2021 Graduates

CLASS OF 2021 LINCOLN DAILY NEWS MAY/JUNE 2021 Page 51 Since there was not ceremony last year when previous President Don Green was finishing his presidency, he presided over most of the ceremony for the class of 2020. Special recognition was also given to Jim Allison, who was retiring from the faculty after over 40 years of faithful service to the school. Special music was followed by a message from keynote speaker Dr. Ed Stetzer. Stetzer is Dean of the School of Mission, Ministry and Leadership at Wheaton College as well as Executive Director of the Wheaton College Billy Graham Center. He also serves as teaching pastor at Highpoint Christian Church in Naperville and has written hundreds of articles and a dozen books. Stetzer’s message for both ceremonies was “Thinking Christianly in a Divided Age,” basis on II Corinthians 5:16-17. As Stetzer started his message he said 2020 will be remembered for the pandemic, but also so much more that will be talked about in history books. We saw political division, racial injustice, protests, violence, riots, and political brokenness. Christians were upset with others and the world was tearing apart. Stetzer said many did not know how to respond. The year 2020 has gone five more months into 2021 and it seems like we are in the 17th month of 2020. We find ourselves in the midst of a world very different from 2019 not just because of the pandemic. Stetzer said it appears America has gone through a cultural convulsion every 60 years or so. We appear to be going through a cultural convulsion now with people questioning sources of authority and creating new sources of information. Stetzer said people are unsure of what it means for them living in a culture with others who have different views and ideas. Here is the world we find ourselves in. Stetzer asked, how then shall we live as followers of Jesus in a world that is do divided? We are not the first to live in a divided time, cultural convulsion or even a pandemic. Stetzer said in 1968, we had a similar cultural convulsion. Protests in the street would dwarf anything that happened in the last few years. Many protested the Vietnam War and with that the civil rights movement, Stetzer said the country was bitterly divided. All this division was there in 1968, but there was also a pandemic. Stetzer said that pandemic was due to what was then controversially called the “Hong Kong Flu.” It spread around the world. CONTINUED u