Twenty years ago I was a student at North Park University (I know I look too young to have been here that long ago J ). At that time there were only a handful of African American students that attended the college. There was a Black Student Association on campus that provided some support and advocacy and a handful of non-white faculty and staff that challenged the homogeneity of our campus, but for the most part we were not ethnically or racially diverse and what diversity existed rarely crossed paths with one another.
That’s why this morning’s chapel service will be a time of great rejoicing. This morning North Park’s Plack Student Association and the campus chapter of the NAACP is partnering with University Ministries and the School of Music to present an opportunity for our campus community to engage the traditions of the African-American (AA) church. We will be ushered into worship by a choir directed by Rollo Dillworth and will hear the word of God preached by Rev. Dr D. Darrell Griffin, pastor of Oakdale Covenant Church, the largest African American Church in the Evangelical Covenant denomination.
Over 100 years ago some Swedish immigrants came to the United States seeking new life and the freedom to worship God. Realizing that they could not do the work of God well if they remained isolated as singular congregations they covenanted together so that they could do mission work. Although they differed on some significant theological issues they made the decision that the Kingdom of God required that the people of God come together to do mission. Is it possible that we as a community are beginning to live into the dream of those that founded the Evangelical Covenant, that we have begun to realize that our diversity need not divide us and that our mission can surely unite us?
Come this morning and rejoice with us that the good work that was begun by Swedish Immigrants is being continued through people that are far more diverse. Come this morning and rejoice with us that good work that God begun on this plot of land so many years ago is being carried on in our classrooms, hallways, ball fields, dormitories, faculty and staff meetings and on paths that are far more likely to cross with one another. Come this morning and rejoice in the fact that you and I are being called into this great work that will one day be complete.
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