Service to Others Stressed at Church Celebration Day

COLUMBIA, Ky. -- The Lindsey Wilson College community came together on Oct. 27 to celebrate its heritage and dream a little about how it might shape the future.

It also honored a person who gave his life in the name of service.

"This is when our college family gathers to acknowledge our heritage and affirm who we are," Dean of the Chapel Terry Swan said at the annual Church Celebration Day, held in V.P. Henry Auditorium. 

The LWC community holds that annual day each fall, Swan said, to remember why the college was founded in 1903. Lindsey Wilson was founded by the former Louisville Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Today, it is affiliated with the Kentucky Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church. It is the largest UMC college in Kentucky.

"At its heart, this is a service about remembrance," Swan said. "This is a further introduction to how significant our relationship is to the Kentucky Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church."

LWC's spiritual roots also inform the college's mission, Swan said.

"Our very mission emanates from this faith perspective -- it's why we do what we do," he said.

The Rev. Todd Love, who is superintendent of the UMC's Columbia District, said LWC "is closely connected to the church and the church is closely connected to the college in good ways and in every way."

Because LWC is a "college of integrity and value," Love said it is highly respected by both Methodists in Kentucky as well as those beyond the commonwealth.

LWC President William T. Luckey Jr. said that LWC strives to be "the model United Methodist college or university in the 21st century" by expanding the impact of the college beyond the A.P. White Campus.

In his keynote remarks, the Rev. Wayne Meisel spoke of creating a living legacy to honor the late Rev. Clinton Clark Rabb, who was head of the office of the Mission Volunteers of the UMC General Board of Global Ministries.

Rabb died of injuries sustained in the Jan. 17 earthquake that devastated Haiti. He was in the Caribbean nation to discuss ways to improve the island nation's health services. At the end of Wednesday's ceremony, a doctorate of humane letters, honoris causa, was presented to Rabb posthumously by the LWC Board of Trustees and faculty.

Meisel said that Rabb had "a vision for service" and a passion to imbue young people with the virtues of service.

Earlier this week, Meisel led two days of meetings at LWC in which religious leaders, faculty and students discussed ways to attract more people into service-learning programs.

"Of all the colleges and universities I've been to, this was the one place that I felt called me and called us to be here to not only honor Clint but to think about the future of the church and think about ways to engage young people," said Meisel, who is the former president of the Bonner Foundation of Princeton, N.J.

Meisel said he hoped LWC would be part of an effort to attract up to 500 college students to spend a year after graduation serving others.

"It is a bold vision, but it is the same type of vision that gave birth to this campus, the same type of tenacity that brought this school through difficult times, and the same type of determination that this school has demonstrated for every student, every day," Meisel said.

Meisel pointed out that if "just 10" LWC students took part in such a program, it would have the potential to have an exponential impact on society.

"If 10 of you do that, you will give new definition, new hope and new possibility not just in your own lives, not just for the 10 of you but for a faith tradition that calls on us that has built great wonder and offers great promise," he said.