Vanguard University of Southern California - Centurion Yearbook (Costa Mesa, CA)

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•f % u t y ., f ' ' Beyond a growing social awareness, athletic extension and academic projection, there lay a quiet new vision of spiritual relevance. A dialogue developed between the student and his religious teachers. A new generation sought modern perspectives for practical application of the Christian ideal of love and charity. The college community cried for a church that could meet the needs of contemporary man and his society. Students wearied of talk and abortive preparations for revival. Students yearned for genuine love and a taste of new wine. They desired something that would activate and actualize their faith. They had grown tired of the milk. The foundations of a total spiritual involvement were laid by faculty members. Three types of love, AGAPE, EROS, and PHI LI A, were translated by one educator from the chapel lectern, and students responded, transmitting the inspiration from one hour of that one day into the total span of the year. Another faculty leader revealed that all things worked together for good to them that love God and another Christian axiom was tested and confirmed in the witness of those who truly heard. In small devotional groups, various teachers were able to inspire the collegiate youth to actualize their Christian testimony. These Christian men fed the maturing students meat, allowing them to take Christ to the world and not from the world to a little box they had built and would have to defend. 36

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Each college that is to deserve recognition as a qualified academic institution must project some particular scholastic image. An educational complex must attempt to be unique, appealing, or outstanding in a specific phase or purpose of its existence. Southern California College has attained unequaled stature among liberal arts colleges with the involvement of its faculty with the student. The faculty endeavored to preserve a vision of inducing the maturing student into the life and culture of modern society with strong Christian foundation and perspectives. Whether it was a teaching in Anthropology or a lecture in Church Administration, the professor was concerned; concerned that the student learn rather than memorize. He was concerned that the student, who with the simple axioms and truths from his class, would use the available facilities and literary -resources to expand his personal knowledge through research and study. But the most valuable learning experience of the SCC student did not come from the erudite emanations of the enlightened educators, but from the exemplary Christian character that these men displayed in their daily living. The dedication and determination of the Vanguard faculty established new visions of academic quality and spiritual leadership. ms ' M With the intellectual excellence and Christiaij love and service of its preceptors, SCC was able to produce something more than an average student. From the bonds of academic and theological restrictions, a candid and authentic student, with an inquiring mind and open heart, was freed to see the sin and sufferings of his needy world. Through this new freedom and love, the modern Christian scholar was given a key to his own new vision. 35

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The acknowledgement of verses like I John 4:19 humbled the student to submit his life totally to the will of God. Knowing that we love Him because He first loved us enabled those who sought His Will to love the unlovely and unloved. A new vision beyond all men was bom because one Man loved so much as to die for all of us who hate, lie, cheat or destroy the good and pure of this life. Only the love and grace of Christ could compose a message that was so pertinent and exigent to the college campus and community. The light of spiritual relevance was illuminated in an active and viable involvement with the simple and beautiful Christian ideal, Love. 37