John Piper has said, “We weren’t meant to be somebody – we were meant to know Somebody.”
There are many different kinds of knowing, different kinds of intelligences. My wife, Vicki, has musical intelligence at which I marvel. She can sight read piano music and play it with excellence having never seen it before. I marvel. What may seem like hieroglyphics to others are chords and intervals that just make sense to her and her fingers.
I have two friends with Ph.D’s in engineering. They and their boys giggle with delight and intensity when they tackle the problems of robotics competitions, in the process winning national championships. What bewilders others, delights them.
And on it goes with athletic intelligence (some people have amazingly fluid agility and strength, and others are klutzes), linguistic capacity (learn languages with ease), social intelligence (read others accurately), mathematical prowess, spatial intelligence, and more.
At Bethlehem College & Seminary we value learning and God-given intelligence. But our focus is on knowing God, and delighting in him, being awed by his incomparable son, Jesus. To that end, we pursue disciplines, especially reading the Bible with understanding and faith.
These disciplines are pursued by faculty and students with the support of donors, parents, spouses, staff, and a board of trustees.
At our must recent meeting we heard President Tomlinson prepare us for the next round of accreditation, update us on facilities, and call for prayer midway through our ninth year as an official college and seminary. Academic Dean Tabb reported on things like the new Masters Degree program in Exegesis and Theology, the hiring of faculty members, the acceptance of new international students, and a strong desire to improve the mentoring program. Trustee Scott Rebney reported on the successful completion of the external audit. The board reviewed a “dashboard,” listing summarized statistics in 83 categories. After three years of plateaued tuition rates, we approved a modest adjustment to include global mission trips for students. We conducted a successful and very positive evaluation (and self-evaluation) of the president and heard a financial update from the Treasurer.
The aim of all this effort is not to have an institution, but to know Somebody.
Sam Crabtree
Chairman, Board of Trustees
Prayer Requests
- Pray for us as we strive to know the One most worth knowing.
- Pray for our students and faculty as they settle into the routines of a new semester.
- Pray for the On The Double campaign, that God would continue move the hearts of the saints to help us receive a $300,000 matching gift.