91精选 Holds 65th Annual Convocation
Each year, 91精选 gathers the community together for its annual convocation in the Ozinga Chapel Auditorium. Campus Pastor Reverend Ben P. Snoek stated, 鈥淎t convocation, God calls together our academic community to celebrate and launch our year with worship.鈥�
This year鈥檚 ceremony was held on Tuesday, August 29th, and was filled with worship, encouragement, and anticipation of the new academic year ahead.聽 President Dr. Aaron J. Kuecker began by welcoming the community to this annual gathering. Kuecker opened by saying, 鈥淲e are glad you are here. You are where you need to be, whether you are a student, faculty, or staff member. We can鈥檛 wait to see how God uses your gifts in this community.鈥� He later added, 鈥淎t 91精选, we are called to struggle with the [Holy] Spirit鈥檚 help to be the kind of place that understands how deeply connected we are, whether we are willing to acknowledge it or not, that our good is bound up in the good of our neighbor and one another. So, we need God鈥檚 help for all of that. And 91精选 students, we need you to help us lead the way towards that vision of abundance, generosity, and connection.鈥�
The 2023-2024 Professor of the Year, Dr. Lenore Knight Johnson, gave this year鈥檚 convocation address. 聽Dr. Knight Johnson鈥檚 address, titled Holy Discomfort, invited us to embrace a posture of discomfort as a space where we encounter opportunities for community, connection, creativity, and learning. She said, 鈥淲hat I want to invite you all into today, as we start the new academic year, is not certainty, but the capacity to embrace uncertainty, not one right answer, but the capacity to recognize and accept that multiple things can be true at the same time.鈥�
鈥淭his is not just about how we as individuals can learn and grow, how you or I can be transformed through unsettledness and discomfort, but also what this means in striving to be people who follow that call of the prophet Micah, to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with our God,鈥� concluded Dr. Knight Johnson.
Assistant Professor of Music Toni Esker performed a moving sung prayer titled Our Father, which captured the Lord鈥檚 Prayer in a lyrical and spirit-filled style. Reverend Snoek offered closing remarks and the benediction and ushered the community into a time of fellowship and refreshments.
