J.R. Briggs

Taylor University: a formative place in the middle of the cornfields

April 19, 2010

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This past weekend I experienced an incredible two-day blessing: I was invited to return to Taylor University (my alma mater) to lead a few workshops for the 2010 National Student Leadership Conference. I was asked to speak on the Church’s role in cultivating culture (this topic energizes me so I was honored to accept the invitation). While several people thanked me for coming I had to interrupt and correct them: no, no, no. Thank you for giving me an excuse to come back to campus and give back in a small way to a place that’s given me so much. It was a meaningful opportunity – in a very small way – to return the favor.

My time on campus was a meaningful and exhausting whirlwind of less than 48 hours. I don’t think you could pack more into two days. It was so busy, in fact, that I didn’t even get a chance to see all of the campus (and if you’ve been to Taylor, you know my time must have been busy because the campus really isn’t all that big…)

While the primary reason to be back on campus was for the conference, I found myself involved in other meaningful activities.

• The keynote speakers were Scot McKnight and Skye Jethani. Scot and I are friends and it was great to have time to talk and catch up. I also enjoy learning from Scot and came away with some new perspectives from Scot’s keynote addresses at the dinner banquets on the kingdom parables Jesus tells. Skye is the managing editor of Leadership Journal, the pastor’s magazine published by Christianity Today. I’ve wanted to meet Skye for some time. We had a chance to enjoy an Ivanhoe’s shake and talk about issues the Church is facing. He’s an insightful thinker with a keen sense of the Church’s strengths and weaknesses. I was grateful to spend time conversing and learning from Skye. Check out his book The Divine Commodity here.
• I had a premarital counseling session with Isaac and Emily, a Taylor couple whose wedding I’m officiating in Lancaster, PA this summer.
• I interviewed a very talented ministry-minded Taylor senior who has applied for the Renew Apprenticeship Program (RAP)which Renew is beginning this year.
• I spent both nights at the house of  good friends Jeff and Megan Miller, whom Megan and I graduated with in 2001. Jeff is now are working on staff for the university.
• I popped my head in academic offices and ate lunches with former professors who have developed into good friends throughout the years.
• I shared a table at the dinner banquets with former classmates who are now residence hall directors. They updated me on their families and personal lives and shared with me that a healthy ethos that exists and the emphasis of intentional community continues to remain the backbone of the Taylor culture.
• I strolled down memory lane. The bell tower at night. The students streaming up the steps to Rediger Auditorium at 9:50am on Friday morning. Reading The Echo. Walking through Reade Center. Eating at the DC. There are new buildings on campus, too. The new look – and how young the students seemed – made me feel so flippin’ old. I was one of the privileged ones to have met my spouse at Taylor. Not everyone does and I didn’t think actually I would meet my wife in college – but I’m grateful nonetheless. And thinking about how our lives were eternally linked together with the common denominator of Taylor continues to mean a lot to us. [Note: if you didn't go to Taylor, have no idea what I'm talking about and think that I'm weird, I completely understand and don't hold any of that against you. The Taylor experience is hard to understand if you haven't experienced it first-hand].

Not everyone has a good college experience. A few people are given the blessing of having an excellent college experience. I was one of those few – and for that I am grateful.

If you’ve ever had the opportunity to return to your alma mater, you know exactly what I’m talking about when I say that its was a surreal experience. It’s hard to describe fully.

I’d only been back to campus once in nine years – a three-hour span to attend my brother’s graduation in 2004 – so being back on campus did a whole bunch of things to me emotionally. I teared up a few times (I’m a pretty sappy guy, I know) and found myself whispering thank you, God, for Taylor University a few times under my breath for all that He did during my four years.

But I’m also grateful that I’m not the same person I was as a college student. I’ve changed. I’ve changed a lot since strolling across the stage to get my diploma and my Taylor towel. It would be quite depressing if I was exactly the same person I was when I left this place. I’m grateful that God’s not done with me. I’m grateful I’m still learning and growing. I pray that continues.

It’s worth noting that before you think that I’m simply being a sentimental alum with glassy eyes and goose bumps on my arms naively reminiscing about the Good Old Days or “the best years of his life” – think again. I’m not one who lives in the past, hanging my hopes on what happened when I was in my late teens and early twenties. I don’t believe for a moment that the best days of my life are behind me.

Life is exciting. There is so much to look forward to, so much to be involved in and so much to join with God right where we’re at. But reflection is important from time to time. The Old Testament speaks so much about the importance of location. It also speaks of Stones of remembrance – physical memorials erected to remember what God did and how He showed his faithfulness. We as humans need times to stop, reflect and remember how God showed up in certain geographical places and how He’s marked us indelibly. This past weekend was a series of symbolic Stones of Remembrance for me.

The reason that Upland, Indiana – this postage stamp of a little town in the Midwest known mostly for cornfields and an ice cream shop – is so important to me is that my four years at Taylor shaped and formed me in some significant ways. Taylor is far from perfect and its certainly not for everyone, but it marked me deeply. It’s not the buildings or the programs that marked me deepest. Of course, it was – and is – the relationships. To be able to return to campus briefly in order to contribute in a very small way to the place that formed me so much was an unbelievable honor. I hope to have further opportunities to visit and give back to the place that has given me so much.

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