-Article by Becca Kohlmyer, CIU student writer
Shortess Chapel was crowded with students ready to serve their community and learn about evangelical unity at Columbia International University’s annual Evangelical Unity Week. Evangelical Unity is a CIU core value.
The week kicked off with RAMServe, a day where classes are cancelled and students are encouraged to go out in groups to serve the surrounding community. On Wednesday and Thursday, Dr. Ralph Enlow Jr. spoke to the students during the regular chapel hour about evangelical unity, its importance, and what it means for CIU. Enlow is a CIU alumnus and former CIU senior vice president and provost. He also served as the president of the Association for Biblical Higher Education (ABHE).
Students met early in Shortess Chapel to receive their assignments for Tuesday, then joined their group leaders and went to locations around South Carolina’s Midlands to aid their community in various ways. Projects included landscaping, construction, organization, picking up trash off the roads, sorting clothes, and much more. Various churches, ministries and nonprofits partnered with CIU, making these opportunities available to students.
The Importance of Core Values
The following day, Shortess Chapel hosted Enlow to speak on the importance of CIU’s core values. He addressed the ecological aspect of leadership and how institutions are more likely to excel and endure when members internalize core values.
He said drawing people together in unity over core commitments allows people to embrace, enjoy, and excel in their work and their relationships with their coworkers. This brings about a unified whole in any organization. He summarized the first half of his message by saying, “values transcend simple and superficial strategies for cohesion of a team.”
The Substance of Evangelical Unity
On Thursday, Enlow wrapped up his presentation with a look at the substance of Evangelical Unity. He defined Evangelical Unity as “being committed to embracing other Christians of similar evangelical convictions for purposes of fellowship encouragement.” To further explain this, he divided the phrase up into its two terms and defined each one separately.
He defined “unity” as “the faith.” He referenced Jude 3, showing that the essentials of unity are specifically possessing the faith of the Bible, described in Ephesians 2:11-16 and Ephesians 4:1-6. This is a unified identity as the body of Christ, who have become one through their salvation and security in Christ.
Enlow then discussed the term “evangelical,” pointing out some of the most notable doctrines throughout church history, including: the Apostles Creed, The Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed. He explained the different ways to divide doctrine through core values, especially highlighting Bebbington’s “Quadrilateral,” which emphasizes the importance of Biblicism, Crucicentrism, Conversionism, and Activism.
Consider Augustine
In summary, he quoted Saint Augustine, who describes the church as, “in essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity.” Enlow concluded with an encouragement to students to embrace unity in the body of Christ, not only tolerating different evangelical convictions, but celebrating them and recognizing the essential unity of the global church despite the non-essential differences.
Students reacted positively to the message, with Alexis Deason, a senior, who desires to uphold the value of Evangelical Unity on campus.
“As a student who feels the spiritual pulse of campus day in and day out, this message was convicting for me … as a result of this message, we can put actions behind our words to uphold the core values at CIU.”
Listen to the Evangelical Unity messages from Dr. Ralph Enlow on CIU’s podcast page or view them on CIU’s YouTube channel.
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