We are very pleased to welcome our students back. We rejoice at what God has done for you over the summer, and we are delighted to think about all that you will bless our community with in the coming year. We also welcome our freshmen, and we look forward to getting to know you, and we are delighted to be worshiping God together with you.
This is an academic community, and it would be foolish for us to ignore this reality in the life of our church, as foolish as it would be for a church in a farm community to ignore the seasons and crops.
That said, here are a few things I would like to encourage you all to remember. The thing that makes us a community, the thing that binds us together, is the fact that we worship together. Make worship your highest priority. When you do the vertical work of worship, you will discover that much of the horizontal work is already done. If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another.
Second, academic work is true work, and when it is done right, it will leave you exhausted and in need of a true sabbath. So here is a two-fold charge — work at your studies in such a way as to need a sabbath, and then, second, take that sabbath.
Third, God has blessed us with a true community, stretching across all ages, from the toddlers to the gray heads. We all have something to contribute to one another, so try not to cluster or segregate yourselves away from the blessing that comes from other times of life. It is natural that your friends will be in your station of life, but don’t get locked in a box.
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The glory of the aged is their wisdom. The glory of the young is their strength. It is the intent and purpose of God to keep those two together.