Secularism Encroaches–But Hope Is Real

Secularism Encroaches–But Hope Is Real October 14, 2014

Bowdoin StudentsTwo weeks ago, on September 27, 2014, I had the opportunity to speak at the inauguration of the Joseph & Alice McKeen Christian Study Center in Brunswick, Maine. The McKeen Study Center serves the students and community of Bowdoin College, my alma mater.

Some of you have followed the controversy surrounding the decision of Bowdoin’s administrators to “derecognize” Bowdoin Christian Fellowship, linked to InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. As reported on A1 of the New York Times, Bowdoin did so because the group requires its leaders to hold to biblical sexual ethics. I continue to grieve this decision.

However, the founding of the MSC is itself a sign and symbol that God is doing something new at Bowdoin, something no one could have predicted. I actually think that the opening of the center strengthens the work of the gospel on campus. In other words, despite nearly desperate circumstances, the Lord has acted as he so commonly does: out of despair, he has created reason for hope. This is the logic of his kingdom; this is the pattern of his church.

I was kindly asked to give the inaugural address of the McKeen Center. Here is a snippet from my talk, entitled “The College and the Cross,” which centered on hope, gospel hope:

The McKeen Center offers the hope of grace. In concert with local churches in this area, it preaches a gospel of total transformation. People today are disillusioned with Protestant churches. They offer tips and tools and stories and jokes. They feature nice people who smile warmly at visitors. But they do not seem to offer anymore a gospel that can lift the soul out of darkness into light. This gospel is here. It is real. It saves. It is the reason that Joseph McKeen came to lonely Bowdoin many years ago to teach a class of eight students in drafty Massachusetts Hall. It is the reason this center, commissioned in his name, exists today. Jesus Christ was crucified for our redemption and resurrected for our vindication. He is not far off. He is near.

Read the whole thing. Here also is the inaugural prayer by Sandy Williams and inaugural remarks by founder Rob Gregory; Maine pastor Stephen Tracey gave the inaugural message. Each of these contributions was rich and meaningful. The event was covered by the Kennebec Journal/Morning Sentinel in supportive, even kind, terms.

As I have said previously, we should expect to see Bowdoin-like decisions made across America. I wish it were not so, but I predict that this will be the case. That reality could fill us with dread and despair–unless, that is, we remember just how good God is, and just how much he delights in planting hope where there seems to be none. No matter how dark things get, hope, and not sadness, is the dominant theme of the Christian life, and the Christian church’s own story. We weep for what is lost, but we take hope in what God is doing afresh in our time.

It is a privilege to live in these days, convulsed as they are. Secularism encroaches. But we have the opportunity to watch as God brings new things where we did not expect them–things like the McKeen Study Center, powered by a faithful couple named Rob and Sim Gregory.

(Image: past and present members of Bowdoin Christian Fellowship)


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