Cedarville Magazine, Fall 2019

campus remain committed to the fundamentals of the faith. Without this, a campus can easily slip into a silo mentality, thinking discipleship isn’t everyone’s business. My grandfather pastored a Baptist church. My father pastors a Baptist church. I consider myself a Baptist preacher who happens to serve as a university President. And at Cedarville, I follow previous presidents who were pastors or evangelists. We expect Christlike servant leadership that treats every employee relationship as an opportunity for discipleship. Employee reviews in which strengths and weaknesses are discussed provide life-on-life opportunities to encourage and challenge fellow believers to good stewardship before the Lord. Some may contend that faith and academic disciplines remain separate. Wrong! Our faith affects every academic discipline and every area of life. Those who compartmentalize their faith do not truly understand the task of a Christian university or how faith should influence our beliefs. This means the classroom provides a great opportunity for discipleship in every academic discipline. A right understanding of Scripture informs every academic discipline on campus and if it doesn’t, then that campus is not genuinely a Christian university. For example, the theology of the fall informs the necessity of a separation of powers in political science. The value of life created in the image of God informs our practice in nursing, pharmacy, and health sciences. That God has intricately woven us together in the womb (Psalm 139 ) makes human anatomy a classroom full of worship to our Creator and not a series of facts about another animal that evolved on planet Earth. Each faculty member in appropriate ways disciples students in the classroom with a biblical worldview, revealing how that affects their given discipline. Believing in the authority of Scripture means we reject some areas of a discipline, affirm others, and redeem some secular concepts that have a biblical foundation. This type of education makes a Christian university truly Christian. Without it, you may have Christian teachers conveying a secular education alongside a few Christian traditions such as chapel, worship, and missions trips attached as unnecessary appendages. The students at Cedarville catch this vision. They catch it from our faculty and staff members and implement it in their own lives. Juniors or seniors often decide to remain in small residence hall rooms simply to invest in and mentor younger students. In true 2 Timothy 2:2 style, they pass on what they received upon first arriving on campus. When a campus catches the vision for genuine authentic Christian community and a culture of discipleship, it makes a noticeable difference. In fact, you might say it creates life-on- life discipleship at every level and in every area of the campus. Thomas White is President of Cedarville University. He earned his Ph.D. in systematic theology from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Cedarville Magazine | 5