The Meaning of A Church-Involved College

Undated

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The Greeks and the Hebrews in ancient times didn’t look at things in the same way. There was a basic and fundamental difference.

The Greeks came out of the plush Aegean islands, and interpreted life in terms of fulfillment. The Hebrews came out of the bleak Arabian desert, and interpreted life in terms of survival.

The Greeks were theoretical and developed philosophy. The Hebrews were pragmatic and developed faith. The Greeks though abstractly and invented mathematics. The Hebrews thought concretely and invented history.

The Greeks had a lot of gods. The Hebrews had only one God.

I say all this as preface, and as explanation for what follows. The truth is, I can’t approach this big topic from the all-encompassing Greek perspective. I can only speak specifically, concretely, of one particular Church-Involved College. Let me tell you, Hebrew style, what it seems to me.

In the first place, a Church-Involved College is BUILDINGS. This is not unique, of course, except in this case, architecturally. But it’s part of the picture, usually the first part to be noticed, and sometimes the last to be remembered.

It’s an imposing chapel in the center of the campus. It stands as a symbol of what the college confesses: that God is in the midst of things...always has been and always will be.

It’s a library, filled with the accumulated wisdom of the ages, the best that man has thought and said through the centuries. It reminds us that we have an obligation, may I say a Christian obligation, to be relentless and indefatigable in the pursuit of TRUTH, wherever it might lead.

The chapel and the library represent the twin pillars of our Wesleyan heritage – vital piety and the enlightened mind.

And it’s more. It’s a science building, designed to help men KNOW. It’s a fine arts building, dedicated to the enhancement of beauty and sensitivity and built to help people become more civilized, more humane, more aware.

Are these not Christian concerns?

It’s offices, dormitories, esplanades...a cafeteria, a field house, a Hindu Temple crowned with a cross.

It’s names like Ordway, Joseph-Reynolds, Spivey, Branscomb, set down with Hebrew particularity by a lake in an orange grove...coquina rock, mortar, brick, sand, and colored glass – the stuff of specific construction.

But, of course, it’s much more than buildings, even Frank Lloyd Wright buildings. These, with all their distinctiveness, are only the framework.

A Church-Involved College is MEMORIES. It’s the memory of a half-century of living in Lakeland. It’s the memory of Old Guard alumni and Honor Walk greats. It’s the memory inspired leadership in good times and bad. It’s the memory of Ludd M. Spivey, striding the state like some colossus, to keep the school open when nobody else would touch it. It’s the memory of sacrifice and doing without when there was precious little to do with. It’s the memory of paying tuitions with chickens and rabbits, of mixing concrete to stay in school.

It’s the memory of being regaled with Corning Tolle’s stories. It’s the memory of stealing a kiss in the Hindu Garden of Meditation. It’s the memory of rare and unforgettable teachers, like Robert Bly and B. F. Reinsich and Robert MacGowan, whose influence in the world is not yet dissipated.

It’s the meaning of spectacular events, parades, visiting dignitaries, programs of extravaganza proportions, and it’s the memory of quiet moments, the beauty of the sunset over Lake Hollingsworth, the fragrance of orange blossoms in the spring, the illumination of a sudden insight in the classroom, the renewal of self-confidence through a professor’s faith.

Each has his own memories. Each person’s list would differ...but they linger, they persist, they contribute to what it’s all about                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

And may I leap to the heart of it? A Church-Involved College is PEOPLE. Here, of course, is the essence of the thing.

It’s Mary Hackney, yelling her head off at a baseball game to let the team know that fans are behind them. It’s Frank Szabo, running a tight ship with respect to college regulations, enforcing the rules, yet doing it with a sense of fairness, integrity, and earning the respect of every person on the campus.

It’s Mel Wooten, working with his Vagabonds, sometimes through the night, and building up in them a sense of incredible devotion, not only to him, but to the cause of worthwhile drama.

It’s Juliane Jordan, saving the college money by knowing how to speak the language of New York booking agents, and then staying up until the wee hours to perform the niceties of hosting visiting dignitaries...A Church-Involved College is Glenn James entertaining in a Shakespeare class with Elizabethan refreshments in his home. It’s Pete Jonitis attending every function, academic or social, the college puts on during the year. It’s Tom Willard teaching a Sunday School class, on top of everything else. It’s Wallace Brandon going out to the hospital to visit a student who has just had an operation. It’s Hal Smeltzly shepherding his baseball Mocs, worrying about them, believing in them...and getting them in turn to believe in themselves.

It’s Dick Pearce throwing open his home and his Winnebago travel van to take students on a trip, for which he’ll refuse remuneration. It’s Walter Murphy, never turning down a worthy student who needs additional financial aid, salvaging many a student, who otherwise wouldn’t make it.

It’s Jack Houts being irascible at times, and even virtually impossible, yet through the tough administration of uncompromising discipline, producing musical perfection that no school around can top.

What is a Church-Involved College? It’s people.

It’s Margaret Gilbert turning students on to the miracle and mystery of the physical universe. It’s bob Ferguson making even economics, the dismal science, some alive. It’s Henry Hartje, teaching math with painstaking, Arkansas patience, so that the slower freshman can grasp it.

It’s Jack Cook coupling evangelical faith with sound academic scholarship, helping students both understand and believe. It’s Edna Ewerts producing unbelievable buffet miracles with what seems like a flick of the wrist. It’s Carol Esau overseeing tons of printed detail, keeping both records and people straight, with a sense of efficiency and quiet grace. It’s Dave Readdick injecting humanity into budgets, always managing somehow, despite the squeeze and Phase II, to come up with the wherewithal necessary to fund the important project that simply has to get done, yesterday.

A Church-Involved College is Charles T. Thrift, Jr., and his gracious, remarkable wife, Ruth, themselves if you reckoned it on an hourly wage scale, the lowest paid employees on the campus...working 80-hour weeks, day after day, in season and out...entertaining, interceding, bearing burdens, making decisions, soothing tensions, straightening out tangles, taking blame for somebody else’s mistakes, giving credit to others for what they have themselves accomplished.

A Church-Involved College is also DREAMS.

It’s a dream that students will go out from here with more than just a firm grasp of some academic discipline.

It’s a dream that they will also have cultivated some overarching values to which that knowledge can be dedicated. It’s a dream that alumni “out there” because of the influence “caught” here will be less concerned with rank than with righteousness, less concerned with prestige than with people, less concerned with manners than with morality, less concerned with security than with service.

It’s a dream that we who work here may do more than pay lip service to the ideals we profess, may withstand the pressure of conforming to the standards of the lowest common denominator, may guard against the danger of becoming callous to human needs, may refrain from thinking the institution as more important than God.

It’s a dream that this school will be remembered for its kindness, for its daring, for its usefulness, for its compassion, for its interest in reaching out to do something for the community, and for its willingness to learn as well as to teach.

It’s a dream of dissatisfaction with the status quo. It’s adream that no worthy student who wants to come here need ever worry about being turned down because he doesn’t have enough money. It’s a dream that the impact of those who pass through these walls might make a difference in the fabric of society.

It’s a dream that we might achieve here without arrogance or false presumption a true blending of intellectual honesty and caring faith, the tough mind with the warm heart, the uncompromising pursuit of TRUTH with an unabashed devotion to Jesus Christ, recognizing that these are not contradictory, but by grace one and the same.

And then, a Church-Involved College is CONVICTIONS.

It’s the conviction that young people are important...that they’re not the devils, demon- ridden, helpless. That, indeed, they’re really pretty worthwhile phenomena and worth our best effort, and our money, our devotion, our time, our prayers.

It’s the conviction that the person who never worships, no matter how many degrees he may own, is really still in academic kindergarten, for true education involves the soul just as surely as it does the mind.

It’s the conviction that education without religion is like marriage without love, like salt without savor, like art without perspective, or music without tone.

It’s the conviction that there is nothing inherently wrong in having a few rules to which students are expected to adhere.

It’s the conviction that how a student dresses, and conducts himself, and behaves in public, and even in private, is not totally irrelevant to the educational process. It’s the conviction that a student ought to be and needs to be exposed to ideas he may not have thought of before.

It’s the conviction that students, while knowledgeable, personable, trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous and kind, do not always have the experience to decide what they need to know, and that at least part of being educated involves the willingness to kneel humbly before the reservoir of mankind’s accumulated wisdom.

It’s the conviction that the school has a responsibility not only to students, but also to parents, to alumni, to the community, to the Church, and even to generations yet unborn.

It’s the conviction that nothing becomes a school like knowing what it is, what it isn’t, where it’s been, where it’s going, and what are its priorities.

And finally, it is also what for want of a better term I would call a hungering. The term itself is authentically Hebrew. Jesus the Hebrew used it in the Beatitudes – “Blessed are those who hunger after proper things.”

A Church-Involved College is a hungering for the welfare of these particular 1400 kids appointed to our jurisdiction, that we might be able to do something to help them realize the potential God has implanted in their personalities, that we might be up to the task of providing them with a sense of challenge about what their lives might mean.

It’s a hungering that we might care enough really to get next to them, really to minister to their aches, and loneliness, and boy-friend, girl-friend problems and anxiety, and their hungering for purpose and direction.

It’s a hungering that we will see them as whole persons, not as disembodied souls or, God help us, as statistics.

It’s a hungering that we’ll be ever open to new truths, new procedures, new opportunities, new insights in the struggle to improve what we are and do. It’s a hungering that we will be in days to come a part of the cutting edge of the Church’s life in the world, producing churchmen who are appreciative of their heritage, but not slaves to it. Who have their feet on the ground, but their visions in the sky. Who know what is lasting, and what is merely transient. Who lovingly and patiently are willing to work for human betterment.

It’s a hungering that we might be worthy of the Church’s respect, and support, and appreciation and good will. And that we might, in turn, give to the Church stimulation, enthusiasm, better techniques, and loving criticism.

It’s a hungering that we’ll always be a people, never a plant; a community, never a corporation; a family, never a factory.

What is a Church-Involved College? I don’t know exactly, and I certainly can’t define it. I can only point to it, Hebrew style. It’s memories, people, dreams, convictions, a hungering, It’s students, faculty, friends. It’s important ... it’s you and me and God.

It’s Florida Southern College, our parish and our home.