damnation.  We do have Christian love, but it's not good enough to save us, not sincere and real enough to justify us in God's sight.

Luther thinks it's very important for us to recognize this, because it drives us to Christ. When we see that even our works of love are sin, if God were to judge them in strict justice, then we are deprived of all hope for salvation except faith in Christ alone.  And then we're really ready to hear the Gospel, to hear that Christ alone is our saviour and redeemer.  And that is good news indeed.  It's also how we find the grace of God and take hold of it and make it ours—by faith alone, simply by believing that the Gospel about Jesus is true.  

Think of it like this. Have you ever really messed up in your Christian life—so badly that you wondered whether you were really a Christian at all?  (That's the Protestant version of mortal sin). Has your conscience ever nagged at you because you realized you're not such a loving Christian as you thought, that your self-image as a Christian is really a sham, that your Christian life is just faking it?  Have you ever wondered what you can do to reassure yourself that the life you're living isn't really that bad after all, that maybe you can slide by with a sort of second-rate Christian life?   But then you think: maybe when you meet God face to face, at the last judgment, when it's time for God himself to render a verdict on your life, that your life is just not acceptable, and he won't accept it.  Have you ever suffered from what I'll call Christian performance anxiety, wondering whether what you're doing in your Christian life is good enough?  

Well, Luther's got news for you: it's not.  Nothing you do, not even the love in your heart, such as it is, is good enough to justify you in God's sight and save you.  If you want to face God and see anything but condemnation, you have no hope at all unless Jesus Christ died for you.   But now I've really got good news for you: it was for you that Christ died, for you that he shed his blood, and it was for your justification that he rose from the dead, and it is for you, along with everyone else who calls upon his name, that Jesus Christ intercedes with his Father in heaven, as he sits at the right hand of God.  That's the good news, the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  And that's the truth. And what justifies you in God's sight is simply believing that God is telling you the truth when he gives his own Son for you and tells you about it in the Gospel.

By “Gospel,” what Luther (and Protestant theology) means, is not just the four documents called “Gospels” in the Bible.  The Gospel is God's good word, his kind and gracious word about Jesus Christ, wherever it is found.  You can find it in the Old Testament, when the prophets speak of Christ to come, like when Isaiah promises us: “For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given.”  And likewise, you can find it in the letters of the New Testament, which also teach and announce the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  And you can hear it today, whenever the word of God is preached as good news that gives us Christ as our savior and redeemer and Lord.  (That's what I tried to illustrate preaching the Gospel yesterday). We are justified by faith alone because it is through the Gospel alone that Christ is given to us, and we receive the Gospel simply by believing it is true, and that this is a truth that includes us:  for unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and that “us” includes you and me.  That's the Gospel giving us Christ, to be received by faith alone.   

What Luther learned, by hard experience, is that when you're faced with Christian performance anxiety, and you discover how serious your sins really are, and you wonder whether anything you're doing is good enough, the only thing good enough to free you from your anxiety, and convince you that all is well is God himself tells you so.  That's what the Gospel does.  The Gospel of Jesus Christ is God himself telling you that his Son is given to you, together with his life and death and resurrection and eternal life at the right hand of God.  For unto us a son is given.  The Gospel, thank God, does not tell you what to do to get saved.  It tells you what Christ has done to save you.  

Think of the difference: what Christ has done is good enough to save you, worth trusting with all your heart.  Whereas what you do to save yourself—anything you do to answer the question, what do I do to get saved?—is something that raises the question of performance anxiety: if this is what I do to get saved, am I doing it well enough?   And Luther thinks the only honest answer to that question is always, No.  I'm not doing anything well enough to justify and save myself.  I really don't have any hope at all unless Christ died for me.  Everything depends on whether that's really true.  

The point to get here, is that the Gospel does not tell you what to do to get saved. It tells you what Christ has done to save you.  Isn't that wonderful?  I mean, let sink in a minute.   Christ died for you, to make atonement for your sins.  And he was raised from the dead, to give you eternal life.  That's the truth, and that's what matters.  In the face of your anxieties, that the only thing that matters.  So every time you're worried whether you're doing a good enough job at the Christian life, whether you're really surrendered fully to God, whether you really love God in your heart as Jesus commanded, you are free to turn away from those worries, simply because the truth is that Christ died for you and was raised from the dead for you, and sits at God's right hand praying for you.  That's the Gospel truth.  And if you find sin and resentment and ugliness in your heart where love ought to be, then you are free to  confess your sins, to admit to yourself and to God that you haven't lived up to the Christian life.  Instead of trying to convince yourself that your Christian life is doing OK when it's not, you are free instead to repent and believe the Gospel.  For no matter what your sins are, the truth of the Gospel remains: Christ died for you, and he was raised from the dead for your justification.  God keeps repeating this point, over and over again, over the years and the centuries as the Gospel is preached.  It is not some new teaching.  But it keeps coming to us sinners as good news.  

So now take a step further with me, and imagine the kind of performance anxiety that people in Luther's day suffered from, when they worried whether their hearts were really in a state of mortal sin rather than a state of grace: when they looked at their own hearts, maybe as they're trying to confess all their sins to a priest, and they don't know, really, if they have confessed all their mortal sins, the damnable sins that could earn them eternal wrath.  The name Luther gave to this kind of performance anxiety was “the terrified conscience.”  For if you had a conscience that was nagging at you in those days, reminding you of your sins, the feeling that resulted was not much like what we now call guilt feelings.  The feeling was terror: that I'm going to come before the judgment throne of God and hear a word of condemnation, like God saying “depart from me, you worker of iniquity, I never knew you.”  Imagine that word of God being the truth about you forever.  That's what Luther was afraid of.  You almost never hear in Luther about hellfire and brimstone and vivid tortures like that.  What you hear about is the word of God.  What Luther's terrified conscience was terrified of was not hellfire or devils with pitchforks.  Luther was afraid of GOD.  Above all, he was afraid of what he would hear from God.  And imagine his comfort when he realized that the word of God that he needed to believe was not a word of accusation and condemnation but a kind and gracious word, tidings of comfort and joy: the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the truth that Christ died for him.

So when Luther talks about justification by faith alone, it really matters that it's faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which means it's faith in God's word, trusting that God will be true and keep his word.  The doctrine of justification by faith alone makes absolutely no sense without the Gospel of Christ.  So when Protestant theology talks about walking by faith alone, it's not talking about just trusting God that everything will work out.  It's not even talking about believing that God will answer our prayers.   “Faith alone” means faith in the Gospel of Christ, the Word of God, the Biblical story that tells us who Christ is, including the biblical promises by which Christ our Lord gives himself to us, as a Bridegroom gives himself to his Bride in his wedding vows.  God gives himself to us in his word, by giving us his own Son to be our Bridegroom, our Beloved.  And we receive this Bridegroom, this Beloved, not by loving him enough—our love is never worthy of receiving him—but simply by believing that his promises are true.  Let God be true and every man a liar, as the apostle says.  And that includes my own lying, dishonest heart.  I can't trust what's in my heart.  I can't trust that my prayers are sincere and heartfelt enough to deserve an answer.  I have nothing to trust for my salvation and justification but the word of God, the Gospel that gives me Christ.  When you've come to realize that, you've come to see the point of the Protestant doctrine of justification by faith alone.    

And then what?  What happens next?  Then, as the apostle says, faith works by love.  Then we get back to work, loving God and neighbor, just as Jesus commanded.  Notice the different roles our Lord Jesus has: first he is the Beloved, the Bridegroom, God's gift to us.  Then he is the lawgiver, the one who commands us, reiterating the Old Testament, that we must love God with our whole heart, mind and strength, and our neighbor as ourselves.  Luther insists: don't be confused about who Christ is.  Don't confuse him with Moses, who is a lawgiver.  For Jesus our Lord is God's gift to us before he is a lawgiver, and the law he gives us is already found in Moses, in the Old Testament, for it's the law of love that God has been teaching us from the beginning, and which we have been breaking from the beginning, and which therefore cannot save us.  

The law of love, in other words, does not tell us what to do to get saved.  It tells us what to do to please God and be of service to our neighbor.  None of our works of love is good enough to save us, but that's not their purpose.  Why, after all, does God command you to love your neighbor?  It's not so that you can save yourself, but so that you can serve your neighbor.  It's not about you.  Christ's love, in the Gospel—that's about you.  For it was out of love for you that Christ died, and it was for your vindication that he was raised from the dead, and it is for the sake of eternal life for you that he now lives forever in his Father's sight.  The Gospel is Christ's story, not yours, and yet it includes you, because it is for you that he did all these things.  

^Wittenberg, Germany

But the Law is different.  That law of God tells you what to do, but not what to do to save yourself, because that's Christ's doing.  It tells you that you must serve your neighbor in love.  In other words, after the Gospel gives you Christ, the Law gives you to your neighbor.  In this way, faith in the Gospel—faith alone—frees love to be love.  It frees love to be about the people you love, about God and your neighbor, rather than about yourself.  Because if the Law had to save you—if you needed to save yourself by how much love filled your life and what a good Christian you were—then the whole Christian life would be about yourself.  You would be trying to love your neighbor in order—to save yourself.  And you would be trying to love God—in order to save yourself.  Luther noticed this.  He noticed that our works-righteousness, as he called it, was all turned in on itself, it was all about ME, ME, ME, rather than my neighbor.  It twisted the love of God and neighbor back to myself, to ME, because everything was about trying to become a good, loving Christian, which meant it was all about me.  It's deeply perverse and twisted: loving your neighbor in order to save yourself.  Or trying to serve your neighbor or the poor in order to show what a nice, loving Christian you are.  This is the kind of thing that gives charity a bad name.  It's incredibly condescending and self-centered: let me serve you in order to show what a nice, loving Christian I am.  It makes it all about me.

So one of the wonderful things that the doctrine of faith alone does, is that it frees love to be love—so that love of neighbor can really be about my neighbor rather than myself.   Since I can't do anything to save myself, there is nothing for my Christian life to do except love God and my neighbor.  I don't have to ask myself whether my Christian life is good enough. Or rather, when I should ask that question from time to time and answer: no, it's not good enough.  Thank God Christ is good enough.  Meanwhile, I can get back to the work of love, which leads me to ask a different question.  Instead of “Is my work good enough?” I can ask: “Is this work I'm doing genuinely good for my neighbor?”  That, after all, is the question that love asks.  Love does not ask: Am I loving enough Christian?  Is the love in my heart sincere and real enough?  That's the question of performance anxiety, not love.  What love asks is: What is good for my neighbor?  What really helps and serves my neighbor?  Is what I'm doing actually helping and serving my neighbor, or should I do something differently?  That's the kind of question love asks, because love is not all about me and what kind of nice, loving Christian I am.  It's about my neighbor. It's about the person I love.

So the doctrine of justification by faith alone frees love to be love.  It does this by directing our attention to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the word of God which gives us Christ as a gift rather than a lawgiver.  For it is precisely when we are given Christ as a gift that we are freed to obey the law and to really love.  Here we can come back to that point that Augustine makes about grace, the inward gift of the Spirit that changes our hearts and gives us the gift of love.  Augustine was the one who explained why preaching the law and telling people what to do can't possibly save them.  The law doesn't give us the power to obey the law, Augustine points out, because what the law demands is an inward obedience of the hear, a love that comes from the very depths of our soul.  And that means that what the law is really good at is making us anxious.  By demanding so much of us—an inward obedience of love, put into practice consistently—it mainly shows us what we are not doing, what we are incapable of doing.  

The Law can't give us the power to obey the law, to love God and neighbor.  Only grace can do that.  This is the great lesson of Augustine's theology of grace.  We need God's help in order to obey God's law, and that help is an inner gift of the Holy Spirit.  So the great question is: how do we receive this gift?  Where do we go to find the grace of God?  Here, Augustine gives an answer that Luther finds inadequate.  He agrees emphatically with Augustine: the law cannot give us the love that it demands of us.  It cannot save us, because the law cannot give us the power to obey the law.  So what do we do?  We flee to the grace of God.  How?  By praying.  We pray for God to give us the gift of grace through the Holy Spirit.  This is that answer Luther finds inadequate.

The difference is, I think, the crucial difference between Catholic and Protestant theology.  Augustine seeks grace by praying for it.  Luther finds grace by believing the Gospel.  What Augustine has is a human word, a word of prayer addressed to God.  What Luther has is the Word of God, giving us the grace we seek by giving us Christ.  So it's the difference between seeking grace through a human word, and finding it in God's word.  

Now let me hasten to point out: of course Augustine knew the Bible.  He had God's word too, just like Luther.  But this is what I mean by saying Luther gives us a new understanding of what Christians have always believed.  Of course Augustine believed the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  But he didn't think that was what saved him. For he didn't understand the Gospel as the word of God that gives us grace in Jesus Christ, a grace sufficient to save us. He didn't believe we are saved by grace alone, because he didn't believe we are saved by faith alone, because he didn't understand that the Gospel didn't just tell us what to do—it wasn't a kind of new and better law—but rather it was God giving his own Son to us in his word.

I've written a lot in my books about the difference between Augustine and Luther on exactly this point, so I'll skip over a lot of details here, in order to focus on the one thing necessary.  What the Gospel gives us is Christ, whom we receive by faith alone, simply by believing the Gospel is true.  To receive Christ through faith in the Gospel means that Christ dwells in our hearts by faith.  That's the inner gift of grace that Augustine seeks by prayer, and that Luther finds in the Gospel.  Luther finds the inner grace of God not by looking inside his heart, but by taking hold of an external word, the Gospel.  

Once again, just as we saw when it came to loving our neighbor, faith means looking away from ourselves, at something external, outside us.  That's how love works, and it's also how faith works.  Christ dwells in our hearts because we're not paying attention to our hearts but to the Gospel word.  It's like music: if you want the music to move you in the depths of your heart, then you have to stop paying attention to your heart and pay attention to the music, which is out there in the room and in the air, and it only gets into your heart through your ears.  It is by paying attention to what is outside you that the depth of your heart is moved and changed and transformed.  For it is faith alone that makes the inner difference in our hearts, precisely because faith takes hold of Christ in the Gospel, which is an external word that only gets into our hearts through our ears.   

So as we will discuss tonight, everything depends on how we direct our attention.  If we're looking for Christ in our hearts, we won't find him.  If we look for Christ in the Gospel, there he is. That's how he comes to us: in the preaching and teaching and singing of the Gospel.  (The Gospel really wants to be set to music, so that we can sing it in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, as the apostle says).  And this preaching and teaching and singing is how Christians have always come to salvation—that includes Augustine and all those Catholics, long before Luther.  It's how Catholics and Orthodox and Protestants are saved and transformed to this day: by faith in Christ alone.  And from this faith come works of love, because through this faith we have union with Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts.  

So—in conclusion—why do we need this new understanding of what Christians have always believed?  It begins with the terrified conscience of the 16th century, which ramps up a performance anxiety which gets out of hand in the reflective consciousness of the modern world.  The Protestant doctrine of justification by faith alone is needed wherever Christians are plagued by performance anxiety, trying to make sure their Christian lives are good enough, and thus in need of the good news that they're not, and that Christ alone is good enough, received not by our love or good works but by faith alone.  

But I will say there's this irony.  The Gospel is nowadays likely to be heard most clearly in non-Protestant churches, because that's where you'll find the old liturgies that are not attempting to be relevant and are therefore not all about ME, ME, ME.  The old liturgies are all about God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and what God has done in the world to redeem the world, rather than about ourselves and our Christian lives and the various performance anxieties that we have about our Christian life.  The old liturgies don't tell us how to get saved; they just give us Christ our savior, and by doing that they save us.  For the liturgies of the ancient church are just full of the Gospel, through and through. They keep telling us about Christ, resolutely, repeatedly, unashamedly.  They are unembarrassed about being “impractical,” not telling us what to do but telling us about Jesus Christ, and God our Father, and the gift of the Holy Spirit.  And so one of the key phenomena of our day, which is quite visible here at EU, is that Protestants become Catholic or Orthodox because they are bitten by the liturgy bug.  It's an irony that stems, I think, from the attempt of American evangelicalism to be relevant and practical, which means their preaching is all about telling us what to do rather than giving us Christ.  But there's more about that tonight, when we'll talk more about good news for anxious Christians, and all the practical ideas that you don't have to apply to your life.  

by: Dr. Philip Carey, Professor of Philosophy at Eastern University

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Alumnus of the Year: Dr. Howard Stevenson ’80 DD ’99

***article first appeared in the Spring/Summer 2017 issue of EASTERN, The Magazine of Eastern University. To see the full issue, visit eastern.edu/publications.*** 

The accomplishments and accolades of esteemed alumnus, Dr. Howard Stevenson ’80 are not new to the Eastern community. Since graduating from Eastern College in 1980 with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and sociology, Dr. Stevenson has continuously produced dynamic work that displays his commitment and passion for exhibiting faith, reason, and justice in the world around him.

As an undergraduate student, Dr. Stevenson was very involved in the campus community. In addition to his academics, he was active in the athletics program, playing on both the men’s soccer (All-American) and baseball teams; experiences that would heavily influence his later work with sports therapy among inner-city youths. He was also a member of Angels of Harmony, Eastern’s beloved and distinguished African-American Gospel Choir which just celebrated it’s 45th anniversary in 2016. Since graduating, Dr. Stevenson has returned to campus multiple times as both a guest lecturer for Windows on the World as well as commencement speaker in 1999 , during which he received an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters. “My time and travels while at Eastern played a major role in my current research and community intervention work,” he stated in a previous interview.

Having finished his bachelor’s degree at Eastern, Dr. Stevenson went on to further his education with an MA in theology and a PhD in clinical psychology from Fuller Theological Seminary and Fuller Graduate School of Psychology. He is now the Constance Clayton Professor of Urban Education, Professor of Africana Studies, and former Chair of the Applied Psychology and Human Development Division in the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania. Much of his work both inside and outside the classroom deals with his particular areas of expertise: African-American psychology, racial identity, family and parental engagement, bullying and violence prevention, sports psychotherapy and more. Since assuming this role at Penn, Dr. Stevenson has taken on numerous research projects and has produced a number of scholarly publications that address these topics on a deeper level. One of his most recent books,  Promoting Racial Literacy in Schools: Differences that Make a Difference (Teachers College Press), for example, focuses on stressful and undermining encounters that reflect racial profiling among students and how they can be resolved through emotional engagement and communication with educators, parents and community leaders.

In addition to his academic pursuits, Dr. Stevenson has sought to reach urban and impoverished rural neighborhoods through his clinical work and special projects. Over the past 30 years, he has served as a clinical and consulting psychologist, specializing in therapeutic and strengths-based approaches to teaching families and young children about the importance of racial literacy and emotional well-being. Perfectly  conjoined with his work at Penn, his clinical work has helped produce a number of research projects that ultimately serve the larger community in Philadelphia. Among his most well-known endeavors is PLAAY (Preventing Long-Term Anger and Aggression in Youth), a projects that uses sports and athletics as a means of emotionally counseling young African-American boys while at the same time teaching parents and coaches to become solid emotional supports for their children. Likewise, the Shape Up: Barbers Building Better Brothers program draws on the familiar location of a local barbershop to engage young men on a variety of personal topics such as safe-sex habits and prevention of violent behavior that will ultimately provide the healing and intervention needed to help them better understand their own behavior and racial identity.

Recently, Dr. Stevenson has continued this sort of work with additional opportunities for research and ministry in the Greater Philadelphia area. He is currently the Executive Director of the Racial Empowerment Collaborative (REC), a “research, program development, and training center that brings together community leaders, researchers, authority figures, families, and youth to study and promote racial literacy and health in schools and neighborhoods.” Dr. Stevenson was also recently honored as one of 10 individuals in the Philadelphia area to be awarded $10,000 at the BMe Community Leaders Awards for the further development of his Villages Raising Us (ViRUs) program, which draws on the same goals of PLAAY and Shape Up to train a neighborhood network of individuals to use cultural strengths to counsel families and youths in familiar and comfortable settings.

With so much already on his resume, Dr. Stevenson shows no signs of slowing down. With such devotion to healing, reconciliation and the pursuit of justice in his work, he has displayed a true love for his neighbors and a firm commitment to the mission and values of his alma mater. 

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Distinguished Young Alumna of the Year: Brisa DeAngulo ’07

***article first appeared in the Spring/Summer 2017 issue of EASTERN, The Magazine of Eastern University. To see the full issue, visit eastern.edu/publications.*** 

Brisa DeAngulo ’07 had a desire for justice and started her career in activism long before she received her B.A. in Psychology at Eastern. DeAngulo’a father, Jose DeAngulo MAR ’85, and brother, Juan DeAngulo ’06 attended Eastern, so she was already aware of the small community, but it was the University’s commitment to faith, reason, and justice that truly drew her in. When she began attending Eastern, she was still struggling emotionally with the traumas that she had been through as one of the first adolescents in Bolivia to bring a rape case to court. She spoke very little English, but had a desire to learn. Her psychology professor, the late Dr. Weathersby, spent extra hours with her, tutoring and teaching and giving her extra work. The atmosphere of justice and social transformation at Eastern served to focus her on the mission she was given as a young girl. 

Living in Bolivia with her family, Brisa saw every day the kids in her neighborhood returning from school still suffering from the violence experienced in school. She was moved to seek relief for the mistreated students experiencing the worst kind of education while she experienced the joys of learning with her sisters in the comfort of their home. So, at the age of 7, she set about gathering spare wood and stones around her house to set up tables and chairs in her backyard. She invited her neighborhood children into the safety of the makeshift classroom, and helped them with their homework assignments, while showing them that school can be fun. The school, which is now known as Comunidad Edicativa Para La Vida (CEV), grew into a fully functioning school with teachers, students and a building by the time she was 14. 

Two months before attending Eastern, Brisa started Centro Una Brisa de Esperanza (CUBE) seeking to provide victims of sexual abuse, specifically young girls, with professional support. The desire to create such a place stemmed from her own experience as a victim of sexual abuse in Bolivia. “I dreamed of a place where I could provide girls with the professional support that I never received. I wanted to provide them with a place where they could break the silence and be believed; where they could find comfort and hope among other survivors and together muster the strength to build new lives for themselves,” Brisa said of founding CUBE. 

Today, CUBE is an organization with bases in both Bolivia and the United States (A Breeze of Hope Foundation) made up of a team of lawyers, psychologists, and social workers that provide free comprehensive services to child and adolescent victims of sexual violence, and work consistently toward making changes within the the flawed Bolivian justice system. CEV and CUBE work together to prevent sexual violence, offer educational opportunities to impoverished families in Chilimarca, Bolivia and holistic support to victims of sexual violence. As founder and CEO of CUBE, Brisa’s responsibilities range from securing funding and support, to researching and implementing the best practices. 

DeAngulo was recognized as a 2016 Global Hero, awarded by Safe Magazine. The award recognizes people who leverage their public platforms to support those at risk for or who have suffered violence of all kinds, in order for them to live free of their fears and traumas, and prevent it from happening to others. DeAngulo says winning the award means “our hard work is making an impact, one that’s seen on an international level.” It also serves to display the organization in front of larger organizations that would be vital in increasing the reach of the ministry. Within the next few years she is hoping that CUBE and CEV will serve as leaders of change within the Bolivian government and educational systems, to reach out to more children and victims across the country. 

article by: Felisha Kissel ’17

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Giving Hope and a Future to the Hopeless

***article first appeared in the Spring/Summer 2017 issue of EASTERN, The Magazine of Eastern University. To see the full issue, visit eastern.edu/publications.*** 

Every Esperanza College of Eastern University commencement ceremony ends with a litany where the graduates along with everyone else jointly declare how their journey of esperanza (hope) has been made possible through the support and opportunities they have received at the college. As part of the litany, the graduates declare “Because of what God has done, we have God’s hope, tenemos Esperanza!”

Many of the the graduates arrived at the college a few years earlier unsure of themselves, with dreams yet lacking the necessary hope and preparation needed to succeed. Many had heard from friends and family that at Esperanza College, they would get the education, support, resources and opportunity needed to succeed. Jazmin Sosa fit that profile. She graduated from Esperanza College with her AA in Criminal Justice in 2015 and is scheduled to graduate from Eastern with her bachelor’s in Criminal Justice in 2017. 

While you wouldn’t know it from the smile on her face, Jazmin’s journey has been tougher than most. Like many immigrants, her family arrived in pursuit of the American dream. Jazmin was four. While she did not speak English, her teachers quickly realized she was very bright. Through the dedicated support of her ESL teacher, she quickly learned English. Not only did God create her with high intellectual ability that flourished with the aid of dedicated teachers, He also created her with a desire to help others and by the time she was in middle school, she was volunteering and tutoring other students. She graduated from middle school with honors and was accepted into one of the best schools in Philadelphia. However, she felt out of place and lacked support, so she transferred out and went to a neighborhood school. She lost all hope when she realized that she lacked the necessary documentation to be able to attend college. Without hope for the future, her grades dropped and her once bright, promising future came to a dark and dangerous dead end street. She went back to the country of her birth, but found there was nothing there for an Americanized young lady. On the way back to the States, she was kidnapped and her parents had to pay a ransom. After that dangerous and arduous ordeal, as she was trying to finish high school, she came across Esperanza College. It was near her home and had a history of helping those in need of opportunity. 

Her hope was renewed as she interacted with staff eager to help her accomplish her dreams. They helped her find the necessary resources and provided the encouragement, support and guidance she needed. She started her studies pursuing a major that was not the ideal pathway to her dream of becoming an attorney because she did not think her dream was possible. Through encouragement from staff she changed her major and found the support she needed through Dr. Andria Kallarakal, the director of Esperanza’s criminal justice program. Dr. Kallarakal is pleased to see that Jazmin’s incredible potential to help the community is already being realized: “I have seen Jazmin mature over the years during her time with us. Her passion for immigration work comes with personal experience of struggles.”

Esperanza provides opportunities for its students and prepares them for that opportunity. The combination of an excellent education, her personal drive, and God’s providence resulted in her being hired by the law firm where she did her internship. After graduating with honors with her associate’s degree, Jazmin continued on to her bachelor studies through Eastern’s accelerated criminal justice program taught at the Esperanza campus. Dr. Kallarakal continues to encourage, guide and support her. Law school is next on the horizon for Jazmin. 

Esperanza’s commencement ceremony litany ends with the graduates declaring, “We go out to serve with faith, reason, and to do justice,” and everyone present responds, “We have God’s hope, tenemos Esperanza!” Now as Jazmin graduates with her bachelor’s degree, she recalls a key to her success, “Esperanza is Hope and from attending Esperanza College it has given me hope to pursue my dreams and goal of becoming an immigration attorney.” Jazmin continues to inspire others who are coming along behind her on the journey, especially those who are losing hope. She is one of the hundreds of alumni who are making an incredible difference in the community. This fruit that keeps on giving is the result of Eastern and Esperanza Inc. joining forces in obedience to the biblical mandate in Matthew 25:40 to help those who are in greatest need.

article by: David Hurtado MBA, PhD

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Do You Know Choni?

***article first appeared in the Spring/Summer 2017 issue of EASTERN, The Magazine of Eastern University. To see the full issue, visit eastern.edu/publications.*** 

Choni Selden ’11 lives in the country of Bhutan and is the host of the popular children’s show, Do You Know Your Child? Recently, Choni came back to the United States and while here took some time to reminisce about Eastern. During her visit, Evan Hewitt ’11, Assistant Director of Enrollment Communications and a classmate of Choni’s, sat down with her to talk about just how influential Eastern was in her life. 

Bhutan is a small country located south of China with a population of around 750,000 people. It contains many natural beauties, such as the majestic eastern Himalayas. 

Choni’s journey to Eastern became possible through her dad’s tourism business. Jim Zug, one of Choni’s thirteen sponsors, happened to be touring Bhutan with her father’s tour company. While working with the tour company during her gap year, Choni told Jim of her dream to go to college in the United States. Jim and twelve others said that they would be her sponsors. After meeting with a counselor and coming up with a few different universities as options, Eastern was the one Choni selected. Since the majority of people in Bhutan are Buddhist, one of the reasons she chose eastern was that she wanted to learn more about Christianity. Choni said, “If I could turn back in time and go to any university in America, I would still choose Eastern because I had a beautiful experience being in a Christian community. A lot of the stereotypes that I had of Christians were broken at Eastern, and I just had a great experience.”

While she was at Eastern, Choni majored in English with a concentration in journalism and minored in Communication Studies and Business Management. She was also a writer for the Waltonian, Eastern’s campus newspaper, eventually becoming the copy editor for the publication. Of her professors at Eastern, Choni explained, “On the verge of sounding very diplomatic, I loved all of my professors: my business professors, my Bible professors, everybody. I still can’t believe I got so lucky with the professors I’ve had. But Talli Sperry, my communications professors and Kevin Maness ’92 - they have a special place in my heart. With Talli there was a personal connection too... she was one of those professors who really touched me personally. And she was a great communications professor too.”

Choni and Professor Talli Sperry

After graduating from Eastern, Choni immediately joined the workforce in Bhutan. Her first job as an International Relations officer at a private college in Bhutan’s capital, Thimphu, utilized the communications skills she acquired at Eastern. However, it was not very long until Choni realized that this job was not her calling. Choni left the college to teach second through fifth grade students, which she loved. Eventually, her husband transferred away from the capital to a different district. Choni left her teaching job to be with her husband, but realized she couldn’t cope well with living in a remote area. After feeling like she was starting to become depressed in her new home, Choni and her husband decided it was best to live long distance, it it meant she would feel better. After moving back to Thimphu, Choni took a new job with the Bhutan Broadcasting Service as the host of Do You Know Your Child?

Do You Know Your Child? is one of the most popular television shows in Bhutan. In her position, Choni has many roles; she is anchor, producer and even a writer. She is most known for her job as the anchor where she asks her contestants questions to see how well they really know their child. Parents and children are given the same set of questions to answer individually and then reveal their answers on the show to see how closely the answers match. One of Choni’s goals with the show is to foster healthy communication between parents and their elementary age children. Do You Know Your Child? is an educational/entertainment genre award-winning program, winning back to back best TV program and best talk show awards in 2014 and 2015. The show is most popular with children. 

Behind the scenes of Do You Know Your Child?

According to Choni, Eastern prepared her for work in many ways, but the way it most prepared her was by turning her into a people person. Before coming to Eastern, Choni said that she was very shy. The encouraging professors and students at Eastern gave her the confidence to speak up and come out of her shell. Being a talk show host involves a lot of communicating with contestants, with fans and in all the work behind the scenes. Choni can perform all of these roles far away in the country of Bhutan because of the support and confidence that she received at Eastern. Of her time at Eastern, Chonit said, “I wouldn’t change a thing about my experience at Eastern; it was perfect... I loved it.”

*Episodes of Do You Know Your Child? may be found on YouTube.

article by: Jereme Wells ’19

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The Space Within to Speak Across Divides

***article first appeared in the Spring/Summer 2017 issue of EASTERN, The Magazine of Eastern University. To see the full issue, visit eastern.edu/publications.*** 

Born and raised in the city of Bristol in the United Kingdom, alumnus Marvin Rees MS ’01became Mayor of Bristol in May of 2016 on his second run for the office. Prior to becoming Mayor, his journey would take him far from Bristol to the United States to work in Washington D.C. at Sojourners magazine and then on to Eastern University where he received his Master of Science in Global Economic Development. 

Mayor Rees identifies as mixed race; his father is Jamaican and he was raised by his white mother, at various points in two underserved neighborhoods of the city. Prior to attending Eastern, he attended Swansea University and after Eastern participated in the Yale University World Fellows Global Leadership Program. Among other positions, in the UK he has worked at Tear Fund, a UK international Christian aid agency, and in the U.S. to organize the response of faith-based groups to President Bill Clinton’s Welfare Reform Bill. In 2011 Rees founded the City Leadership Program in Bristol which invests in the personal development and leadership skills of youth from disadvantaged backgrounds. 

One of Britain’s “Core Cities”, Bristol is the largest in the South West with a population of 449,300. In March 2017, Bristol was named “Best Place to Live in the United Kingdom” in the Sunday Times Best Places to Live Guide. The Sunday Times Home editor Helen Davies said “The city is a worthy winner thanks to its ideal combination of extraordinary culture, impressive schools, buzzing culinary scene, exciting redevelopment and community spirit. We sum the city up as cool, classy and supremely creative.”

Q&A

I caught up with Mayor Rees to learn a little more about his time at Eastern and what it’s like being Mayor of Bristol:

Q: I understand you were born and raised in Bristol. Your journey then took you to the United States, including Eastern, before returning to Bristol. What are the many emotions you experience when you return and become Mayor of your hometown?

A: I was born and raised in Bristol and I never planned to come back, but I suppose it was inevitable that I would return. When I did it felt like a completion of a journey. I suppose that when you achieve something and you feel it’s gone well, you feel like it’s been the right path. It’s great to be able to share my story with the city, growing up from nothing and a state of ‘racial-limbo’ and now today I’m the Mayor.

Q: What does it mean to you to become the first directly elected black mayor of Bristol?

A: Being the first directly elected black mayor in Europe is important to me- it really matters. It’s also nuanced. I am mixed race and that matters too. From that place I can try and find the space within all the other noise to speak across divides. 

I also grew up in a working class family. My Gran said that she bought her house from Alderman Ross, a Lord Mayor of Bristol in the 1950′s which she was proud of. She was of that generation that doffed their caps to people with titles and had the reverence for professionals. It’s great to think that I am now the directly elected Mayor. 

Q: How did your journey bring you to the graduate program at Eastern?

A: I was working at Tear Fund, a development agency, and I was trying to work out my own politics and if there was Christian politics. I started my journey during my first masters in political theory where I studied the Civil Rights movement. I came across Jim Wallis ‘Soul of Politics’ which contained an interesting challenge to the church. 

While I interned at Sojourners I heard about Economic Development at Eastern and went to visit. While there I met Tony Campolo ’56, BD ’60, ThM ’61 who said that I should just “turn up” and he would help me find a place, and so I did on a freezing cold Philadelphia winter day in 2000. It was great working with Tony and I was grateful to be awarded the scholarship. One big thing that I took away from my time at Eastern was that I met my wife there. 

Q: How has your MS in Economic Development guided you in your role as Mayor of Bristol?

A: My MS in Economic Development from Eastern has given me principles that have guided me in my time as Mayor. I did take some flak for being a Christian during my campaign as one of my credits was Biblical Economics. And I was asked what use this was. 

Exploring Economic Development is essential, not just because of the need to grow sustainability but also the moral aspect to do this. Economic growth can be good or bad, not just technically, but morally.  

Q: Congratulations! Bristol was recently named “Best Place to Live” in the Sunday Times Best Place to Live Guide. What is your reaction to this accolade? In an interview with the BBC you remarked you were “chuffed”. What would be an American equivalent to this sentiment?

A: I was pleased to learn that Bristol had been named” Best Place to Live” by the Sunday Times recently but was conscious of the work still to do. 

My predecessor as Mayor publicly expressed some criticisms for putting it that way, but in my campaign I highlighted the fact that while the city has so much going for it, it was perverse that we have areas amongst the 1% most deprived in the country and huge amounts of child poverty. The success Bristol has experienced has contributed to the fiercely competitive, and expensive, housing market and the problems this causes for low income families. 

Q: What are some of the initiatives you are working on as Mayor? Or areas you would like to effect change?

A: My term as Mayor ends in May 2020, and during my administration I am prioritizing Housing, Breakfast clubs and some work as part of the Global Parliament of Mayors. 

The city faces a housing crisis and competition for homes causes difficulties for a great many people so housing is a key part of delivering my aims. I campaigned on a pledge to build 2,000 homes a year- 800 affordable by 2020 and I believe it is a large part of my mandate to do so. I have stopped the Council from selling its own land so that we are better placed to control development and have commenced work to create a housing delivery unit within the council. 

Breakfast clubs provide a meal for students before school as well as a range of games and activities which break down the entrenched inequalities which affect children of disadvantaged backgrounds. 

I am working with Partners to deliver a promise to ensure every primary school child in Bristol has access to a breakfast club with the aim that no child has to go to school hungry. 

Britain is experiencing a turbulent time in international politics as we move toward Brexit, so I want a rebalancing of sovereignty giving a stronger voice to cities. This is part of a global agenda and we are working with national and international partner cities , some as part of the Global Parliament of Mayors. 

Our international communities and global citizens link Bristol to the world, creating a culturally vibrant, cohesive and welcoming city. This places Bristol in strong position to develop an economy as an international gateway to the UK. It can also provide leadership on shared global values and development goals, including inclusivity, sustainability, and resilience. 

photo by: Walter Dirks

article by: Denise McMillan

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Eastern’s First Female Fulbright Student: Emily Cole ’17

***article first appeared in the Spring/Summer 2017 issue of EASTERN, The Magazine of Eastern University. To see the full issue, visit eastern.edu/publications.*** 

Graduation is a huge step. Like many seniors, Emily Cole ’17 had a bunch of ideas about what she might do. Never one to settle for the ordinary, Cole decided to try for something really big. 

With the encouragement of her Eastern professors, she decided to pursue an opportunity that would combine her passions. She had heard Dr. Anne Francois give a presentation on Fulbright Scholarships in her sophomore year. Cole was immediately intrigued. Following her study abroad experience in Seville, Spain, Cole returned home and started the process of applying for the prestigious award. 

Over the next three or four months, the senior Political Science and Spanish double major worked through the process of applying through the U.S. State Department to work with university students studying English in Ecuador. Cole received confirmation in late March that she was one of four U.S. students selected for a Fulbright award in that country. 

In receiving the grant, Cole joins an illustrious list of local and national leaders who have received the award since the program’s inception in 1946. Her notification about the award included the following encouragement from the Scholarship Board:

The Fulbright Board places its confidence in you to fulfill Senator Fulbright’s goal to develop international understanding. This effort depends on a commitment from Fulbright grantees to establish open communication and long-term cooperative relationships. As a Fulbright recipient and a representative of the United States, you will have the opportunity to work collaboratively with international partners in educational, political, cultural, economic, and scientific fields. We hope you will engage directly as well in your local community throughout your Fulbright exchange. In so doing, you will exemplify the qualities of service, leadership, and excellence that have been hallmarks of this Program for 70 years. 

Cole’s full intention is to interact with her local community.

Much of her passion for Spanish emerged after she traveled to Honduras with her church/family in high school. While there, she and her sister saw children in need and noticed that many of them did not have shoes. The two girls decided to act on what they saw and started a non-profit with the intention of providing shoes for children in Honduras. Honduran Soles, now in its fifth year, as provided more than 12,000 pairs of shoes to people in 16 countries around the globe. The intention of the organization is bigger than just responding to physical need. They look to distribute their shoes with mission teams that are traveling to places of need. This is not only cost-effective, but with each pair of shoes, the message of the Gospel comes to children and families. 

In 2014, Cole and her soccer teammates traveled to Zambia. While in Africa, she realized the value of sport for girls around the world. The team did soccer clinics for boys and girls. As she interacted with the girls, she saw them thrive on the encouragement and saw them advance in skills and confidence in a short time. “I remember working with groups of kids in Macha,” she shared. “We had set up stations for skills and each time the kids rotated to our station, they had such joy. Even though we did not speak their language, soccer transcended that gap.”

In developing countries, that confidence can make all the difference as women seek to gain financial and personal autonomy in a culture that has historic roots of misogynistic tendencies. As she looked at the prevalence of violence and harassment of women in Ecuador, she realized that there was the potential to do good with her love for the game. 

In her purpose statement in the Fulbright application, she wrote:

As a female athlete, I know the value and confidence soccer has given me throughout my life: strength, endurance, mental toughness and unmatched joy. I hope to instill these same attributes in the young women of the Ecuadorian community where I am placed, helping them to feel confident in who they are and what they can be. I should like to work with community leaders to develop soccer teams or a training clinic for young girls. 

While at Eastern, Cole was more than just a player. She missed much of her first season with injury, but turned into Eastern’s top goal-scoring threat in each of her final three seasons. She finished her career with 49 goals. 

She earned All-MAC Freedom honors as a forward three times and was recognized as a CoSIDA Academic All-American in her senior season. She is the second Academic All-American in the history of Eastern Athletics. 

Twice she was names as the Academic All-Area Women’s Soccer Player of the Year by the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Sports Information Directors Association. That award for academic and athletic excellence is presented to the top performer from all the four-year colleges and universities in the Philadelphia Area. She scored 36 goals in her final two seasons for the Eagles and was named MAC Freedom Co-Offensive Player of the Year in her junior campaign. Soccer is a common theme in the Cole household. Her older brother and sister played through high school, and her two younger brothers will play together this fall at Messiah College. 

When she was looking for a college, Cole wanted to look at Christian schools where she could play and not be too far from home. She had torn her ACL in her junior year and for a while was unsure if she would play in college. “I met with Coach Mouw,” Cole said. “And I knew that I loved what I saw when I visited the campus. When he called and offered me a spot, I knew Eastern was where I was supposed to be. It is cool to see how God works and knows what is best for us.”

Cole found that she really loved to study when she got to Eastern. She enjoyed so many things that it caused a little problem. She excelled in all her classes, but at the end of her sophomore year, she had to declare a major. “I remember laying on the floor of my room in Eagle Hall and was in tears trying to figure out where I wanted to go. My roommates still give me grief about this all the time. They were nursing majors and had it all figured out.”

In the end, she felt that a political science degree would help her to work toward a career that could pursue justice. She is still looking at law school in the future, but she valued her time as a political science student because she was able to learn about people, study international relations, and to integrate her passion for Spanish language and culture. She originally intended to minor in Spanish, but she could not ignore her passion to learn and grow in that discipline. 

In her Spanish classes, the original seed of the idea to pursue a Fulbright was nurtured. Dr. Julia Stewart, who was awarded a Fulbright to Mexico as a professor, encouraged Cole through the arduous application process. Cole cites Stewart’s encouragement as a reason she as able to persist and she attaches tremendous value to the wisdom Stewart provided in the application process. “She helped me so much,” Cole said. “Even little things like avoiding cliches or finding the right things to highlight about myself helped. I am so grateful for her encouragement. There were times where I thought I had no shot, and she just kept telling me that I was a great candidate and to be confident in that.”

Cole knew she wanted to go to Latin America. The interest began with her trip in high school, but she cites her classes in Latin American literature and a political history of Latin America as points where she knew that she wanted to go and study more. “I really liked the English Teaching Assistant (ETA) program I will be pursuing in Ecuador. In the program I will be working with university students. I was attracted to it because it allowed me to be a native presence in helping students who are learning a second language. For the person learning a second language, the ETA is huge.”

Alondra Cervantes ’19, her teammate and friend, has served in that role for Cole. The two live in a Gallup Apartment with teammates Lydia Peachey ’17 and Hannah Bomberger ’17. Cervantes is a native speaker who encourages Cole in her language development. “Lon and I will be speaking in Spanish in the apartment, and the nurses will tell us to be quiet. Lon will correct me- if I ask her to- and she gives me the confidence that I am progressing. I want to do that for students who are learning English.”

Cole also noted that the Ecuador program would give her the opportunity to use soccer with the teaching program. The Fulbright programs requires applicants to propose a community outreach component. For Cole, this was the easy and exciting part. While in Ecuador, she is expected to be a cultural ambassador for the United States. She is looking forward to this, but she is also understands that as much as she is an ambassador for the U.S., she is also going to share her love for people that comes from her commitment to Christ.

Cole hopes that through her experience more Eastern students will apply and receive the grant. “Eastern has equipped us,” she concluded. “I think sometimes we think that coming out of a smaller school means that we cannot compete, but I know that I am prepared. I am grateful for the investment of my professors as educators and more importantly as people.”

She noted that has has friends at bigger schools that barely know or even dislike their professors, but added that Dr. Sharon Gramby-Sobukwe, Dr. Elvira Ramirez, Dr. Christopher Butynskyi ’01, Dr. Stewart and others have taken the time to really know her and to inspire her to love learning and to find her passions. 

After her Fulbright ends, Cole will again be looking for the next thing. Wherever she winds up, whether it is in law school or in another language-based program, she knows that she will continue to seek to glorify God as she grows in her faith, increases her learning and pursues justice in the world around her. 

Soli Deo Gloria!

article by: Dan Mouw

Dan Mouw is the current Director of Athletic Communications for Eastern University Athletics. He served as Eastern’s Women’s Soccer Coach from 2002-2016.