John Brown University's Student Newspaper
John Brown University students participated in Spiritual Emphasis Week, taking place from Sept. 5 to Sept. 7, by hearing from Chapel guest speaker, the Rev. Curtiss Smith. Throughout the week, Smith delivered messages on spiritual growth and maturity. Every semester, Spiritual Emphasis Week offers an additional chapel service on Wednesday that works along an adjusted class schedule so that all of JBU can attend the service.
“Gran Turismo”, directed by Neill Blomkamp, tells the incredible tale of Jann Mardenborough, played by Archie Madekwe, a once gamer turned racer after winning a competition put on by Nissan. This captivating, under-dog story details Jann’s struggle with fulfilling his dream of driving race cars. While the story has a slow build-up, it ultimately helps to add to the emotions and feelings of triumph that follow Jann as he slowly becomes a real racer and his preparation for the competition, 24 Hours of Le Mans, in 2013.
Here we are at the beginning of another fall semester. This year there is a record number of first-year students, who are all attending one of the many Gateway Seminars. I teach two of these seminars, and I look forward to it each year. Why? Because I am privileged to be an important part of getting first-year students started in the right direction on their four-year journeys of learning, self-discovery, spiritual growth, and becoming modern Christian adults. I stress to my two Gateway classes that the purpose of Gateway is to learn how to be a faithful Christian learner. I am not sure that they all appreciate what this really means.
Numerous books are published every day, so, sometimes it can be hard to discern which of this year’s newest books are actually worth the read. However, one that stands out from all the rest is “The Lonely Hearts Book Club” by Lucy Gilmore. “The Lonely-Hearts Book Club” was only published five months ago, on March 28, and has already earned a 3.89/5 on Goodreads.
During 10 years, Creative Dining Services fulfilled the dining and catering needs of the John Brown University community. However, on May 15, Fresh Ideas Food Service Management started providing JBU’s dining and catering. As part of this fresh start, the company opted for a modern appearance introducing freshly painted walls and brand-new booths to take over the dining hall, lovingly referred to by students as the “caf. With the start of this academic year, the newly transformed dining hall has finally been unveiled to welcome both JBU staff and students alike. Those with a keen eye will notice, however, that the changes extend beyond just surface-level aesthetics.
This fall, John Brown University welcomed an all- time record of 378 new first-time students, making it the biggest freshman class the university has ever seen. JBU saw increases among several demographics, including Latin American students, students from Northwest Arkansas, international students and missionary kids.
As in former years, John Brown University did not hold classes in honor of the Baptist Minister and activist Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy. The University hosted chapel services in the Cathedral of the Ozarks where students had the opportunity to listen to Dr. Joseph Jones on Jan. 17. Jones […]
Nearly halfway through Sooner Athletic Conference (SAC) play, the soccer teams at John Brown University (JBU) suffered their first conference losses at home, after several great performances on the road. The end of September and the first week of October featured multiple tough matchups that looked to test both teams […]
As we know from the frequent examples we have seen, not only locally, but also nationally and internationally, there is very little that compares to extreme weather when it comes to the devastating impact it brings. It destroys homes and communities and threatens the lives of everyone in its path, bringing nothing but tragic results. Unfortunately, the western part of the world is set to experience two hurricanes in the span of a couple of weeks.
An Editorial put out by The Threefold Advocate attracted my attention recently. Entitled “Essentials of Spiritual Inaccessibility and other JBU Classes,” the author argued that the difficulty of JBU’s required Bible curriculum was proving detrimental to students’ faith, associating this with young people leaving the church! This is a fairly serious accusation, but the author’s reasoning left something to be desired. The piece began by describing the apparent horrors of test days and assignments in detail, which would make excellent material for a psychological thriller. It abstained from discussing whether this anxiety is true of other JBU classes. I will leave readers to explore the gory details for themselves here, but this dramatization provides the basis for the main claim: excessively difficult Bible classes teach students that “the Bible is too complicated…to understand and is inaccessible to the non-theologically trained reader.” JBU is failing in its mission to “develop the spiritual being” of students at a base level by allowing theological content to be “inaccessible and unattainable,” especially with respect to grading. This leads “many students” to question the faith, which the author associates with the exodus of young people from the church. Christian education (JBU included, presumably) is “turning away and failing a majority of their students” due to a lack of distinction between “academics and spirituality” that “negatively” affects “some students and their faith lives in severe ways.” In order to mitigate against this danger, JBU ought to center these classes on “theological understanding rather than testing and grading.”