STILLPOINT Spring 2018

SPRING 2018

THE MAGAZINE OF GORDON COLLEGE

STILLPOINT Lightbulb Moments How Ideas Become Things PAGE 20

Also Also in in This This Issue Issue 716 New A Sacred BoardTenure: of Trustees A Tribute Chairto 8 Dr.Celebrating Marv Wilson Roger 39 Reflections Green 37 for 16,000 HolyStories Week

TRADITIONS OLD AND NEW Sam Schreiner ’77 (left) and his brother-in-law John Grosser share a moment with Sam’s grandkids, Catalina and Michael (children of Sam and Chantal Schreiner ’07), at Homecoming and Family Weekend 2017. Hundreds of friends and family members gathered for a festive few days filled with kids’ activities, athletic games, live music, Scot Talks by faculty and alumni, and food trucks from local vendors.

Save the date for Homecoming 2018: September 28–29

Do you know a student who would thrive at Gordon?

Who better to recommend future Gordon students than our alumni? You know Gordon and the students who will thrive here!

Your recommendation helps shape the future of the College and helps equip the next generation of Christian servant leaders.Â

Refer a student: www.gordon.edu/refer

CONTENTS

F EAT UR ES

Lightbulb Moments How Ideas Become Things

ONLY IN THIS ISSUE

ARTICLES

IN EACH ISSUE

16 A Sacred Tenure

Years of Music at 34 50 Gordon

Front with 6 Up President Lindsay

Honoring the legacy of Dr. Marv Wilson as he retires after 55 years of teaching at Gordon and Barrington.

39 Reflections for Holy Week

Daily devotionals written by Gordon faculty and compiled by the Center for Faith and Inquiry.

FEATURES

20 The Launch Pad

Five years of accelerating creativity and innovation across disciplines through the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership.

24 Enterprising Alumni

Meet 10 Gordon alums who represent thousands thinking— and living—outside the box.

Honoring the vision of departmental founder Dr. Alton C. Bynum and looking ahead to the next 50 years.

European Seminar 36 The at 60 Six decades of transforming students into citizens of the world.

of A. J. Gordon: 38 AAnReview Epic Journey of Faith and Pioneering Vision

by Carol ’57 and Richard Visser ’58

A new book by Kevin Belmonte ’90, author of the award-winning biography William Wilberforce: A Hero for Humanity.

Steadfast and Surprising

7 Inspiration

Charlene Mutamba An Advocate for Thriving

8 Student Spotlight

AnaCarolina Araujo ’18

10 On the Grapevine

Campus news and happenings

14 Faculty Work

Awards and accomplishments

44 Class Notes Alumni news

ON THE COVER Grace Crook ’18 and Antonio Vargas ’17 are part of the movement to turn ideas

into reality through Gordon’s Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership (CEL). Grace is a CEL intern and Antonio has been involved with ELEVATE, one of CEL’s many innovative programs.

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UP FRONT with President Lindsay

Steadfast and “Pull quote goes Surprising here. Num veleseq

uismodignim zzriuscil doluptat. Cum nos duis nulput digna con volenim ent augait wis nit aut aliqui blan.”

“Creativity takes courage.” —Henri Matisse When I first came to Gordon in 2011, I knew this place would always find a way to surprise me. As I spent hours researching the institution and poring over pages penned by my predecessors, a very clear theme emerged: Gordon is different. It was true in the late 1800s, when A. J. Gordon swam against the tide and challenged the Church to engage in the moral issues of the day.

It was true when he began educating women and people of color long before it was the norm.

A. J. Gordon once wrote about the type of person that the world might label as eccentric: “The one who is marching to the music, and keeping step to the directions of a heavenly voice, which the world does not hear.” He continued, “Eccentric—which means, according to

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the dictionary, ‘having a different center, or moving in a different orbit, from the common one.’”

A different orbit from the common one—that was true of our founder, and it’s been true of our institution ever since. Gordon is steadfastly surprising.

During his inauguration in 1976, former President Dick Gross said, “Within a biblical context there is the kind of freedom, diversity, openness and charity that ought to characterize a Christian academic community. We covet this climate and know that it is difficult to achieve and maintain. But it is essential that we do so because it represents a style which is uniquely Gordon and sets us apart from other

president@gordon.edu

colleges, even counterparts in Christian higher education.”

Likewise, in his inaugural address 17 years later, my predecessor President Jud Carlberg talked about Gordon as “a place where creativity thrives,” where students are invited to ask tough questions, take risks and feel “free to strike out with new expressions of joyous creativity.”

Today, Gordon continues to be a place of unbounded ideas, where minds are free to explore, create and innovate. And for the last five years, we’ve been putting resources behind this distinctive. With the launch of the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership (CEL), Gordon put a name and a face

www.gordon.edu/president

Twitter: @GordonPres

IN EACH ISSUE

INSPIRATION on the courageously creative culture that’s always existed at our beloved College.

Each year, with each new initiative, CEL encourages students to find the gaps, to look in the spaces between disciplines and forge new connections, ideas and solutions (read more on page 22). It’s the freedom to explore the integration of disciplines under the banner of faith that, for so many Gordon students and alumni, catalyzes good. It’s why they move in a different orbit, thinking and living outside the box.

In this issue, you’ll read about the “lightbulb moments” that have galvanized the unconventional pursuits of several Gordon alumni. People like Jack Hanke ’17, who started an improv comedy troupe that connects people to autism; Dr. Matt Taylor ’06, who is researching ways to teach robotics to children with disabilities; Kaitlyn Trabucco ’07, who is empowering female entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley; and Kevin ’09 and Ryn ’10 Grant, who are bringing a new outlet for community-building and family fun to their neighborhood.

These are just a few of the thousands of Gordon alumni guided not by the common standards of society, but by a creative God who has imparted unique gifts and callings to each of them. Their ideas continue to surprise me, and their lives continue to inspire all of us.

An Advocate for Thriving Charlene Mutamba, Director of Multicultural Initiatives Dr. Charlene Mutamba knows what it means to be a trailblazer. She moved from her native Zimbabwe to America at age 18 to study information security and privacy in college and earn a Ph.D. in educational research and policy analysis. Now in her first year as director of multicultural initiatives at Gordon, she is ready to advocate for students who, like her, seek to thrive.

“Especially for minorities, getting a college degree is one of the most transformative things that can happen to you,” she says. “Graduating from college will change the trajectory of your life.”

For Charlene, studying in a STEM field often dominated by white males had its challenges. The subject matter itself was not difficult for her to comprehend and she faced no outright disparagement.

However, it was, at times, difficult to connect with peers “who are a little bit different from you. It’s that extra step you have to take that others don’t have to.”

In college, Charlene says the attitude of her predominantly black church enriched her life by celebrating education and supporting young men and women, and preparing them to be Christians in the workplace. “I know that God needed me to be there to mature,” she says.

Now managing Gordon’s multicultural programs like the Clarendon Scholars and ALANA, Charlene aims to build fruitful relationships with students and implement programming that will transform them into leaders. “Primarily,” she says of her job, “it’s how we can work with students to help them find a sense of belonging at Gordon and feel like this is the place for them to thrive.”

D. Michael Lindsay is the eighth president of Gordon College and professor of sociology. As a Southern transplant, he also continues to be surprised by the unpredictability of New England weather and inspired by the dedication of its sports fans!

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SPOTLIGHT

AnaCarolina Araujo ’18 NEIGHBOR AND SCIENTIST

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“It really has been humbling to work with people who have lived life and have more experience than you do, and here you are trying to help them.”

IN EACH ISSUE

ANACAROLINA ARAUJO ’18 HAS NEVER BROKEN A BONE, BUT SHE LOVES TO STUDY THEM. AS A KINESIOLOGY MAJOR, SHE USES HER KNOWLEDGE OF MOVEMENT TO HELP PEOPLE REGAIN CONTROL OF THEIR BODIES. She jokes that her interest in physical therapy began after watching the romantic comedy Just Wright, in which Queen Latifah stars as a physical therapist.

After this discovery, she visited Gordon and shadowed an anatomy class with her dad for a lecture on the reproductive system, which AnaCarolina adds, “is always an interesting thing to sit in on with your parents.” Before this, she didn’t imagine that you could learn about God and science in the same place. She was awestruck by how the instructor “talked about the miracle of life and how these tiny cells make up who you are.”

This exploration—of what makes us who we are—is something AnaCarolina has delved into during her interactions with senior patients at the Center for Balance, Mobility and Wellness (CBMW). Gordon’s on-campus physical therapy clinic serves patients with medical conditions that make walking and balancing difficult.

For 15 years, the CBMW has afforded kinesiology students the opportunity to apply what they’re learning through a “live-lab” experience. As volunteers, interns or students in the Disorders of Voluntary Movement course, they can work in the Center’s physical therapy clinic or assist in exercise and wellness programs for individuals living with Parkinson’s disease or traumatic brain injuries. Because the CBMW provides a unique service to the surrounding community, Gordon students also get to practice neighborliness.

The “people part” of physical therapy is AnaCarolina’s passion. For her, the value is in the moments of mutual exchange—what she calls an “interplay of knowledge sharing”—when you realize you have something to teach someone and they have something to teach you.

AnaCarolina explains, “It really has been humbling to work with people who have lived life and have more experience than you do, and here you are trying to help them.”

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NEWS: ON THE GRAPEVINE

CAMPUS NEWS AND HAPPENINGS

“Luther & Company” Exhibition Celebrates 500th Anniversary of Protestant Reformation On September 30, in honor of the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, the Institute for Public History opened an exhibition titled “Luther & Company.” David Goss (history), director of the Institute, selected works from the College archives and Vining Collection, including three firstedition books written by Martin Luther as well as original works by both Protestant and Catholic writers of the Protestant Reformation era, for display in Jenks Library. “Since Gordon College owes its existence to the Protestant Reformation— initiated by Martin Luther in 1517—we delved into the archival vaults to see what inspirational materials we might have to display,” Goss said.

Introducing Gordon Plus, a Bridge to Graduate Programs

EVENT

Celebration of Faithful Leadership: An Evening of All-Stars For the 6th Annual Celebration of Faithful Leadership, themed “An Evening of All-Stars,” the Gordon community, with the help of Tim Tebow and the Harlem Globetrotters, celebrated athletes of Gordon’s past and present and honored longtime Gordon professor and former college athlete Dr. Marv Wilson (biblical studies and Christian ministries) with the George F. Bennett Leadership Award. Having taught at Barrington and Gordon for 55 years, Dr. Wilson has impacted more than 11,000 students, and he is celebrated for his work reconciling Jewish and Christian communities. Thanks to the generosity of guests and sponsors, the event raised nearly $1 million for student scholarships.

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Gordon Plus is a new initiative that enables Gordon students to transition from their undergraduate program to one of Gordon’s graduate programs, including the Master of Education, the new Master of Science in Financial Analysis or the Master of Arts in Leadership (entrepreneurship track). Qualified students can save as much as $4,800 through a combination of free graduate classes or 50 percent off campus housing.

ON THE GRAPEVINE

You don’t need to wait until STILLPOINT arrives to get the latest on Gordon. News and stories are published all year long on the College blog, The Bell (named for the iconic structure that sits just outside the A. J. Gordon Memorial Chapel). stories.gordon.edu

Gordon Hires Executive Director for Master of Science in Financial Analysis Dining Hall Gets a Makeover and a New Name Thanks to a generous donation by longtime Gordon supporter Sherry Tupper, Easton Hall received cosmetic updates, including new tables, chairs, booths and fireplaces, along with a new name—Tupper Hall. Tupper Hall was formally dedicated at the Celebration of Faithful Leadership on October 19. Its new look and name are part of a larger upgrade of food offerings and facilities through a partnership with Bon Appétit Management Company, made possible in part by Tupper’s gift.

Career Services Launches Business and STEM Fair In addition to its annual internship and job fairs, Career Services hosted a new event in October for students looking for postgrad employment opportunities in accounting, finance, business administration, biology, chemistry, mathematics, physics, engineering and computer science. The Business and STEM fair featured potential employers like Raytheon, KPMG, New York Life and Massachusetts General Hospital and others who are recruiting for jobs and internships starting in May and June of 2018.

This fall Gordon hired Alexander Lowry to spearhead the new Master of Science in Financial Analysis as the program’s executive director. Lowry brings nearly 20 years of financial services and management consulting experience, most recently as a vice president at JPMorgan Chase. The new program’s objective is to equip students with analytical business skills, within a framework of Christian values and prepare them for CFA, CPA and CMA exams. The master’s program launched officially in January of 2018 to join Gordon’s suite of masters’ programs.

Romans in Rome: New Opportunities Abroad for Biblical Studies Last summer Dr. Steven Hunt (biblical studies and Christian ministries) taught his new class, Romans in Rome, for the first time as a part of the Gordon IN Orvieto program. In Pompeii, Paestum and Naples, the class visited museums, urban ruins and the remains of sixth-century B.C. Greek temples, which gave students an idea of what the first-century temples in Rome would have looked like. This course not only provides context to Paul’s letter to the Romans, but now gives more biblical studies students the opportunity to experience a semester abroad in Italy.

Faith Across the Political Aisle At a “Conversations with the President” event in September, former Congressman Frank Wolf (R-VA) and former Congressman and UN Ambassador Tony Hall (D-OH) discussed the importance of bipartisan friendship and dialogue. The two politicians met at a prayer breakfast in Washington, D.C., and have been friends for the past 25 years. “When you pray with one another, break bread with one another . . . a lot of things can come out of those friendships,” Wolf said.

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Summer Student Research Fellowships

EVENT

Christmas at Gordon In keeping with Gordon tradition, Christmas at Gordon kicked off the holiday season with fun and festive events for all ages —including the tree lighting, an instructional wreath-decorating workshop, horse-drawn carriages and hayrides, a Christmas stage with performances by local acts, kids’ crafts and plenty of hot cocoa, cider and s’mores over an open fire. This year, the theatre group 5th Wall stole the show with an immersive live nativity show called The Star.

The Department of Music hosted its 27th annual Christmas Gala —an event that has become a staple of Christmas celebrations on the North Shore—featuring carol singing, Christmas readings and performances by College ensembles.

STUDENT INITIATIVE

Newroz: Gordon’s Very Own Farmer’s Market On Earth Day last year, a handful of students rehabilitated the onceflourishing community garden that was founded in 2008 by Gordon’s Advocates for a Sustainable Future (ASF) and turned it into a full-fledged farmer’s market called “Newroz,” which means “new day, new sun” in Kurdish.

This fall, ASF opened the Newroz Farmer’s Market to Gordon and the wider community with the intention of connecting people to their food and where it comes from.

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Last summer, several students conducted research as part of the Provost’s summer research fellowships. With the help of Dr. Grace Chiou (communication arts) and Dr. Kaye Cook (psychology), Carter Crossett ’19 and Adila de Souza ’18 examined why and how people forgive others through their research project, “Campus as Moral Community: Contextual Understandings of Forgiveness.” Jenn Meakem ’19 and Mike D’Antuono ’18 helped Dr. Kristen Cooper (economics) and co-authors Daniel Benjamin (University of Southern California), Ori Heffetz (Cornell University) and Miles Kimball (University of Colorado) on a research project titled “What do people want?

Measuring preferences and well-being,” which examines well-being through desires and needs as opposed to traditional measurements like GDP.

THEATRE

Blood and Gifts Last fall, the Gordon College Department of Theatre Arts performed Blood and Gifts—a political thriller that explored how the United States got involved in the war in Afghanistan. Told from the points of view of Americans, Soviets, Afghans, Pakistanis and the British, Blood and Gifts raised questions about the fine line between allies and enemies, friendship and espionage.

Climate Change and the Call to Stewardship During the 2017 Crum Lecture, meteorologist Paul Douglas explained how, over the course of his 40-year career as a radio spokesperson and TV weather anchor, climate change has led to a situation that he describes as “weather on steroids.” In his talk, Douglas asserted that stewardship is not only a biblical mandate, but a real solution for mitigating the global impact of climate change. “We are tending what’s left of Eden,” he said. “You don’t have to obsess over climate change, but we need to pay attention and find solutions that are pragmatic so we can keep God’s creation in better shape.”

ON THE GRAPEVINE

Physics Department Partners with Thermo Fisher Scientific

SPEAKER

Dr. Ken Bishop ’98 Demystifies Cancer in Herrmann Lecture Series Visiting Scholar in the Natural Sciences, alumnus and renowned oncologist Dr. Ken Bishop ’98 delivered the 2017 Robert Herrmann Lectures on Faith and Science. In the spirit of faith and science—on which the lecture series was founded—Dr. Bishop delivered three talks about the history and current state of cancer treatment, along with “the spiritual and personal implications of a cancer diagnosis and how . . . faith can sustain us through that.”

After working with Gordon physics majors who were interning in the Portable Analytical Instrumentation (PAI) division, Thermo Fisher Scientific initiated a two-year partnership with the Gordon Physics Department to research and develop advanced spectroscopic techniques. Mike Dugas, senior director of research and development of field scientific instruments at Thermo Fisher, commented, “It makes a lot of sense for Thermo Fisher based on the quality of the interns we get from Gordon. We think we can build a relationship that gives us access to . . . well-trained students, while also giving the students some experience on the kinds of projects we want to explore.”

SPECIAL EXHIBIT

The Compassion Experience In September, Compassion International set up an immersive exhibit outside Barrington Center for the Arts called the “Compassion Experience,” which allowed visitors to take a tour through the lives and experiences of sponsored children. Compassion gave more than 3,000 tours over the course of three days and received 97 child sponsorships— one of the highest number of sponsorships they’ve ever received in a single week.

Gordon Announces Bible Translation Initiative Gordon will launch a new Bible Translation Initiative for students in the spring of 2019. Following the legacy of linguistic expert and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Dr. Kenneth L. Pike ’33, this initiative is designed to prepare students from all majors to join organizations like Wycliffe and SIL International in a variety of roles after graduation. The new Bible Translation Initiative was unveiled following the “One for All: One Word, Every People” event, which celebrated the work of Scripture translation and its soon-to-be completion. With the mission of completing Bible translation in every language now within reach, the Bible Translation Initiative aims to provide vocational training and financial support for students who will be part of bringing the Word to the 26 million people who have not yet received a translation.

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FACULTY WORK Publications Along with co-author Lynn Cohick, Amy Hughes (biblical studies and Christian ministries) published Christian Women in the Patristic World: Their Influence, Authority, and Legacy in the Second through Fifth Centuries (Baker Academic, 2017) in October. The book highlights many women who were instrumental in early Christianity, such as the early Christian empresses Pulcheria and Eudocia, the protomartyr Thecla and early martyr Perpetua, in addition to influential mothers Helena (the mother of Constantine the Great) and Monica (the mother of Augustine). Illuminating a fuller story of early Christianity than has been shared in the past, Dr. Hughes establishes that, “Women of various regions, backgrounds, situations, and temperaments from the earliest centuries of Christianity assumed authority, exercised power, and shaped not only their legacy but also the legacy of Christianity.” In September, an adapted excerpt from the book appeared online in Christianity Today.

Grants and Fellowships

The Davis Education Foundation awarded Michael Hildebrandt, director of the Center for Teaching Excellence, and Sandra Doneski, associate provost and dean of faculty, $196,033 for their project, “Developing a Learning Outcomes Ecosystem.”

The National Science Foundation has awarded $326,019 to Oleksiy Svitelskiy (physics) and project partner Sean Andersson (Boston University) for their grant proposal, “Collaborative Research/ RUI: Dynamic Control and Separation of Microparticles in Fluids using Optical Whispering Gallery Mode Resonant Forces.”

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Svitelskiy was also awarded $203,529 by the National Science Foundation to research “RUI: Collaborative Research: Acoustic Study of Lattice Dynamics and Elastic Properties in Perovskite Dielectrics and Ferroelectrics” with project partners David Lee (physics) and Gary Pennington (Towson University).

David Lee (physics) received $60,000 in funding from Thermo Scientific Corporation for “Collaborative R&D Agreement on Advanced Spectroscopic Techniques for Analysis of Materials,” a project in which Gordon will work together with Thermo Scientific.

Evangeline Cornwell (biology) and Andrew Logemann (English language and literature) have been awarded two-year fellowships at Oxford for a conference around the topic of biotechnology and faith: the Oxford Interdisciplinary Seminars in Science and Religion: Bridging the Two Cultures of Science and the Humanities II, 2017–19. Twentyfive scholars from the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities will come together over two summers to discuss the “uncharted territory” of ethics in biotechnology, and then foster conversations on their respective college campuses. “If we can start manipulating the human genome and changing fundamental things about humans,” Dr. Cornwall asks, “then what does it mean to be created in the image of God?”

FACULTY WORK

Accomplishments and Awards

In September, Janet Arndt (education) became president-elect of the International Christian Community for Teacher Education, which promotes scholarly exchange, fellowship and networking opportunities, and sponsors the ICCTE Journal.

Bruce Herman (art) completed a two-year commitment for James Davison Hunter’s think tank, “Vocation and the Common Good,” in October. He participated in the arts division’s four intensive gatherings to analyze the issues, ethics, opportunities and role of Christian witness in the world of art. The respective divisions’ reports will be compiled and published.

For two months in the fall, three paintings

by Jim Zingarelli (art) were part of the Interaction of Color Exhibit at the Ann Street Gallery in Newburgh, NY. The gallery was part of the Hudson Valley Jazz Festival, which brings live music and contemporary art together. He also had a painting in Boston’s Bromfield Gallery in November and December.

Janis Flint-Ferguson (education) is a 2017 recipient of the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award.

She is among the first to receive this new award named for Albert Nelson Marquis, a publisher best known for creating the Who’s Who book series. The award celebrates longstanding honorees of the Marquis organization.

In October, Irv Levy (chemistry) was elected to a three-year term as chair for the American Chemical Society’s Division of Chemical Education. Having recently completed a seven-year term of service as the program chair for the Division, his new role will broaden his participation in the ACS and allow him to put a personal mark on the Division.

With the Arabella String Quartet, Sarita Kwok (music) released a recording titled In the Moment: Short Pieces for String Quartet in May under the Naxos label.

The following month, the CD was named “Album of the Week” by ClassicFM, and in October was reviewed by the leading string performance periodical The Strad magazine.

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A Sacred Tenure HONORING THE LEGACY OF DR. MARV WILSON After 55 years of dedicated service to Gordon and Barrington, the beloved Dr. Marv Wilson, Harold John Ockenga Professor of Biblical and Theological Studies, will retire in May. Over the years, Marv has touched the lives of thousands at Gordon and beyond—in religious communities around the North Shore and 5,500 miles away in Israel. His influence is profound, and his legacy will live on long after the last of his Gordon days.

THE LIGHT THAT MARV SHINES

AN IMMEASURABLE INFLUENCE

Marvin Wilson epitomizes Christ’s teaching: “Let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16b).

Marvin’s light shines ever so brightly.

So many people stand in debt to Marv Wilson, and I am one of them. Marv hired me at Barrington College in 1970 and so I first knew him as my employer. I could not have imagined walking into a position where daily I taught with people who became dear friends such as Bill Buehler, Terry Fullam and Carlton Gregory, not to mention Marv Wilson. Marv quickly became a friend and colleague and introduced me into the world of teaching in a Christian college and into the broader world of scholarship.

Since meeting Marvin in 1982, when we traveled together on a pastors’ mission to Israel and Lebanon that I funded for evangelical pastors, I, too, have felt the light that Marvin shines. His love for Israel and for the Jewish people sparked our newly discovered friendship and has nourished it for 35 years. Our relationship was one that quickly blossomed from being roommates to soulmates. At the heart of our relationship are Marvin’s genuine goodness and loving care and concern for others.

I was deeply honored to present Marvin with the Lappin Foundation’s first Friend of Israel Award in 2013 for his deep and abiding love for Israel and the Jewish people. People of all faiths and persuasions draw inspiration from Marvin, who is a humble and quiet man. Yet, when he speaks in his booming voice, I imagine it is the voice of God. I truly revere and admire Marvin for the outstanding human being he is. Thank you, Marvin, for shining your light before others.

Robert Israel Lappin manages Shetland Park, a waterfront industrial complex in Salem, MA, and is president of the Lappin Foundation, which funds Jewish living and learning programs and interfaith outreach programs free of charge. He received an honorary doctorate from Gordon in 2017.

I will forever remember the Modern Jewish Study course field trips. Marv allowed me to accompany him on those field trips.

And he made sure that I attended my first annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Biblical Literature, opening my eyes to the possibilities of scholarship.

He became a mentor, teaching me by example the biblical model of servant-leadership. In the vocation of teaching in a Christian liberal arts institution we serve the students who have been placed into our care, and all of these 55 years of teaching Marv has exemplified what that means.

I still recall the day in 1971 when Marv came into my office and informed me that he had accepted an offer to teach at Gordon College. I was saddened indeed to see Marv go, little knowing that in 1985 I would be joining him at Gordon College, having been invited here as a result of the merger of Barrington and Gordon. And 47 years after first meeting Marv I still feel that I am in his debt for his immeasurable influence in my life. And I rejoice in knowing that many people feel the same way and thankfully call Marv Wilson their friend.

Roger J. Green is professor emeritus of biblical and theological studies at Gordon College. A longtime member and a scholar of The Salvation Army, he is the recipient of The Salvation Army’s rarely-bestowed Order of the Founder.

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8

200

15

450

11,000

Years spent as a translator for the NIV, currently the bestselling Bible in the Englishspeaking world.

PBS channels aired Dr. Wilson’s 1999 television documentary, Jews and Christians: A Journey of Faith.

Years of teaching weekly classes each fall at Park Street Church’s “Boston Evening School of the Bible.”

Field trips led from Gordon to the Jewish community on the North Shore.

Students taught by Dr. Wilson to “think biblically about life.”

THE HOLY DETAILS OF LIFE Too often, Protestant Christianity seems to function as a religion of the mind, ignoring altogether bodily realities, constraints and frailties. Similarly, salvation often is spoken of as if it is a habit of mind, instead of a conversion of bodily practices as well.

As an undergraduate, Dr. Wilson made me aware of this false binary in my own thinking. In his teaching, Dr. Wilson often referred to the “earthiness” of the Hebrew Bible, and drew his students’ attention to the various places and ways the text spoke of physical bodies, affections and frailties. Bodies, in the biblical text, are not a source of embarrassment or shame. Rather, Dr. Wilson repeatedly drew our attention to the way the Hebrew Bible made note of every frank detail of our bodies and our lives.

In doing so, he taught me that every detail of my own life could be made holy before God. Before every meal, Jews pray the hamotzee—“Blessed are You, O Lord, King of the universe, who brings forth bread from the earth.” This prayer displays the kinds of connections Dr. Wilson made for us: the God who is king of the universe is concerned with the feeding and nourishment of our own very frail bodies.

My introduction to the Hebrew Bible through Jewish eyes introduced me to this God who was not distant from even our hunger. Even bread could be sanctified, every meal could be a place to commune with the Almighty. I have never forgotten that prayer before meals, and I think of it as I engage the oftenmundane task of feeding the three children in my care. Of all the great teachers that I have had, Dr. Wilson has had the single most significant impact on the way I think, the way I teach and the way I pray.

Kirsten Heacock Sanders ’05 is an instructor of theology at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and served as Marv’s teaching assistant from 2001 to 2005.

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A NOBLE NEIGHBOR “HI, NEIGHBOR!” Polly’s eyes smiled “welcome.”

The rest of her carried a cake, welcoming us to the small neighborhood on Martel Road in South Hamilton.

The year: 1977.

We’d arrived with two small children and a lot of debt from purchasing a Cape Cod style house at more than double the price we’d sold our house for in Michigan.

But good neighbors make good investments and we’d hit the jackpot on Martel: two Gordon seminary professors (Gordon Fee and Meredith Kline), and Gordon College’s Marv and Polly Wilson, plus a street full of kids and other good folks.

Polly and Marv.

Opposites.

Still attracted.

Polly: enthusiastic extrovert, interrupts, finishes sentences, catches herself, laughs and goes on while Marv smiles. She’s the musical score, like a John Williams composition, adding color to the serious, reflective side of Marv’s script, support to his calling.

To know Polly is to know one who’s chosen joy. She’s endured enough pain and suffering to erase her smile and welcoming ways, yet refuses to give in, give up.

Marv would be less than he is without Polly’s love and joyful outlook on life.

More than 40 years have come and gone since Polly showed up. Her cake’s long gone but her welcome never left, even after we moved to campus, and then to Gloucester. To this day whenever I bump into Polly, she reaches to hug and say, “Hi, Neighbor,” as if it’s the noblest of titles.

Perhaps it is.

Who better to know God’s Word than Polly, lover of God, his Word and Marv.

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind . . . and love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:37–38, NIV) Thank you, Polly.

Jan Carlberg is the author of The Hungry Heart: Daily Devotions from the Old Testament and The Welcome Song: And Other Stories from a Place Called Home. As Gordon’s first lady from 1992 to 2011, she and her late husband, President Jud Carlberg, faithfully served Gordon College for 35 years.

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Lightbulb Moments How Ideas Become Things » The Launch Pad » Enterprising Alumni

SPRING 2018 | STILLPOINT 21

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The Launch Pad

The Problem-Solution Model

Five years ago, Dr. Carter Crockett moved his family from Kigali, Rwanda, to the North Shore of Boston to launch the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership at Gordon. As the serial entrepreneur embarked on a new venture, he says, “We took two big risks that made all the difference.”

During its first five years, CEL has engaged more than 1,500 students, challenging them to push the boundaries and build creative confidence while leaning into their passions. CEL’s rapid growth is a result of practicing what it preaches. Each year, the Center has focused its efforts on tackling a single challenge—and finding a real-world solution for it.

First, the Center would be intentionally interdisciplinary. The traditional view of entrepreneurship, Crockett says, is that it’s all about business. “At Gordon, we’ve expanded the definition,” he says, “to match with society’s more recent assertion that entrepreneurship is a kind of creative thinking everyone can wield—teachers, doctors, government workers, nonprofits.”

The inaugural year centered on academics, asking “Will faculty see this as a legitimate part of the Gordon mission?” With the help of a Faculty Council representing nine academic departments, the innovation and social enterprise minor was born, and has quickly grown into one of the leading interdisciplinary minors.

Second, the Center would be self-sustaining. Rather than being funded by the College, the Center was expected to secure donors and resources to stay afloat—an approach that varied from other institution-based centers, but, Crockett says, seemed appropriate for an entrepreneurship center.

Year two focused on students: “Will students respond when we invite them to engage?” More than 100 students participated in the inaugural Social Venture Challenge in April 2014, which has awarded $10,000 per year to student start-ups.

The two things that seemed riskiest at the outset have become defining characteristics of CEL. Since the Center’s founding in 2013, it remains the only self-sustaining, interdisciplinary entrepreneurship center among Christian liberal arts colleges.

According to Crockett, “There might actually be no better place on the planet to nurture faithful founders than at a Christian liberal arts school, where students are asked to think deeply about how to address the needs of a broken world.”

A 5-YEAR CELEBRATION

Join a special anniversary edition of the Social Venture Challenge on April 19, 2018, when CEL will announce the Alumni Entrepreneur of the Year and the Faculty or Staff Innovator of the Year.

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The following year was about students, too—prospective students.

“Could entrepreneurship offer an added reason for prospective students to choose Gordon?” they asked. The Forrester Venture Fellows program was introduced, creating a first-year, cohortbased experience culminating in a trip to San Francisco and Silicon Valley.

With robust programming established, the Center turned its attention to the books in year four and asked, “Can we selffund beyond the seed capital of the initial donor?” Thanks to the generosity of individual donors, 100 percent of this year’s operating expenses are covered.

In this milestone year, the Center is asking, “How do we institutionalize the gains of the prior four years?” as it seeks to expand campuswide involvement in leading and shaping the Center.

Along the way, CEL has given rise to several other initiatives: Open Coffee, an opportunity to hear from an experienced entrepreneur at Gusto Café in Beverly every week; an entrepreneurial mentorship program; a speaker series that has welcomed Kate Spade VP Sydney Price and HOPE International President Peter Greer; and a summer seminar on international development in Rwanda.

Impassioned Ideas Beget Impact

The Idea Behind Ideas

While the allure of start-up culture is attractive, entrepreneurship is about more than innovation—it’s a matter of creative restoration. “This part of the world slants toward social causes, social justice,” Crockett says. “Our student body certainly does.

What we’ve tried to do is equip students to do what they are interested in.”

WHAT MAKES A GOOD IDEA? “The truth is,” Carter Crockett says, “identifying great ideas is very difficult to do.” It’s why most ventures fail, but also why CEL encourages students to start early and “to be bold enough to risk failure, since that is how profound advances are found.”

It’s why “we invite every single student on campus to get a feel for what it is to chase a vision, to launch your own thing,” he says.

“Everybody can benefit from enhancing their creative capacities.”

And in turn, others benefit. Social Venture Challenge winners and other CEL participants have gone on to launch companies, nonprofits and ministries—translating their personal convictions into tangible actions with real impact.

The old adage still rings true: If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Finding the best ideas invariably involves risk and persistence. But more than a bullish spirit, it also requires a listening ear. “The best arbiter between good and bad ideas is the audience for which it is intended,” says Crockett. “The market can be harsh, but it doesn’t lie,” so “be humble enough to ask questions before you build your solution.”

Damilola Junaid ’14 launched the ARISE Africa Foundation to fight the societal stigma against STD testing in Nigeria. Brooke Fryer ’15 manages a fair-trade home goods line called Anugra, which employs (and empowers) impoverished women in India.

Anna Obert ’16 helped support operations for FOND Bone Broth, a health food start-up founded by her sister, Alysa (Obert) Seeland ’11, and brother-in-law, Isaac ’12. Richard Teunis ’17 started Gravity House to counter typical college party culture by hosting alcohol-free parties.

WHAT TAKES A GOOD IDEA FROM THOUGHT TO REALITY?

“Entrepreneurship is a call to grassroots leadership,” says Crockett, “to dig deep, reach out and start up.” www.gordon.edu/cel

Since CEL’s launch Social Venture Challenge

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students

majors

$40,000 awarded Social Enterprise

#1

multidisciplinary minor

Engaging

1,500+ students

teams

33+

entrepreneurial mentors matched with students

150+

off-campus events

Immersion

37

students to Rwanda

10

global internships

20

students to Silicon Valley

Start with a passion or conviction, and shore it up with determination—strong enough to endure the inevitable challenges and obstacles. Then, “put down the pen and pick up a hammer,” Crockett says. In other words, stop theorizing and start building; the best entrepreneurs learn on the job.

“We invite students to a good struggle and they convert their best ideas into viable ventures,” Crockett says. “Such a struggle is a necessary step, resulting in better ideas and better founders.” The average entrepreneur may be told “no” dozens of time before they finally hear a “yes.” The best will have enough passion for the cause to see it through and invite others to join in.

SPRING 2018 | STILLPOINT 23

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Enterprising Alumni Meeting Human Needs ANDREA POLNASZEK ’94 When Andrea Polnaszek witnessed a four-year-old boy see trees for the first time thanks to his new glasses, she was convicted. It felt like a modern version of the miracle in Mark 8, when Christ Jesus touches the blind man once to make him see partially, then again to see fully. “I believe the Church is the answer to our country’s and the world’s social issues,” she says with confidence.

The professional therapist and her husband founded Touched Twice United in 1996, with a mission of “meeting human needs in Christ’s name” by utilizing skills within church congregations.

Their nonprofit provides free clinics featuring services from optometry and dentistry to haircuts and clothing distribution.

“Touched Twice was really born from the idea of touching people once to meet their physical needs, and then looking for an opportunity to share the gospel, which is forever a change,” she says. “Your tooth will hurt again, your glasses will break, you will be hungry again, and God is the only thing that will completely satisfy.”

Groups who volunteer at the clinics extend their reach beyond physical needs by demonstrating love and care. “Touched Twice is a ministry where I could touch someone and then trust that God would do the other parts of it, and that the person would ask, ‘Why are you actually bending down to look me in the eyes and pay attention to who I am?’” she says. “For me, it’s ‘Because Jesus first loved you, and he first loved me, and I want you to know that.’”

With overwhelming demands for Touched Twice’s services, Andrea says many organizers grow overwhelmed. Resonating with the exhaustion, Andrea turned her attention in 2011 to her tired volunteers and developed The Elijah Project, a workbook based on God’s provision of rest for Elijah in the Bible.

“People grabbed hold of the idea,” she says. “Not just the Bible story, but the application of, ‘How do I do that in my work . . . so that I’m healthy and opening myself to let God heal all of me, so that all of me can be used?’”

The biblical message of The Elijah Project reached an even wider audience when Andrea’s Hollywood filmmaker sister and brother-in-law requested her help writing a faith-based film.

Carefully assessing her audience and aiming to create a relatable, female-driven story of Christian faith in everyday life, Andrea incorporated the workbook into the 2015 film, Catching Faith, which streamed on Netflix for a time and was distributed in Latin America.

A little boy receiving glasses and seeing trees was just one in a series of critical moments as Andrea followed her ambition to address the world’s social needs. Although she did not realize it at the time, she says, her Gordon education equipped her with a transformative worldview that would inspire empathy and a passion for service.

“No work,” Andrea says, “will have more cause than the cause of Jesus Christ.” touchedtwiceunited.org

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Dress Classically, Innovate Boldly BENJAMIN ENG ’93 Times were tough during the dot-com collapse of the early 2000s. Newly married with a toddler and a baby on the way, Benjamin Eng, a computer programmer at the time, got creative—by returning to his roots in classic clothing.

As a teen, Ben had developed an affinity for fine apparel while working for a men’s clothing store. Determined to upgrade from the hand-me-downs of his three older siblings, he frequented sale racks, searching out the best he could afford with the little money he had.

Once again on a budget as he waded the stock market crash, Ben was back to scouring stores for bargains—this time to sell on eBay. He quickly discovered a ripe market for high-end apparel at lower prices, and soon a new ecommerce venture was born. “A year later,” he says, “I quit my programming job to run eHaberdasher.com full-time,” growing it from its clearance-rack beginnings to a direct source of high-end goods from Italy.

Eight years into eHaberdasher, Ben says, “I was having difficulty sourcing men’s suits that were made with a certain quality but at a reasonable price point.” So, once again, he got creative— by leveraging the resources and connections he had established during his many business trips to Italy. “I decided to design my own line of tailored clothing,” the Benjamin line, using “small runs of beautiful Italian fabric” for suits, shirts and ties.

“Selling the Benjamin line alongside the most highly revered luxury artisanal Italian brands made it immediately trustworthy to my customers,” he said.

“It’s fast becoming the biggest part of my business.”

Five years ago, Ben and his family moved to London. He launched a European arm

of eHaberdasher, opened a brick-and-mortar store in Wimbledon and tried his hand at a new home line, Sartorial Home, utilizing fabric ends from high-end garments for throw pillows and other accessories.

His time in London has been a rollercoaster of understanding cultural differences and working to meet the needs of his new clientele while still providing support for his U.S.-based office and warehouse. “Amidst the ebbs and flows of running a business and keeping a balanced life,” he says, “my faith is integral to what I do and what sustains me.”

“Through the stresses, through the challenges, through the failures, it’s always helpful for me to take a step back and see life through the lens of having a faith that is focused more on eternity than just the present. My time at Gordon helped to galvanize my faith.”

And it helped provide practical experience through two co-ops—one at a retail bank and the other at the Harvard Coop, working as assistant manager of the men’s clothing department—that would serve him as he advanced to Ralph Lauren, Southwick, Nordstrom and eventually eHaberdasher.

“Fashion is fleeting,” he says. “Stay classic and buy quality, especially if you can get it at a good value. I still wear clothing that I’ve had for over 15 years!” ehaberdasher.com thewardrobewimbledon.com

SPRING 2018 | STILLPOINT 25

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Asperger’s Are Us: Confidence Through Comedy JACK HANKE ’17 After appearing in a Netflix documentary, life has been busy for Jack Hanke. His comedy troupe of four openly autistic friends, Asperger’s Are Us, has traveled the U.S., Canada and Europe with their absurdist sketches—but, as their tagline goes, they don’t want your pity.

“We’re not interested in being advocates,” Jack says. “We’re interested in producing comedy for its own sake.”

After cracking a quick joke, Jack recounts when the group met at summer camp as kids and developed a strong bond through their common senses of humor. Friends since then and fellow performers since 2010, ears perked when their one-of-akind group started performing comedy as “Asperger’s Are Us.” Local and international press coverage led to an eponymous documentary directed by Alexandre Lehmann and produced by the Duplass brothers, which premiered at the SXSW Film Festival in 2016.

“A few strangers have recognized me, which is kind of weird,” says the Newburyport, MA, native, whose other claim to fame is editing Wikipedia’s “FBI’s Most Wanted” page to reflect the fact that Osama bin Laden was dead. In the immediate wake of the documentary’s appearance on Netflix, the buzz was big. Fan mail started to pour in from viewers who resonated with the story.

“It’s excellent if people see our show and as a result realize that autistic people are capable of being hilarious,” Jack says, “but

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ideally that’s something that they would have known already.”

Though he wishes the documentary had focused more on the art of comedy than on the friends’ journey with Asperger’s, Jack does not make light of the situation—besides his jokes about being an “Aspie.” For the English and political science grad whose Gordon experience included studying abroad in Oxford, the College community helped to affirm his larger-than-life character, and overcome insecurities.

“I think Gordon gave me the confidence I needed . . . because I felt so loved and accepted and appreciated for who I was here,” he says. “You need confidence to be a good performer—as well to overcome speech impediments, which Gordon also

helped me do—and I think that’s been crucial for my development as a performer.”

Being able to call himself a professional comedian has caused Jack to re-examine his self-image. “I’ve always seen it as more of a hobby than a passion, really,” he says.

“I never expected it to get this big—I don’t see myself as a performer or a businessman by vocation at all . . . but whenever I’m feeling bad about myself I can think about how many people have said they’ve been touched and inspired by this over the years.”

While recognizing and appreciating Asperger’s Are Us’ role in breaking barriers, for Jack and his colleagues, it all comes down to comedy. “I guess being a Christian,” he says, “is about making good art in every sphere of life.” aspergersareus.com

Musician and Inventor: Let there be light… for sound BOB WEIL ’85 In 1988, three years after graduating from Barrington (now Gordon College) and during his time on a worship team at a church in Los Angeles, Bob Weil bought a guitar volume pedal that was driving him crazy. For Bob, it was missing two things: a smooth 0–10 scale to mark incremental volume levels and a way of recognizing each volume level visually—a feature that would allow a musician to gauge sound not just by ear, but by sight.

In August 1998, it looked like Visual Sound was going to have to close its doors. Then, two weeks later, a couple of European distributors faxed in large orders for Visual Sound distortion pedals because they were selling so well in Germany and Great Britain. Since then, Visual Sound (now Truetone) has become a respected effects pedal company and has emerged as the #1 power supply company for musicians.

Truetone’s effects pedals like Jekyll & Hyde, Route 66 and H2O have been used on recordings by U2, Aerosmith, Bruno Mars, The Fray, Weezer, Blue Man Group, OK Go and Hillsong United, among many others. truetone.com

Since such a pedal did not yet exist, Bob decided to make one.

But as a musician and business administration grad, he had little mechanical knowledge of how to build it. Googling instructions was out of the question, given that it would be two years before the emergence of the World Wide Web and 17 years before YouTube. So, he frequented the library and learned to make his ideal guitar pedal by reading everything he could about building electronics.

With his new knowledge and a soldering iron, he came up with the prototype for Visual Volume, a pedal that helps guitarists gauge sound level via 10 LED lights, representative of the 0–10 scale that Bob had been searching for years earlier. In January of 1995, he started manufacturing guitar pedals under the name of his new company Visual Sound.

But even with a good product, Visual Sound experienced “a brutal first few years,” Weil says. Creating guitar pedals was a huge engineering challenge, the market for such a product was extremely limited, and, without investors, start-up capital was in short supply.

“Shortly after starting my business, [the words of] Tim Stebbings— the professor who taught my Small Business Management class—were constantly ringing in my ears: ‘Never start a business under-capitalized,’” says Weil, “which is, of course, exactly what I had done and why we were quickly falling into the debt spiral in those early days.”

SPRING 2018 | STILLPOINT 27

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Empowering Women Through Education KAITLYN TRABUCCO ’07 When Haiti was struck with a disastrous earthquake in 2010, Kaitlyn Trabucco left her comfortable life in America to aid its victims. There, helping female entrepreneurs jumpstart their businesses, Kaitlyn realized a single difference between her and the women she was working with: education. It was then that two missions were instilled in her heart: to empower female entrepreneurs and make education more accessible.

Kaitlyn’s spark of inspiration led to Educents, a multi-milliondollar website she co-founded in 2013. This award-winning and record-breaking marketplace for educational tools distributes roughly 20,000 unique products from about 3,000 sellers—97 percent of whom are women. Some of Educents’ top sellers are women who started creating education materials independently, and now run businesses pulling in about a million dollars in revenue.

“It’s a mom who was staying home with her kid and was frustrated with what they were learning in school, so she made her own app or download, wrote her own book or curriculum, or developed a different learning style; or it’s a special needs teacher who had developed her own resources or her own game for kids with autism,” Kaitlyn says of the typical seller using Educents as a platform.

An ambitious innovator herself, Kaitlyn goes against the tide of a male-dominated industry in San Francisco. One of the seven percent of female entrepreneurs in a venture-backed company, she says the best business lessons she ever learned were not while starting a business or earning her MBA—they were on the Gordon lacrosse field. “You learn how to win, you learn how to lose, you learn how to compete, you learn how to pull strength out in others and put them in the right places where they belong,” she says. “I could go on and on.”

Learning to lose is an important lesson and a reality that Kaitlyn is not ashamed to admit. “It’s really easy to talk about the highlights, and I feel like so many entrepreneurs . . . are talking about the highlights, but what they’re not talking about are the lowlights and the really difficult moments.”

Having encountered two rounds of layoffs, hackers and even sexual harassment cases at Educents, Kaitlyn finds comfort in her community and in her faith. “Those are the moments where I felt the most that God was there and that God wanted Educents to succeed,” she says. “Those are the moments where I learned the most, and where my confidence came from.”

Addressing Gordon upon receiving the Alumni Entrepreneur of the Year during Homecoming last fall, Kaitlyn gave a rally cry for Christians to lead boldly in faith.

“We really need Christians sitting at the top of companies and being the ones making decisions, because it trickles down and affects everyone’s everyday life,” she says. “If I can treat people the way I believe Christ would want people treated, I think we can set a standard and change a lot of business ethics and policies in this world.” educents.com

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Opening The Castle Board Game Café: The North Shore’s New Haunt KEVIN ’09 AND RYN GRANT ’10 At The Castle, the North Shore’s very own board game and trivia night café in Beverly, MA, you’ll likely find yourself doing things you never thought possible— like giving your friends some bad tattoos, traveling back in time to solve a mystery, or killing off your family members through a series of unfortunate events Lemony-Snicket-style.

The Castle is the brainchild of Kevin and Ryn (Brunell) Grant. As Gordon students, they were dismayed by the lack of offcampus spots where they could have fun without overstaying their welcome. So, four to five years after graduating, they created one.

“The concept was to create a space where people could come and just hang out,” Kevin says. Students, couples, friends and

families could gather to “build community and build friendships” by “pulling people from their screens in their homes to go out and do something communal. The board games were kind of added onto that.”

Before 2010, board game cafés were few and far between, which gave the Grants a niche and a hitch. The market was there, but as first-time business owners, they didn’t have the advantage of learning from peer establishments.

“Neither of us have even worked in a restaurant before,” Ryn explains, “so our experience is minimal. And then board game cafés, in general, are pretty rare so we can’t even run over to the next town to see what another board game café is doing.”

Not only that, but The Castle—like Milton Bradley’s game of Life—meets people at every stage of life, meaning their niche market actually involves a wide range of palates and preferences. Customers are young children, middle and high schoolers, twenty-somethings, families and “older couples who want to have a date night,” Kevin says. But the Grants

have the intentionality, humor and people skills to pull it off.

In the two years since The Castle opened, they’ve created a safe space and a culture of fun through improv comedy nights, photo scavenger hunts, trivia nights on everything from Pixar movies to The Lord of the Rings, gaming marathons to support Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, and Game Makers Nights, which invite local game makers to test, teach and launch their own board games.

Board game cafés may be new to the area, but game-making certainly isn’t.

In 1887, Parker Brothers—the company that created Monopoly, Clue, Risk, Sorry! and Trivial Pursuit—opened their first storefront in Salem, MA, where the Hawthorne Hotel now stands. Now many of their board games can be found among nearly 700 others at The Castle.

“The intention was to be a community center and place where people can feel at home,” Ryn says. “I feel like we are much more invested in the town as a whole, rather than just through our business . . . our plan is to be here forever.” thecastlebeverly.com

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Decoding Disabilities MATT TAYLOR ’06 Dr. Matt Taylor is in the business of turning perceived weaknesses into strengths—with help from NASA and a robot named Dash. As a post-doctoral scholar in STEM education at the University of Central Florida, Matt is teaching kids with intellectual disabilities how to use robotics software.

He explains, “A lot of teachers, even researchers, see this type of work being very high above children with intellectual disabilities,” for whom things like problem solving and adaptability are challenges. But Matt sees them as opportunities: “They have difficulties in these areas. Well, let’s give them something that strengthens these areas.”

By introducing STEM and teaching the basics of coding, “My overarching goal is that everybody has a chance,” he says. “It doesn’t matter their ability or disability, age, race, ethnicity or background.”

Robotics is typically taught in a “learning by doing” fashion—manipulate the buttons on the iPad and see which way Dash turns. “For kids with Down syndrome, that’s not the way they learn best,” Matt says. His research, funded by a grant from NASA and the Orlando Science Center, looks at new or improved teaching methods to make difficult subjects accessible for students with disabilities. One method involved making physical representations of code that look like the software version. Rather than manipulating the technical code, “I wanted them to be able to feel and touch the code, and move it for themselves without having technology as an issue.”

While his research field is relatively new, he’s already seeing results—kids with learning disabilities can and do learn robotics. It’s “that moment” he says, when “all of a sudden, it starts to catch. You start to see it in their work. There’s a little bit of light; they understand.”

His work is inspired by his older brother, who had Down syndrome and died just before Matt was born. “While that was a really difficult time, I’m sure, for my family, I really think God was working in all of that,” he says, “and it set into motion a heart for this field of students with disabilities. Children with Down syndrome, that’s just where my passion lies. It’s always been that way.”

“When I went to Gordon, I went into psychology and early childhood education because I wanted to understand disabilities and the things that affected [people like my brother].”

Matt went on to earn a master’s in education at Salem State University and a Ph.D. in exceptional education, funded by the Department of Education’s Office of Special Education, at the University of Central Florida.

“We hinder a lot of students because as adults we think they can’t handle it yet. I think we need to give them more of a chance to prove us wrong.”

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Relationships Across Enemy Lines PRASHAN DE VISSER ’08 As a young boy who grew up in a country experiencing a brutal 28-year civil war, Prashan de Visser began to internalize the propaganda, ethnic stereotypes and radicalization techniques used by Sri Lankan extremists to manipulate young people into joining their movements.

He realized how easy it was to hate someone, especially when he was told that they were the reason for all the violence.

But he learned, in forming friendships with those outside of his religious and ethnic circles—and even in interacting with young terrorist recruits—that the stereotypes were wrong.

So he began asking questions: “Why is there so much hate and prejudice across ethnic lines? What led us to hate each other so much to want to annihilate an entire group?”

He explored these questions further at Gordon through formative classes with Dr. Ruth Melkonian-Hoover (political science), Dr. Greg Carmer (Chapel), the late Dr. David Lumsdaine (political science) and the late Dr. John Mason (economics and business). He found a way he could respond to and act on these questions while interning with the Senate Republican Conference in Washington, D.C.—during which God called Prashan to return to Sri Lanka and start a peace movement.

captured the hearts and minds of former British Prime Minister David Cameron and former UN Ambassador Jayantha Dhanapala; reporters from BBC and Al Jazeera; and countries like the Republic of Congo, Kenya, Uganda, Afghanistan and Myanmar—all of which are now a part of Sri Lanka Unites’ global offshoot and sister organization, Global Unites, started by Prashan in 2014.

This year his organization, Sri Lanka Unites, celebrates its 10th anniversary and its 20,000 members who are “committed to standing against violence, hate and prejudice and looking for an equal Sri Lankan identity.” Over the course of the last decade, this peace movement has

are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God’ . . . I think wherever you are,” Prashan says, “whether in the United States or in the Republic of Congo, that mandate is very clear and the need is more profound than it’s ever been.”

Following the peace model set forth by Sri Lanka Unites, Global Unites exists In preparation, Prashan wanted to find to inspire, connect and equip a new how he could inspire Sri Lankans to be part generation of peace builders in places of the solution—to join in the journey of where war has typecast a nation as peace and reconciliation. He found that “dangerous” and only dangerous. Global “70 percent of Sri Lankan youth didn’t have Unites stands with the youth leaders in a friend outside their ethnicity or religious these countries as they foster relationships group.” Because he knew personally that across enemy lines to break the cycle of “real-life experiences can trump inherited violence and build a greater legacy for their prejudice,” it became clear that he needed nations. to bring the disparate groups together.

“Christ said in Matthew 5, verse 9, ‘Blessed

globalunites.org SPRING 2018 | STILLPOINT 31

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Modern Day Abolitionist

whole-person care and a place of refuge for victims of sex trafficking who want to break free from “the life.”

SARAH (DURFEY) DUNHAM ’09

In 2009, as Amirah was getting started, she says “I don’t think there were any other Christian faith-based ministries directly related to fighting human trafficking.” So, she started the Abolitionist Network at the Emmanuel Gospel Center as a connecting point—an umbrella that other start-ups could come under as they launched.

“Law enforcement . . . knew where trafficking was going on, but they didn’t go in and rescue the victims because they didn’t have anywhere to put them,” says Sarah (Durfey) Dunham. “My blood boiled . . . how can you leave them?”

How can you leave them? It’s a question that Sarah’s been asking for 10 years as she’s worked on the front lines of fighting human trafficking in Boston and New England.

Just after graduating from Gordon, Sarah co-founded the Massachusetts chapter of the national Not for Sale campaign against modern slavery. The state chapter later became the Massachusetts Coalition to End Human Trafficking, a broad interfaith network combatting sexual and labor exploitation and supporting survivors.

Soon after, she was part of a small team that launched a safe house, Amirah, in the Greater Boston area. Amirah now works closely with law enforcement to provide

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The grassroots effort to find and connect churches, agencies, service providers and passionate individuals around an important cause paid off. “This past spring, there were 18 Christian ministries focused on fighting human trafficking, all in different ways, but all connected . . . and 30 churches connected to the network.”

As the force around the human trafficking fight grows, it’s important to not only address the symptoms of the issue, but the core of it, Sarah says. “At the root of human trafficking is broken relationships and broken systems . . . people fall through the cracks” and battle addiction, abuse or incarceration.

“They don’t have anybody in their life that’s rooting for them and supporting them,” but “I think that story can be changed through spaces of love and relationship.”

Now she and her husband, Jared, who has worked with homeless youth around the world, are on a new journey to find—or create—those spaces.

“I realized how interconnected the exploitation of the environment is to . . . the exploitation of vulnerable people,” she says. So, “we packed up all our stuff into a car top carrier we call ‘the attic’ and . . . we’re living in our van, traveling and visiting different permaculture farms, ecovillages and sustainable communities,” she says.

The goal is to learn about sustainable farming, and eventually use that as a ministry of hospitality to people who are at risk or in recovery. “Creating a space for them to belong, where they can contribute . . . and take care of this planet . . . a space where everyone is welcome.” sarahbdunham.wixsite.com/ pursuingwholeiness

The Winding Road to a Creative Arts Emmy Award SHELBY SUNDLING LATHROP ’96

work that earns an Emmy. The Creative Arts Emmy Awards honor behind-thescenes folks for technical and artistic achievements in television. In a way, it’s an unsung hero award, honoring the people whose creative talent brings things to the small screen.

When the glittering stars of Hollywood accept awards, they always seem to say, “It’s an honor just to be nominated!”

Shelby Sundling Lathrop can testify that it is an honor just to be nominated—but it’s even better to win a Creative Arts Emmy Award.

As line producer, Shelby manages the nuts and bolts of broadcasting a show— budgets, logistics, crew hiring and information dissemination. “The budget’s always a challenge,” she says of the shows.

“Everyone has a million-dollar dream, and I have five dollars in the pocket.”

The freelance TV producer has worked on Creative Arts Emmy Award-winning gigs like the Super Bowl Halftime Show in supporting roles such as production manager or associate producer, depending on the project. But in 2017, it was her name on the Creative Arts Emmy for “Outstanding Creative Achievement in Interactive Media within an Unscripted Program” as supervising producer of The Oscars: All Access, the online experience to the Academy Awards main show.

It wasn’t a direct journey from Wenham to Hollywood for Shelby, but rather a series of interests, relationships and opportunities that paved the way. The business administration grad became enthralled with the world of media during a summer internship with Trans World Radio on Guam. From there, her career snowballed and transformed from radio to television in a series of classes, internships and jobs. A Christian College Consortium program with Asbury College qualified her to work with the host broadcaster for the 1996 Summer Olympic Games.

Another Gordon internship connected her

Despite the glitz and glam of award nights, Shelby says it’s not so glamorous doing the

to her first full-time job with CCM Radio, producers of CCM Radio Magazine and The CCM Countdown with Gary Chapman.

Shelby excelled in broadcast management positions. Because “the industry” in Hollywood is notoriously small, Shelby worked her way up and built a good reputation by working on TV shows like Foxworthy’s Big Night Out. It wasn’t long before she was working on her first Oscars.

When it was her turn to receive an award, Shelby was struck by the support of her tight-knit community. “Sitting in this audience. . . all of my bosses and my colleagues were there,” she says. “The lighting designers of the Super Bowl Halftime Show won and it’s like, ‘There’s my team!’ Even though one department might not have won an Emmy, there was still this sense of camaraderie and cheering each other on.”

“My lightbulb moment was really early in my career, and the rest has been a really cool journey,” she says. “Sometimes, I think, ‘Who am I that I get to work the Super Bowl and the Oscars and these other marquee names among real industry leaders?’ I’m really fortunate.”

SPRING 2018 | STILLPOINT 33

STARTERS

NEWS

FACULTY

FEATURES

ARTICLES

ALUMNI

50 YEARS OF MUSIC AT GORDON

MUSIC MILESTONES MUSIC MILESTONES 1967—Dr. Alton Bynum begins the music degree program (including the B.M. in Music Education and B.A. in Music) with five music major students. Several tours to England with the Chamber Singers soon commence.

1968—With a newly minted graduate degree from Northwestern, Kathleen Palmquist is welcomed as Dr. Bynum’s first faculty member.

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1970—The Department of Music is examined and given associate membership in the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM), a process that typically takes 15 years; the beloved Dr. Rice Nutting rejoins the Gordon community to teach theory and organ after previously serving on the music faculty from 1952 to 1964.

serving current music faculty member, joins the Department of Music.

1990—The annual Christmas Gala is born, and a music minor becomes available.

1982—Pianist and composer Dr. Fred Broer becomes chair of the Department of Music.

1991—Harvard, Yale and Juilliard-trained pianist Dr. Mia Chung joins as professor of music and artist-inresidence, serving for the next two decades.

1975—NASM grants full membership.

1989—A B.M. in Music Performance degree is added.

1981—Professor of Music and Director of Bands Dr. David Rox, now the longest

1988—Tom and Susan Brooks are welcomed as chair of the Department of Music and voice professor, respectively, and serve for 23 years.

1999—Dr. Sandy Doneski, an award-winning music educator, joins the faculty as associate professor of music and later becomes director of music education, dean of faculty and associate provost; the Alton and

A SPIRIT OF HUMILITY, A LEGACY OF EXCELLENCE

A VISION FOR THE NEXT 50 YEARS

A Tribute to Dr. Alton C. Bynum, founder of the Department of Music

By Dr. Sarita Kwok, Chair of the Department of Music, Associate Professor of Music and Creative Artist-in-Residence

Long before the A. J. Gordon Memorial Chapel existed, a humble group of budding musicians gathered in an old carriage house on the same lot. Leading the charge was a gifted musician and visionary thinker named Alton C. Bynum.

Bynum joined the Gordon faculty in 1964 before the Department of Music was officially established. As with many things in his life, he took to building the Department with grit, excellence and humility.

Born into poverty in rural Alabama, Bynum ran away in his early teen years and was taken in by a teacher who supported his zest for learning and his interest in music. He was the first in his family to finish high school and went on to earn degrees at Toccoa Falls College, Nyack College, Boston Conservatory and New Orleans Baptist Seminary School of Music. Bynum served at Gordon for 35 years, growing the Department of Music from its first five students to thousands of majors and non-majors since then.

But for him, music was never the end goal. “You’re molding not only musicians, but you’re molding character,” Bynum said.

Through long hours and a lasting vision, “You’re molding work ethic, and also trying to express to them who gave them their talent to begin with and why they should do all of it not just for themselves but for Christ.”

Learn more at www.gordon.edu/bynumlegacy

Judith Bynum Scholarship (awarded to a rising senior with the highest cumulative GPA) is founded.

2000—Thanks to the generosity of longtime trustee and former Raytheon CEO Tom Phillips, the stateof-the-art Phillips Music Center opens its doors; the Thompson Chamber Music series, a precursor to the Alton C. Bynum Recital Series, debuts in the new Phillips Recital Hall.

2003—Graduate music education begins.

2004—The Music Guild, a giving society now called Friends of Music at Gordon, is launched to support music initiatives.

2005—The New England Intercollegiate Band Festival is hosted at Gordon—the first of 10 times.

2006—The Adams Piano Series, supported by the Stephen and Denise Adams Family Foundation, brings world-class piano performances to Gordon’s campus.

What an incredible opportunity we have this year to celebrate God’s goodness to the Gordon College Department of Music!

The vision that Dr. Alton C. Bynum had over 50 years ago has touched thousands of Gordon students, who have continued to bless others in return.

God has presented us with the honor of nurturing the next generation of Christian musicians—not just in teaching students to master their art, but in shaping them into transformational, live-giving servants who use their music to contribute to society.

In a celebrity-obsessed world, Gordon students march to a different beat, following the charge from Philippians 2:3–4: “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit . . . not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.”

Through leadership in the arts, teaching in public schools, performing at Carnegie Hall and in prisons, and offering music therapy in hospitals, our students are bringing healing to the world through the gift of music.

With exciting new ventures happening in the Department of Music—including plans for a new performance space and arts building, positive changes to our curriculum, new faculty additions and a growing number of students—my hope is that we remain centered on the Giver of these good gifts, and that we mindfully equip and graduate our students to be on mission through music, with hearts ready for service.

2014—Acclaimed violinist Dr. Sarita Kwok joins Gordon as chair of the Department of Music, associate professor of music and creative artistin-residence; the signature Dr. Alton C. Bynum Recital Series is inaugurated in honor of the Department’s founder.

2015—A new Faculty Artist Series begins, with performances by such well-known Boston artists and Gordon instructors as Dr. Alina Polyakov (piano), Rafael Popper-Keizer (cello) and William Kirkley (clarinet).

2016—The first fully funded tour—Gordon College String Chamber Tour to Asia—is made possible by a generous anonymous donor. Ten music majors performed in Korea and Hong Kong.

2017—Concentrations in composition and music in worship are added to the B.A. in Music degree.

SAVE THE DATE 50th Anniversary Concert May 5 at 7 p.m.

A. J. Gordon Memorial Chapel

SPRING 2018 | STILLPOINT 35

STARTERS

NEWS

FACULTY

FEATURES

ARTICLES

ALUMNI

The European Seminar at 60

In keeping with Gordon’s commitment to global service and engagement, Dr. David Franz took a grassroots approach to expanding opportunities for students around the world. With a tight budget and a bold vision, he started the European Seminar and paved the way for dozens of other global programs over the years.

“It was like stepping back in time,” David Goss (history) says of standing on the beach at Normandy. “You were opening a window to the past, if you will, in a way that you don’t get in the textbooks.”

When the late Dr. David Franz (history) launched the eight-week European Seminar 60 years ago, he sought to transform students into citizens of the world. At a time when international travel was generally an activity of the elite and most college students had not traveled beyond the United States, Franz created a once-in-a-lifetime summer experience for Gordon students, which became the first of its kind among Christian schools. “You can’t overemphasize the impact that that will have,” says Goss, who often assisted his father-in-law, Franz, on trips.

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The beach at Normandy was just one of the many settings for contextualized learning. Over the decades of its existence, the famed European Seminar grew to offer five trips each summer: two to Western Europe, one to the British Isles, one through Central Europe and one to Israel. Led by Gordon faculty, the teams followed in the footsteps of Martin Luther and John Calvin, and found rest in the awe-inspiring Swiss valley of waterfalls, Lauderbrunnen; some witnessed Russia behind the Iron Curtain and saw the Balkans before Yugoslavia broke up; and others navigated the deserts of Israel to experience the Holy Land.

It was impossible to keep up with Franz, Goss says. Learning as they traveled, the teams covered ground at a rapid pace; it was not uncommon to visit four major

cities in four days. “Is it Thursday? We must be in Belgium,” Goss jokes.

To make this marathon of an opportunity accessible for college students, Franz strove to keep costs at a minimum: they visited sites with low admission fees and resided in campgrounds and youth hostels; noon meal was a ritual of assembling peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

As a result of Franz’s economic efforts, approximately 160 Gordon students traveled across regions of Europe each year during the program’s existence from 1958 through the 90s. After that, the program was condensed into a two-week alumni trip where former students could relive their memories. Goss says these popular reunions were “a touchstone with

ARTICLES

Story Firstname Lastname ’10

your youth and with a very formative stage in your life while you’re becoming more of a world citizen and more aware of the world around you.”

Over 30 years since following in the footsteps of Reformers on the Western Europe track of the seminar, Karin (Rost) Hensel ’86 still reflects on the many ways in which the trip caused her to examine and fine-tune her beliefs. History came alive and emotions overflowed, she says, especially visiting Dachau Concentration Camp the same day she finished reading Corrie ten Boom’s The Hiding Place.

“These many experiences have honed my own beliefs and have really shaped who I have become,” she says. “Gordon’s European Seminar has given so many students amazing experiences that are linked to history and spirituality, as well as social awareness. Our world was broadened. We learned and became globally aware, all during a magical eight weeks.”

DID YOU KNOW?

In the early years of the seminar, Franz rented space on freight ships for students to travel across the Atlantic.

On land, teams traveled throughout Europe in fleets of VW mini busses.

Students who knew how to drive standard shift could lower the cost of the trip by volunteering to drive the VW busses—

through alpine passes, narrow two-lane roads, blowing desert sands and, in Britain, the other side of the road.

In 1972, the seminar cost $1,245 for auditors, $1,310 for students taking two courses and $1,410 for students taking three courses—including airfare, lodging and two meals per day.

On multiple occasions, Gordon students were arrested in Russia for handing out Bibles.

Fortunately, seminar faculty were able to bail them out.

A program highlight, Laudernbrunnen, was J.R.R. Tolkein’s inspiration for the Middle Earth location, Rivendell, in The Lord of the Rings.

The European Seminar gave way to the Global Education Office, which now manages 10 programs abroad.

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STARTERS

NEWS

FACULTY

FEATURES

ARTICLES

ALUMNI

A review of A. J. Gordon: An Epic Journey of Faith and Pioneering Vision by Kevin Belmonte ’90 Story Rev. Carol Edwards Visser ’57 and Rev. Dr. Richard E. Visser ’58

through his education at Colby Academy, Brown University and Newton Theological Seminary to his remarkable 25-year pastorate at Clarendon Street Baptist Church in Boston.

How many of us have pastored a large church for 25 years, written seven books, composed hymns and hymn tunes, edited four hymnals, chaired a denomination’s mission board, co-edited a world missions journal, spearheaded fundraising drives for missions, preached nationally and internationally, spoken at summer Bible conferences, conducted ministries with college students, served on a university’s trustee board, edited a monthly theological issues paper, created various ministries, founded a missionary training school and helped raise six children? Dr. Adoniram Judson Gordon accomplished all of the above in his epic life’s journey.

Gordon College and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary graduate Kevin Belmonte ’90, noted biographer of British abolitionist William Wilberforce and others, now brings his impeccable research and creative writing skills to carry the reader into the life of a young lad, born in 1836 in a New Hampshire village in the foothills of the White Mountains. This journey continues 38 STILLPOINT | SPRING 2018

Using stories and quotations from many sources, with a sense of underlying affection, Belmonte details Gordon’s many accomplishments. Sources include Ernest Gordon’s splendid biography written following the death of his 58-yearold father in 1895; Dr. Scott Gibson’s doctoral research book, A. J. Gordon, American Premillennialist; and writings of Gordon himself. Belmonte weaves these together—along with Gordon’s wife, Maria’s, informative journal; articles from the magazine The Watchword (Gordon was founding editor); and several books

by Gordon—into a biography that leaves a person reflecting upon his or her own commitment to Jesus Christ. What can one learn from this fully dedicated man’s life and ministry?

The Boston Globe often covered Gordon’s achievements, indicating the community’s respect for and newsworthiness of him and his church. One account that we wish had been included in the biography is the Globe’s description of Gordon’s moving funeral service following his death on February 2, 1895, reported as being attended by 2,500 mourners, including 70 pastors. Many had to be turned away in what was a tremendous display of honor and respect.

Having had the privilege of spending quality time at Clarendon Street Baptist Church in the 1970s before a third building fire in 1982, we can attest that the author has captured much of its essence. From the choir loft where paid

professional singers were replaced with robust congregational singing, to the pews where upper-crust Bostonians eventually sat alongside redeemed alcoholics and prostitutes, we sensed the power of God at work in that sanctuary.

For those who would want to know more about Gordon College, Belmonte covers its humble beginnings in 1889 as the Boston Missionary Training School through to the days on the Fenway in Boston. Readers will not want to miss learning of the stalwart ministry of Maria Gordon following her husband’s death, as she carried on their vision of Christian education, even against severe criticism by some academics, who derisively labeled it a “short-cut plan.”

Particularly noteworthy are the stories of Gordon’s powerful friendship with D. L. Moody and their summer ministry at Northfield, MA. These conferences especially brought Brown, Harvard and Yale students together to hear and respond to the gospel. Also, the Gordons’ leadership roles in England and Scotland during the World Missionary Conference in 1888 are testament to their global mission endeavors.

This biography will inspire and challenge you. Included are helpful aids such as a timeline and listing of Dr. Gordon’s works.

Developing “Lives Worth Leading” is a goal of Gordon College, for which A. J. Gordon is an inspiring role model. This biography by Kevin Belmonte is a “Book Worth Reading”!

Carol Edwards Visser is the daughter of the late Rev. Leonard P. Edwards ’35, who was the last pastor of Clarendon Street Baptist Church (1969–1980s).

REFLECTIONS FOR HOLY WEEK MARCH 25–APRIL 1

Daily devotionals written by Gordon College faculty and compiled by the Center for Faith and Inquiry

PALM SUNDAY

A Hope-Filled People Psalm 31:9–16, Philippians 2:5–11

I dislike aging. I prefer being young and invincible. Remember when life was brimming with possibilities and ideals?

Something shifted inside me post-kids. My desire to nurture and protect them altered the frame through which I saw the world.

Like a veil lifted, suffering was in plain view.

I became increasingly aware of the world’s brokenness. I felt an internal conflict—maybe a crisis of faith. Christians are people of hope, aren’t we? After all, the Scriptures witness to Christ who made all, reconciles all, and one day will redeem all (Colossians 1:15–20). All will be made right.

YET here we wait. I hear a similar cry from the Psalmist, “My life is consumed by anguish and my years by groaning” (31:10a). Where is hope right now?

Karl Barth announces hope in Christ’s humiliation and exaltation (Philippians 2:5–11). God acts toward us in Christ. Christ’s ongoing activity continues to save us from ourselves for Christ’s redemptive purposes.

Yes, we hope amidst suffering because we anticipate full redemption. However, as we wait, we can join the Psalmist’s trust-filled declaration (vs. 14) because God is still acting toward us in Christ through the Spirit redeeming life out of death. Claiming hope means acting in hope-filled ways amidst the brokenness and joining with Christ’s redeeming activity every day. This is the Christian vocation. Hope-filled actions are present signs of our ultimate hope. Maybe, through Christ, we are young and invincible after all.

Sharon Galgay Ketcham, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Theology and Christian Ministries

SPRING 2018 | STILLPOINT 39

MONDAY

Our Anointed Savior Isaiah 42:1–9, John 12:1–11

Isaiah’s remarkable vision of a “light to the nations” would be finally fulfilled not in a nation, but in a person—Jesus Christ. The Gospel of John announced in the prologue that “The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.” The “new things” envisioned by Isaiah would come into being in the life of Jesus, the anointed one. And Mary’s anointing of the feet of Jesus was a timely reminder of that reality.

Lazarus personally experienced the light from Jesus, the anointed one. He who was dead was brought to life again by Jesus and saw the light of day once again. How he and Mary and Martha must have rejoiced to be in the presence of the Christ who one day would be their risen Savior. Lazarus, by word and action, bore witness to that Savior, and, as a reminder that people seek darkness rather than light, John records that “the chief priests

TUESDAY

Christ, Our Only Hope Psalm 71:1–14, I Corinthians 1:18–31

There’s an old hymn I’ve not sung or even thought of for a long time. If my memory serves, two lines go like this: “My hope is built on nothing less, than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.” The passion of our Lord is crystal clear; there could be no salvation for us apart from suffering, no hope for us apart from painful death.

But it’s the hymn writer’s use of the two words “nothing less” that are so arresting. Is he declaring that there is no hope for our candlewick lives except Jesus the Messiah?

Just him—nothing and nobody else? The Psalmist and St. Paul thought so. In the Scripture passages of this day the first says,

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planned to put Lazarus also to death.” But death was conquered with the raising of Lazarus, and would ultimately be conquered with the resurrection of Jesus. And while Judas tried to stop the anointing of Jesus for less than honorable reasons, the anointing continued at Jesus’ command.

During Lent it is good to be reminded that the ultimate message of the gospel is that, in Christ, God’s light has already come into the world, that the anointed Christ is among us, and that no obstacles, even death, can defeat that ultimate truth. The accounts of the raising of Lazarus and the anointing of Jesus’ feet by Mary give us hope for the present and for the future.

Roger J. Green, Ph.D. Professor Emeritus of Biblical and Theological Studies

“For you are my hope, O Lord God, You are my trust from my youth” (Psalm 71:5). The second says that his Jewish brothers’ hope is founded on miracles and the great Greeks’ hope is founded on mind generated wisdom.

But his hope is founded on “Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God— and righteousness and sanctification and redemption” (I Corinthians 1:30).

To suffer much is often to hope for little. Our sufferings are so self-enclosing. Faith requires courage. Courage to trust in Christ alone, for he is our only hope in this life and the next.

Malcolm A. Reid, Ph.D. Professor Emeritus of Philosophy

WEDNESDAY

And It Was Night Isaiah 50:4–9a and John 13:21–32

It is Jesus’ last night with his disciples and the darkness deepens. The shadow of treachery is very near. “Who is my adversary, let him come near me.” Judas keeps company with Jesus and Jesus touches him with his hands, washes his feet, feeds him bread. On this night, the Lord is the servant of his enemy.

“Behold, the Lord God helps me. Who will declare me guilty?” He leaves his betrayer unfettered. Judas is free to leave, urged to leave, urged to satisfy his intent.

Jesus does not fear the accusations of men.

He sets his face “like flint,” because as John

MAUNDY THURSDAY

Resonances of Holy in the Ordinary

If only from reproductions of Leonardo da Vinci’s famous Last Supper, most of us have seen the arrangement of the Last Supper typical in Renaissance art. The disciples sit along the outer side of the table, Jesus at the center (and sometimes Judas alone on the opposite side). In fact, all paintings with this arrangement—there are hundreds—occur as frescoes on the end wall of dining halls in monasteries. They are purposefully designed to imitate or complete how the members of the community were seated for their meals at tables along the other walls. Placed with the disciples, the effect is to associate every meal

says, he knew he had come from God and was going back to God. This is how he can say, in such darkness, “I will be glorified.” He is troubled, surely, but certain of the coming end of shadows, certain of the Father of lights in whom there is no shadow.

This is the glory—the light shining in the darkness, the darkness powerless to stop it.

But first . . . it was night.

Trudy Summers Program Manager, Global Honors Institute

with the Last Supper, hearing the Lord’s final words and actions as though directed to you.

What might happen if we worked up a similar habit of seeking out resonances and parallels between the ordinary places and practices of our daily life and the episodes of Jesus’s life?

What if our own meals (to speak only of food stuff) were suffused with whiffs and memories of the Wedding at Cana, Jesus’s meal with Mary and Martha, his dining with Zaccheus, the Supper at Emmaus, when he was revealed in the breaking of the bread?

John Skillen, Ph.D. Senior Advisor to Global Education

GOOD FRIDAY

His Cross . . .

Our Salvation Psalm 22, Hebrews 10:16–25

Imagine the sense of despair, humiliation and agony on the cross of Calvary as Jesus exclaimed in the words of the psalmist, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me!’

(Psalm 22:1; Matthew 27:46) Why? As we read in Psalm 22, this is not a cry from a sense of hopelessness but a lament to a faithful God. God desires to reconcile humanity to himself and, in his infinite wisdom, he chose to offer his sinless son as a sacrifice for the sin-full world. Thus he (Jesus) was despised, mocked and suffered not for what he had done but for those he came to save. He shared his life for the forgiveness of our sins—that we may have access to God and experience the abundance of his grace (Hebrews 10:19–20). We no longer approach God with guilty consciences,

tear-stained cheeks or veiled faces in shame, but as a people secure in his love and warm embrace. In the words of the author of Hebrews, “Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water” (10:22).

Yes! God demonstrates his love toward us in that while we were still sinners (just when we deserved the consequences of our sins), Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). As recipients of God’s love, then, let us love one another and glorify God in good deeds (Hebrews 10:24, Matthew 5:16).

Dan Darko, Ph.D. Professor of New Testament

SPRING 2018 | STILLPOINT 41

HOLY SATURDAY

On the Brink of Despair and Victory

I grew up Baptist and married into the Anglican tradition. One thing I gained with this change was an expanded Holy Week. We Baptists did branches on Palm Sunday, communion on Maundy Thursday, a somber service on Good Friday, and the glory of the resurrection on Easter Sunday. Saturday seemed a good respite for dyeing Easter eggs and getting new Easter clothes laid out.

But now Holy Saturday is really the focal point of Holy Week. Holy Saturday is the day when the cosmic drama of God’s redemptive plan hangs on the brink of resolution. The despair of Good Friday, with the sun turned dark and the temple curtain torn in two, descends into waiting. His disciples mourn while his body

EASTER SUNDAY

Hope in Suffering

As disturbing images daily bombard our wounded senses, or tragedy smashes the foundations of our own lives, wherein lies our hope? Come resurrection morning, can we sing “Christ is risen!” with joy? Will we proclaim with every fiber of our being that what rages around us is not the last word?

“How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in his excellent Word.” Ah, here we find refuge. We cling to God’s steadfast covenant love that triumphs over grief and pain.

We rejoice in God’s mighty acts, in his strength and salvation (Psalm 118:1–14). “This is the day the Lord has made, and I will rejoice” (Psalm 118:24)—no matter what.

Living on the cusp of disaster, Jeremiah nevertheless heard the Lord declare, “I love you

lies in a borrowed tomb over the Sabbath. But where is Christ? The Orthodox icon of the resurrection shows Christ trampling the broken gates of Hades and pulling Adam and Eve up from their tombs. Christ descends to the dead so that he might rescue the faithful and usher them into Paradise. While those on earth hide in grief, sin and death are being destroyed.

Our Holy Saturday vigil begins dark and somber, but halfway through the lights blaze and congregants ring bells, shouting triumphantly, “Christ is risen!” The waiting is over, and the cosmic victory is at last revealed.

Jennifer Hevelone-Harper, Ph.D. Professor of History

with everlasting love.” God with us! Hope. And God’s people did return to Zion (31:1–6).

Mary, her world shattered in the early morning darkness after Sabbath, wept in anguish.

Asked “Why are you weeping?” she tried to explain her terrible uncertainty. Then, as the “Gardener” lovingly spoke her name, her life was overturned once again—“Rabbi!” “Master!”

With Mary, we hail our risen master. We wholeheartedly affirm the words of the Heidelberg Catechism—“I am not my own, but belong—body and soul, in life and in death—to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.” Therein lies our hope.

Elaine Phillips, Ph.D. Distinguished Professor of Biblical Studies

The Center for Faith and Inquiry at Gordon College is dedicated to forming thoughtful Christians for global engagement by carrying on valued traditions and innovating new ones—such as the Distinguished Visiting Scholars program, Jeffersonian dinners, the Gordon College Symposium and a variety of publications. www.gordon.edu/cfi

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UPCOMING EVENTS

ALUMNI NEWS

Dr. Ken Bishop

Founder’s Festival

Visiting Scholar in the Natural Sciences

April 20–21

March 12, 4:30 p.m.

Various campus locations

Chairman’s Room

Symposium Keynote Address: N.T. Wright

Dr. Nancy E. Hill

April 26, 4:30 p.m.

Distinguished Visiting Scholar in the Natural Sciences and Education

MacDonald Auditorium

March 21, 4:30 p.m.

John Mason Lecture: Dr. Judith M. Dean

Chairman’s Room

May 3, 4:30 p.m.

The Lee Trio

Chairman’s Room

Distinguished Visiting Scholars in the Performing Arts

Department of Music 50th Anniversary Celebration Concert

April 6, 10:25 a.m.

May 5, 7 p.m.

Phillips Recital Hall

A. J. Gordon Memorial Chapel

Theatre Production: As You Like It

129th Commencement Ceremony

April 6–7 & 10–14

May 19, 10 a.m.

Margaret Jensen Theater

Quad

Alton C. Bynum Recital Series

Homecoming & Family Weekend

Desiree Hassler, soprano, with Dr. Brian Lee, piano

September 28–29 Various campus locations

April 13, 8 p.m.

Phillips Recital Hall

SPRING 2018 | STILLPOINT 43

255 Grapevine Road, Wenham MA 01984-1899 www.gordon.edu

CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED

APRIL 23–27

N .T. W R I GHT The Center for Faith and Inquiry Visiting Scholars Series Monday, April 23 and Wednesday, April 25 Chapel 10:25 a.m.

A. J. Gordon Memorial Chapel

Thursday, April 26 Symposium Keynote Address 4 p.m. Reception, Loggia 4:30 p.m. Lecture MacDonald Auditorium, Ken Olsen Science Center

Friday, April 27 The Center for Faith and Inquiry Princemere Forum The Harvard Club of Boston

You’re invited to hear from the eminent theologian and scholar N.T. Wright, professor of New Testament and early Christianity at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. He joins us as the Malcolm Reid Distinguished Visiting Scholar in the Humanities for four events, including the Princemere Forum, a new partnership between the CFI and the Alumni Office.

All events are open to the public. Please visit www.gordon.edu/cfi for further details.