Many years ago (in fact decades ago!), Mom would take us out to Walgreens in late August to buy school supplies. We would buy some #2 pencils, a pencil sharpener (I inevitably lost the last four she bought me), scissors (not pointed), notebooks, and crayons (until sixth grade). Getting ready for a new school year also involved new clothes, new shoes (my feet kept growing), and, inevitably, a haircut.

Old broken crayons, pencils with no eraser on the end, and worn-out shoes and socks with holes were all thrown away. Each new school year meant all things new!

In the past few weeks, Nancy and I have looked at pictures of our grandchildren as they prepare for the new school year. They too have new clothes and pencils and crayons. Some things change only a little from generation to generation.

Now I am a seminary president, and, oddly enough, I also need to get ready for a new school year. I don’t clean out the broken pencils and crayons, and I probably won’t get new shoes or get a haircut; however, I am preparing.

How?

First, I began praying for the faculty and the board of trustees, staff, and administration. I am praying for the incoming students and for visas for international students. Preparation for the new school year at the seminary is a much more spiritual enterprise than it was preparing for fourth grade.

Second, I do a personal inventory. What are habits I need to change or drop or add? What do I need to confess and let go of: either sinful habits, or resentment and anger? I need a clean start. We all need a clean start.

Third, I imagine the year before me as a story that has a beginning (convocation), a middle (travels, meetings, etc.) and an ending (commencement). How do I envision the plotline of this story being played out? I pray over the trips, the rhythms of the semesters, and the hurdles that are before me.

Fourth, I look at what I want to learn, write, preach, and teach in the coming year. I received an excellent education at Gordon-Conwell that set me on a journey that has meant a life of learning and serving. I am eager to learn more about mission in East Asia, the growth of indigenous churches in China, Vietnam, Indonesia, and India. I am also eager to learn more about leadership: casting a vision, pointing the way forward, dealing with the sacred tension between courage and humility and how to listen with greater empathy.

Finally, ever since junior high school, I have set themes or goals for the year (usually, back then, with very little deep cogitation). In seventh grade my goal was to make the soccer team. In tenth grade it was to make the varsity basketball and soccer teams. In my senior year my goal was to get a soccer scholarship for college.

This year, too, I have a goal or a theme for the year. My theme verse is from the convocation sermon:

“But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”   (I Peter 1:15-16)

One way we all can make preparations for the “school of holiness,” according to distinguished spiritual writer Peter Kreeft, is prayer: “Prayer gives truth to our mind because it puts us in the presence of Truth itself . . . . It gives goodness to our will because [it puts us in position to] catch the good infection of Godliness by contact. . . .[and] it gives beauty to our heart because it plunges us into the heart of God, which is the eternal energy of infinite joy.”[1]

So, I will soon be speaking to new students and the Gordon-Conwell community generally as together we sharpen our pencils and purify our souls for the communal journey called the 2024–25 school year. And I will call them to holiness, something needed for our souls and something that will bless our neighbors and our churches.

May we be holy as God is holy.

[1]  Peter Kreeft, Prayer for Beginners, San Francisco: Ignatius Press (2000), p.15.

Dr. Scott W. Sunquist, President of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, is author of the “Attentiveness” blog. He welcomes comments, responses, and good ideas.