Kevin Eastway's 2010 Graduation Speech
My name is Kevin Eastway. I am an MAT student from the Sacramento campus, and I am honored to represent our program at our commencement celebration today.
Wow. We made it. I won’t name names, but it has taken some of us nearly a decade to get here! I was joking with my wife and mom on the way down here for graduation that it will be nice not to have homework for the first time since 1984!
We are here today to celebrate the accomplishments of those graduating from various Fuller programs, as well as to thank those of you who helped make this celebration a reality. We all know that we could not have done it without the help, encouragement and prayers of so many people.
Thank You:
Family and spouses for putting on that extra pot of coffee when we were getting ready to pull all-nighters to write that final paper.
Parents for believing in us
Professors for helping us look at Jesus and ministry from so many different angles,
Office staff for helping us figure out our classes and caring for us.
We are very grateful for the role you have played in our education as God has shaped us through this experience. We thank you for being here today!
Fuller Seminary Northern California has equipped me in many ways to be a more effective Area Director for Young Life in urban Sacramento, and a missional leader in our community. It has done so in different ways:
--Through Dr. Vincent’s Theology and Film class - learning to listen to what the Culture has to say about God through Movies like Gran Torino.
--Researching my community and writing a mission statement in Dr. Vaden’s Missional Church class, and then driving her around our Oak Park neighborhood while we discussed how best to care for the underserved and those stuck in generational poverty
--Talking about our calling in Dr. Randy Young’s class - and that maybe instead of being called to career or vocation, we are called to a person - the person of Jesus.
I look at the world differently due to my experience at Fuller.
Fuller has helped me grow in my understanding of the Missional Church and in my ability to communicate the incarnational approach to ministry in our community. These experiences at Fuller have further equipped me as a missional leader in reaching out to students who do not know the saving grace of Jesus. I am grateful for the opportunity to figure out how to turn theology into reality and a way of life that changes lives, including my own, in every direction.
My charge to you graduates is one that Jesus gave his disciples:
Matthew 5:14 - 16 (now that I’m done with seminary I can go back to using The Message Bible!) "Here's another way to put it: You're here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We're (Graduates of Fuller Seminary) going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don't think I'm going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I'm putting you on a light stand. Now that I've put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you'll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.”
This world has a tendency to be a dark place - doesn’t it? Jesus has put us on a light stand - so shine! He has given us the blessing of a graduate education in Him. He’s put us on a light stand - Go light your world graduates!
I thought that after I was done with school, life would slow done. It has not happened. Slow down. Be purposeful in slowing down. Go out your front door, talk to your neighbors, sit in the front yard instead of the back. Go public with this! Linger at the wells of life. Sit and listen to the stories of people's lives.
Take what you have learned from your experience at Fuller and give the thing that costs you the most - the thing that Jesus gave us. Give your life. Give it to people who do not deserve it, give it to those you love and to those who absolutely drive you crazy. That co-worker, that family-member, that man with the sign at the freeway off ramp, that drug addict, that gang member, the prisoner, the widow, the father-less. Give your time, your love, your resources, your knowledge that you have gained at Fuller, your couch, your extra bedroom, your extra sandwich to those in need.
People do not need more programs or events to attend. People need people. They need you. Go out the front door or invite them in your front door and give them the Jesus that is alive in you. Do not take what you have learned and hide it under a bushel basket.
No.
Let it shine. Go light your world. Keep open house and be generous with your life. As you open up to others, remember, you’ll prompt people to open up with God.
Erica Rader
Master of Divinity
Fuller Northern California
I think of myself as an unlikely candidate to attend seminary, but have discovered there are many journeys that brought my classmates to Fuller. I was raised in a family that did not talk about God. Throughout my life I wished God were real but didn’t trust the experience of God as he reached out to me. I received the gift of faith after a dinner conversation with a terrific guy—a believer—I met on a blind date! He suggested that I could pray for faith, which seemed backwards, but I tried it and I found that I began to believe. This man was different from anyone else I had known, and we have now been married for 16 years.
Several years later my experience with the isolation and shame of postpartum depression after the birth of our first child drove me into a deeper relationship with Jesus. I sought Christian community and Bible study for the first time and became deeply involved in serving with a moms’ fellowship group.
I began to sense a calling to seminary, but felt unworthy and ill-equipped. At this point I had studied the Bible for only a few years. However, I kept finding myself drawn to the Fuller webpage and encountering people who attended Fuller Northern California. I couldn’t get Fuller out of my mind! I visited a class, and the Holy Spirit confirmed to my heart that I was going to return and enroll. I didn’t bother looking at other seminaries.
I enrolled in the MDiv program in 2004, insecure about my lack of familiarity with the Bible. My friendships with my cohort members, which were marked by transparency and acceptance, helped me release that insecurity. I serve as the Minister of Caring Ministries at my church, a calling that my cohort helped me discern. During role playing in my pastoral counseling classes I discovered that I have pastoral gifts I had not yet considered, and the trustworthy feedback from my cohort affirmed these gifts and brought me to tears.
Fuller Northern California has been God’s tool to equip me, heart as well as mind, for the next adventures in serving his Kingdom.
Kurt Morrill
Master of Divinity
Fuller Northern California
When my wife and I were returning to the U.S. from living abroad, we felt torn between attending Fuller in Pasadena and being near our family in Northern California. When I found out that Fuller offered a full degree program in the Bay Area, we were overjoyed because we could be near our families and still pursue a theological degree.
One of the richest aspects of my experience at Fuller Northern California was that many of my classmates were involved in full-time ministry. Their real-world reflections on the materials we discussed added depth to our conversation, helping me to better apply book knowledge to present ministry realities.
Another terrific aspect of my life at Fuller was the one thing I was most afraid of: the cohort program. It was difficult enough for me to consider beginning this program that would extend over five years—it was another thing to think about committing to a community of people with whom I would be taking a series of courses. However, that community of people not only helped encourage and propel me though the program, the continuity we had in sharing multiple courses together made my learning deeper, warmer, and more fulfilling.
I want to continue to work in building bridges between Muslims and Christians, and Fuller has helped prepare me for this. In addition to giving me more theological depth, my learning at Fuller Northern California included access to specialized courses at the Pasadena campus—such as Modern Trends in Islam—as well as including more practical applications, such as getting to help lead some classmates on a visit to a local mosque to get to know Muslims face to face.
Fuller, I want to say "thank you": Thank you for broadening me by exposing me to new ideas; thank you for sharpening me by challenging me to form my own response to diverse thinkers (and not spoonfeeding me the answers); thank you for giving me space to develop my thinking through class discussions and papers on topics I had meant to explore but never had; thank you for connecting me with other disciples/leaders in my area; and thank you for all of the staff and faculty who helped me achieve my goal of completing the MDiv program!