On becoming a leader

Posted by admin on Mar 23, 2006 in Volume 14 Issue 1 | 1 comment

Four years ago I started my degree at one of the only post-secondary Christian universities in Canada, my mission was to get a degree of value and learn how to change the world. Trinity Western University embraced me as a freshman and I reveled and thrived in its culture. As an arm of the church, it was going to prepare me to excel in the secular world by giving me the training that the church could not. I started in UNIV 101 whose goal is to develop freshman and identify with their needs. Many godly Christian leaders who were both positive and goal oriented helped me in my journey. The future looked bright and I was well on way to changing the world.

And yet four years later I am about to become a university graduate and I don’t see myself poised to change the world. Yes I and others like me are equipped with a thoroughly Christian minds but didn’t TWU teach me that I would be a leader and become the CEO of a company or Prime Minister the moment I graduated? Last month I went to a conference centered on politics and faith, I hoped that it would help me become a growing disciple of the discipline and it succeeded. We talked about Jesus Christ and how he acted in the political realm. Whoever challenged him was given shrewd and wise answers that were always aimed to glorify God but also short enough to be a sound bite on the evening news. Through the conference I learned from the examples of others what it is like to be Christians fulfilling God’s call on our lives to be involved in the world. And yet at the end of the day I wasn’t offered a great job and left worried that I would work on commission for the rest of my life.

As a senior I feel lost. I long for the days when we talked about our names, majors and home towns. I will soon have a degree and while it’s more likely that I’ll work as a lifeguard than a Member of Parliament, I know that I will be serving God. Trinity set me up to change the world…but they forgot to teach me a step, it takes time to make a difference. And change the world I will, it just might take me awhile. In the meantime I will continue networking with people in the fields I am interested in and hope that through various contacts I will be given the opportunity to fulfill Trinity’s mission statement and be a great leader in the marketplaces of life.