New Church Life Mar/Apr 2014 | Page 56

new church life: march / april 2014 The College should be measured by how well it is achieving its mission, engaging students with New Church teachings in ways that deepen their humanity and their ability to bless others. students already familiar and on board with the General Church, or only students who will later join the General Church. Although increasing the enrollment in the Church is a welcome and desired outcome, I want to be clear that the College’s primary focus is to engage students with New Church teachings in the context of higher education and campus life. Students join the College community for four years to study liberal arts and learn about New Church teachings, in a New Church environment. They sign up for a college experience. If they do join the General Church…wonderful. But we should remember that growing numbers of our own baptized young people do not join our church, or any church for that matter. To the extent that the General Church (and other Swedenborgian branches) successfully increase membership through birth or through attracting newcomers, the College will have a ready pool of students to draw upon, as do most denominational colleges. If this pool were large enough, the College could rely on these students alone and not reach beyond them. But we do not have that luxury. Church membership is tapering off in areas, and many of our baptized members under 40 are disaffected and disengaged from the organized church. I don’t mean to sound grim, only to point out that in most scenarios it is the church that populates its affiliated college, not the reverse. The College has an extraordinary challenge in having such a small pool of church members to draw upon. Certainly religious colleges strengthen the faith of many students who attend, and some previously unaffiliated students will join the mother church, but it would be unfortunate to tie Bryn Athyn College’s success too narrowly to a head count of students who join the General Church during or after their sojourn on campus. The College should be measured instead by how well it is achieving its mission, engaging students with New Church teachings in ways that deepen their humanity and their ability to bless others. By students I include those affiliated with the Church – as many as we can get – as well as those who are coming upon these teachings for the first time. I respect the passion and desire to protect the strengths of the past. We all want that. And if we did not have New Church theology, there would be no reason at all to have Bryn Athyn College. That said, the College serves the 152