Bethany College Sunday at Bethany Lutheran Church

(Yesterday was Bethany College Sunday at Bethany Lutheran Church, where the college was founded 131 years ago in the sacristy.  Here's my sermon.)

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Thank you for the opportunity to again stand in the pulpit where 12 presidents stood before me and just a few feet from the sacristy where Bethany College was born 131 years ago. I don't need to dwell but do need to acknowledge the special relationship that exists between the college and this congregation. Because of our special partnership I would like to reflect on the last five years and then tease you with the exciting future that is starting to unfold.

Our local newspaper, the Lindsborg News-Record, and county newspaper, the McPherson Sentinel, have done a wonderful job recently of printing articles reflecting on Bethany's fiscal and operational progress these last five years. This morning I'd like to reflect on the more import strategic progress we've made these last five years.

To define and frame Bethany's strategic directions, early on we did a lot of listening and understanding of our history and of our genetic code. The first products of that listening were to discern God's mission for Bethany through who we are and where we're from. That is, we wanted to find our saga.

The Old Norse word “saga” is, “the recounting of historical and legendary events.” Sociologist Burton Clark defined an organization’s saga as, “what the organization has been and what it is today – and hence by extension what it will be tomorrow.” Through our listening and understanding, we found five inescapable attributes that shaped what Bethany is today and by extension will be tomorrow.

Lutheran. Bethany College was born in the sacristy of Bethany Lutheran Church on October 15, 1881 and we still identify with the distinctive Lutheran tenets of reflection and vocation. We must continually ask ourselves and our students "So, what does this mean?" and "Now, what path will you take?"

As a personal reflection our new provost, Dr. Ken Macur, who will stand here next week, has reinvigorated campus conversation about our Lutheran-ness. Additionally, I'm currently chairing the ELCA Council of College & University Presidents and facilitating a conversation to define the relationship between the ELCA and its 26 colleges in this new normal. As well as a member of the College-Central States Synod’s Missional Engagement Team working to discern God’s call to that shared ministry.

Swedish. Lindsborg and Bethany College were founded by Swedish-Lutheran immigrants. Today we identify with and strive to live the contemporary Swedish values of equality, accessibility, and sustainability.

As a personal reflection I've made three trips to Sweden in my five years at Bethany. I've learned much, made good connections, and met some important people. I have met Their Majesties King Carl XVI Gustav and Queen Sylvia, the Swedish Ambassador to the US, the US Ambassador to Sweden, the Governor of Värmland Province, the Bishop of Karlstad, the former Marshal of the Realm, and the new President of the University of Karlstad. These connections will serve Bethany well.

Place. Bethany is located in the heart of the Great Plains, a major agricultural region, yet Lindsborg offers incredible cultural opportunities. Bethany lives in a Place where culture meets agriculture and where a more rounded college graduate can emerge.

Discovery. From our founding, the core of our teaching is active learning and real world experiences where our students identify their strengths, gifts, and talents, as well as confront value conundrums that come from different perspectives of their experiences. Leaving Bethany to do well and to do good.

Engagement. Bethany has a long history of attracting students who get involved, whether through art, music, theatre, athletics, student government, a fraternity or sorority, or another campus organization.  We strive for engagement that is seamless and compliments the classroom experience with the out-of-classroom experience. We also strive for engagement that is broad and deep and not narrow and focused.

These five inescapable attributes - Lutheran, Swedish, Place, Discovery, and Engagement - are our saga. That saga undergirds our guiding principles and what we will be tomorrow. We defined our guiding principles framed by mission, core values, promise, and vision.

Over the last five years, we recommitted ourselves to our mission - to educate, develop, and challenge individuals to reach for truth and excellence as they lead lives of faith, learning, and service - and to our core values of integrity, hospitality, community, servant leadership, and sustainability.

We also committed ourselves to our promise to students where they can expect

• personal attention within a caring community;
• active learning and meaningful practical experience – in and beyond the classroom;
• an educational experience that prepares them for a life and career of consequence;
• to be an active participant in their own education and in the life of the college; and
• to be a part in something bigger than themselves. 

Finally, over the last five years, we committed ourselves and have focused our work around our vision to soar bigger, better, and stronger - guiding student success and with them co-creating the best total experience.

More specifically, by our sesquicentennial in 2031, we envision 1,500 students from 50 states and 50 countries where 25% are international students and 100% of our graduates have an international experience; 84% of freshmen continue to the sophomore year; and 30% of alumni financially support the college. 

We further aspire for an endowment of $100 million that gives Bethany a competitive advantage in scholarship support for students and discovery support for faculty, staff, and students.  We also see a campus that is totally accessible economically and physically; facilities and technology that are state of practice to prepare our graduates for a career of consequence; and a Bethany that embraces and lives with equality throughout the college, most especially in gender and race.

Lastly, we envision a Bethany that is a strategic partner with the city of Lindsborg and together we are a national model of town-gown best practices.

With our saga and guiding principles as guiderails, we then identified four missional directions of excellence as pathways to our bold and ambitious future. Those are:

Discovery, reflection & vocation drives our students’ learning where success is marked at graduation by critical thinking, effective communication, information literacy, intellectual curiosity, and employment or graduate school entry within six months. This shared discovery of learning is rooted in strong liberal arts principles.  It shapes Bethany’s first-year experience and core curriculum as well as deep learning in the disciplinary knowledge and skills of our academic majors. It prepares our graduates for a successful life and a career of consequence because they have discovered their passion and are able to reflect, "So, what does this mean?" and to discern, "Now, what path will I take?"

Servant leadership follows the example of Jesus of Nazareth who led and served spanning boundaries in service of a larger vision. Our graduates will go out spanning boundaries to create new visions as educational, business, entrepreneurial, or missional leaders. 

Global citizenship prepares our graduates to function successfully in a “flattening world,” enabling each graduate to appreciate a world view and to develop the ability and desire to become engaged in global issues. 

Sustainable living defines success as actively integrating social responsibility, economic prosperity, environmental stewardship, and spiritual renewal – people, profit, planet, and prayer – meaning our graduates successfully understand how to live a sustainable life and how to lead a sustainable organization.

Let me conclude with a few quick teasers. They are all still in the early formative stage. I share them with you because of our special relationship and you deserve a peek behind the curtain to Bethany's immediate future.

Please remember they are intended to help us avoid insanity, which Einstein defined as, "Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results." I've come to realize Bethany College has a bad habit we are trying to break of doing the same thing and expecting a different outcome. We hope these breaks that cycle.

This fall we launched a pilot program called Bethany Pathway that begins to bring to reality those missional directions. The pilot contains three components. The first is two interdisciplinary courses. They are Sound and Silence: The Art of Music and Film, taught by Melody Steed from music and Greg LeGault from theatre, and Mind Reading in Theory and Practice: It’s Not What You Think, taught by Kristin Van Tassel from English, Loranelle Lockyear from chemistry, and Andrea Ring from psychology.

The second component is an accompanying course called Bethany Quest, in which each freshman in the pilot is challenged to reflect on his or her personal and vocational goals, and then begins to develop out of that a Pathway e-Portfolio, the third component. 

The early results are positive and we are beginning the conversation to scale this initiative from pilot to full program.

We have, this semester, our first fully online students through our certificate program in network marketing. We see this network marketing online education venture as a growth opportunity for us. Also, we are working hard to offer online dual credit courses to high schools in central Kansas, while we will continue to offer dual credit classes with Smoky Valley High School.

Perhaps one of the most exciting and innovative new ventures is a strategic partnership with Mindfire Academy in Wichita. Mindfire Academy is a relatively young educational venture in creative media technologies now run by Bethany College graduate and Lindsborg native son Jason Opat. Simply, we think this will be a wonderful extension of our art tradition into the 21st century through courses in media art with concentrations in animation/gaming, film making, and sound. Next Sunday there will be an article in the Wichita Eagle introducing this venture more fully.

Lastly, we have become an affiliate of the Kauffman Foundation's entrepreneurial FastTrac(c) program and our first business professor is now certified to offer this opportunity to our students, faculty, and staff, as well as Lindsborg’s and central Kansas' business owners and emerging entrepreneurs. We see tremendous inreach and outreach possibilities with this new strategic partnership.

There it is. How we see who we are, where we're from, and where we're headed 131 years into living God's mission.

Yet, we can sum it all up with "Go Swedes. Serve the Lord. Thanks be to God."

Amen.

2012-2013 Academic Year Opening Message

(At today's campus meeting to begin the 2012-2013 academic year, I shared the following message with our faculty & staff.)

“And looking at them Jesus said to them, ‘With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.’” (Matthew 19:26, New American Standard Bible)

This passage from the Gospel of Matthew has taken on special meaning in my wife’s family in 2012, specifically that “with God all things are possible.”

Sheila’s niece Vicki entered East Jefferson Hospital this past January 3^rd.  She was 22 weeks pregnant and in premature labor.  Vicki’s last pregnancy ended in a miscarriage and the chances were good it would happen again.

But this time Vicki was in a race to stretch the clock because the neonatologists would not provide intensive care for the premature baby at 22 weeks, but would at 24 weeks because viability is considered to be around 24 weeks.

Through the power of today’s medicine and praying “but with God all things are possible,” Vicki made it past week 22 and week 23. 

On January 17, during the 24^th week, Baby Charlotte was born at 1½ pounds and 12¾ inches long.  While she made it to week 24 and was in the neonatal intensive care unit her chance of survival was just 50% … “but with God all things are possible.”

Shortly after Baby Charlotte was born heart complications set in because her ductus arteriosus failed to close after birth.  Wanting to avoid surgery her doctors first tried medication.  It worked!  Surgery was avoided and Baby Charlotte was gaining strength.

For the Judge family, Baby Charlotte’s journey was definitely a roller-coaster … “but with God all things are possible.”

Then in mid-March the bottom fell out and Baby Charlotte had neonatal sepsis and wasn’t expected to live the weekend.  But she did!

The roller-coaster continued but the ups were higher and the downs not as low until on June 20, 155 days after she was born, Baby Charlotte got to go home and meet her big sister.

My telling of this story does not do justice to the 5 month journey Baby Charlotte and the Judge family took from January 17 to June 20.  But the point of the story is simple: with God all things are possible.

Our journey together began five years ago.  For me my faith that with God all things are possible has been reaffirmed and strengthened in that time.

I would like to expand on that during my time this morning.  I’d like to explore the path we’ve taken these last five years through the lens of discovery, reflection & vocation – what we’ve experienced, what does it mean, and what is our path forward.

What we’ve experienced can be summed up with four key indicators: financial bottom-line, financial ratio, enrollment, and retention.  The two financial indicators are tracked by and critical to the Higher Learning Commission and the US Department of Education, while the two enrollment indicators are tracked by and critical to the Higher Learning Commission.

When we began this journey, we started with a financial bottom-line of a $3.8 million deficit or decrease in unrestricted net assets.  When you consider that first year we had $9.1 million in revenues we had a 42% net loss.  That first year our financial ratio was 0.6.  That ratio ranges from -1 to a +3, but to be in “good standing” you need a 1.5.

That first fall our enrollment was 537, which represented the lowest enrollment at Bethany since the 1960’s, and our freshmen-to-sophomore retention was 53%, the second lowest over the previous 20 years.

Now jumping ahead five years – and as we all know too well these last five years we have experienced challenges, opportunities, stress, tears, and joy. 

While still preliminary our June 30 financial statements indicate our change in unrestricted net assets, or financial bottom-line, is an increase of $565,000.  When you consider our unrestricted revenues totaled approximately $11.3 million that means our net income margin is about 5%.  This significantly drives our preliminary financial ratio to a projected 1.4 

Even more significant, this would be the second largest increase in unrestricted net assets Bethany has generated in 20 years.  Our challenge now is to take the next step and make this happen internally by getting our operations to totally sit on its own bottom.

This fall we are projecting an enrollment of about 610 and our preliminary freshmen-to-sophomore retention is 63%.  Yes, enrollment is down from last year, but our five-year trend is still up and we are making small steps forward on retention.  I’ll mention more about enrollment and retention in a few minutes.

In addition to the positive steps forward we have made in these four key indicators, we can also feel proud that during the last five years we were reaffirmed in our accreditations with the Higher Learning Commission, National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education, and the National Schools of Music; and we were successful in securing first time accreditation with the Commission on Accreditation of Athletic Training Education.

We invested over $7.5 million in new or enhanced academic, athletic, and residential facilities which includes new laboratories for the sciences, new physical fitness center, artificial turf for football/soccer, new track, and a new apartment-style residence hall.

We launched international partnerships with Harlaxton College in England and Karlstad and Linnaeus Universities in Sweden. 

We are piloting this year Bethany Pathway, our re-imagined core curriculum based on our four missional directions of discovery, reflection & vocation, servant leadership, global citizenship, and sustainable living. 

We are finalizing an athletic plan based on a vision of excellence that is both on-and-off the field. 

We continue to make significant progress in our Engage the Future comprehensive campaign which we publicly announced last fall.  We have secured in gifts and pledges $14.3 million – and that puts us ahead of pace to reach the base goal of $20 million and slightly behind pace on the stretch goal of $25 million.  The campaign is scheduled to conclude on December 30, 2014. 

This list is not exhaustive of all the good things that you have done over the last five years.  And I cannot thank you enough for the hard work and sacrifices you have put forth to take these steps forward! 

So, what does this mean?

Like the Judge family, I have learned that with God all things are possible, but these last five years have also shown me the power of the Bethany community to do good.  When we collectively put ourselves to a task, we succeed.  When we are One Bethany, all things are possible.

As we begin the 2012-2013 academic year, let that be our theme, or north star: As One Bethany all things are possible.

Now, what is our path forward?

As I reflect over the last five years and listen to the call of the future, I know we have done much, but we have much yet to do.  This summer President’s Council spent considerable time talking about our challenges.  We also discussed our renaissance plan, Call to Action, and concluded that Call to Action needs to be refocused on the vital and feasible pivotal goals that when leveraged will make a difference in responding to those challenges. 

We identified six critical challenges and six pivotal goals for the year ahead.

#1.  Two years ago recognizing the importance of retention in growing enrollment and our historically poor record of retention we applied to and participated in the Foundations of Excellence in the First College Year^©.  We are now ready to launch the plan generated from that effort with a renewed first-year experience – as One Bethany success is possible in retaining 70% of this fall’s freshmen.

#2.  Looking more closely at our enrollment, our profile is about 66% athletes, 17% musicians, and 17% others (meaning non-athletes and non-musicians).  By contrast, in the early 1980’s, our profile was about 40% athletes, 24% musicians, and 36% others.  Ironically, the raw number of athletes has increased only by about 80, attributable to the expansion of women’s athletics and new sports, while our total enrollment has dropped 200.  That means our best opportunity for enrollment growth is with non-athletes. 

Interestingly, over the last four years we have admitted on average 382 non-athlete freshmen.  However, two years ago we enrolled 25% and last year 12%.  Contrast that with our yield on freshmen athletes of 55-60%. 

Our challenge in recruiting non-athletes is simply the challenge of closing the sale – as One Bethany success is possible in recruiting 125 freshmen non-athletes for fall 2013.

#3.  A further analysis of our historical enrollment reveals we recruit one market segment, 18-24 year olds.  Our future lies in new markets and new programs.  To begin, we must expand our high school dual credit program and successfully launch Bethany online – as One Bethany success is possible in expanding into new markets and/or launching new programs generating 100 students for fall 2013.

#4.  As enrollment declined over 25 years, our curriculum became “all things for all people” resulting in the homogenization of our academic programs.  Today we look like everyone else.  Further, we set our pricing to be competitive with the public universities’ pricing.  Yet no private college can successfully compete with a public university on pricing alone.  Even more significantly that pricing decision commoditized Bethany with the publics. 

Pricing, commoditization, and homogenization have cumulatively and significantly devalued our brand.  We must be heard in a noisy marketplace and we must get our story out there – as One Bethany success is possible in strengthening our brand with a value proposition that proves our students succeed at an affordable price.

#5.  For 18 months a cross-campus work group imagineered a new curricular and co-curricular model for Bethany.  Eventually they came to base the model on the market discipline of the “best total experience.”  We have since named this model Bethany Pathway and we have placed great hope that this will be our game-changer – as One Bethany success is possible in living Bethany Pathway while qualitatively renewing each component of the Bethany experience.

#6.  The final challenge is the culture or environment at Bethany.  Last January in a Fast Company magazine article titled “Culture eats strategy for lunch,” author Shawn Parr wrote, “Culture is the environment in which your strategy and your brand thrives or dies a slow death.”  The other five challenges begin to define and shape our strategy and our brand – as One Bethany success is possible in creating a culture that allows our strategy and our brand to thrive.

Earlier I mentioned that these last five years have shown me the power of the Bethany community to do good.  To paraphrase former US president Bill Clinton, who really said it best, "There is nothing wrong with Bethany that cannot be cured by what is right with Bethany."  As One Bethany all things are possible.

Let’s have a great year.  Let’s work hard and have fun. 

Go Swedes. Serve the Lord.

Engage the Future: Visions for 2031

(Friday evening, October 7, 2011, as part of Bethany's 130th anniversary celebration, I shared the following visions for 2031 - the occasion of Bethany's sesquicentennial.)

Imagine with me it's October 1881.  Imagine the buzz around Lindsborg.  "Did you hear Swensson's starting his school?"  "Impossible!  This air castle of his will never last a year!"

Fast forward to today where we are celebrating the college's 130th anniversary.  More importantly, we honor the boldness and compelling qualities of our founder, the Rev. Dr. Carl Aaron Swensson.  Singlehandedly his dream became a vision and then a reality.  Swensson did the difficult, if not the impossible.  We are here to honor and celebrate Swensson's "air castle," as his naysayers called it.  We are here because it's time to envision our next air castle, our next bold and transformational vision.

Bethany is at a defining moment in its history.  These past four years we have done the difficult, if not the impossible.  On my first day on the job, I declared, "With God's grace, a good plan and hard work, there will be a Bethany renaissance."  And to make that happen, I started asking, "What's next?  What’s the path forward?"

Over the last four years, as we developed and are now executing our renaissance plan, our Call to Action, enrollment has grown each year from 537 in 2007 to 632 this fall.  That represents an almost 18% growth in enrollment and is only the third time since 1970 that Bethany has had four consecutive years of enrollment growth.  Furthermore, it represents the biggest four-year growth since 1970.  Regarding enrollment, I am not here to declare victory, though we have done the difficult.  Quite to the contrary, I stand here to ask, "What's next?  What’s the path forward?"

Helping drive enrollment growth is our progress on freshman-to-sophomore retention, which has challenged Bethany for at least four decades.  Over the last four years our retention has improved from 53% to 59% to 62% to this year's 64%.  On retention, I am not here to declare victory, though we have done the difficult.  Quite to the contrary, I stand here to ask, "What's next?  What’s the path forward?"

Four years ago I arrived at Bethany challenged by a deficit budget.  In fact, for many years over the last 20 years, Bethany found itself trying to compete and survive with deficit budgets.  We all know that is not sustainable.  This year however we have and are expecting a balanced operating budget.  I am not here to declare victory, though we have done the difficult.  Quite to the contrary, I stand here to ask, "What's next?  What’s the path forward?"

I share these bits of information because many of you were critical to Bethany's survival these last 20 years.  To each of you, from my heart, I say, "Thank you!"

But we also invited you to help us celebrate because our future isn't just about surviving – it's about thriving.  And we want you to be part of that bright future as well.  I want to share with you what the Board of Directors, the faculty and staff, the college's leadership and I envision as that future.

Inspired by Swensson, as we look toward Bethany's 150th anniversary in 2031, we must continue to expect from ourselves the difficult, if not the impossible.  We must boldly engage the future and audaciously blaze a path to 2031.

As we look to Bethany's sesquicentennial, a mere 20 years from now, we envision a Bethany that will soar bigger, bolder and stronger, guiding student success and co-creating the best total experience.  Specifically, we envision a Bethany with 1,500 students from 50 states and 50 countries where 25% are international students; 84% of freshmen continue to the sophomore year; and 30% of alumni financially support the college. 

We further aspire for an endowment of $100 million that gives Bethany a competitive advantage in scholarship support for students and discovery support for faculty, staff and students.  We also see a campus that is totally accessible physically and economically; facilities and technology that are state of practice to prepare our graduates for a career of consequence; and a Bethany that embraces and lives with equity and equality throughout the college, most especially in gender and race.

Lastly, we envision a Bethany that is a strategic partner with the city of Lindsborg and together we are a national model of town-gown best practices.

The psalmist wrote, "Show me your ways, O Lord; Teach me your paths."  At Bethany, as a college of the Lutheran church, we ask our students, "What does this mean and what path will you take?"  As we gulped at this bold, audacious vision, we too asked ourselves, "What does this mean for Bethany's future and what strategic paths will we take to get there?"

Like the bold and audacious Swedish-Lutheran pioneers who journeyed here to found this city and this college, our future students' journey through Bethany will require a pathway to follow to success, a compass to provide direction, a map to track progress and one or more guides.

This new, college-defining initiative, which we are calling Bethany Pathway, will launch next fall in 2012 for freshmen and then expand each year until it touches every freshmen, sophomore, junior and senior.  The map will be the Pathway Portfolio and their guide will be faculty and staff serving as discovery partners or mentors. 

As students grow in the success skills of critical thinking, effective communication, information literacy and intellectual curiosity, learning is tracked by a Pathway Portfolio.  This portfolio maps academic work and progress, co-curricular activities and achievements, and professional experiences.  Taken together, the portfolio enables students to reflect and find meaning on the intersection of their paths and passions to demonstrate to prospective employers or graduate schools growth and mastery of these success skills.

To assist students in navigating their pathway is the compass and its four directions of excellence. 

The first direction of excellence is discovery, reflection and vocation.  It drives students’ learning where success will be marked at graduation by critical thinking, effective communication, information literacy, intellectual curiosity and employment or graduate school entry within six months.

The second direction of excellence is servant leadership and follows the example of Jesus of Nazareth who led and served, spanning boundaries in service of a larger vision.  Our graduates will go out spanning boundaries to create new visions as educational, business, entrepreneurial or missional leaders. 

Global citizenship is our third direction of excellence and prepares our graduates to function successfully in a “flattening world," enabling each graduate to appreciate a world view and to develop the ability and desire to become engaged in global issues. 

The final direction is sustainable living and defines success as actively integrating social responsibility, economic prosperity, environmental stewardship and spiritual renewal – people, profit, planet and prayer – meaning our graduates successfully understand how to live a sustainable life and how to lead a sustainable organization.

To achieve this 20 year vision and transform the Bethany experience, we will embark on a series of fundraising campaigns to levels previously unimagined.  For this vision to be realized, Bethany alumni, friends, churches and organizations must answer the call to levels previously unimagined.  Accordingly, we will pursue in this first campaign a stretch goal of $25 million. 

This campaign actually began when our renaissance began more than four years ago, and we've been successful in securing many gifts and pledges toward our goal.  Tonight is the public announcement and I am pleased to share that with the gifts and pledges made in the early phase of the campaign, significant progress has already been made toward our goal.  Gifts and pledges received by the college as of today (10/7/2011) total $13,071,223. 

Beyond just the dollars, however, this campaign also presents an opportunity for everyone to participate.  That is why we are calling it a “comprehensive campaign.”  Comprehensive because the campaign includes gifts to brick and mortar, endowment and current operations.  Comprehensive because any gift made during the campaign will be counted toward the stretch goal of $25 million.  Comprehensive because we need high levels of participation to achieve success.

What does this mean for you?  Simply answered, what path will you take to support Bethany?  Which area of the college has the greatest meaning for you?  If you are thankful for your educational, co-curricular or spiritual experience, please consider giving to facilities enhancements or bringing the chapel and welcome center to completion?  If you are thankful for the scholarships you received to help make your education affordable, please consider giving to the general scholarship fund or establishing your own endowed scholarship?  If you are excited about Bethany Pathway, please consider giving to the Bethany Fund?  This campaign has a place for everyone to help and we need everyone to help. 

Imagine with me it's a few years from now.  Imagine a graduating senior writing the following final Pathway Portfolio entry:

“Tomorrow is graduation!  I can’t believe it’s been four years already.  My last assignment at Bethany is to make my final portfolio entry: a self-reflection piece capturing my four years and how I changed and grew.

“When I arrived to begin my Bethany education, I was overwhelmed with how friendly everyone was.  I immediately felt I had found my new home.  Yet, while I felt at home, I also began to be challenged and knew I was going to be a different person at graduation than I was at orientation.  There were so many things to consider.

“My academic advisor was incredible – always around when I needed her and always full of good counsel.  She was a real mentor to me as she guided my class selections and asked challenging questions as I explored different career paths.  I’m starting to understand this vocation idea that Bethany talks about a lot.  Inside each of us is a small voice trying to guide our choices on what path to take.  We just need to stop and listen.

“What I really enjoyed about my first year was the common freshmen courses.  There are four of them and each focuses on a Bethany “direction of excellence.”  I recall it being a pretty fancy term to grasp at first, but simply it’s just how Bethany guides us to find success. 

“The first course is all about a new way to learn that was very different from high school, but awesome.  Instead of the professor talking to us, the professor worked alongside us, like a teaching partner.  Bethany actually calls them a discovery partner.  Because the class was so active and engaging, I never missed and couldn’t wait for more.  My roommate felt the same way.

“What made the course especially difficult – but intriguing – was trying to figure out what things meant.  Through all four years my professors kept asking, “What does this mean?”  At first, I didn’t get it, but after a while it finally clicked and I figured out they just wanted me to learn from what was happening in my classes, on my team, and in my life.  All the time.  How different! 

“The other courses my freshmen year, after the first one on discovery, reflection and vocation, focused on servant leadership, global citizenship and sustainable living.  These ideas are everywhere at Bethany. 

“I had the opportunity to do a mission trip to Tanzania as part of global citizenship and Bethany gave me a scholarship to help cover the costs.  While I was in Tanzania I recognized something important about how small scale capitalism can empower people.  Part of my experience included working with an organization that gave out micro-grants in a quickly urbanizing area.  This was a powerful experience for me and helped me decide the kind of company I wanted to work for after graduation and it helped me get my first job.

“In fact, the man who hired me told me that my resume stood out because of the broad experiences I had in college, like my time in Tanzania and my other EBEs (Experience-Based Education).  He also told me that even though I was interviewing for a sales job the portfolio I brought with me showing what I did and learned at Bethany was unique and impressive.  He said he wished more colleges would teach students how to think and how to learn the way Bethany has.

“Finally, the faculty and staff at Bethany always believed in me and that there was a successful person inside.  I just needed to find that success and bring it out.  With their help, I believe I did!”

Thank you again for all you have done and will do for dear ol' Bethany.  Because of those who love Bethany like you, we can celebrate 130 years of changing lives.  More importantly, however, because of those who love Bethany like you, we will soar to our sesquicentennial bigger, better and stronger, guiding student success and co-creating the best total experience.  This vision and first campaign most certainly represent a defining moment in our history.  They also most certainly represent a clarion call to the many who love Bethany to respond to the ancient Hebrew call to action, "If not me, who?  If not now, when?"

Born in the church, Serving the church

(On June 3, I had the honor of presenting the following remarks to the Central States Synod Assembly.)

“Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and talking with each other about all the things that had happened.  While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him.” (Luke 24:13-16, The Road to Emmaus)

In the brief time I have this afternoon, I would like to share with you an emerging re-imagining of what it means for Bethany to be a college of the church and what it means for the church to have a college.  (For today's discussion by the church I mean the Central States Synod.)  This is not yet a complete thought, by no means, but I share it with the hope that it may pique the curiosity of some of you to help me make it a complete thought and eventually a plan.

Let me frame this with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus having left Jerusalem for Emmaus.  Along the way, they meet the resurrected Jesus, though they do not recognize him.

For me, Jerusalem represents the past, what and how it used to be.  On the other hand, Emmaus represents the future to which God is calling us and the Road is where we are today in an unprecedented environment of discontinuous change.

For example, in our church setting, Jerusalem represents what some nostalgically call, "the good old days" ... you remember ... a relatively stable environment with predictable, incremental change; the pastor was found every where - sola pastora; North American churches were denomination-centric; the congregation existed to maintain the flock; and ministry revolved around hatching, matching, and dispatching. .

For Bethany, our Jerusalem as a college of the church was about 50 years ago when Bethany received 20% of its revenues from the church.  The mission and ministry of Bethany and the mission and ministry of the Augustana Evangelical Lutheran Church were unquestionably intertwined.  This year, however, Bethany received from congregations, synods, and churchwide about $80,000.  By contrast, that represents less than 1% of Bethany’s total revenues.  On the other hand, in this year's budget, Bethany College awarded slightly more than $1.2 million in scholarships to our Lutheran students. 

So as we walk the road to Emmaus, at what point does the hard question get asked, “Are we still a college of the church and does the church still have a college?” 

Let me digress momentarily to explain that question in the context of public higher education.  That is, a similar conversation is occurring in several states and at those states’ flagship universities.  For example, the University of Michigan receives less than 5% of its total revenues from the state of Michigan.  Similarly, the University of Colorado receives less than 6%.  In both states, and others like Ohio and Arizona, there are calls to admit the reality these are no longer publicly-supported universities and should in fact be privatized.  This is a conversation centered on state money for higher education.

So, if it’s all about money, then let’s admit it and let our church-college relationship follow the path of other denominations.  Bethany College can easily become historically Lutheran.

While I hear the voices to admit reality and move past being a college of the church, I’d prefer instead to believe our relationship is about more than money.  I’d prefer to lead Bethany and our church partners into a conversation that discerns a new model where Bethany and the church re-imagine a shared mission and ministry.  To that end, I’m part of an ELCA task force with six other ELCA college and university presidents who are committed to doing just that.

Put another way, instead of the church just putting a check in the offering plate, which had become the norm, I’d like to see a greater commitment.  Please don’t misunderstand me, we appreciate the financial gifts, but there must be more to our shared mission and ministry than money.

As a former stewardship chair, you may be familiar with the frequently used stewardship metaphor of an eggs & bacon breakfast: the chicken makes the contribution and the pig makes the commitment.  At least as far back as I can see, the church has been the chicken making a contribution, and certainly some very nice contributions.  But what Bethany needs, just like what each congregation needs from its members, is commitment. 

To begin our discernment, let me start and share some possibilities for greater commitment that others have suggested.  These are based on Bethany's gifts of intellectual capital and human capital.

·         Bethany and the church could partner in global ministry through our companion synods – sending mission teams of alumni, students, faculty, and staff alongside church volunteers; or partner to provide scholarship support for students from those companion synods to study at Bethany. 

·         Or, we could partner in social ministry through Lutheran Social Services that might include internships or experience-based education for students. 

·         Or, we could work together in youth ministry to develop our middle school, high school, and college youth in missional leadership for a missional church. 

·         Or, we could partner with Lutheran Disaster Response to offer alternative spring breaks or fall breaks.

·         Or, Bethany could provide staff and/or chaperone’s for high school or middle school youth gatherings or even the ELCA’s National Youth Gathering.

·         Or, between the Synod, individual congregations, and Bethany, we could offer scholarships to students attending Bethany.

·         Or, Bethany and the church could seize the evangelical opportunity presented by Bethany’s 31% of students who self-identify as “no preference” in denominational affiliation.

The possibilities and opportunities are endless, if we are willing to make a commitment to the future together – to share the road to Emmaus.

In the end, like the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, I don’t think it’s as important or really matters as much where we were or where we’re going.  What is absolutely important for the journey is that we meet Jesus – and recognize him – on the road.

For me, in the context of Bethany College as a college of the church, we are leaving behind the way it was – the church stewarded Bethany – and heading toward the future – Bethany stewards the church.  However, only when we meet Jesus together on the road to our shared future will we finally know what that means.

Amen.