就职演说:忠实地好奇

An inauguration is a daunting idea, a new start, a new beginning, a new transformation. 大学生活也是充满变革的. For the students, these years are transformative because they are filled with choices. My questions to them are: 什么 are you choosing to do with this time? 你的大学生活是怎样的?

在欧文的康考迪亚大学, 所有学生——本科生和研究生, on-ground and online — experience a robust Lutheran, liberal arts curriculum that forms the foundation of the professional programs that are offered. But we do more than prepare students for careers. 我们让他们为终身学习做好准备, 为他人服务, 以及所有职业的道德领导.

It is right there in our mission statement: 欧文康考迪亚大学, guided by the Great Commission of Christ Jesus and the Lutheran Confessions, empowers students through the liberal arts and professional studies for lives of learning, 服务与领导. But how is this mission statement played out day-to-day?

在肯考迪娅, we focus on the holistic integration of all ways of knowing and all ways of being: academic, 精神上的, 社会, 和公共. This is carried out in a thousand different ways — in classrooms, 学生宿舍, 运动场地, 格林学生会, Borland-Manske中心, 教堂和奥兰治县的社区, 及以后.

在肯考迪娅, we do not tell students what to believe or how to believe, 学什么，从事什么职业. But we do help students, individually, to discern their own paths on this journey of discovery. And we help them discover the intersections between their beliefs, 他们的激情, 他们的才华, 以及他们的职业选择.

在肯考迪娅, we develop students who, at their very core, are critical questioners. We want every student to ask deep and thoughtful questions. 我们给他们记者的工具箱:谁? 什么? 在哪里? 当? 为什么? 以及如何?

And we also help them ask deeper and more profound questions: 什么 do you want to be? 你想成为什么样的人? And at Concordia, we ask students to wrestle with the 精神上的 question: Whose do you want to be?

This is a process of self-discovery and transformation. But ultimately, we help the student see that this is not just about them! For a truly enriched life is lived for God and for others.

This leads to different questions: How are you using your gifts to serve others? How are you alleviating the suffering in the world? 你是如何对抗无知和偏执的? And how are you promulgating civility in a broken world? 最终, this process helps students — all students at Concordia — discover their own vocations, 他们自己神圣的召唤.

“忠实地好奇”— why did I pick this inaugural theme? 这就是我们作为路德教徒的宗旨, liberal arts university — generating and cultivating curiosity in our students, 本科生和研究生.

我们想培养好奇心, but we are also a Lutheran liberal arts university and that adjective matters! We want students to be curious, but we want to help them become “faithfully” curious. We do not mean that some questions are off-limits, as if curiosity must be constrained. 没有什么问题是不能问的. We were created by God as rational creatures in His image with a human brain, 人类天生就会问问题.

But what about the others who are connected to this community — the faculty, 工作人员, 管理员, 校董会, 和康考迪亚校董会? 我们接受了这种精神吗? 当然，有些人是这样做的. 然而，作为一个群体，我们好奇吗? 什么 programs should we offer in the twenty-first century to meet the demands of students and their families? 我们怎样才能更好地为他们服务? 我们欢迎第一代学生吗? 什么 about students from under-served communities? 这样的例子不胜枚举.

I raise these as a challenge to the Concordia community. 我们培养学生“忠实的好奇心”.“是吗?? 它从我们每个人开始. How can we lean into serving our students and the Concordia community more faithfully? And it can get personal: how am I serving and loving others? 为什么 has God called me to serve here at Concordia?

忠实地好奇. We are heirs to a rich, deep, 500-year history of people who asked why and how? From Luther in sixteenth-century Wittenberg to Manske, 月亮, 哈特曼, 1976年，施拉姆和霍尔斯特在贫瘠的山顶上, 致众多的信徒, gifted leaders throughout the faculty and 工作人员 who have brought us to this moment in 2020, curiosity flows from our Lutheran Christian faith. 新想法, 尝试新事物, 大胆地走出去, 这是先天的, 基督教创造精神. Each day we start anew, forgiven, restored, able to lean into a newness of life.

So I challenge all of us in this room to be bold, to be faithfully curious. 要勇敢. 尝试新事物. The faculty and 工作人员 at Concordia are exceptionally talented and very smart. There are many terrific ideas that are locked away. 让我们释放它们. 让我们大胆地、满怀希望地走出去. And when we fail — and if we are being bold and creative, we will sometimes fail — we need to forgive and move on. We are children of grace, and as a community we need to extend forgiveness freely and widely. And we need to remain faithfully curious as we wrestle boldly with how to serve our Concordia students, 他们的家人和彼此.

作为这个社区的新成员, I bring one distinct advantage: I see Concordia with new eyes. I can tell you without a doubt that the love and care that you have for students and for one another is palpable. 当然会有挑战和障碍, but this community knows collectively that we provide an exceptional, 全人教育. 他们在智力上发生了转变, 身体上的, 在道德上, and 精神上的ly as they meet Jesus Christ in each of us. 因为我们在这世上是他的手和脚. For this opportunity, we should continually praise God!

It is extremely humbling and a sacred honor to serve alongside all of you as the fifth President of 欧文康考迪亚大学.

Thank you and may God continue to bless our collective mission and this university which is dedicated to living out the Great Commission of Christ Jesus!