Next week from June 9-14th Oklahoma Wesleyan University will be hosting a Worldview Academy Camp for high school students. Worldview Camp is not the ordinary summer camp. At Worldview Camp, students will be trained and equipped to understand and apply their faith in Jesus Christ.
This training could not come at a more crucial time. Our students must only drive down the highway, turn on the television or open their laptops to be bombarded with images, and arguments trying to convince them of some theology, philosophy or worldview. As Christians, it is important for them to know what they believe and why, so they are able to think critically, engage in these conversations, stand up for the gospel. This is why Worldview Academy was formed in 1996. Since then, Worldview has hosted over 27,000 students at events, and has established 238 camps, which boast an average attendance of 2,300 each summer.
If you would like more information about the Worldview Camp held at Oklahoma Wesleyan University, or would like to be on the waiting list to attend camp, please visit www.worldview.org.
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Renowned apologist Abdu Murray is coming to Oklahoma Wesleyan University this week. He will be speaking on the topic, “A Son from a Stone: From Islam to Christ” Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Lyon Chapel and Fine Arts Center. He will share again on Friday at 10:10 a.m. in the campus Chapel Service, where he will be speaking on how “Our Differences Make a Difference: Contrasts in Islamic and Christian Theology.” Both sessions are open to the community, and guests are encouraged to attend.
When Abdu Murray was a young man, his Muslim parents encouraged him to study the Qur’an and Islam, but as he studied Islam and the major world religions in the years that followed, he began to think that Christianity was the only one that completely lined up with historical evidence. He declared, “I found the evidence for Christianity to be so compelling, particularly the resurrection of Jesus to be so compelling, as a historical fact. Not an idea that Christians believe or hope is true, but can have confidence in as being true.”
Eventually, he was overcome by the love of Jesus Christ, the man that was willing to lay down his life for people who hated him. He said, “Islam knows no love like that.” Now, his goal is to engage with non-Christians—Muslims, Jews, cult members, and skeptics— and to equip other Christians to do the same. Murray has spoken in numerous locations across the United States and internationally, has been featured on many talk radio shows and television programs, and has been published in a variety of media venues.
Murray received his Juris Doctorate from the University of Michigan Law School in 1999, where he also earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology in 1995. Currently, he lives in Detroit, Michigan with his wife and three children. He is a co-founder and President of Embrace the Truth International. More information about his ministry can be found at Embrace the Truth.
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Oklahoma Wesleyan University (OKWU) held a dedication chapel and ribbon-cutting ceremony to dedicate their new campus building, The Keating Center for Capitalism, Free Enterprise and Constitutional Liberty, on Friday, March 8th. The building was named after former Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating and his wife Cathy for their exemplary service to the State of Oklahoma and the nation, and was established to encourage and promote the ideals that are so important to the couple: capitalism, free enterprise, and constitutional liberty.
In addition to former Governor Frank Keating, several other business and political leaders were in attendance. U.S. Congressman Jim Bridenstine, 1st District of Oklahoma, opened the dedication chapel by honoring the namesake of the Keating Center by saying it “could not have been named after a stronger political advocate for the free market from our state. Governor Keating’s political career was filled with accomplishments that were aimed at preserving the very principles that this center now aims to foster.”
Mr. David Preston, Executive Director of the OKWU Foundation, followed with a tribute to the opportunities made available to the students and the community by The Keating Center and to the University’s liberal arts education. “The Keating Center will enhance how we are able to prepare our students to succeed in the real world. Most schools recoil in horror when one dares to broach the subjects, much less promote, Capitalism, Free Enterprise, and Constitutional Liberty. We don’t. And as a fundamental American principle, the development of the free enterprise system in our country has been the engine that has driven almost inconceivable economic success and personal freedom.”
Dr. Brett Andrews, School of Business Dean and Vice President for Program Development at OKWU, emphasized the connection between Christianity and capitalism by quoting our second president, James Madison— “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” According to university president Everett Piper, the argument of The Keating Center is “that capitalism, free enterprise, and liberty – Constitutional Liberty – can only be enjoyed, preserved, protected if such ideals are grounded in something more enduring and permanent than even the our Country’s most sacred founding document. Freedom is a gift of God it is not endowed to us by man.”
The Keating Center is a beautiful new building on Oklahoma Wesleyan University’s campus, but according to President Piper, “The Keating Center is about ideas – It is not really about a building. And the Ideas taught in this Center and at OKWU indeed will bear fruit, and will have consequences – good fruit and good consequences today, tomorrow, for ourselves and for our posterity.”
At The Keating Center, we will champion the fundamental precepts of individual liberty, free market economics, the rule of law, and Judeo-Christian morality. Discussion on these fundamental precepts can be found on The Keating Center blog found at okwu.edu/keating-center.
The Center also houses the university’s School of Business, which has been renamed the Chesapeake Energy School of Business to reflect the generous donation to the university from the Chesapeake Energy Corporation.
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Over February 11-15th, Oklahoma Wesleyan University held their Third Annual Orange Week to honor the namesake of 18th century abolitionist and founder of the Wesleyan Methodist movement, Orange Scott, during the week of his birthday.
The student organization responsible for organizing Orange Week is called The Orange Movement (OM) and is also named after Orange Scott. Orange Movement director/founder Marci Piper said the organization honors Scott by “taking a week to host activities and events that raise awareness of and support the fight against human trafficking today.”
The Orange Movement kicked off Orange Week with a Skype dialogue with Jennie, sister of OM student leader, Josh Telfer. Jennie is currently serving with Night Light International in Bangkok, Thailand working to help rescue young women in the red light districts there.
The week also included a student-produced chapel on Wednesday, Orange Scott’s birthday. The chapel focused on Scott’s legacy alongside that of English abolitionist William Wilberforce and efforts to fight slavery today. Tying the original abolitionist mindset of the founding father of the Wesleyan Methodist movement with bringing that mindset forward for today’s generation.
On Thursday, February 14, Christian pop-rock band Cloverton performed a benefit concert at OKWU called “Love Orange” in honor of Valentine’s Day and The Orange Movement’s mission to end modern day slavery through the love of Jesus Christ. Funds raised will support 2013 Orange Movement initiatives.
On Friday and Saturday, The Orange Movement invited students and community members to wear specially designed orange t-shirts at OKWU mens’ and women’s basketball games. They called the event an “Orange Out” designed to raise awareness and unite participants on the basis of both basketball and social activism.
Awareness is key for The Orange Movement. Director/founder Marci Piper said the Orange Movement’s main goal is to be a “megaphone for raising awareness and connecting students and our community with organizations that are on the front lines in the battle.”
In early January, the Organization launched Emancipation Stories, a collection of trafficking survivor stories, created to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. The Orange Movement also has plans to launch a database of anti-trafficking organizations next year to help concerned individuals find avenues to participate and to help in the fight against modern day slavery, among other initiatives.
Whether it’s Orange Week or not, The Orange Movement emphasizes the healing power of Christ in everyone’s lives. OKWU’s favorite color is orange. What’s your’s?
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