I can hardly believe I’m in my 15th academic year as president of Belhaven College—the second longest serving president of any of the four-year schools in Mississippi.

It seems like just yesterday that I held the first press conference in Girault Auditorium (which we’ve since torn down), made the first major decision about whether or not we could afford to continue the music program, and hired the first new person on the leadership team—Tom Phillips, who served as VP for Campus Operations and oversaw the physical transformation of the campus.

Much has changed in 15 years.  God has been good and gracious to Belhaven College.

•         We launched, by faith, new campuses in other states, moved into online education, expanded graduate degrees, developed our Worldview curriculum, and have grown the size of our faculty and staff as the enrollment took off.

•         We developed extensive construction projects across the campus that seemed to go on forever, trusted God to supply our needs during tough times when we didn’t know how we’d meet payroll, and rejoiced in years when we were blessed with modest surpluses.

•         We negotiated hurricanes, purchased property on Riverside Drive, ramped up the Arts to become a world leader, began a football program, and faced accrediting challenges that sometimes scared me to death and other times made me burst with pride for the quality of Belhaven.

Normally at milestone anniversaries of college presidents, the school magazine displays charts and graphs counting successes during the leader’s tenure. In my 15th year, I didn’t want to do that kind of counting for three reasons:

1.         It would be both selfish and silly to think I did this.  The remarkable progress of Belhaven is only the result of God empowering 262 full time employees and 317 adjunct faculty, as well as scores of alumni, friends, and churches who continue to give and pray for the College.

2.         Good things didn’t start the day I got here.  I’m deeply thankful for my predecessors in leadership who advanced Belhaven in such important ways, going all the way back through the nine presidents before me—and especially
Drs. Cleland, Kennedy,and Wilson of this most modern era.  And I thank God for strong leaders like Dan Fredericks and the senior faculty who have carried so much during these years, as well as a Board of Trustees who
have been unshakable in their vision for a
Christ-centered college.

3.         I didn’t plan God’s direction for Belhaven during these years—the Lord did.  My responsibility as president is to guide us in being good stewards of the resources (people, dollars, and ideas) and be ready to capture the opportunities God has given us.

I also did not want to create a “score-card” for the past 15 years, because that is not how God measures success.  I feel so strongly about this, I wrote a book to address my concern, stating this in the opening chapter:

“The Church has been duped into fostering a generation of leaders, board members, employees, and constituencies who value short-term gain over longview significance. Ministry leaders believe it and act accordingly—hiring and rewarding people who can promote Band-Aid fixes as monumental solutions, creating plans that promise the moon and always come up short, raising funds from unrealistically compressed donor relationships, and touting to boards and constituencies those results that can most easily be measured and applauded.”

As the apostle Paul challenged us in I Corinthians 13, it is time to put away childish things in leadership and not be wooed by the immediacy of appearing productive by making meaningless sounds like a loud gong or a clanging cymbal. Rather than our noisy quarterly reports (or even 15-year graphs), our standard for how we measure success as Christian leaders needs to reflect the longview desires of God, built on values that endure.

When I look back on the 15 years I’ve been privileged to lead Belhaven College, I want to focus on:

•         students whose lives were transformed as they captured God’s best for their future

•         faculty who have invested in developing insightful worldview thinking and Christ-like mentoring

•         chapel services during which the Lord spoke to us all in deepening ways

•         athletic teams and residence hall living that purposely built character

Those successes don’t show up in graphs or charts, but they are how God measures the value of Belhaven.

I love Belhaven College—I love our God-honoring mission and the people who have such a passion for ministry through Christ-centered higher education.  I love that we have been given a worldwide reach for the Gospel from this charming campus in Jackson, Mississippi.

As I look back over these years, I’ve loved every day, and I am filled with anticipation knowing the Lord has great things in store for us in the years to come—I ’m counting
on that!—RP

DANCE FACULTY: (Left to Right) Krista Bower, Cynthia Newland, Emily Wright, Britta Wynne, Caleb Mitchell, Stephen Wynne, Amanda Parsons Browning, Laura Morton, Erin Scheiwe Rockwell, Ravenna Tucker

By the time a dance major graduates from Belhaven College, he or she has averaged 3,000 hours of dancing, spent 1,280 hours with dance faculty, gone through at least 40 pairs of Pointe shoes, and performed in up to 60 major dance performances. Pursuing a dance degree at Belhaven is not something you should try at home. In fact, anyone who knows a Belhaven dancer could tell you that graduating in dance takes the endurance of a long-distance runner, the time management of an event planner, and the determination of a mountain climber.

Even with these challenges—perhaps because of these challenges—dance has become the second largest major at Belhaven, and this just ten short years since the first dance degree was granted. With over 100 dance majors making up 10% of the student body, dance is not just a part-time hobby for these students—it’s a life calling. All of this begs
the question: why do students come from 44 states and 4 foreign countries to study dance
at Belhaven?

For one, Belhaven is the only Christian evangelical college to offer both a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance. That status alone makes Belhaven stand out amidst a sea of secular institutions, but Belhaven’s dancers come for more than just its status of Christian college—they are drawn to the experienced, high caliber faculty, state-of-the-art facilities, and the unapologetically Christian curriculum.

HIGH CALIBER FACULTY

Cynthia Newland, chair of the dance department, took the helm of the program because, “Belhaven takes seriously the call of Christ on the lives
of the students.” In her six years here, the program has more than doubled in size, and last spring she won the prestigious Mississippi Alliance of Arts Education 2009 Higher Education Award for her engagement in the classroom and the community. Newland’s passion
for excellence has also helped the
school obtain coveted accreditation
by the National Association of Schools of Dance (NASD).

Working with Newland are four full-time dance faculty, two specialty instructors, and three adjunct instructors, all representing a wide array of professional experience. In fact, if they were all gathered in one room, their combined dance careers would represent more than 100 years of experience and span nine countries. Their backgrounds include dancing with the prestigious American Ballet Theater (NYC), Joffrey Ballet Company (NYC), Houston Ballet Academy, Pacific Northwest Ballet (Seattle), Pennsylvania Ballet, Milwaukee School of Ballet, the Royal Ballet and Birmingham Royal Ballet (England), Rotterdam State Academy of Dance (Holland), Tanz-Forum of the Metropolitan Opera House (Germany), The State Theater (Switzerland), Centre De Danse International (France), Stagione Lyrica (Italy), Dance Society (Malaysia), and DC Dance Company (Singapore).

The dance faculty have come to Belhaven for a number of reasons, but their desire to develop the next generation of excellent Christian artists is the common thread that unites them. Stephen Wynne, Associate Professor of Dance, became aware of Belhaven’s vision for the arts when his Philadelphia dance company worked with several Belhaven dance graduates. He says, “I felt that God was nudging me to investigate Belhaven. It took a few years, but I deeply felt I was supposed to offer my insights to help develop a new generation of choreographers who incorporate their faith and art in a way that addresses real life issues in today’s anti-faith culture. It became apparent that Belhaven would be the best place to begin this process.”

Ravenna Tucker, Associate Professor of Dance, was drawn to Belhaven from a successful international career, including seventeen years as a principal dancer for The Royal Ballet and Birmingham Royal Ballet companies. She says her desire to work for a “Christian institution” brought her to Belhaven. For some instructors, working with other Christian dance professors at Belhaven is a dream come true. Erin Rockwell, Specialty Instructor of Dance, says, “The chance to work, in collaboration with a united Christian faculty, with a large number of skilled dance students who have a heart for Christ and a passion for dance, is a dream—or calling—come true.”

STATE OF THE ART FACILITIES

In 2006, Belhaven’s growth in the arts demanded more space, and the addition came in the form of the beautiful 42, 756 square-foot Bitsy Irby Visual Arts and Dance Center. Dance classes take place in four spacious, well-lit studios, and performances occur in the flexible dance performance theatre. Faculty offices, lockers, and full bathrooms provide dancers with the amenities they need. This new space has allowed the dance program to further expand and offers some of the best practice and performance space available anywhere.

CHRISTIAN CURRICULUM

“When you are a Christian and you dance in the world, you can’t be lukewarm, watered down, or wavering,” states Caleb Mitchell, Assistant Professor of Dance. Mitchell and the other faculty members build upon the foundation of the Worldview Curriculum, Belhaven’s innovative Christian core curriculum, to offer students a way to stand against the pressures of the secular dance world. Mitchell, who danced with a secular company for nine years, says he and other faculty use their own experiences as Christians in the professional dance world to teach students how to hold to their convictions in the face of adversity. One way they do this in Mitchell’s class is Scripture memory. He says, “The Belhaven staff firmly stands by the hiding the word of Christ in the hearts of their students. So when the students face struggles in their profession, the word of God is easily accessible to help them persevere.”

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

Word about Belhaven is getting out, and alumni are perhaps the greatest advocates for the dance program. Over 90% of the dance alumni are working in the field of dance in some capacity—from dancing in a professional company—to teaching—to using arts on the mission field. Katy Hagelin ’08, Keith Williamson ’05, and Elizabeth “Deder” Gordon (plans to graduate in 2010) are all using their gifts for dance in unique ways across the country.

Katy Hagelin, a Seattle native, had at first planned to attend a secular school that the dance world would applaud. When she decided her commitment to the Lord was more important, she was thrilled to find Belhaven, a school that doesn’t compromise standards or its Christian focus. She says, “Belhaven was a place where excellence was the standard—both in dance techniques and in service to the Lord. God has blessed this accredited dance program with amazing faculty and facilities. Through the Belhaven dance department, He has equipped me to enter the secular dance world and make an eternal impact.”

Katy is back in the Seattle area making an impact through freelancing opportunities to teach and choreograph, and she has also started her own non-profit dance company, the Katy Hagelin Dance Project (katyhagelin.com). She says the vision for her dance company was inspired by her time at Belhaven: “I believe I would not be the confident and gifted choreographer and dancer that I am without my life there. I will always continue to strive for even more excellence, because I will always remember what my instructors taught me while I was at Belhaven.”

Keith Williamson, who hails from Clayton, New Jersey, quickly discovered Belhaven when he narrowed down his college criteria to include only an “evangelical school with a dance program.” Belhaven was the only one that he found with a dance major!

Keith is working as a freelance theater technician based out of Atlanta, and he credits Belhaven with giving him a passion for behind-the-scenes technical work. He says, “I went to Belhaven as a performance major and left a technician.” During his freshman and sophomore years, he watched dance performers pour their hearts out on stage without seeing the same efforts take place backstage. It was then that he realized his heart and calling was in setting the stage for each performance to come to life.

Today, Keith is on the Board of Directors for Refuge Dance Company, a small company that he and several friends formed together. As the Technical Director, he says, “When Refuge performs, the only thing the dancers have to worry about is glorifying God with their movements. By allowing them to do that I bring glory to Him—that is how Belhaven has prepared me for today.”

Elizabeth “Deder” Gordon grew up in Shizuoka, Japan and is now living in San Antonio, Texas, where she dances professionally with Ballet San Antonio. She says that her time at Belhaven helped prepare her for the transition from college to career: “The faculty did a tremendous job of maintaining a Christ-centered atmosphere in which nothing we did was separate from our faith. We never stepped out of our Christianity to become dancers. We were always encouraged to first and foremost be Christ-lovers, and to dance, or do whatever we did, on top of this foundation.”

The faculty’s influence and continued friendship still astounds Deder: “What an amazing gift to have teachers with very little obligation other than to teach you to dance who continue to be dear friends and advisers long after their requirement to you has been fulfilled.”

As the dance program continues to expand and more alumni spread the name of Belhaven across the country (and world), the essence of the dance program is still the same: the pursuit of excellence in a Christ-centered environment. Cynthia Newland sums up her hopes for each student in a simple prayer “that each student would hear God’s calling for their lives. Our hope is that each student will be an intentional voice both in the market place and in God’s kingdom.” If the words and lives of Katy, Keith, and Deder are any indication, it appears that the Belhaven Dance department is achieving its goal—creating a new generation of Christian dancers who, as Deder puts it, “never step out of our Christianity
to become dancers.”—MP

A decade ago, concern for students to grasp a biblical, holistic view of the world prompted Belhaven to create its own core curriculum. This August, Belhaven celebrates the 10th birthday of the innovative Worldview Curriculum (WVC), a core curriculum that focuses on the grand narrative of history, with the humanities woven together and taught chronologically from a Christian perspective.

Everyone likes a good story. For centuries, children have sat curled up in bed with wide eyes, listening to fairy tales and nursery rhymes. Today, if “Humpty Dumpty” is mentioned, most adults can recite verbatim, conjuring up images from their own childhood:

“Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.

All the king’s horses,

And all the king’s men,

Couldn’t put Humpty together again.”

But what if parents and schoolteachers began telling this classic rhyme in new ways? What if they kept the same elements, but Humpty Dumpty was retold in whatever order the reader chose? It might sound something like this:

“All the king’s horses,

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall

And all the king’s men

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.

Couldn’t put Humpty together again.”

Ridiculous? Yes, but this incoherent rhyme is a good metaphor for the fragmented landscape of education today, which stresses the parts over the whole. Take the modern liberal arts core curriculum, for example. Students take their foundational classes in any order, studying ancient Greek civilization side by side with Renaissance literature and 20^th century Modern Art. To add to the incoherency, they are often taught from varying worldview perspectives in each of these classes. Like poor Humpty Dumpty, the pieces are scattered with little hope of ever creating a coherent whole.

A decade ago, concern for students to grasp a biblical, holistic view of the world prompted Belhaven to create its own core curriculum. This August, Belhaven celebrates the 10th birthday of the innovative Worldview Curriculum (WVC), a core curriculum that focuses on the grand narrative of history, with the humanities woven together and taught chronologically from a Christian perspective.

Provost Dr. Dan Fredericks knew that the former approach to education would not prepare Belhaven students as well as a cohesive, interdisciplinary approach could. However, he didn’t see any schools setting an example for Belhaven to follow. He says that, “At best, there is a silo approach among many Christian institutions—each individual department does its best to represent their own discipline from a biblical perspective. This is admirable, but it is not enough.” So, he rolled up his sleeves and went to work designing a core curriculum that harmonized the humanities into a chronological study that hinged on a biblical worldview.

As Belhaven prepared to leave the traditionally accepted path of general education, tough questions awaited: Could a core curriculum have meaning beyond disparate survey courses? Could faculty members work together from across disciplinary lines to form a cohesive, contextual, and chronological curriculum that is centered on the Christian Worldview? In other words…could Humpty Dumpty be put back together again?

After searching the educational landscape and much deliberation with the faculty, Dr. Fredericks knew that Belhaven would need to start from scratch. With a single sheet of paper and pen in hand, he drew 4 columns and placed history, art, literature, and philosophy side by side, so that the story of the world was told from beginning to end. This simple sheet of paper marks the humble beginning of Belhaven’s unique Worldview Curriculum.

The Birth of the WVC

Annie (Roberts) Gundy ’03, Nathan McNeill ’03, and Matt Quarterman ’03 were all freshmen in 1999. They dutifully registered for the cryptic “WVC” classes that had names like Form and Meaning (art and music), Christian Perspective (philosophy), and of course, the familiar subjects of literature and history.

As Matt Quarterman, an English major,  puts it, “It was a really exciting time in the life of the college […] We knew we were the first batch of students to go through [the Worldview Curriculum], so I think it made us all more critical in examining what we were taught and how, but also more open-minded because it was such a big experiment.” Everyone was intrigued to see how this cutting-edge curriculum would affect their college experience, and as the guinea pig class, everyone expected some bumps and surprises along the way.

One such surprise was the way the WVC brought the freshman class together across the typical dividing lines of major, athletics team, or hometown. Since every incoming freshman is required to take the WVC until the close of their sophomore year, students get to know a more diverse group of people. Reminiscing about one of his favorite memories of the WVC, Matt Quarterman remarks: “I love remembering the conversation I had in the dorm at 1 a.m. with a fullback, arguing whether Oedipus’ fate was his own fault or the gods’. That’s the kind of thing you just don’t get outside of WVC, exposing the whole spectrum of the student body to the same high-octane stuff.”

The WVC also contrasted with the general education requirements of peers at other institutions.  Annie Gundy, also an English major, describes her surprise when, “at the same time I was experiencing the WVC at Belhaven, my sister was experiencing a very different education at a large public university.  When we would have conversations, she was in awe of the knowledge that I had obtained in such a small period of time.  Over the course of the two years of WVC, I learned more than she did in all four years of her education—more than just book knowledge.”

One of the strong points of the WVC is the way it puts everything into close proximity.  Nathan McNeill, a philosophy major, reflects, “The WVC doesn’t contextualize your education for you—you still have to be paying attention to get value—but what it does do is put the ideas, events, and artifacts of history in close enough proximity to each other to make the relationships plain. Unless you see two things side by side, you may never recognize that they are the same.”

When Annie, Matt, and Nathan look at how taking part in the inaugural class of the WVC has influenced the way they think today, each of them offers a unique perspective.  McNeill, who works in Product Strategy at Bomgar corporation, says, “Most of the facts, dates, and names are gone, but the thought processes that the WVC encouraged have been very instrumental in my work and in my family. For instance, at the company I work for, we see our work as service to the Lord and service to our employees. We recognize that even though we work in the marketplace, the marketplace has a context. The earth is the Lord’s, and ALL (including our business) it contains. This is the same principle that the WVC taught, just using history and art rather than spreadsheets and websites.”

For Gundy, a full-time mother of two, it’s about everyday living: “It’s fun to see that knowledge [from the WVC] come out when I experience even small things like listening to music on the radio with my kids, or in my small group at church when we talk about the theology of different time periods.”

All would agree that the WVC gave them a foundation to view life with the lens of the Christian worldview. As Quarterman, an Apple Store trainer who also completed a 2nd degree in songwriting, says, “It strengthened my sense that looking at things through this unified lens—making these connections—is a legitimate and necessary way to view our own culture and history.”

With its synchronized schedule across the humanities, The WVC is not an easy curriculum to implement, but professors are passionate about it. All of the professors within the humanities are involved, and many have been involved since its inception. Regular WVC faculty meetings mean that professors dialogue about what they are covering in class. As Dr. Edwin McAllister, Associate Professor of English, says, “I get to find out what Dr. Hause is teaching, how Dr. Kenyon is testing, and when Dr. Hubele is covering the romantics.  The process improves the overall quality of the WVC by ensuring not only that our schedules are synchronized, but also that we are emphasizing many of the same themes and historical processes.”

Dr. Melissa Hause, Associate Professor of Art History and Dean of the Honors College, is passionate about teaching students to look for connections. She sees the WVC as “an opportunity to help students grasp what I believe is the most important thing about history:  that people in previous historical periods who wrote books, set up political and religious systems, built cities, created artifacts, fought wars, settled new territories, etc. were just that:  people, human beings made in the image of God who were faced with the same inescapable questions about the meaning of life that every one of us has to face.”

Dr. Hause emphasizes that the purpose of the WVC is to “enable students to really grasp that things don’t happen in isolation—humans don’t do things in isolation. Political systems, artistic styles, works of literature, family structures, and organizations of society are all interconnected. All of these things are bound up together and fundamentally shaped by basic beliefs about the nature of the world.”

The WVC is about more than just the core curriculum, though. It affects the entire campus. Dr. McAllister describes the WVC as an important foundation to the much larger picture at Belhaven: “As Christians, we believe that every area of life should be under the lordship of Christ; as Christian educators, we are working to develop courses and curricula that encourage students to see their world not as a disparate pile of disconnected factoids, but as a marvelous, integrated part of a beautiful tapestry woven by Christ himself. So if the WVC affects students’ lives, and I think it does, it does so as part of a larger design at work at Belhaven.”

Growth

As with any new program, there are always knots to untie and bumps to smooth out. The WVC has been in a perpetual state of evaluation and reform since its inception. The faculty members meet several times a semester to review all of the works to see how they are fitting together. Each year has seen changes in the structure or syllabi in order to improve the way WVC is taught and structured.

Some aspects of the WVC have presented challenges from the very beginning. In order to synchronize the classes chronologically, most of the WVC classes have been 1 or 2 hour credits. So, for 6 hours of credit a student might have to take 4 classes. This often led to harried students who felt like their workload was too heavy for a 1 or 2 hour credit class. Because of the credit structure, students also have had difficulty transferring their credits to other institutions. 

The course structure has also been a challenge for scheduling students, particularly students in athletics or the arts who have limited availability.

With these challenges in mind, faculty and administration have been working to consolidate the components of the WVC, and changes are in place for this fall. Dr. Randall Smith, Associate Professor of English and Director of the Creative Writing program, redesigned the WVC, and he said the goal was “to move the pieces of the WVC around to make the curriculum more user-friendly for students.” Dr. McAllister agrees, and he says the revisions should “make life much easier from the students’ perspective: fewer tests and a simpler weekly schedule.”

Literature and art will be combined into one 3-hour course, and the history and philosophy components will do the same. The revisions to the WVC does mean a heavier workload for the professors as they work closely to combine syllabi and tests, but they seem eager to do what it takes to make Belhaven a great place to learn. All of these changes will take effect for the 2009 incoming freshmen, and Dr. Fredericks hopes that “this will solve the logistical challenge of the students, while staying true to the content and the vision for the Worldview Curriculum.”

10^th Birthday

On the eve of the WVC’s 10^th birthday, everyone who has been involved in creating, teaching, and taking the Worldview Curriculum feels a bit like they are watching their child enter the threshold of adulthood. Members of the faculty and administration have poured nearly a decade into forming a cohesive core curriculum and over two thousand students have experienced the rigors, challenges and joys of the curriculum.

Like their predecessors, current students have been impacted by the WVC. Phillip Holmes, a senior Biblical Studies major from Pickens, Miss., says, “I had no idea what a worldview was when I entered Belhaven. The summer before I came to Belhaven I had a conversation with a very intelligent but misguided unbeliever. He mentioned Deism and other beliefs to describe what he believed, and I had no idea what he was talking about. Because of the Worldview Curriculum I’ve been equipped to participate in discussions like this.” Though the WVC had its challenges for Holmes, who juggled basketball along with the rigorous WVC classes, he says that, “From now on, everything I approach—movies, books, etcetera—I will approach it with Christ in mind and I will look at it from a Christian perspective.”

Sarah Vanbiber is a junior Creative Writing major from Texas. As an Honors College fellow, she says she is trained “to look for connections.” She recalls the first time she really “got” the WVC:

“In the first month of my first semester, we were studying the Greek Empire in Civilization, learning about the Knossos frescoes in Art, and reading Medea in Literature. Suddenly I was able to see the worldview, the cultural practices, and the thought-processes influencing the art, literature, and society of the time. Through the connection I saw between these differing fields within one time period and cultural context, I came to a deeper understanding of the complexity of history and humanity.”

As the updated Worldview curriculum goes forward, future generations of Belhaven students will have the opportunity to see history, art, literature, and philosophy in context with one another and in light of the Christian worldview. With this biblical, holistic view of the world, Belhaven will continue to see graduates who are putting the pieces together and changing the world for Christ—in every sphere of life.

Dr. Parrott, president of the college, reflects on why Belhaven has adopted “Our Standard is Christ” as its new identifier.

“Everyone uses standards, even if their expectations are low, arbitrary, or self-serving. What is missing in our society are standards that require people and institutions to live up to the highest benchmarks of quality and integrity. In this time of misplaced standards, it is crucial to be reminded what standards do and why our standard is Christ.”For 125 years, we have been identifying ourselves as a Christian college, so why is that label no longer enough?
Back at Belhaven’s founding, or even 50 years ago, we were identified as a Christian College, and in those days, that was all the identification we needed.  In that era, to be known as a Christian College made it clear to our constituency that all the faculty and staff were Christians who believed the Bible, were committed to Jesus, and taught and lived accordingly.  No other descriptor was necessary.

But today, to be called a Christian college is generic to some, confusing to others, and misunderstood by many.  Colleges that call themselves Christian represent a wide spectrum from the ultra conservative to the ultra liberal, and that identifier is inadequate to help our friends understand how faith is the foundation for all we do at Belhaven.

Many Christ-centered schools call themselves “evangelical.”  So why don’t we just use that term as our identifier?
At Belhaven, we sometimes call ourselves an evangelical school, but the media has distorted that word for many, and even among the 110 schools of the Council of Christian Colleges and Universities there is still wide diversity within that spectrum.

We have those I call, “pray before class” colleges. They hire Christian faculty and staff, have Christian behavioral standards, and they do pray at the start of every class-period.  But they don’t teach much differently from what students would find at a secular university.

Moving along the spectrum, there is a large group of institutions that have a commitment to the integration of faith and learning, and like seasoning a soup, they flavor their instruction in and out of the classroom with Christian thought, although they do not have a comprehensive academic program that prepares students with a Christ-centered worldview.

But then there are a small handful of schools that have gone back to the source, to create curriculum, teach, coach, support, and advise from a solid biblical framework. I’m thankful that Belhaven is a leader among this group.

So to call ourselves a Christian college, and to lump us in with schools that range from those at the  liberal end of the spectrum to those at the legalistic end, is about as adequate as calling Walt Disney World an amusement park.  It is one, but the Disney people don’t want to be identified in that limited way, nor be pooled together with others in that category.

“Our Standard is Christ” is now on the letterhead for the College.  Is this primarily a marketing slogan?
“Our Standard is Christ” is a wonderful way to describe Belhaven College; because Christ is the only standard we want for our students and the faculty and staff.  This phrase identifies who we are, and whose we are, but it is not a marketing slogan—

it is a commitment.

Yes, it may be used in marketing, but its purpose is to define Belhaven College, not make us memorable.  Tag lines are cute for marketing, but what we are talking about with this identifier goes to the very core of our mission and to the heart of our personal relationship with Christ.

Putting it on our web site, in our materials, and on advertisements is the public commitment of our inward desire.  And like announcing to all your friends you’re going on a diet, there is nothing like making it public to help hold ourselves accountable internally.

What other “standards” were considered as the campus and board set this new identifier?
When you boil it all down, there is no other standard for us as a College, or for us as individual followers of Christ.   Jesus set the standard for how we are to live with others, grapple with ideas, understand the world, love and forgive, set personal goals, and focus on what matters in life. Any other standard for Belhaven would be secondary to this high calling for every Christian.

In moving through this discussion about what standards are important to us, you have to ask the question: what other standards could there be?  Any other standard we might consider is insignificant in comparison to “Our Standard is Christ.”

• Our Standard is the accrediting Associations

• Our Standard is XYZ University, Only More Christian

• Our Standard is Being Better Than We Were Last Year

• Our Standard is Gaining in Prestige

• Our Standard is US News and World Report National Rankings

No, the only standard that matters is Christ.

How do you answer those who believe Belhaven cannot be as strong academically if we are going to have a clear Christian focus?
I believe it is just to the contrary!  Because Christ is our Standard, we have no option other than to be academically strong.

If strength is equated only to serving the top tier of IQ students coming out of high schools, we surely wouldn’t fit in that category – and wouldn’t want to.  To me, academic strength is helping every student understand that he or she is uniquely created by God, and then help each discover their unique God given gifts, and push to achieve the Lord’s best for their life.

We have lots of students who can stand up in any national academic competition and other students who are doing their best to get “C’s.”  But God doesn’t call any of us to live lives of failure.  So if we can teach students to use all the gifts God has given them, do what He calls us to do, and not settle for anything less than a life of meaning and purpose – I’d call that excellence.
But it takes an exceptional faculty to teach with this Christ-centered understanding of quality.  In the world of higher education that has eliminated Truth from teaching, holiness from living, and grace from relationships; we need to never waiver from our standard of excellence.

How can Belhaven College measure up to Christ?
That is the key question if this identifier drives to the core of Belhaven and is not simply a slogan for us.  It is a challenging question to ask: how can we be like Jesus, since He was fully God on earth?  Yes, He was, but He was also fully human.  And focusing on those human traits that were God-filled, we have a clear picture of the standard Christ sets for us.

I’ve looked at it from many angles and with many insightful people, and it all comes down to this standard Jesus set for us: He spent time building His inner strength, so that outwardly, He could reveal the nature of God through what He did.

Everything Jesus did with others reflected the nature of God – from the work He did alongside Joseph as a carpenter’s apprentice – to preaching the Sermon on the Mount.  From conversation over a meal, to struggling with fatigue from the business of a day, to the way He developed relationships – it was all about showing others the nature and love of God.

Every outward action in the life of Jesus grew from an inward spiritual strength, and so, for Him and for us, we can’t focus on the outcome without linking it to the indwelling of God in our heart, soul, and mind.

That is the key to a Belhaven education – helping students build God honoring inner character – so they can use their gifts to be people of quality and Christian service in their profession, community, and family – living lives that see, love, and understand the world as God designed it to be.

Specifically, how do you, faculty, staff, coaches and others lead Belhaven College when “Our Standard
is Christ?”
We follow the pattern of Jesus.  And if you look at how he lived his daily life – in the ordinary stuff we all do – I believe there are five characteristics that give us a standard to follow. Each one starts with an inward strength that results in an outward lifestyle pattern from Jesus.

In a nutshell, let me share the five principles I’ve found to be helpful in making Christ my standard.  I’ve written about this in a book I have coming out next fall.

1. Jesus was Prayerful, so He could Live Genuinely

2. Jesus was Compassionate, so He could Love Unconditionally

3. Jesus was Humble, so He could Mentor Deeply

4. Jesus was Confident, so He could Assure Availability

5. Jesus was Focused, so He could Work Purposefully

Our world promotes career advancement, money, and influence as the standards by which we should be measured, so if Christ is the standard, what replaces that?
The world’s standards are wealth and power for selfish desires, while Jesus calls us to serve our world, not to be served by it.  So it is not simply the choice of a vocation that is the standard of commitment to Christ, but rather the motivations behind our “success” that God is measuring.

Jesus understood the importance of his followers being salt and light in the marketplace.  He called his disciples straight out of successful business careers. His teaching attracted huge crowds and influenced the culture at every level.

But the difference is this: Jesus lived in this world just as we do, but his focus was toward another place, not this one.  He had a perspective that allowed him to understand what the new heaven and new earth would be, and so His priorities were eternal, not earthly.

He had been with God and would return there, so He had the assurance of something that takes lots more trust on our part to grasp.  Jesus worked on this earth completely focused toward heaven, because He knew it was as genuine as the ground he walked in Galilee.  Having that same earthly/eternal perspective leads us to the “abundant life” Christ taught us to seek.

If you had to sum it all up in an “15 second elevator speech” how would you describe this new standard for Belhaven College?
Jesus prayed, taught, mentored, and loved in ways that connected eternal life with earthly life.  He made every day count, but He understood the ultimate goals and purpose of life.

That same Christ-centered worldview is what we want Belhaven graduates to treasure as they head into “the world of careers, ideas, and human relationships,” as our mission statement articulates.

Our Standard is Christ.  There is no higher standard we could set as a College – and only with God’s help will Belhaven’s faculty and staff help our students achieve God’s best for their lives.