One of the great blessings and challenges in adjusting to life at SSU is simply coming to understand the difference between what life here is designed to be in contrast to what most people have experienced in contemporary western culture. Voices in media and education, reflecting the dominant worldviews of our day, have often emphasized rationalism, individualism, relativism and hedonism. SSU embodies a conscious and intentional attempt to reverse these trends. Contemporary culture makes its plans without stopping to consider the claims, promises and commands of a Living God; here we desire to allow God’s reign to touch every aspect of our lives. Secular culture focuses on individual selffulfillment; here we attempt to learn what it means to follow Jesus by dying to self and by honouiing others above the self. Society at large operates as though truth is unknowable, if it exists at all; many people find their highest good in whatever pleases them for the moment. We maintain that the Truth has been revealed by God in the Person of Jesus Christ and in the words of the Scriptures that foretold his coming. Our highest good is found in acting in accordance with this Truth, and we are learning how to find joy in loving God and serving others.
“Every act of selfcontrol of the Christian is also a service to the fellowship. On the other hand, there is no sin in thought, word, or deed, no matter how personal or secret, that does not inflict injury upon the whole fellowship. An element of sickness gets into the body; perhaps nobody knows where is comes from or in what member it has lodged, but the body is infected. This is the proper metaphor for the Christian community. We are members of a body, not only when we choose to be, but in our whole existence. Every member serves the whole body, wither to its health or to its destruction. This is no mere theory; it is a spiritual reality. And the Christian community has often experienced its effects with disturbing clarity, sometimes destructively and sometimes fortunately.”
(Quoted from Dietrich Bonhoeffer,
Life Together (German 1938) Harper and
Row, 1954.)
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