Dr. Niel Nielson

The start of a new academic year always brings excitement and anticipation. At Covenant we begin with a grand Convocation, with all our students gathered in the Chapel and the faculty dressed in their colorful regalia. Singing hymns, offering prayers, welcoming new students, introducing new faculty, and listening to a formal address by one of our faculty, we are reminded why we are here, and we look forward with eagerness to what God has in store.

Then, of course, we settle in to the ordinary work before us — ordinary in the very best sense of the word: not inferior or second-rate, but following the common, repeated, beautiful pattern which gives order and normalcy and daily assurance of God’s providence and provision.

For sure, from time to time God may choose to demonstrate his extraordinary providence through special blessings, miraculous interventions, surprising turns of events. But mostly, when students awake in the morning, their rooms look pretty much like they did the night before; the food in our Great Hall dining room is there just like yesterday; classes and athletic practices start and end at the designated times. And so on we go, amidst the ordinary providences of God.

It is a good and gracious thing, this ordinary, “do-the-next-thing” life, in which and through which we live out the extraordinary educational calling to pursue in our studies the mind and heart of Jesus Christ, who is preeminent in all things.

All of which brings us to the consideration of Psalm 19, a psalm which presents God’s people with a beautiful pattern for grasping, and rejoicing in, the order and pattern of God’s revelation – both general in nature, and special in the Scriptures – and our proper response to such grand and convicting truths.
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This blog posting is a slightly edited version of a chapel message which I gave at Covenant earlier this spring. The message grew out of an increasing sense that Christians are highly susceptible to the same degrading trends that characterize the larger culture, and that we need to be reminded yet again that the gospel of Jesus Christ has profound implications and applications for daily life. The apostle Paul’s instruction to the young pastor Titus includes authoritative and perhaps surprising counsel about the linkage between the gospel and our regard for others in word and deed. On Covenant’s campus, as well as in Christian contexts of all kinds, I believe this gospel-grounded truth must be trusted and obeyed, for the glory of Jesus and our effective gospel witness.

William Wilberforce is probably best known for his four-decade effort to bring an end to slavery in the British Empire. Converted to Christianity as a young man, he recognized the radical call of the gospel, resolving to be fully at God’s command and to risk his career, his relationships, and his life for biblical truth and justice. On his deathbed, he heard the news of Parliament’s act to free slaves throughout the empire. The resolute and purposeful direction of his life, fueled by his understanding of the gospel and the call to radical obedience and action, provided a legacy described by one writer as “proof that one man may change his times.”

But there’s another aspect of Wilberforce’s impact on British life and culture, described at length in Garth Lean’s biography. Just as his heart was broken by the wickedness of slavery and the suffering of slaves, so was his heart broken by the immorality and degradation he witnessed in British culture. It was an age of hedonism and coarseness, at all levels of society. Among the wealthy classes were many who were profligate, urbane, lewd, brutal, and heartless. Among the working classes and the poor, who suffered enormously under this regime of calloused selfishness, many drowned their sorrows in an ocean of gin, sought gross entertainments, abused and brutalized one another – it is said that townsfolk were kept awake at night by the screams of victims of assault and rape.
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It has been a bit more than a week since Covenant’s Board of Trustees officially accepted my resignation from the presidency of the College as of June 30, 2012. (You can see online a letter from the chairman of the board and an article in the student newspaper.) I am very grateful for the many conversations of the last several days, including expressions of both appreciation for these past nine years and also encouragement for God’s calling which lies ahead.

As important as it was to move forward with the announcement so that the College could have sufficient time for a presidential search, fifteen months is a long time to be a “lame duck!” After briefly answering questions about the Maclellan Center for Global Christian Education, I have been quick to clarify that I am now committed to focusing on the work of the College during this next year so that, in God’s providence, I might finish well and the College would be stronger in June 2012 than it is today.

Toward that end, I want to provide a broad summary of the areas which will have my attention, certainly in cooperation with others at the College whose work will carry on as the next president begins his service. Click to continue »

This past weekend the Chattanooga newspaper carried the story of the addition of a branch location for Niedlov’s Breadworks, the local maker of artisan breads established several years ago by Covenant alumnus John Sweet (class of 2000). The recently opened Niedlov’s Deli will serve the St. Elmo and Lookout Mountain neighborhoods with a full deli menu as well as John’s wonderful array of fresh-baked breads and pastries. Those of us who live nearby are really happy to have Niedlov’s treasures now even closer to where we live! And we’re not the only ones who appreciate what John has created: In 2010, in recognition of the success of his business and its contribution to the community, John was named Small Business Person of the Year for the state of Tennessee.

Actually Niedlov’s is just one of many examples of Covenant alumni putting their Covenant education to work in creative, entrepreneurial, community-serving ways. In fact, the list is rather long and includes both for-profit and not-for-profit enterprises. The following is a partial list of enterprises which Covenant alumni have founded or played a major role in founding: Click to continue »

One of the distinctive aims of Christian education is an integrated life in which thinking, feeling, relating to others, working, playing, worshipping, serving – all the dimensions of our God-created humanity – partake of a biblical unity grounded in the truth and grace and beauty of God displayed in and realized through the person and work of Jesus Christ and his gospel. The lyrics of Covenant’s college hymn tell it well:

All for Jesus, all for Jesus,
All my being’s ransomed pow’rs;
All my thoughts and words and doings,
All my days and all my hours.

Let my hands perform his bidding,
Let my feet run in his ways,
Let my eyes see Jesus only,
Let my lips speak forth his praise.

Christian educators are deeply concerned, therefore, not only with knowledge and understanding shaped by biblical truth, but with our students’ entire lives shaped by biblical truth, i.e. comprehensive spiritual growth and discipleship. In recent years, a phrase commonly used for this growth and discipleship is “spiritual formation.” Programs of spiritual formation have sprung up at Christian colleges across the country, in both academic and student-development areas, highlighting a perceived and probably historically real gap in Christian educational programs which, while intellectually sound, have been rather weak in addressing the whole person as the Bible surely does.

A Christian school or Christian college is not, of course, the church, and spiritual growth and discipleship are most foundationally to be directed and pursued through the ordinary means of grace for which God was pleased to establish and empower the church. But other life contexts, including families and schools, can and must be partners in this discipleship enterprise. This is a particular blessing for Covenant as an agency of the church, specifically the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) – not replacing the church in its primary teaching and sacraments and care, but complementing and serving the church in the specialized arena of higher education. In this task, Christian educational institutions play a vital role in extending the grace and truth of our faith into every academic and co-curricular endeavor, so that, indeed, all our students’ thoughts and words and doings might be, by God’s grace, all for Jesus.

But this recent concern for spiritual formation has not been confined to Christian or even more broadly faith-based educational settings. We are living in an increasingly “spiritual” age, when anti-spiritual secularism seems to be on the run. Virtually everyone – actors, athletes, politicians, educators of all stripes, and even corporations – is “spiritual” these days, pursuing a stunning array of spiritual pathways and providing contemporary evidence for that quip attributed to G. K. Chesterton: “When men cease to believe in God, they do not believe in nothing; they believe in anything.” Click to continue »

It’s been a challenging start to the spring semester at Covenant! Unusually heavy snow accompanied by continuing cold temperatures forced us to postpone the beginning of classes by several days. Students who were able to return to campus before or in spite of the snowfall have surely enjoyed sledding and other snow activities, but it seems that everyone has been really, really ready for normal college life to get underway. And that happened today, at last.

Each spring semester is the final semester for those soon to graduate. It’s an exciting if bittersweet season, as seniors who’ve been part of our community for three and a half years now prepare to move on to what God has in store for them next. A few weeks ago, Kathleen and I were invited to dinner by a group of senior men who are looking forward to new jobs and, in several cases, weddings in the next few months. We left that house thanking God for the privilege of having a part in preparing them for the pathways of God’s callings.

The spring semester begins on a very positive note, with healthy enrollment numbers, a budget that is on track with our projections, and fund-raising results which are in line with our annual year-to-date average. Click to continue »

In my last posting, I focused on the ironies of the Christmas story: that God chose to use surprising means – which “normal” human wisdom would probably find futile and even ridiculous – in order to accomplish his redemptive purposes for his world: an ironic person in an ironic place, in an ironic situation, with an ironic faith, as means to his ironic salvation. In fact, God delights to work through the weak and the foolish and the humble, those who are poor in spirit, who fear him, and who believe and obey his word.

How easy it is to get this wrong, to come to think that we must seek out extraordinary positions and do extraordinary things – that we must aim to be extraordinary leaders and “movers and shakers” in order for God to get his redemptive work done.

These thoughts have been especially important for us at Covenant as we seek to prepare our students for the pathways of God’s callings – not necessarily in positions of visible leadership, although God will surely choose to lead some in that way, but more often in ordinary paths of daily work and service and sacrifice and contribution. The phrase extraordinary callings in ordinary places captures our conviction, pointing to the reality that all callings from God are, indeed, extraordinary, flowing as they do from his sovereign, gospel purposes, and yet lived out for the most part in beautifully common and even mundane manner.

After that posting in mid-December, I came across another posting, this one on the Gospel Coalition website and written by pastor Kevin DeYoung, in which DeYoung rightly critiques Christian college marketing schemes which appeal to only-too-common obsessions with how “special” we are and how indispensable we are to God’s accomplishing his purposes. Click to continue »

The phrase “extraordinary callings in ordinary places” captures a key dimension of Covenant’s mission, as we seek to educate and equip students for the pathways of God’s calling, most of which we would rightly call ordinary. They will live and work and serve mostly via the routines of jobs and family life and church involvements and community activities, spending mostly ordinary days doing mostly ordinary things in mostly ordinary places. And yet the callings which they fulfill in these contexts and in these ways are by no means ordinary; they are the sovereign ways of God through which he enables his people to accomplish his extraordinary purposes.

How easy to get this wrong, to come to think that we must seek out extraordinary positions and do extraordinary things – that we must aim to be extraordinary leaders and “movers and shakers” in order for God to get his redemptive work done.

The story of Christmas provides several glimpses of this “extraordinary callings in ordinary places” truth. For those enamored with position and title and reputation and power, the Christmas story comes as a surprise, full of unexpected and ironic twists. Click to continue »

I’ve taken a bit of a break from my regular bi-weekly schedule of blogging, for at least three reasons all of which in one way or another, as you’ll see, bear on the themes of this week’s posting.

First, I spent just over a week in Indonesia, pursuing a growing relationship with some wonderful Christians there who are developing a network of Christian schools at all levels. We at Covenant are finding great joy in identifying pathways for collaboration with these deeply committed colleagues in the Christian education enterprise. Second, Covenant had the privilege of co-hosting, with the PCA’s global mission agency, Mission to the World, the triennial PCA Global Missions Conference here in Chattanooga. Wonderful singing, strong biblical exposition, and inspiring testimonies encouraged and instructed the more than 2,000 attendees, including about 150 Covenant students, regarding God’s glorious gospel work around the world. Third, we’ve just returned from ten days with family in the Chicago area, where Kathleen and I celebrated Thanksgiving with our three sons and two daughters-in-law, and experienced the almost overwhelming thrill of meeting our first grandchild – Adelyn Grace Nielson – born on Saturday, November 20, to our oldest son Jon and his wife Jeanne.

These three experiences shared some common qualities and characteristics. Click to continue »

This blog post is adapted from my chapel message at Covenant College on October 1, 2010.

At Covenant we talk a lot about the biblical concept of calling, referring first to God’s call on us through the gospel – his call to faith and trust and worship and obedience – and second to his call on us through the gifts and passions and opportunities which he puts within us and before us – his call to particular pathways of service and obedience through which we live out, in particular ways, his gospel call.

There are wonderful benefits in thinking about life and work in terms of God’s calling and God’s callings, among them the affirmation of the genuine value of every vocation from politics to plumbing, from pharmacy to farming, from baking to banking, from art to athletics, from mechanical engineering to ministry. Recognition of God’s manifold vocational callings helps us escape the trap of the sacred/secular distinction, according to which some paths are more “holy” than others. All such callings are from God, who has created with such complexity and variety and beauty that there’s hardly any limit to the range of types of work and service which people can take up, as worship to God for the good of the world.

Calling also helps us appreciate deeply both the extraordinary activities of some people some of the time, and the ordinary, even mundane activities of most people most of the time. Whether the work is routine or unusual, through it God’s creation is developed and nurtured and celebrated, his people served and discipled, and his Kingdom advanced. Not everyone will be a William Wilberforce; in fact, we might say that William Wilberforce wasn’t William Wilberforce for most of his life, in that he spent decades in faithful, relatively unexciting, ordinary work — not really the stuff of books and films with which later generations have honored him.

In pursuing our callings, we are declaring and demonstrating the preeminence of Jesus Christ in all things, and we are bearing witness to God’s purpose in accomplishing and demonstrating his redemption of his creation. Creating art and music, building businesses, discovering cures for diseases – all these are godly pursuits, grounded in God’s creational norms and informed by common grace understanding, and they will, as tasks pursued for God’s glory, find their consummation in eternity: They have real, lasting value, and have their appropriate place as suitable trophies of God’s abundant common grace.

Likewise, deeds of compassion, mercy, and justice – caring for the sick and suffering, defending the unborn, working to free those in unjust bondage – have such real, lasting value as well. This is good and important work — Kingdom work — and it will endure for eternity as a display of God’s abundant love and wisdom and power.

In what follows, I do not intend to take back one bit of all this true reflection on calling, nor do I want to detract one bit from the worthiness of what millions of God’s people have done, across the centuries and around the world, in pursuit of their callings as acts of genuine worship to the Lord. I don’t want to trigger a single doubt about our students’ explorations, during their college years, of the pathways of God’s vocational callings for the years ahead, nor to cast doubt on the genuine goodness of the good that by God’s grace they will do throughout their lives – as doctors and teachers, accountants and farmers, fathers and mothers, neighbors and friends and church members, i.e. in all the callings which God will call and enable them to fulfill.

But in this posting, I want to remind readers of a feature of the landscape of our faith which I believe is getting slighter and slighter attention these days, even as we rightly rejoice in the callings of God. It’s a feature which can raise some discomfort among even faithful Christians, but it’s so important that, if we lose hold of it, our view of our callings can get seriously out of focus with respect to the biblical gospel.

That feature is hell, and here I want to consider how, and how much, we think about hell – and more generally how we think about the eternal destiny of every human being, even as we treasure God’s callings. Click to continue »