We’re not in Kansas anymore,” Mark Foley, president of the University of Mobile (UMobile), told messengers to the Alabama Baptist State Convention annual meeting Nov. 13.
The church in America is no longer making a substantive impact on the nation with the culture of Jesus Christ, he said. “So we’ve been asking ourselves, ‘What then is the solution that (UMobile) can bring?’”
“I was reminded of that classic line out of the 1939 movie, ‘The Wizard of Oz,’” he shared, alluding to what Dorothy says to her dog when she first sees the land of Oz: “Toto, I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore.”
“Somewhere along the line this nation that we have loved and served changed and we don’t live in ‘Kansas’ anymore,” Foley said.
He asked UMobile leadership to help determine a solution of “how we influence ‘Oz,’ because that’s where we [now] live.”
“The solution, we think, is hands-on engagement with the hope of Jesus Christ through genuine care with a laser focus on 100 million young Americans … who are called Generation Y.”
Foley shared that he asked Joe Savage, executive dean of UMobile’s School of Christian Ministries, and his colleagues “to figure out how we prepare the leaders of the church” who would capture the heart, mind and soul of Generation Y for Jesus Christ.
From day one “we not only give [students] the classroom education,” but “we also begin to integrate them into ministry settings” where they can learn from people around the country on how to reach the lost, Savage said.
The school is creating internships “literally from New York to Boston to Vancouver, Canada, and across the country” where students will take a semester or summer doing hands-on work with people in ministry, Savage added. This integrates the classroom with learning from those who are effectively sharing Christ, he said.
According to the Book of Reports, this fall marked the opening of The Timbers, “a new apartment-style residence hall that will help meet the growing demand for on-campus housing. The UMobile apartments bring on-campus housing capacity to 655, more than doubling the number of residential students since 2004.”
The Book of Reports also described the new Bedsole Commons, a central gathering area for students on the renovated first floor of J.L. Bedsole Library, and recently enhanced campus areas including a lighted intramural field with moveable bleachers, a renovated science lab and more.
Foley also noted enrollment continues to grow at UMobile and the school is operating in the black.
Share with others: