A Christ-Centered University

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Members of the Huntington University family have been invited to write a simple, two-page essay in response to the question,

 “What does it mean that Huntington is a Christ centered university?”

Please feel free to read these essays, leave a comment, or submit an essay of your own.

What does it mean that Huntington is a Christ-centered University? To me, it means that Huntington University is an institution that strives for integrity  - a state of entireness, of wholeness in the education it offers its students.  I believe for Christians this state of wholeness “can only be reached when every aspect of our human existence is submitted to the lordship of Christ.”[i] “Our Christian obedience extends beyond our personal spirituality and into the nitty-gritty of every choice we make each day of the week.”[ii]  [Read more →]

When John Cardinal Newman wrote … The Idea of a University in the late 1850’s, he was hopeful that Oxford might re-engage with its long Christian past and halt the relentless slide to secularization.  

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“FOR ME [US] TO LIVE IS CHRIST”  (Philippians 1:21)

To me, Christ-centered refers not only to the core of the institution but also to the atmosphere in which all participants live.  “In Christ” is their residence.  Wherever they are found, the core of their being is “in Christ” and the atmosphere of their doing is “in Christ” (In Christ we live and move and have our being, Acts 17:28a).

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Since the question is being asked, what does it mean to be a Christ-centered university, there must be something missing between what we say we are and the reality of what we are.  I see the problem being this, we as individuals can accept Christ as our Savior and as we grow in Christ we become more Christ centered.  The relationship is personal and life changing. Transposing an individual relationship with Christ to an institutional relationship with Christ is where the dilemma starts. 

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All year long, we have been reminded of our goal on campus to make Christ the Center at Huntington. We have visual reminders in banners and wristbands to remind us of the idea. We also have had chapel services and discussions based solely on what it means to be a Christ-centered university. We must strive to put Christ at the center of our lives spiritually, emotionally, mentally, and physically, but in order to fully comprehend this idea, we need to first understand what it means to be the center of something.

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Students, faculty, and staff are the “stuff” of an educational institution, as John Sloan Dickey, the former President of Dartmouth College used to say.  Further, the “stuff” defines the institution.  I firmly believe that the “stuff” of Huntington University defines it as Christ centered and that every element within that “stuff” plays an important role in its impact on the world around it.

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Christ declares in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth” and in John 18:37 “Everyone on the side of truth listens to me”. With these statements, He is rightly exalting Himself as the fountainhead of truth. He is not just a source of truth or part of the truth, but the truth. As He is the truth, we should seek to examine, know and understand all the truth He is.

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First, to state the obvious: if being a Christ-centered university means that a Huntington University accounting graduate is unable to perform cost accounting but is armed to the teeth with how to debate eternal security at the office water cooler, a Huntington degree might be slightly-less prestigious.

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