Welcome to the 2016-17 academic year. It was a delight to greet our fourteen new international students as they arrived two weeks ago to get oriented to this community and the work ahead. On Sept. 6, it was a wonderful gift to gather our learning community together in the chapel and online to begin the new year. We welcomed more than 100 new students, as well as our returning interns, second year students, staff and faculty.
I invited the community to think together about Romans 12:2: “Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your minds,” and what it means in times of change to heed these words. Our strategic priorities invite us into transforming leadership through God’s promises, transforming our learning community and transforming collaboration with others.
When I began teaching systematic theology I always started the semester with an exam. Yes an exam. It was a simple test: Describe the good news. Why is it good? For whom is it good? What makes it news?
I sometimes wonder if those of us who are preparing to lead, are serving in a church institution or are leading organizations sometimes forget the meaning of the good news. It is easy to confuse good news with a project or program that gets results: perhaps a strategy for the renewal of the church or for managing growth, perhaps having a lot of students follow one’s Twitter feed or getting a lot of “likes” on Facebook posts, perhaps having more students come here than some other seminary, or perhaps we confuse good news with just trying to do our job. As president of the seminary it is easy for me to confuse the good news with a balanced budget, adequate scholarships for students or a diverse faculty and staff deeply engaged with the mission. All of these things are important but none of them are the good news. Jesus is risen from the dead. That is the good news. That is transformation by God’s grace.
Being transformed by God’s grace is good news because it means that death no longer has ultimate power. Jesus, not death, will have the last word. This is a vision for the future and it beckons us to follow.
The announcement that “Jesus is risen” unleashes the transforming work of the Holy Spirit. Some have said that a sign of God’s Holy Spirit is evidenced when you come around to my way of thinking. St. Paul invites us to an existence according to the Spirit: an existence of justice, peace, reconciliation. Life in the Spirit does not inoculate us against evil, doubt, uncertainty or the vicissitudes of life, but we have God’s promise of the future filled with hope.
I invite you to read this newsletter to learn about some of the ways we are bearing witness to the good news and serving as a catalyst for God’s transforming work. Given the volatility of the world, we must rely on and share the good news that the risen Christ holds our future securely.