Inaugural Address: Dr. David J. Gyertson, April 6, 2001

Taylor University
April 6, 2001
David J. Gyertson, Ph.D.

The Taylor University Experience

In these first months of our adoption by the Taylor family, Nancy and I have discovered a vibrant DNA of entrepreneurial thinking, creative application, compassionate caring and courageous risk-taking.

Since 1846, Taylor University has been characterized by people dedicated to quality, Christ-centered higher education for the effective preparation of the next generation of professional, societal and spiritual leaders. Here there have been succeeding generations who saw no conflict between academic excellence, professional competence, social relevance and spiritual vitality. Their search for truth was fueled by the uncompromised conviction that such pursuit always leads to the One described in Scripture as the way, the truth and the life. Their commitments and convictions produced a faculty that believes, with God's help, it is possible both to stretch the mind and cradle the heart without compromising conviction, integrity or quality.

Here there have been laborers who faithfully laid the building blocks of scholarship, leadership and Christian commitment. They were a people whose callings were larger than classrooms, libraries, laboratories, offices or boardrooms. They possessed a passion, often costly in time, resources and personal preferences, to see lives not just informed but transformed.

Those whose lives shaped the missions of Taylor University and Ft. Wayne Bible College were people with a vision larger than themselves. They were outside the box thinkers responsibly and courageously embracing new possibilities. They were among the first to take up the challenge of providing women with full collegiate opportunities for professional preparation and development. With the witness of an escaped African slave who took the name Samuel Morris and the global vision of Methodist-Episcopal Bishop William Taylor, the University's mission for world outreach and racial justice became an integral part of the institution's raison d'etre in each generation.

With the dual purposes of exploring the Liberal Arts of classic learning and embracing the biblical foundations of faith-informed living, Taylor University is a place that calls men and women to a journey of Christian discipleship that is Christ-centered, biblically anchored, liberal arts grounded, whole person focused, world engaging, vocationally equipping and servant-leadership motivated. The fruit of such vision has produced thousands of alumni dedicated to ministering the redemptive love of Christ to a world in need through lifetimes of learning, leadership and service.

What a history! What a heritage! What a precious legacy we must use wisely as we now pick up the challenge of translating the vision of those who have gone before us for a new season of unparalleled change and unprecedented opportunity.

For Such a Time as This

The literature of education these days is filled with predictions of what may be the greatest revolution in the history of human learning since the invention of the printing press and the implementation of the public day school. That which just five years ago was viewed as speculative and unlikely has come to pass with promises of greater changes to come.

Teaching at all levels is no longer the primary domain of the traditional educational establishment. Arthur Levine, President of the Teachers College, Columbia University cites six forces that are spurring what he calls the massive privatization of higher education. Among these he includes the rise of an information-based economy, changes in demographics, increases in public scrutiny, the advent of new technologies, the convergence of knowledge-based organizations and a decline of public trust in government. For-profit, corporate and specialty based providers are finding larger opportunities for meeting the educational demands of the 21st century learner.

The very nature of education is changing from a teaching oriented discipline to a learning centered enterprise. Given the value of knowledge as the new universal commodity, education is being called upon to address issues of access, affordability, relevance, utility, lifelong learning and increased demands for tailor-made alternatives available anytime and anywhere.

Many of these changes appear to threaten the means and methods of education as we have come to practice it. However, I am convinced that the expectations and needs of 21st century learners present institutions like Taylor University with new possibilities and opportunities. Some of the most intriguing include combining character with competency, overcoming geographical, racial and cultural limitations and meeting the deepest needs of the human spirit through whole person experiences. Perhaps we of the faith-informed learning communities have come to the educational kingdom for such a time as this.

Faith-Informed Learning in the 21st Century: Speculation & Invitation

In light of all that is unfolding, what might a pace-setting, faith-informed institution of higher learning look like as the 21st century opens? While such speculation is presumptuous in light of the fact that we see through a glass darkly, Taylor University's pioneering, risk-taking DNA requires us to explore such possibilities. Let me share a few of the outlines I am seeing as I peer into this undefined future. Over the next several months, with the help of those who know and love Taylor best, we will discern more fully the shape of things to come

I believe that effective, faith informed learning communities will be led by a generation of faculty who see themselves as models, facilitators and mentors more than curators, dispensers of information and career preparation specialists. Much of what the new learning requires will be better caught than taught. For those whose passion is to both inform and transform, who see their role as that of filling students with the passion to catch God at work in every place, plan, person and purpose, the greatest days for their calling are just ahead.

I believe that pace-setting, faith-informed institutions will provide living and learning experiences that call students to test and examine the core values and underlying assumptions of all that they are engaging. Every discipline will challenge students to think beneath the theory and beyond the experience to answer the why questions of life and learning as well as the what and how. The integration of faith with learning will move beyond the elementary thinking that some have characterized as the Christian glazing of secular hams to the deeper issues of meaning, value and implication that faith-informed investigation can effectively address. Compassion, integrity and transparency will characterize the fruit of such learning where the quality of relationships are as deeply valued as the quantity of skills and the acquisition of competencies.

I believe that the non-traditional learner will make up a significant proportion of our student populations. Our educational and student developmental models will be more effective in addressing the needs of urban, multi-cultural, lifelong and cross-generational learners. We will learn how to integrate as well as celebrate the multi-cultural tapestry of God's human creation embracing the biblical conviction that the Kingdom of God is made up of every tongue, tribe and nation and the mysteries of Truth are to be distributed without regard to race, culture, gender or social position. Such institutions will embrace the new technologies that provide distributed opportunities for learning as a providential gift for reaching every corner and culture of the globe with life-changing truths.

I believe that pace-setting, faith-informed institutions will be places that thoughtfully and prayerfully address the issues of learning and living that best define them. There will be a deeper commitment to find the high ground of essentials and greater comfort with allocating the less significant to appropriate perspective and position. Such institutions will be more pro-active than re-active, more issue reflective than issue driven. They will be places of respectful analysis and reasoned rhetoric because all who seek Truth have settled the essentials upon which unity is anchored and found places of charity where the less essential is freely examined and openly discussed.

The Course to Chart – the Journey to Continue

All of this looms before us with possibilities yet unseen and opportunities still unknown. Taylor University has in its genetic make-up the potential to effectively respond. All that is required is another generation of faith-filled, risk-takers willing, with God's grace and direction, to pay the price and take up the challenge.

We owe these possibilities to the courage and commitment of those who have gone before us. Names like Reade, Gerig, Ramseyer, Rediger and Kesler, along with the hundreds of others who stood with them, remind us that opportunity and possibility combined with fidelity and courage result in fulfilled lives and transformed cultures.

During the first weeks in the Taylor presidency, I found a paragraph in Jared F. Gerig's history of Ft. Wayne Bible College titled A Vine of God’s Own Planting that I have returned to often.

There is something solemn about the passing of a generation, strong of faith and vision, wise of truth and understanding, loyal of conviction and stability, brave of adventure and courage. Their burdens have fallen on the shoulders of other generations; the truths they believed and upheld have become conviction in the hearts of those who have followed; the vision and insight, which motivated them, have propelled others into the work. The challenge still stands to those in the future to become faithful followers of the pioneers who have gone before.

As we continue their journey, charting a course into waters they barely could imagine, let us follow, as they did, the Divine Providence that guided them safely to new and distant shores. Let us enter the 21st century firmly committed to quality, Christ-centered, whole person education so that we might prepare future generations from every tongue, tribe and nation for lifelong learning, leadership and service.