Commencement Chapel 2024
A reading from Psalm 95:1-7 from the New International Version, come let us sing for joy to the Lord. Let us shout aloud to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth and the mountain peaks belong to Him. The sea is his, for he made it and his hands formed the dry land. Come Let us bow down in worship. Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker, for He is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care. Micah 668 says, with what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God. Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with 1000s of rams, with 10,000 rivers of olive oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body? The sin of my soul, he has shown you, O mortal, what is good and what does the Lord require of you to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
Reading from 2 Corinthians 9:6-15. Remember this, whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver, and God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work, as it is written, they have freely scattered their gifts to the poor. Their righteousness endures forever. Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed, and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way, so that you can be generous on every occasion. And through us, your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. The service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord's people, but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God because of the service by which you have proved yourselves. Others will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity and sharing with them and with everyone else, and in their prayers for you, their hearts will go out to you because of the surpassing grace God has given you. Thanks be to God for his incredible gift.
Thank you, Rebecca and Quinton and I just want to take a moment to commend our student leaders to all of you. Quentin and Rebecca are the student council presidents this year, but both the seminary and undergraduate studies have student councils and student leaders who have committed themselves to shape the coming experience of our students in the year ahead. Student Leadership is an integral part of university governance, and so I just commend them to you for the work that they are doing and for the opportunities that they will have to shape and influence and contribute to the year ahead, as I was preparing for this morning, I was mindful that in January, during our first chapel for 2024 I began to introduce in a focused way, our five core Tyndale University values, people, diversity, academics, faith and learning and stewardship. Values reflect what we're known for. They're not the outcomes we value, such as our academic reputation, enrollment numbers or the number of alumni employed in their chosen field. Those outcomes are important, but institutional values are about how we do what we do. Values are intended to inspire our interactions, the way we work together, as we deliver on our mission. In some ways, the values capture what it feels like to study and work at Tyndale. So today is part three of that three part focus we began in January. Let me begin with just a quick reminder. First, our mission statement. If you're not familiar with it yet, you will be, because I read it often at every significant event, because it is important that we always remember why we're here and what we exist to accomplish. Here's the mission statement. Tyndale is dedicated to the pursuit of truth, to excellence in teaching, learning and research, for the enriching of mind, heart and character, to serve the church and the world for the glory of God. Even as I read that statement frequently at the same time, I know that sometimes, when we hear something, often, it can become so familiar that our brains actually start to skip over the words, and we don't necessarily hear it anymore. So today I'm going to read the mission statement again, this time beginning at the end, and working our way backwards to the beginning. And my thanks to Dr Krauss, the dean of the seminary who framed this for the leadership team during our planning day to. A few weeks ago, listen with fresh ears to our mission statement for the glory of God, to serve the church and the world and for the enriching of mind, heart and character. Tyndale is dedicated to excellence in teaching, learning, research and the pursuit of truth. Let that sink in just a little bit for the glory of God to serve the church and the world and for the enriching of mind, heart and character, Tyndale is dedicated to excellence in teaching, learning, research and the pursuit of truth. The mission statement is the very core of why we exist, and it's the foundation of our strategic plan. Our strategic focus this year will be on four key priorities to continue to grow and expand our academic offerings, to grow and sustain enrollment, to nurture holistic student development and enhance stewardship and accountability. These priorities are important because they provide clarity of focus, but our strategic plan as a whole is about flourishing, and it includes the five values I mentioned a moment ago. So in January, we considered people and diversity. In April, we looked at academics and faith and learning. Today, our focus is on stewardship. Specifically. We're going to continue the conversation about what we're known for and how we weave our values into all that we do to fulfill our mission as a Christian university, here's how we define the value stewardship. We've said that we will responsibly develop and carefully manage all of the resources entrusted to us to support the flourishing of people. Tyndale, the environment and the world. What does that actually look like? Well, we've worked to provide some additional information by identifying long term sustainability as one of the six themes in our strategic plan. And it says this, we are reimagining the ways in which we maintain and sustain a thriving academic community, excuse me, community, we are exploring and implementing creative solutions to facilitate and enable our vision as a global Christian university that prepares people to serve the church and the world for the glory of God. We believe that for the glory of God includes not only what we say and do, but also how it is accomplished. And that managing and stewarding all of our resources to the best of our ability contributes to a flourishing, hospitable and thriving university. And so with that in mind, that priority around enhancing stewardship and accountability for the third consecutive year is one of our key priorities. Why is all of this important? And why is stewardship one of our values, a distinct commitment to how we will work together? Well, let's look briefly at the three scriptures that were read to us just a few moments ago by Rebecca and Quentin. First from Psalm 95:1-7, let me remind you what it says. Come let us sing for joy to the Lord. Let us shout aloud to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth and the mountain peaks belong to Him. The sea is his, for he made it and his hands formed the dry land. Come Let us bow down in worship. Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker, for He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, the flock under his care. Clearly from these words, we understand many other aspects of Scripture, we understand that God is the creator of our world. He made it. He holds it in his hands. He cares for it, and he has entrusted its care to us. We are part of that world he created as followers of Jesus. We are. Responsible for stewarding, caring for and wisely using the natural and environmental resources entrusted to us. Most directly. This is evidenced in our care of our physical environment, the property and the facilities we have. We have a beautiful campus. We have a beautiful area of conservation land and the ravine at the back of our property. We've implemented several green initiatives in this building and in the way that we provide our services, and we're continually looking for ways to reduce a negative impact on the environment. That's one part of stewardship. And then we heard from Micah chapter six, with what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with 1000s of rams, with 10,000 rivers of olive oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body, for the sin of my soul? He has shown you, O mortal, what is good and what does the Lord require of you? What does the Lord require of us to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with God?
As followers of Jesus, we are responsible for stewarding, caring for and wisely developing people, our students, staff and faculty, of course, but also people in our extended communities. When we talk about our vision for Tyndale to be a flourishing Christian University, we know that it is not simply for our own flourishing. We are called to contribute to the flourishing of others, and so our Christian stewardship includes acting justly loving mercy and walking humbly with God. That aspect of stewardship overlaps with people, diversity and Christian hospitality. It contributes to our public reputation as a valued and respected post secondary Christian University among academia, the Christian community, the public sphere and with the provincial government, Christian stewardship includes being a university of choice for students who are seeking an excellent education that integrates faith and learning to prepare graduates for employment in their vocations. It includes being known as a good neighbor in our surrounding neighborhood and being a sought after employer for those who share our vision for Christian Post Secondary Education. And finally, we heard from 2 Corinthians 9:6-15. This was the longest scripture portion, so I won't read it all again, but let me draw our attention to a few key things in this selection from Paul's letter to the early church. Paul, of course, was a scholar. We know he was highly educated. He was recognized as having a brilliant mind and able to provide legal, theological and contextual arguments to support his teaching and arguments for Christianity. We are called to use our minds as we live out our faith, and that impacts how we steward our resources, as much as it relates to how we engage with information and our fields of study. In these verses from chapter nine in Second Corinthians, We see aspects of stewardship and accountability. For starters, Paul focuses on generosity, what he calls cheerful giving and its impact, and he assures us that those who are generous will be enriched, not simply for ourselves, but so that we can always be generous, continually generous in ways that will result in thanksgiving to God. Another way to think about this is that, as we contribute to the flourishing of others in Jesus' name, not only will other followers of Jesus be encouraged, others who don't yet know Jesus may turn to him as a result and being continually generous, we often think of what that means in terms of our financial opportunity to give. It also includes our time, our attention. How do we engage with people in those ways as well? At Tyndale, this aspect of stewardship includes. Student supports and services, academic programs and the learning that takes place through them, recruiting, retaining and developing staff and faculty who are committed to the mission and values of Tyndale University, and it includes sustaining a community in which every student and employee can flourish vocationally, professionally, spiritually and personally. Let me just read two verses from that selection from Second Corinthians because of the service by which you have proved yourselves. Others will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else and their prayers for you, and in their prayers for you, their hearts will go out to you because of the surpassing grace God has given you. Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift. Over and over through Scripture, we see the weaving together of themes that we associate with preparing people to strengthen the body of the church and contribute to the flourishing of the communities around us today, we've looked briefly at stewardship as it relates to care of the environment of people and of the gifts that we've been given, there is a knitting together of all five of our core values in service to people and the extension of God's kingdom. It's not one at the expense of the other. They go hand in hand. They're not just nice sounding 21st century phrases. They are grounded in Scripture. They align with our mission, and they provide a visual understanding of what that can look like in action. How we accomplish our mission is just as important as what we actually achieve. It is one story with many parts, each supporting and encouraging the other. Since January, we've now looked at all five of our values, academics, faith and learning, people, diversity and now stewardship. Each of these values is necessary, but none is sufficient on its own. We could not be a Christian university if our academics were not also demonstrated as honor and respect for the flourishing of people. Similarly, we would not be a university at all if we did not intentionally foster an environment in which academics and learning flourish, and we would neither survive nor demonstrate our faith if we did not steward our resources well. In my opening comments this morning, I mentioned that this is the 130th anniversary of Tyndale University. There have been glorious times in our history, and there have been some very difficult periods when the future was murky at best, but here we are standing on the foundations that others established for the glory of God and celebrating a strong start to a new academic year. We praise God for this gift and the legacy that is entrusted to us. Let's never lose sight of God's great love and faithfulness. Let's remember Jesus Christ, who came into our world all because of his love for every person. Let's be known as scholars and thinkers and faithful representatives of God's truth, who use our scholarship and education to benefit and build up others who wisely steward and care for all that has been entrusted to us, and who are equipped to imagine possibilities we haven't yet seen and covering it all. Let's be known by and for our love through Jesus Christ, God bless you.
