This weekend marks my ninth commencement as your president.  Two full academic generations of students have taken the round-trip through Hogue Hall, northbound in the Ivy Planting Ceremony then southbound four years later at Ivy Cutting.  Tomorrow evening, the first group of the third generation completes their odyssey. Among those nine sets of graduates are our current Director of Admissions and the current President of our Alumni Board.

More than we can ask or imagine...
    In those years I have begun each year with a different sense of focus.  In 1999 we were "Under Construction: Building for the Future."  In 2000 with a new mission statement in place we were "Transforming Our Lives Together." In 2001 it was "Building on our Strengths," in 2002 as we anticipated our campaign it was "Transforming Lives, Shaping the Future." By 2003 we focused on "Lifting Up Our Eyes," and in 2004 we "Celebrated Community."  In 2005 we spoke of Greenville College as a "Sacramental Community" making Christ really present among us. But this year as we began last September, my heart was full of a new confidence that we could expect to see God do more than we could ask or imagine.  (Eph 3:20).  Despite many years of seeing the Lord's hand at work in my life in ways I could not have imagined, and despite the evidence of His faithfulness to this community of Christian educators for over 150 years, I am always surprised how easily we forget His desire and ability to do more than we can ask or imagine.

Tipping point to a new level…
    My remarks to you last fall suggested that I felt Greenville College was at a kind of “tipping point,” poised to go as we often hear said, “to the next level.”  It seemed to me that with multiple external evaluations behind us, with the largest campaign in our history complete, we stood on the verge of something new.  As former student of quantum physics, I remember well that at the deepest levels of nature, energy is not found in continuously varying degrees.  Nor does change at that level occur smoothly in infinitesimal degrees.  Subatomic particles of all kinds “jump” from level to level absorbing or releasing energy in often dramatic ways.  But you don’t have to be a scientist to understand this principle.  We have all experienced the momentary decisions that change our lives unalterably; proposals to marry, decisions to accept employment, actions to stand up or submit.  We understand that there are times when our lives “move to a new level.”  The same is true of institutions.

Community of confidence…
    I believe we are in the middle of such a move to a new level.  I believe Greenville College moving to a new level of what last fall I called a “community of confidence.”  Obviously the numbers are very encouraging.  For the second year, enrollment was up significantly, in fact almost 10%.  It promises to jump another 10% next year.  A surplus of $1.6m was almost unimaginable 9 years ago.  New construction suggests we are moving forward, not looking back in fear.  Our favorable reviews by outside examiners help us believe we continue to be an institution of academic excellence.  But the confidence I sense goes beyond just the “numbers.”  I think it is psychological and of course spiritual.  We have seen the Lord bring us through difficult challenges, and are now more willing than at any other time in the past nine years to believe that the future is bright.  The events of this year, but also the spirit on campus this year, testify that we are becoming a community of confidence.  As I hoped last fall, that confidence is born of faith that God has indeed done this year, more than we could ask or imagine.  We are becoming a community of confidence because we are a community of faith.  As that faith continues, and our confidence grows, I dream we may become even more than we already are, a community of genuine grace.  I dream that grace will be most evident among us as faculty and staff, as well as in relationships with and our students.  I dream we may become more than we already are, a place where mutual respect, slowness to judge, joy in working together will dominate every aspect of our dealings with one another.

Strategic planning…
    Our confidence is based in God.  We believe Him when he says, I know the plans I have for you, to prosper you…to give you hope and a future. (Jer 29:11)  We also recognize the warning of that same great planning consultant Jeremiah, when he concludes a remarkable chapter about “self-confidence” saying “You will go out with your hands on your head, for the Lord has rejected your confidences, and you will not prosper in them.” (Jer 2:37)  So the challenge for us is to find HIS plans, and thus base our confidence rightly.
    I believe that means we must be strategic.  The dictionary tells us that to be strategic means “to operate with an eye to the fact that our decisions are part of or integral to a plan.”  If we have confidence that God has plans for us to prosper, then to be strategic means to discover those plans and act in a way consistent with them.
    Foundational to strategic planning then must be our persistent prayer for the mind of Christ.  During our campaign, a small group, led by Dr. Brian Reinhard prayed regularly for Christ’s Spirit to guide and honor our efforts.  Last year we celebrated His providence for $18.5 million dollars.  But second, we must devote our best efforts to planning, in the confidence He will direct our thoughts.  Last week, our pastor, and our trustee colleague Doug Newton spoke to us about the emerging vision for our local church.  He said we need to gain a strategic vision, pursue strategic goals, make strategic sacrifices, feel a strategic urgency, and increase our strategic faith.  I like that thinking…strategic faith.  Faith that we can discover God’s plans to prosper us.
    Greenville College has begun this year, and will continue as a major focus in the next 6-10 months, to engage in serious strategic planning.  As you heard yesterday, we have completed our second major New Millennium Commission strategic plan and in the next few weeks will begin the early environmental scans for our next one.  We also heard yesterday how this strategic thinking is pressing us to undertake a revision of our master plan for facilities.  By fall, we hope the shape of both of these closely interlinked plans will be in place.  Then as we move into next spring, a third planning process, to identify the feasibility of another comprehensive campaign will begin.  All three of these plans must adjust to one another, but above all, each must submit to His plans for our work together.  In that we can find confidence.

Planning brings change….
But planning, usually means change is afoot.  Are we at Greenville College ready to change…again?

1. Changing structure: Schools: Internally we have already seen a change of structure.  The creation of three new schools, Education, Arts & Science, and Professional Studies has begun to take root.  These new entities are finding their voices.  Suggestions for adjustments in curriculum have been made, and the inevitable negotiations over reallocation of budget have begun.  The School of Education is moving this week into the first floor of their new home in Marston Ladue.  We have even received our first significant pledge for continuing the remodeling of the top floor to accommodate the rest of the education faculty offices presently still in Hogue.  Centralizing admissions for our adult programs and our traditional program is changing our strategy for recruitment to these programs.  My impression is that as each school begins to see itself as more autonomous, there will be greater freedom to imagine new programs, especially for non-traditional students.  But does this adversely affect our sense of community?
2. Changing market: Adult, Professional, Regional: Already the non-traditional (adult) enrollment is one-third of our entire overall enrollment of nearly 1600 students.  What’s more, the remarkable growth of non-traditional Education programs (111% in two years to 365), the continued significant numbers in non-traditional Professional programs (somewhat smaller this year, but still well over 225, and the strong likelihood of growth or for new programs in each of these areas (Management GOAL, Inverted degree), means that we are becoming more professional in our focus.  Even on campus, the programs in Education and now Management and Digital Media are among the fastest growing, again underscoring the professional interests of traditional students.  Does this move us too far from liberal arts?
       We attract nationally in CCM, and our football recruitment draws from out of state.  But over 70% of our traditional resident students come from within 250 miles.  It seems we are finding traditional students less willing to travel very far to attend college in central Illinois. In addition, naturally, 100% of our non-traditional students come from our region.  So it’s probably safe to say that 80% of all our students come from within that same radius.  This has not been a conscious change of strategy, but a reality that partly reflects increased sensitivity to costs.  While state grants provide a shrinking percentage of overall college costs, they still present a significant motivator to remain “in-state.”  And of course Education, our largest program, and also among our best, is essentially of no interest to those outside our state. Do we want to resist this?  An intentional decision to reverse it would require aggressive and typically expensive marketing of other specific programs we believe can be perceived as distinctive besides CCM.
3. Changing relationships: Partnerships:  In the past five years, we have seen a remarkable acceleration of competition in higher education.  No sooner does one school launch an MAE than two or three others do too.  No sooner does one school launch an MBA, than three others follow suit.  Nimbleness and timing have become far more important than I ever would have imagined ten years ago.  Months matter.   Our decision to hold off on beginning an MBA is just one illustration.  By the time we were ready to seek authority and go to market, we had at least three competitors within 50 miles, one of which was undercutting our best price by 50%.  Our business plan would have taken ten years to break even with investment of a million dollars.  So in response, we are finding partnership to be a powerful strategy.  Our relationships with Kaskaskia Community College, Lewis and Clark Community College, Lincoln Land Community College, Lincoln Christian College, and others have been remarkably warm and beneficial.  There are literally thousands of potential students available to us as a result of these strong relationships.  That means large new sources of revenue.  But like the shift to adult, professional, and regional markets, do these partnerships alter our mission?
4. Changing faculty: This fall we expect to have eight new full-time faculty.  That represents a change of over 10%.  And consider that over a three year period including next year, in the retirement of only four faculty we will have lost nearly 120 years of experience in the science division alone!  While this comes as little surprise, there are more frequent transitions in the ranks of younger faculty.  It seems more common, as loyalties shift from institutions to disciplines.  I firmly believe the Lord is providing those called out to take their places.  After decades as a dean and president I continue to be amazed at the quality of those arise and our case those who have been hired even in the past few weeks.  But such change always raises questions about who we are becoming as an institution.  For after all, in the words of physicist I.I. Rabi, the faculty IS the institution.
5. Changing board: Profile, Size, Role: Perhaps closer to home is the question of whether there is also change on the horizon for our board of trustees.  Over 50% of you are new within just the most recent six years of my time at G.C. Within the next two years we anticipate losing 4-5 of those who have served in senior leadership roles. While the change to a policy model of governance is slightly older than my time here, it seems that the related issues of board size, board terms, and board roles in giving have received increasing attention.  Do such changes alter any essential qualities of who we are as a College?

What do these examples of change and the questions they raise really mean? Is our planning done well?  Is it consistent with the plans to prosper us that the Lord has in mind already?

Understanding change…
    Facing these and other examples of change that may result from strategic planning and increasing confidence as well as from the environment, requires us to be thoughtful about what change means.   Perhaps that sounds like a silly question.  Surely we know what change is?  A becomes B.  Simple.  Yet this question has challenged philosophers for millennia.  Aristotle reminds us that change is found neither in the starting point nor in the ending point.  And it is also not found at any particular point in between.  Change is what happens between any differing points you choose.  The finer you chop the points in pursuit of the one where change occurs the more futile you find your search. 
Put more graphically, merely substituting a ship in harbor instantly with another ship does not change the first ship, it merely replaces it.  But on the other hand, gradually replacing the planks and pieces of that first ship one by one until they are now all different, leaves the question, “Is it now a different ship or the same ship?”  If it is now a different ship, then again we cannot say the first ship was changed because the first ship is no longer there.  If it is the same ship then how have we explained change.  Yes, people really do worry about these things!
    But my purpose is to remind us that at Greenville, we believe in change as transformation.  That means that we always seek to preserve what is essential while adjusting and accommodating to the needs and demands of the present.  This applies most importantly to our students.  Our mission, to transform them for lives of character and service, acknowledges that much of what is essential to them is already formed.  And we do not wish to undo the positive legacy of their parents, their families, and their churches.  Yet we do want to transform them radically, in ways that will better equip them for the future of acting and living in a real world. 
    During our recent comprehensive campaign we used the example of Almira House to illustrate this crucial principle.  Almira House rests on the same foundations, shares the same style, room structure, and perhaps even colors that it had 150 years ago, thereby retaining its legacy and essential identity.  Yet it has been radically transformed with new materials, new internal systems, and so is now far better suited to function in the present. We want this for our students, and if we truly embrace our mission of transformation, we also want this for our institution as a whole. 
    What is essential for Greenville College to remain truly Greenville College?  What cannot be changed without loss of that identity?  In short, what are our “core values?”  Then what are we free and willing to change to make her more useful in the Kingdom work of student transformation?  These are the questions we must ask together as our renewed confidence calls us to plan how we move to the next level for the future.  As someone put it recently, we are moving beyond survival, and beyond even viability, to vision.  It is an exciting time for us as the Lord has answered our prayers last fall to give us a year that has been more than we could have asked or imagined.