Good morning and welcome back! I miss you when you are gone. I miss the casual time over meals in Howerton Dining Hall, foosball and French fries in Belk, basketball and volleyball games in McAlister, jamming worship times right here in Gaither. I miss the laughter of students all over the campus. I miss the passionate discussions about how best to go about this business of Christ-centered education, and problem solving to meet the needs of individual students and those of generations of students yet to come. I miss watching faculty and staff members encouraging students, and watching students, in turn, encourage those faculty and staff who have mentored them.

Welcome to those of you who have been away and are just now back.

I’m glad to have Dr. Don King, reluctant president, enthusiastic golfer, and renowned C. S. Lewis scholar back from a semester sabbatical. Don is the longest serving member of our faculty, he is an institution within an institution, and a true asset to our community. Welcome back, Don; we look forward to reading your new book.

I’m glad to have Nathan Thomas back, too. Nathan, a junior now, spent last semester polishing his musical talents in Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts. He was there on one of many special programs made possible through our relationship with the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. Nathan tells us a story of complete immersion in musical opportunity that was both exhilarating and exhausting. Welcome back, Nathan.

I understand that we have a number of students who had previously transferred out and have transferred back this term—this time to stay, I believe. We welcome you back.

Welcome, too, to those of you who are joining us for the first time. Montreat College is a special place; it is a place that you will think of often in the years to come; a place that will prepare you for a full and meaningful life. I am glad you are part of our learning community, and we pledge to work with each of you as you develop your God-given talents and abilities.

Most of you know that Fall semester was my first full term. As such, I suppose I approached it with the eyes of a freshman—not knowing what exactly to expect, but anxious for each new experience. Here are some of the things I saw:

I saw two “hundred year” storms hit Montreat in the space of a week. During that time I saw students, faculty, and staff work together to dig us out and dry us off. I’ll never forget seeing Tom McMurtry, our Director of Technology, up to his ears in mud and muck along with Al Edwards and Mike Bowles, as they attempted to redirect torrents of water from McAlister gym to the creek. I remember Michelle Convey and a band of McGregor residents distributing water to Black Mountain residents. I remember Raymond Sylvestre using the full body technique, that is, using his body like something between a dust mop and a squeegee, to clean the mud out of a flooded building with a group of guys from campus. I remember Jonathon Neil, a student worker, opening the dining hall by himself because the other staff couldn’t get into Montreat, and later watching the Aramark team cook hot meals in candlelight over the equivalent of a Bunsen burner because all power was lost. I remember the whole communip>ty pitching in to help Evelina Lytle after she lost her home in Black Mountain.

I watched our community embrace and support several members who suffered family tragedies unrelated to the floods, the number of which seemed all out of proportion to the size of the Montreat College family. And I watched what seems normal here, but is unusual elsewhere, as several members of the faculty and staff welcomed students into their homes and their lives.

I was astounded when I received countless calls, cards, and letters from graduates and parents of graduates who wanted me to know that Montreat College had made an incredibly important impact in their lives and the lives of their children.

I was pleased when Montreat Presbyterian Church came to the aid of one student who seemed on the edge of getting by, while at the same time nurturing as many students who would come to free meals and activities.

I watched recent graduate Jonathon Bostic and his wife Jan team up with worship leader Tarbell Patton, Chaplain Bill Cain, Professor Darwin Glassford, and Montreat Presbyterian Church to begin I-sight, an outreach to the un-churched at the Watershed pub in Black Mountain; I saw Catacombs (our Wednesday night worship) take to the streets of Asheville to reach the lost; and I watched Lincoln Walters start “Ethos,” a worship group that, this semester, will team up with Christians from UNC-Asheville.

I watched a volleyball team that outperformed all expectations; two soccer teams that came back from adversity; and two basketball teams that are coming together—the men’s team, by the way, may even have a chance to win our conference. I watched all these athletes, their coaches, and even the fans acquit themselves in a manner that represented Montreat College well.

I welcomed a new graduate into the Navy; a recent graduate visiting on leave from the Army; another graduate who just returned from serving as a chaplain in Iraq; and an MBA student who got recalled for one year in Iraq.

I watched a number of performing arts and music events, thanks largely to the work of Professors Carol Anderson and Eunice Stackhouse, that could have graced performance halls anywhere. I enjoyed a Madrigal dinner that had to be scheduled specially so that Jazz Cathcart could both sing and be a force on the basketball team.

I learned that Montreat has been officially selected as the first community in North Carolina to be certified as a Community Wildlife Habitat site by the National Wildlife Federation, thanks in no small part to the work of Professor Dottie Shuman; and I enjoyed the educational trail she and the Outdoor Education department students and faculty made available for all of Montreat. I watched Professor Rob Boer develop an interdisciplinary course through an Appalachian College Association grant, and Professors Sonnenberg, Lassiter, and Shuman win grants to study our watershed and to share our knowledge of Mt. Mitchell with middle and high school students throughout western North Carolina.

I watched a very busy academic term, with many more activities, achievements, and touching moments than I could possibly recount here.

On top of all of this activity, hundreds of you were able to participate in shaping the Montreat College of the future through our strategic planning process. I was humbled and impressed with the dedication and passion with which our community embraced this important task.

What a semester! But before I go on to talk about the future, let me relate just a few things we should celebrate together.

First, you should know that more of you came back to Montreat College this semester than at any point in our history. Colleges everywhere are concerned about the number of students who leave before graduation; we are, too. So in August we instituted a task force to focus on mission faithfulness and student success, with the faith that if we focused on our mission and on helping students be successful, they would stay. You did. If we do as well next semester, we’ll rank among the best in the nation.

Second, our transfer class is nearly twice as large as any in our history. Each new student has a slightly different story, but the aggregate data tells me that the word about Montreat College is getting out.

Third, our student SAT average places us in the top third of the private colleges in North Carolina and, yet, our tuition is lower than over half of all those same schools.

Finally, our trustees and donors are enthusiastic about the College and its prospects for the future. At the halfway point through the fundraising year, they have freely given well over the amount of the scholarship and operations money than we usually receive in a full year.

Now on to our hopes and plans for the future. I’ll begin with a story. The genius Albert Einstein was riding on a train. He noticed the approach of the conductor and began looking for his ticket. The conductor recognized Einstein and his growing concern at not finding his ticket: “Sir, I’m sure you purchased a ticket. Please don’t worry about it.” The conductor passed on and about 15 minutes later was returning through Einstein’s car. He noticed the scientist was now frantically searching for his ticket, so he again attempted to assure Einstein that he would be fine without his ticket. At which point the scientist looked up at the conductor and said: “No, you don’t understand. I need the ticket to tell me where I’m going!”

They say that if you don’t know where you are going, any path will get you there. Even smart people (as Einstein learned) need to take stock of their direction. A college without a strong sense of direction will be pulled this way and that by each new emerging fad or opportunity and will have difficulty focusing its resources to become truly excellent in specific ways. Therefore it is important for institutions to periodically review their commitment to their mission, vision, and values and to restate them if doing so clarifies and renews the purpose and energies of those who love the college. This is what we have done in the strategic planning process so many of you helped out in.

Now if the strategic plan is to be effective, we must assure that those who love the college own and truly live the mission, believe in the rightness and potential of the vision, and aspire to share the core values. That is why I share this with you today and earnestly seek your continued involvement.

We have not gone about this process lightly. We have involved as many students, faculty, staff, alumni, parents, donors, and friends as have been willing to engage with us in meetings, surveys, threaded Web discussions, comments, and suggestions. Nearly 1,000 people have been involved in one form or another, and many thousands more have received information about what we are doing.

And we are not yet done. What I present to you today is at the draft stage. While the direction is clear, the course can be adjusted as appropriate. The vision, mission, and values are drafts that may yet be refined, and the plan that flows from them is very much in the development stage. There are a number of task forces, committees, and individuals at work in the process of turning these concepts into concrete initiatives and actions that will make a demonstrable difference in the lives of our students.

As a Christian institution, our mission, vision, and values must be consistent with the will of the Lord as expressed in the Bible, so we must first ask: “What did Jesus consider most important?” Fortunately for us, He was pretty clear on this matter. In Matthew chapter 22 he is asked by a Pharisee (also noted to be a lawyer trying to trip Him up): ‘Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?’ Jesus said to him ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” All that we do here, too, must hang on these two commandments. We believe our plan does so.

While Montreat College is concerned with the development of the whole person, and therefore all aspects of these verses, as an academic institution we must be particularly focused on what it means to “love the Lord your God with . . . all your mind.” David Claerbaut, in his book Faith and Learning on the Edge, suggests that this means acknowledging that all truth is God’s truth, that seeking revelation in creation is a form of worship, and that we need to approach all of learning and all of life from an explicitly Christian worldview. Claerbaut also tells us that most of higher education has abandoned this once broadly accepted mission; we consider it the centerpiece of all we do.

So now let me share the specifics of our strategic plan. You should know that each word is included for a reason, and that we could spend hours going over all the aspects of what I will present in just a few minutes.

First the mission:

Christ-Centered; Student-Focused; Service-Driven;
Montreat College equips servant leaders to be agents of transformation, renewal, and reconciliation in the communities in which they worship, live, and work.

If approved, this mission will be the basis for the countless daily decisions that occur in the life of our college. It will be our compact with each other and those who would choose to join us. We believe that we are Christ-Centered; Student-Focused; Service-Driven and that we should strive to be more so. We believe that we are called to prepare those who will make a difference in their churches, in their communities, and in their work.

Now the vision:

Montreat College seeks to be the leading provider of Christ-centered education, equipping students of all ages to be innovative servant leaders who serve God and humanity in an ever-changing, global world. We will be catalysts for responsible growth, culture, and spiritual life in the communities we serve.

Think of this in two parts. The first sentence commits us to constantly strive to be the very best at what we do, to serve students across the full life cycle, and to continually improve at meeting our mission in a constantly changing global world. The second sentence commits us to being highly engaged in improving the lives of those around us wherever we serve. We have tremendous opportunities here in Montreat, at our Black Mountain campus, in Asheville, in Charlotte, and in Cherokee. We will be no ivory tower.

Now the values:

Each value rests on the base of those below it in the pyramid.

Biblical Worldview: Everything we do rests on the rock that is Jesus Christ as revealed in Scripture.

Truth: All truth is God’s truth, but all truth is not in the Bible. We must commit to seeking and teaching truth. This is a more radical statement than it sounds. In a post-modern age, most colleges and universities have abandoned the idea of transcendent truth in favor of cultural relativism.

Community: Christ calls us to live in community. We must commit to building a healthy learning community that supports and nurtures its members.

Honesty and Integrity: Only through honesty and integrity is true community possible. Students see through hypocrisy and none of us benefits by it. We must be who we seem to be.

Academic Excellence: We must focus on being the very best. We will define academic excellence in terms of student learning rather than scholarly production.

From these core statements, we have developed five critical success factors, each with strategies to close the gaps between our current capabilities and those we need to have. Each strategy has defined initiatives that will be fleshed out in the next few months and incorporated into our budget. There is much more in the plan (though no more time in this speech).

Please know that we are working hard to make Montreat College better today as well as tomorrow. Know too that your ideas matter and that you can review what we’ve done on the Web site, and comment through it, through e-mails, through personal involvement in committees, or by making a suggestion to someone who is involved.

Welcome back to this community I have come to love so quickly. Throw yourself at the many opportunities available. Help us make Montreat College better today and tomorrow.

Thank you for loving Montreat College, too!