#1936 A Salute to Mount Olive University

#1936

A Salute to the University of Mount Olive

Nido Qubein is a businessman, motivational speaker, and President of High Point University since 2005.  He received his Associate's Degree in Business from Mount Olive College, where he was a member of ΔΠΔ fraternity.

In the family cemetery at Lucama, NC, town named for my Lucas ancestors, my father's mother was Martha Lucas Morris, is the monument for Elder T.T. Lucas.  For many years, I have given two pastoral awards in the Freewill Baptist denomination honoring this early horse and buggy preacher.  I feel such men, called and chosen by God should be honored even with two $3000 awards each to outstanding pastors, each year.  I give many other awards honoring such called people. 

Lucas was an extensive farmer-landowner, twelve children, the ancestry of both he and his wife has been traced back to England.  He and other members of his family were instrumental in the first Freewill Baptist college at Ayden, NC.  From one of his sermons, handwritten, which I found with other books at my grandparents' family home; I found these words, which I have used many times in speaking and in writing, and "We are not stuck where we start." 

I thought about the mission of this Christian university when the words of the president of High Point University were brought to my attention, Dr. Nido Qubein is a graduate of Mount Olive University.  During this time in American history when the future seems so uncertain for the Christian church, we need to think of another John Dunne poem, "No Man is an Island":

            No man is an island,
            Entire of itself,
            Every man is a piece of the continent,
            A part of the main.
            If a clod be washed away by the sea,
            Europe is the less.
            As well as if a promontory were.
            As well as if a manor of thy friend's
            Or of thine own were:
            Any man's death diminishes me,
            Because I am involved in mankind,
            And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
            It tolls for thee. 

As unto God, among the thousands of dollars in awards each year attempting to honor those who have served the denomination so well: James Evans, Louise Edgerton, Burkett Rapier, M.L. Johnson, Gary Barefoot, etc, it is my firm conviction that like the Middlesex Children's Home and so many other Christian institutions, WE, as Christians, must not be indifferent to the very rapid change in the culture which surrounds us...the fact that most churches have just become country clubs with steeples.  Church members, those who claim the name of Christ, must be different, and so it is with a Christian university.  And, we must be willing to give of self to show that difference.  The Apostle Paul said, "And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."  (Romans 12:2)  Only in Heaven will those who have labored in the vineyard of God's work, such as a Christian college, realize the difference they have made.  We are called to be different-separated from the world, it is not just a matter of having one's name on a church roll, even observing the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper, but totally entrenched, concerned about the "soul" condition of those around us. 

In impoverished Eastern North Carolina, people and churches on dirt roads, never knowing anything about power lines, phone lines, or running water that this university matured, led by our good friend and one of the finest men any other man has ever known, Dr. Burkett Rapier.  The story of this university and small mostly rural denomination still goes on.

About thirty years ago this writer participated in a Christian conference in Atlanta, GA.  Another speaker, owner-president of a large candy manufacturing company in his address said, "I recently sent my watch back to the manufacturer and on it's face so that every time I look at the time I will see it, I had these words engraved, 'The Night Cometh', I realize that every minute time is passing and we have so much to do."