North Central introduces new Magnum Opus

The Northerner
NORTH CENTRAL UNIVERSITY - SEPTEMBER 30, 2015 VOL. 57
ISSUE 1
North Central introduces
new Magnum Opus program
The new program offers a full degree in Interdisciplinary Studies with a unique living experience, a
redesigned general program, and an accelerated seven semester schedule
BY STEVEN CARVER | @STEVENCARVER_
As far as offices go, Melanie Hurlbut’s office is fairly
standard. There are some bookshelves, a desk holding two
computers, an extra end table
and chairs for visitors. On the
desk, there are two computers,
some stacks of paper, and dozens of sticky notes scattered
across the desk. Nearly every
paper is full of notes of different kinds, impossible to read for
anyone else, but certain to hold
valuable snippets of information
about one of North Central’s
most interesting developments
in recent memory.
Melanie Hurlbut is the director of the Magnum Opus
program, a new way to graduate with a Bachelor of Science
in interdisciplinary studies at
North Central University. The
program allows students to re-
ceive the full education of a
four year program in the space
of seven semesters, or just less
than three years. Students will
spend their first four semesters,
including a full summer semester, studying generals through
the Great Books curriculum
while living in a cohort with
their classmates. After these
four semesters, Magnum Opus
students will focus on their core
major for three traditional semesters before graduating.
The Great Books curriculum
is a growing trend in college
campuses all around America.
The curriculum is composed of
a large list of essential Western
literature ranging from Homer’s
Illiad and Odyssey to scientific
works like Einstein’s The Theory of Relativity, paired with lecturing in the classical Socratic
PHOTO BY SHANE CHRISTENSEN
style. The goal is to teach critical
thinking skills and build a foundational understanding of the
world so that students may be
fully equipped in their vocations
to act ethically and defend their
faith reasonably. In the Magnum
Opus program, the Great Books
curriculum is being supplemented by the biblical narrative so
that students may understand
these great works of literature
with a biblical mindset.
As Magnum Opus students
study this way, they are living in
intentional community with up
to 30 students in a cohort. This
cohort is a tight community that
lives, learns, and even travels together for four semesters before
each student begins their major
classes. The women are living
on the fifth floor of Mensing
Hall, and the men are current-
Major changes
come to Residence
Life staff
Abigail Davis becomes the interim Dean, taking on role of
Residence Life point person
BY KATIE LAPINSKI
Abigail Davis has now added new responsibilities from
her previous housing duties to
becoming the interim Associate Dean of Residence Life and
Housing. During the past summer, there has been a great deal
of turn over in staff. One of the
more notable departures is that
of Juice Montezon, the former
Dean of Residence Life and
Student Conduct. Without hesitation, Abigail Davis stepped up
to the plate. Davis was hired in
2014 as the Associate Dean of
Residence Life and Housing and
has now absorbed more responsibilities and has now become
the “Residence Life point person,” she says.
In her housing positions,
Homecoming
and the end
of a nearly
one million
dollar project
Collaboration with
Elliot Park changes
NCU athletics for the
better
BY SHANNON HILL
@HILLSHANNONE
On the third floor of the TJ Jones library, Rick Hurlbut
is teaching the first Magnum Opus cohort about the influence of speech in our world as a part of their public
speaking unit.
ly living on 2 West Phillipps.
As more men enroll, they’ll be
housed in the Z House on 15th
Street. A new cohort begins
each fall and spring semester
and lasts for four semesters, including a full summer semester.
Starting next year, the Magnum
Opus program will take third
and fourth semester Magnum
Opus students abroad during the
fall semester to study in Italy.
Once these four semesters end,
continued on page 3
PHOTO PROVIDED BY MARKETING
Abigail Davis has previously been the Associate Dean for
Residence Life and Housing underneath Juice Montezon.
Davis is in charge of anything on Montezon’s previous posiand everything having to do tion and she says she is doing it
with housing, such as housing with help.
assignments and changes, makThe current resident direcing sure everyone has a place to tors, or RDs, overseeing all of
live, and meal plans. In addition the halls have been at North
to that roll, Davis is now taking
continued on page 2
Executive branch Laying the
begins term
foundation
page 2
page 8
This year at North Central,
a new noise has been heard
throughout campus – that of
joyful shouting. Every day,
North Central students and
neighborhood kids alike can be
seen running around on the new
soccer field, participating in various activities from soccer practice to a casual game of Frisbee.
This new addition to the school
has not only been a new part of
North Central, but a new part of
the Elliot Park community as
well.
The idea for the project started
forming approximately 5 years
ago, when Hennepin County
commissioner Paul McLauglin
recommended that tax dollars
from the Twins stadium be given out in the form of grants to
use for new sports complexes
throughout the city. Various
organizations could then apply
for the grant to receive funding
for their project. The Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board
then proposed the idea for half
of a soccer field in Elliot Park.
It was originally believed that
there wouldn’t be enough room
for a full sized field, let alone
the burden of funding one. With
the realization that the Parks and
Recreation board could not fully fund this field, North Central
stepped in and began a lengthy
collaboration with the city.
continued on page 5
Opinions Theme:
Worship Culture
pages 6, 7
NEWS
PAGE 2
Executive branch
begins term
Tiffany Larson and Mekeyah Wright discuss plans
BY JOSIAH MURPHY
PHOTO BY JOSIAH MURPHY
The Northerner | September 30, 2015
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ART AND DESIGN
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Curtis Vaughn
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Josiah Mayo
Holly Pieper
Josiah Mayo
Anna Nielsen
Christian Morris
Marisa Sorenson
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President Tiffany Larson and Vice President Mekeyah Wright sit down to discuss their
goals for the upcoming school year.
As the fall semester kicks off,
student body President Tiffany Larson and Vice President
Mekeyah Wright have hit the
ground running, advocating on
behalf of the student body by
dealing with two issues brought
to their attention by students.
When problems concerning
parking on campus arose, Larson communicated with James
Crabtree, the campus safety
and security director, to make
sure the student’s voices were
heard as the security department
worked to resolve the issue.
Complaints were also made
about laundry room etiquette,
so student government has engaged in a dialogue with residence life to develop a strategy
that will allow students to make
the most out of North Central’s
laundry facilities.
There is a common theme
to Larson and Wright’s plans for
the year; to create stability in all
facets of student government.
For the past several years, North
Central’s student body presidents have run on a platform
of restructuring the position.
When asked about this recurring
pattern, Wright responded that
there were complications in the
process of restructuring and that
the changes took time to implement.
“I think the hardest part is
getting faculty members and
students on the same page, because they have two very different perspectives” Wright
said. “Our vision is not so much
change anymore, it’s creating
stability for the change that has
already happened.”
Nathan Hirsh, the student
body president from 2012-2014,
began the process of restructuring, which was continued by
Caleb Brose last year. Although
Brose brought his own perspective to the changes, the vision
stayed consistent to the work
Hirsh began during his term.
Now that many of the changes
have already taken place, Larson and Wright are working to
make the office stable so that
future presidents can begin their
terms focusing on other projects.
Larson and Wright are unified
in their vision and goals, but
have distinct personalities that
make them a well-rounded team,
according to Wright. Larson has
strong administrative abilities
and is very organized, while
Wright is very straight-forward
and a talented speaker.
“We have a lot of diversity
between our life experiences
and our friendships,” Wright
said. “Tiffany and I are friends
but we also have very different
friend groups, so together we
can pull from a lot of resources, and that allows us to reach a
broader group of students.”
One of the main goals Larson
and Wright have for the year is
to remain attentive to what the
student body needs and to communicate issues to the staff as
effectively as possible. In order
to achieve this goal, they want
to hear from students when issues arise.
“One of my pet peeves about
North Central is that students
are quick to complain, but slow
to take action,” Larson said.
Larson and Wright want to
make themselves as available to
students as possible. The easiest
way to contact them with questions, comments, or concerns
is through their student emails,
which can be found in the student directory on Unet. There
is also a suggestion box on the
wall outside of the student government office, located on the
second floor of Carlson Hall by
the skyway, which they will be
checking regularly.
Larson will be meeting with
President Gordon Anderson on
a monthly basis, where she will
have the opportunity to bring up
student concerns.
“Past presidents have used
these meetings primarily as a
mentoring time, but I plan to
use it to speak on the students
behalf.” Larson said.
Major changes
come to Residence
Life staff
continued from page 1
Central for many years. Chris
Woelfle, Kristi Hedstrom, Brittany Wipf, and the newest RD,
Luke Sutter alumni of North
Central and in addition, have
all served in student leadership
during their times as students.
With their “veteran” roles and
prior understanding of North
Central, the RDs now have a
few more responsibilities on
their plates, taking on a little extra work in some areas to help
assist in this transition period.
The student development office
has also hired a new office manager, Asha Williams, another
alumna to help take on some of
the office duties that are usually another responsibility of the
housing director.
In her new position, Davis
has even more duties than she
did last year. In addition to still
operating the housing department, Davis now oversees the
RDs, student conduct matters,
and speaking as a Resident Life
voice on several different committees.
Though Davis has stepped
into taking on two different
roles, she states that this is only
temporary. There are several different committees made of different student development staff
looking into how the structure is
currently set up. The committee
is meeting to discuss if there
is a need to restructure certain
elements of the student development organization and what
that would look like. There is
no guarantee that changes will
occur, the committee is only
looking into if there actually is
a need for restructure.
No decision on structure has
been made. The committee is
still looking into the option of
restructure and if so, what that
would look like. Davis explains
that after the committee has finished their discussions, there
could be large changes, small
changes or no changes at all.
The committee is looking at other institutions’ structures that are
similar to the size of the North
Central student body and other
Christian universities There is
no deadline set for the decision
of the restructure but the committee is aiming to complete
their study as soon as possible.
Prior to her transition to
North Central, Davis worked as
junior high and high school English teacher as well as teaching
overseas. She also worked as a
resident director and assistant
director of student conduct at
two other Christian institutions.
Davis says that she loved work-
ing in the area of student development and wanted to continue.
Though she did not work in
housing prior to North Central,
Davis felt the housing position
was a good opportunity to pursue.
“I can use my gifts, abilities
and experience but also still
learn new things and be part of
the team in a new way than I was
before,” Davis said.
Davis has plenty of higher education background making her
qualified for all the responsibilities she holds in her new title.
Davis received her Bachelor’s
of Arts degree in English education from Biola University.
She has two Master’s degrees,
in education and the other in Divinity. Currently, she is working
on her PhD in higher education
through Azusa Pacific.
Davis is excited about her new
role and believes good things
will come from the change.
“When someone leaves, it’s a
good opportunity for an organization, to look into restructure.
Instead of just operating as,
‘yeah, everything’s good lets
just keep it that way,’ let’s look
at how can we make things better,” Davis said.
NEWS
PAGE 3
September 30, 2015 | The Northerner
Changes come
to biblical studies
and theology core
Curriculum adjusted to provide flexibility for students
BY MATT MARCINIEC
The biblical studies and theology core that every student
must complete has been redesigned and now requires fewer
credit hours. These changes are
being implemented with this
year’s freshman class.
The biblical studies and theology portion of the curriculum
has been reduced to 18 credits.
Although it really is a 24 credit program according to Glen
Menzies, Dean of the Institute
of Biblical & Theological Studies and holds a Ph.D in Ancient
Studies.
Menzies states that a critical
thought course, taught through
the Biblical Studies department,
will still be required. Also, senior projects in most majors
will now be given a greater emphasis on applied theology in a
student’s profession.
With the new core, Old Testament history and literature
and new testament history and
literature will stay. On the other
hand, Bible study methods (or
hermeneutics for some majors)
and all systematic theology
courses will no longer be required. They will gradually be
phased out by Fall of 2017.
Pentecostal distinctives and
Acts will no longer be required
for all students. New Testament
and Old Testament electives
will no longer be required either, but they will still be offered as general electives.
New to the curriculum is
BIBL 220, exegesis and hermeneutics, which combines elements of Bible study methods
and hermeneutics.
Another course that will be
required of all students is THEO
210, God and the Gospel, which
according to Menzies, is very
similar to Systematic Theology
III. God and the Gospel is already being offered.
Another major change is the
addition of worldview theology
courses. Students will elect two
of these courses out of a list of
four that include God and religion, God and humanity, God
and culture, and God and vocation.
With these changes, there
will be less emphasis on Bible
book study, and more of a focus
on integrating theology with
questions people face in life, according to Menzies.
“If you want to call this practical or applied theology, I suppose you could,” Menzies said.
“It has to do with decision making in the modern world.”
A creative design team is already at work designing these
new worldview theology courses, which will gradually be
rolled out with one new course
being taught each semester beginning in Fall 2016. Once
introduced, each course will be
offered every semester thereafter.
Returning students are allowed to change majors while
keeping the old general education core, which includes the
Biblical Studies and Theology
aspect. Also, students will be
given the option to change to
PHOTO BY MATT MARCINIEC
A detailed explanation of the new changes can be found
in the registrar’s office.
the new general education core
while retaining their current
major. However, students cannot pick and choose parts of the
old and new general education
cores and combine them.
“I’m not saying this will not
be completely painless and that
there won’t be an amount of
messiness to it,” Menzies said.
“We’re trying to be as student
friendly and sensitive as we can
be.”
The Biblical studies and theology core was not the only
area of study that was adjusted.
Foundations of leadership is no
longer part of a student’s education at North Central. Only six
credits are required in English
compared to nine in the old core
curriculum. Students pursuing
a Bachelor of Arts degree will
now take 10 credits in math
and science and those pursuing
a bachelor of science will need
to take seven. Both degree programs require one lab science
course, which is four credits.
One reason for these changes was that it provides flexibility for students and it allows
for more work to be done in a
student’s major, according to
Menzies.
Because few schools required
as much Bible as North Central,
these changes make the transition for transfer students a little
easier. Attracting those students
was taken into consideration
when making these changes.
Two new courses, the Spirit
and the church and Protestant
theology will also be offered to
act as equivalents to previous
theology courses. These classes
will be required in some majors
and will be available as general
electives.
“I don’t think there was anything wrong with the old Bible
core,” said Menzies. “I think the
old core did a pretty fine job of
training people to understand
the Bible ... The question will be
if the new core will produce the
same results with fewer credits
and in a more efficient way.”
North Central
introduces new
Magnum Opus program
continued from page 1
the cohort living experience
ends and students are free to
pursue a major core in the Interdisciplinary Studies track.
The story behind Magnum
Opus’ beginnings at North
Central starts with Melanie
Hurlbut and her husband, Rick.
They were missionaries for
over twenty years with a large
portion of their time spent in
Malaysia church planting and
evangelizing to the citizens and
workers of the country. While
there, they dealt with complex
social problems in Malaysia related to the influx of immigrant
workers and immoral business
practices, all while attempting
to bring Malaysians and immigrants alike to Christ. They
found that to really make the
faith of these new Christians
thrive in a hostile environment,
new Christians had to be taught
about much more than the doctrines of faith. “We realized that
the migrant and refugee issue
was actually a microcosm of
society,” said Melanie, “and we
had to address all the spheres of
society.”
Their desire to teach the
fundamental philosophical underpinnings of Western civilization led the couple to contact
Rivendell Worldview Education
Company (RWEC), a company
that was starting a new kind of
education program intended to
teach those very lessons about
the foundations of Western society. RWEC started Rivendell
Sanctuary, a small Associate
of Arts program in Bloomington, MN, housed on the Bethany College of Missions. The
Rivendell Sanctuary program is
very similar to North Central’s
Magnum Opus offering. The
Hurlbut’s watched this program
develop, and in the summer of
2014, they moved to Bloomington to join Rivendell Sanctuary
as faculty members.
During the summer of
2015, Rivendell Sanctuary
approached North Central because they wanted to “become
part of a regionally accredited
school, having developed to the
point where this is extremely
important to their future development,” according to an email
sent to North Central employees in May 2015. In response,
North Central met with the
leadership of Rivendell Sanctuary over a handful of lengthy
six hour meetings and founded
the Magnum Opus program, a
North Central-created program
supported with external resources. Melanie and Rick Hurlbut,
along with two other faculty
members, began working at
North Central as the core employees of the Magnum Opus
program.
The formation of this program at North Central comes
from the efforts of The Center
for Creative Education, an initiative within North Central’s
administration,spearheaded by
the Vice President of Spiritual
Life, Doug Graham. In an interview with Doug Graham, he
said this initiative is “the idea
that we would look for opportunities as an institution to continue to do what we are doing in
our traditional education programming, but we also look for
new, creative ways to do new
things.” The Pastoral Academy,
which The Northerner reported
on last spring, is a result of the
efforts coming from The Center for Creative Education. The
Magnum Opus program is the
Center’s latest effort to offer
unique education to students.
The Magnum Opus program,
besides featuring a unique living and education experience,
offers families with graduating
high school students more than
just the basic academic education. “They’re not just getting
all the right academics of reading, writing, and arithmetic,”
said Graham. “They’re getting
the solid Biblical worldview
that a lot of families value.”
This kind of program has
a market with homeschooled
families that have been able to
guarantee a faith-based education and are seeking to continue
that past high school.
This inaugural fall semester,
the Magnum Opus program has
21 students enrolled: 15 women
and 6 men. Initially, the projected numbers indicated in the
email sent to North Central employees suggested anywhere between 50 to 70 students would
be enrolled this fall semester.
“That was because we
were including the possibility of students coming from
other programs mid-stream,”
said Graham. “That became
a non-possibility because we
chose to build a Bachelor of
Science degree [around Magnum Opus], and not just do a
four semester cohort program.”
Numbers will grow and Z
House will be occupied by male
students as new cohorts begin
each fall and spring semester.
As the program continues
along, it is important to note that
Magnum Opus is not replacing
traditional education opportunities at North Central. Classic four-year Interdisciplinary
Studies degrees are still offered,
as are traditional Bachelors
of Arts and Sciences. Instead,
Magnum Opus is yet another
reflection of the unique nature
of North Central, driven by the
missions statement of the University, to offer a Christ-centered, Bible-based education for
any that are interested.
Miller Hall residents
alerted of theft
Multiple incidents of theft have occurred in Miller Hall in the past weeks.
BY JOSIAH MAYO
In the past few weeks, multiple incidents of theft have occurred across Miller Hall dorm
rooms. These separate instances
of theft have included keys, ID
cards and money that have been
stolen from resident rooms.
Kristi Hedstrom, RD of
Miller Hall, sent out a precautionary email to all Miller Hall
residents. Residents are being
warned to keep money and
valuables such as ID cards and
keys out of sight in their rooms,
to lock dorm room doors at all
times when out of the room as
well as at night, and to report
anything suspicious to an RA or
Kristi herself.
Kristi goes on to say in her
email that because of the nature
of these thefts, not an outside
intruder, but rather an NCU student may be responsible.
VARIETY
Sweet Escapes and Sweet
PAGE 4
The Northerner | September 30, 2015
Visions
A celebration of being a woman
BY HOLLY PIEPER
As French music softly
played, excitement bubbled in
the air as NCU women floated
in and out of clay commons on
Thursday evening. The women’s ministry team, Delta Kappa (DK), held their first event
called “Sweet Escape.”
The event was an ice cream
social with the theme “a night in
Paris.” It was a night to escape
from all the busyness and stress
of the first couple of weeks of
school and to celebrate being a
woman. The event had different
social activities ranging from a
painting station to a photo booth
and you can’t forget all of the
sweets!
Around the end of the night
the DK team members gave
some announcements and then
shared their hearts on the vision
for their ministry and their goal
to rebrand Delta Kappa.
This year is a little different
from past years because there
PHOTO BY HOLLY PIEPER
are only three girls on the team
and this is their first year being
apart of DK.
“I think with the three members its been to this point, really
effective for how we’ve conducted our meetings, to how
we’ve gotten things accomplished thus far,” said music
pastor major and Director of
Delta Kappa, Allison Schimenti. “I think we have a lot closer
relationship and it brings a lot
more intimacy between us as a
team.”
The only concern the three
DK girls had was the amount
of helping hands at their events.
However, to their benefit they
had around 10 extra ladies that
helped throughout the night.
To accomplish their goal of
rebranding Delta Kappa the
girls camp up with three words
to follow which are unity, authenticity and femininity.
“We want unite all the girls
on campus, break some barriers
of the Miller and Phillipps Hall
divide and even a divide in age,”
said business major Chelsea
Densieski.
The girls’ vision is for the
woman on campus to first be
unified and then to be real and
have authentic relationships
with one another. The goal is
for women to have intentional
relationships and not surface
level ones Schimenti explained.
After being unified and having authentic relationships,
the goal is to celebrate being a
woman. The word femininity
gets lost in a perception of being girly and loving sparkles and
pink. At the event, Schimenti
said that femininity is about celebrating each other’s differences and the fact that we are the
daughters of God.
“We want women to see each
other as one, as sisters in Christ
rather than see our differences,”
Pictured, left to right, are Chelsea Densieski, Allison Schimenti, and Sydney Riggs, the
Delta Kappa leadership team.
said junior and youth develop- those three words first, being we create so I think its first of all
the one to live out authentic us living it out with each other
ment major Sydney Riggs.
The DK girls believe that for lives, being united as a team and and then bringing it to our friend
these three words to really affect celebrating each other because groups and then encouraging
the lives of NCU women they we are all very different,” said them to live that way.”
Schimenti. “We are different in
have to be the example.
“It starts with us living out how we talk, how we think, how
Business program launches
new incentive for students
‘Do Something’ initiative encourages students to be strategic with college years
BY KRISTIN WILEMAN
Many may have noticed the
expansion of the business program this year, but more is happening than increased numbers
in students and faculty.
Launching this semester is
the “Do Something” initiative: a
strategic program purposefully
designed by the business faculty
to increase the knowledge, virtues and skills of every business
student.
“We have to offer students
something more than classes,”
said Professor Bill Tibbetts,
director of the school of marPHOTO BY KRISTIN WILEMAN
Professor Bill Tibbetts speaks at the business department
chapel.
keting. “We need to provide
them with opportunities. That
is where ‘Do Something’ comes
in.”
The new initiative is officially
launching this semester but has
been in the works for the last
three years. Every semester, students who join the initiative will
receive different challenges including reading strategic books
chosen by professors, participating in informational meetings,
pursuing internships, sharing in
business small groups and joining in mentorship sessions with
advisors and people in their desired fields.
While the initiative is not for
credit, it enhances resumes and
prepares students for their future
careers. Every new and returning student will have the option
to participate in Do Something
each semester during their advising meeting. The goal is not
to coerce students into participating, but to show the high re-
wards this extra push can do to
enhance the education process.
This fall, 69 new students
chose to major in business. In
contrast, there were only 20
new students last fall. Tibbetts
largely attributed the business
school’s enrollment increase to
the launching of this new initiative. “Parents and students want
a school that is preparing people
to achieve what they’ve been
called to achieve. This is preparation for the future – we refuse
to do anything less than that.”
Tibbetts believes the new
initiative to satisfy the highest
form of value where the benefit
exceeds the cost. It is also filling the aspects people seek in a
college degree: groundwork for
potential careers. “We’re offering what people want,” Tibbetts
said. “We’re focusing on the
future, emphasizing mentorship
and providing opportunities.”
The school of business has
attained 100 percent graduate
placement the last two years.
Tibbetts credits this success to
the fact that students are realizing that simply learning information is not enough. “We encourage students to be involved
on campus, but also encourage
them to be future focused,” Tibbetts said. “Pursue internships.
Make connections. Don’t become tunnel minded.” With the
additional Do Something drive,
Tibbetts hopes students become
even more motivated to actively
pursue opportunities that will be
of benefit later in life.
Nora Holms, a business administration senior, has been
strategic with her time at North
Central. Spending a semester
studying business in England
and taking a trip to Uganda has
exposed her to the field of international business, something
she hopes to pursue in the future.
In the most recent school of
business chapel, Holms encour-
aged new students to “take every advantage of opportunities
thrown your way. You never
know what they’ll lead to.” She
also encouraged students to use
the resource they have in the
professors, saying they’ve been
enormously beneficial to her
during her college career.
Tibbetts, who has been on
faculty at North Central since
2008, is enthusiastic about the
future. “We have a full load of
work cut out for us with all the
new students, but we couldn’t
be more excited,” Tibbetts said.
“We’re primed to really get the
workplace filled with Christians… Christians who are incredibly knowledgeable, who
have respectable skills and have
character that reflects nothing
less than the love and power of
God.”
VARIETY
Homecoming and the end of a
PAGE 5
The Northerner | September 30, 2015
nearly $1,000,000 project
continued from page 1
The idea ended up multiplying itself. “The vision for what
[the soccer field] was has come
to fruition even more than what
we had hoped,” said Paul Freitag, executive director of advancement. “This is a once in
a lifetime opportunity for partnership; by faith we just have to
say yes.”
Yet, there were still hurdles
to jump over, the biggest two
being approval by the city and
funding to build the field. The
Parks and Recreation Board
could only give so much money, and North Central did not
have the means to fund such a
huge development alone. Moreover, being in an urban area offered very limited space for new
construction. Minneapolis was
already trying to create a soccer
complex for Minnesota United,
so a community soccer field
nearby was not the top priority.
Remarkably, donations poured
in for the field from alumni and
local business owners amounting to around $475,000. Once
funding became feasible, approval was almost unanimous.
The project finally came to
completion after three and half
years of fundraising and meetings. On September 1st, the
humid, ninety degree day before classes, members of North
Central faculty wore their best
to reflect upon the events leading to its first ever homecoming.
There were numerous festivities
– among them the Rams’ first
real home soccer game. After a
half hour commute to the Coon
Rapids Soccer Complex for
home games in the past, being
able to simply walk across the
street or even watch the game
from a dorm window started a
pleasant change.
Various staff members, students, and alumni gathered in
Elliot Park, fanning themselves
with cardboard fans adorned
with Dr. Anderson’s face. The
ribbon cutting ceremony began with a few speakers who
were involved with the project.
After an introduction by executive director of enrollment
and marketing Michael White,
Mike Nosser, vice president of
student development, reflected
on the process of creating the
soccer field. “[There were] 1700
emails, a whole bunch of meetings, a whole bunch of planning,
and whole bunch of things happening to get to this day,” he
commented.
The work that went into the
field was no doubt immense, and
it was evident from the ceremony that the work of many people
was involved in its establishment. Nevertheless, Nosser did
not hesitate to first give thanks
to God. Referring to the old
hymn, he pronounced “to God
be the glory, great things He has
done.” Nosser then went on to
bring attention to the many people responsible for the new field
and the roles that they played.
From North Central faculty
members noticing an opportunity and fostering the idea to Min-
neapolis city councilman Abdi
Warsame allowing the project to
take form, it is evident that the
contributions to the project went
beyond North Central. Hennepin County Commissioner Peter
McLaughlin subsequently took
the stage and noted the difficult
process of getting the development of the field off paper.
“Sometimes you have to step
forward and do things people
don’t always like when you first
do it, but I always like to point
to these fields”, McLaughlin
referring to excess tax revenue
from Target Field that was used
in the funding of the new soccer
field among other similar projects. Although the use of the
tax revenue may not have been
well-received by all in the Minneapolis community, the money
aided the creation of other parks
in the area. “We’re trying to
build the 21st century community,” McLaughlin stated as he
described the diversity the projects have helped to foster.
Lynn Regnier, executive
director of the Elliot Park
Neighborhood
Organization,
emphasized the importance of
leadership in the field’s creation.
“You’ve heard the saying ‘it
takes a village’,” she observed.
“That’s a fairly tired saying,
because a village without leadership is just sticks and stones.
We are fortunate…we had a
park board that cared, a university that cared, and a community
that cared.” Dr. Anderson was
in agreement, commending the
The ribbon cutting ceremony hosted many people from the City of Minneapolis, Elliot
Park Neighborhood, and the Hennepin County board, including Hennepin County commissioner Paul McLauglin, seen on the left.
project as a great collaboration
between North Central and the
Elliot Park neighborhood. With
that, the ribbon was cut to much
applause from spectators.
With the new field has come
a usage agreement with the
community. In the fall the field
will be used for North Central’s
soccer team, and with the spring
will come the Lacrosse team. It
is the official home field of the
North Central Rams. Still, the
field is open to other teams in
athletic clubs or for casual use
“We can all look at the field
with a degree of joy and pride of
how it looks with the Minneapolis skyline in the background,”
Freitag remarked. Now that it
is finally in use, the new soccer field has become a tangible
example of what can be done
through collaboration with the
community.
PHOTOS BY JAKE TVERBERG
President Gordon Anderson wearing an NCU Ram’s soccer scarf during Homecoming.
In addition to the first home soccer games in NCU Rams history, a bubble ball tournament was hosted on the field.
Executive director of Enrollment and Marketing Michael White opens up the ribbon cutting ceremony with Rams soccer players Laura Leist and Luke Majerle, left to right,
holding the ribbon.
OPINION
PAGE 6
September 30, 2015 | The Northerner
Me vs. We:
thoughts on communal worship
BY TYLER COLLINS | @TYJCOLLINS
This last year has seen an
explosion of articles written on
worship. Anyone with access to
WordPress, Facebook or the internet seems to have arisen with
the solution to the great “Worship War,” with each author rising up to teach about the “right
way” musical worship should
occur. While many have provided helpful advice, it seems that
most articles have left out the
most important detail: the worship gathering is not an individual event.
If musical worship was about
me individually encountering
God, I could go to my room
and play Hillsong United and it
would be no different than any
other worship service. Yet, worship is not about satisfying my
desires. If this was the case, I
would certainly have the right to
complain about genre, song selection and environment, but the
worship gathering is not meant
to be self-indulgent. To assume
that I dictate the rules of worship is grotesque.
Counter to individual Western culture stands the Christian
worship gathering, with the
emphasis placed on the community. There is nothing wrong
with a time of worship that is
between you and God, but this
should already be happening
elsewhere. When I participate in
this gathering I am not coming
as an individual to the throne of
God. Instead, there is the unique
act of coming before God as a
community, something that cannot happen alone.
When we begin to see the
worship services we attend as
a communal event, we find our-
selves worshiping differently.
We are no longer thinking, “I
am here to worship God,” but
instead thinking, “we are here
to worship God.” The point is
no longer to determine what
I believe, but to affirm what
we believe. No longer do I approach the throne of God with
my burdens, but I am lifted up
and cared for by the body of believers. If this is what communal
worship is, then we should stop
pushing for our personal worship preferences, and start considering what worship should
look like for our community.
The very nature of worship
demands that the community determines how we should do worship. Worship is an acknowledgment of the adoration that God
deserves. Since the worship
gathering is a communal event
it then becomes the community
that determines the appropriate
response to God. The identity
and experience of the community determines how we should do
worship. When Paul wrote to the
churches of the first century, he
addressed different problems in
each community and gave different answers. In the same way
what is right for one community will not necessarily be what
is right for another community.
Rather than being able to find
one “right” way, we must become people who are seeking to
be in relationship with God and
His Holy Spirit. This requires us
to dialog constantly about what
God is doing in our community
and how we should respond.
How then should North Central respond in worship? We are
a community of young believ-
PHOTO BY STEVEN CARVER
Pictured is Tyler Collins, a junior doubling majoring in
Pastoral Studies and American Sign Language Interpreting.
ers; this affects the appropriate
response. We are community
with many different traditions
under one roof; this affects the
appropriate response. We are a
community seeking racial rec-
onciliation; this affects the appropriate response. Who are we
as a community and how should
we respond?
Philosophy Corner: Everyone’s
A Critic
BY BRANDON TEMMEL
Pictured is Brandon Temmel, a senior majoring in Music
Performance.
PHOTO BY STEVEN CARVER
Allow me to describe for you First, despite our eagerness to
the perfect worship service. The label a worship service as ‘good’
worship leader is singing off or ‘bad’, it’s impossible to judge
pitch. The guitar is horribly out a person’s heart purely by their
of tune. Some people are sing- physical reaction—much less
ing loudly while others are sit- what’s happening in the hearts
ting in silence. Some are raising of a large group of people. We
hands and some are kneeling; must be cautious before passing
yet others seem to be staring judgment on a worship service,
off into space. It’s a scene that, as things are not always as they
on the surface, looks just like seem.
If the presence of God causes
what happens in many churches.
None of what I just described is one person to leap with joy and
what makes this a perfect wor- another person to kneel in huship service, though. It’s perfect mility, then both are engaged in
because every single person is worship. And if the presence of
reacting to God. While different God causes one person to sit in
people have different reactions, silence and internally confront
still each and every person is their sins, then that person is
also engaged in worship. The reworshiping.
There are a couple points I ality is that we will never know
want to draw out of this parable. simply by looking at someone
why they are sitting in silence.
Perhaps they aren’t participating, but maybe they are. If we
can’t distinguish by looking,
then neither should we judge by
looking.
The second thing I want to
pull from this parable comes
from the opening line—the line
that probably provoked you into
reading this article. “Allow me
to describe for you the perfect
worship service.” This statement strikes a nerve because this
isn’t the first time you’ve heard
it. The conversation about worship is dominated by blog post
after blog post of people claiming they have it figured out.
They say we can’t use this lighting or that song, this instrument
or that volume, this stage or that
liturgy. They say that their way
is the way.
I think that we’ve got it backwards. We spend far too much
time focusing on things that divide us and not nearly enough
time on the things that unite us.
We talk about things that distract us from worship and not
things that pull us into worship.
We talk about things that keep
people from singing praise instead of things that make people
sing praise.
This may seem pedantic, but
it’s as different as saying “I have
only found darkness,” compared
to saying “I have yet to find the
light.” One is focused on darkness and the other is focused
on light. One is filled with pessimism while the other is filled
with hope. The conversation
regarding worship in the church
has spent too much time focused
on what’s wrong with worship.
And as is evident by the other
articles in this paper, there are
many opportunities for growth.
It is extremely important,
though, that we approach this
conversation in a Christ-like
manner. If our goal is to encourage others into deeper worship,
then they should leave the conversation encouraged by our
words. We may never map out
the ‘perfect worship service,’
but if we can learn to speak life
as we strive towards that goal,
then maybe our very words
will be worship that is pleasing
to our God. When we discuss
these things, let’s remember the
words of the psalmist: “May
these words of my mouth and
this meditation of my heart be
pleasing in your sight, LORD,
my Rock and my Redeemer.”
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OPINION
PAGE 7
The Northerner | September 30, 2015
Has North Central created a culture
where worship leaders are elevated to
celebrity status?
Every month, a discussion will be held between two students seeking to answer a single question developed by The Northerner’s
editorial staff. This month, Susan Pratt and Daniel Green are answering this question about the celebrity status of North
Central’s worship leaders. Susan is a senior, soon to graduate with a degree in Music, and Dan is sophomore studying Media
Communications. They discussed this month’s question through a series of emails. These emails have been edited for clarity. The
second half of the discussion can be found online at NCUNorthernercom.
SusanDo we treat our worship leaders like celebrities? There is a degree
of what I call “leader laud” here at North Central, but it is not an
attitude created by this school; it is a bi-product of American culture.
The question is, does the sub-culture of North Central perpetuate it?
Here are some possible sources of leader laud in worship.
Raised stage set-up: This is not evil—it’s practical for unified
participation of large groups for various events. But because of its
physical position, we may perceive several misconceptions. Since
the people on the stage are at a higher elevation, we may subconsciously think of them as spiritually superior. Furthermore, we only
see one dimension: we see their confident, stage-ready selves. This
might tempt us to think of them as caricatures rather than real, complex people. We might even get the impression that they have it all
together. Or we might just be awestruck by their beautiful faces—
who knows?
Priority of excellence: Excellence facilitates distraction-free worship, but the leader may feel pressure to prioritize excellence over
worship itself (that’s when it becomes a performance).
Incorrect attribution: When God’s presence is felt, we might
wrongfully attribute this feeling to the talent and level of spirituality
of the worship leader. “Oh! So-and-so is the best!” If two guys are
eating a watermelon, and the first guy says, “This is delicious,” the
second guy does not think, “He’s so good at talking about watermelon.” No! The leader must not be our object of worship: the leader
points our attention to the One who is worthy of worship. Let us not
lose sight of Him.
DanI love that watermelon analogy, you hit the nail right on the head.
I do believe we have created a “celebrity worship” culture at NCU
that has distracted students from actually seeking God during worship services. I have noticed this by witnessing conversations on
campus like “Is so and so leading worship today?” and then hearing
the name of which band is playing, and then hearing “oh I will for
sure go!”, or the other response, “I think I’ll skip today.”
I hear people saying they will skip chapel when they hear Soulful
Prayze is playing, or other bands that are different to NCU’s culture. This especially saddens me because I know the students that
play in Soulful Prayze or Worship Live World have to sit through
the same worship style everyday. They are always in the front row,
worshiping their hearts out no matter what worship team is playing.
They get it.
I believe worship is having all of the believers congregating to
sing truths about God and His word. Although it does seem like we
do that already, we as a campus need to realize it does not matter
what worship team is playing, or who is leading, it is about God and
the edification of the Church. We need to root out the core of this
culture of celebrity worship.
SusanWhen students are choosing whether or not they want to go to
chapel, and they make their decision based on who is leading worship, is that necessarily celebrity worship? Or is it simply preference
in style? And if one leader leans more towards that style, would it be
leader laud to prefer that leader?
As a worship leader, I consider it important to speak the language
of the congregation. And music is a language of the heart (which is
why people get so riled up about it). Our brains do not filter music
the way we filter speech: it enters our mind and immediately begins to affect us. And while we should worship God no matter what,
the worship leader should only want to facilitate that experience as
much as possible, not distract from it. NCU is composed mostly of
one demographic, and there is a preference in style. This is a fact that
cannot be changed overnight.
This accommodation does not apply to Soulful Prayze and Worship Live World (both of which I have been a part of) because they
are meant to expose NCU students to different worship styles. If
some people do not like it… well, it might be because they actually
have a difficult time connecting with it, and that is okay. The rest of
us are going to worship anyway.
The goal is that as we mature, we can connect with God no matter
what the style is because, let’s face it, one day we will be the older
generation wishing those youngin’s would sing those good old Hillsong tunes from back in the day. Enjoy it while you can, folks…
Read the rest of the conversation between Dan and Susan online
at NCUNortherner.com.
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SPORTS
PAGE 8
September 30, 2015 | The Northerner
Laying the foundation
New Athletic Director Greg Johnson shares about himself and his vision for North Central athletics
BY EDDIE CHISHAM
PHOTO BY EDDIE CHISHAM
New Athletic Director, Greg Johnson, stands in front of the new North Central soccer field during practice.
Johnson says he is a visual,
In his first year as Athletic worked as assistant director of relations for a stint with the San
detail-oriented person.
Director of North Central, Greg athletics for sports information Antonio Spurs.
“Ninety to 95 percent of the
According to Johnson, in
Johnson aims to lay the founda- for the University of Northwesttion for his vision of the depart- ern. While working at North- each of these individual roles, time, perception is reality wherever you’re at,” Johnson said.
western, he worked as a part- he had tunnel vision.
ment.
“Throughout my experience “What other people are seeing
“We need to pave the runway, time sports information director
so when we are ready to fly the for the Upper-Midwest Athletic over the last ten years,” Johnson from the outside in, whether you
said. “My vision has become think it’s true or not, (potentialairplane, we can - instead of tak- Conference (UMAC).
Before, Johnson worked as much more widened to see not ly) that is the reality that you’re
ing off on a rough path,” Johnthe sports information director only what I’m doing, but how it in.”
son said
By putting North Central’s
Greg Johnson came from a of Palm Beach Atlantic Univer- impacts other areas within athbackground in sports informa- sity, primary media contact for letics, and how it impacts areas unique qualities out there, Johnson hopes to authentically create
tion. Most recently, Johnson the Alamo Bowl, and customer outside of athletics.”
a great experience for everyone
involved in athletic events. Having unified talking points is a
public relations strategy that
Johnson hopes will help with
professional appearance. Making sure opponents, officials and
fans are treated well is also an
important part of the athletic department’s role.
Johnson’s emphasis on the
experience doesn’t stop at opponents, referees and fans. He
is also concentrating on the experience of North Central’s student athletes.
“The more that we can show
our student body that we care
about them, the better – because
we do care about them,” Johnson said. “That doesn’t necessarily mean with money. We
can’t spend lavishly. But there
are things that we can do that
show a lot more care than anything with a dollar sign attached
to it.”
As the new athletic director,
Johnson intends on establishing the foundation for his vision
first. His current job description
is working to establish understanding and credibility both in
and outside of athletics so they
can collectively and strategically set a vision and a direction.
Johnson said that in terms
of taking steps to accomplishing his vision, the athletics department is in “pre-phase one.”
Johnson wants to ensure that
the department takes a “Ready.
Aim. Fire.” approach rather than
“Ready. Fire. Aim.”
“I want North Central as a
whole to grow through our athletics,” Johnson said.
Before Johnson can establish growth, he has to lay the
foundation. Breathing life into
coaches is an important part, because they set the tone. Johnson
will also work with non-athletic
programs within North Central
and the media outside of North
Central, but he says relationships take time to build.
Using the example of Mormon door-to-door evangelism,
Johnson said, “The proof is in
the pudding. It’s how I act. I
can’t just go and ask, ‘hey do
you want to be a Christian today?’”
After “pre-phase one,” Johnson will start to put his vision
into action. So what does his
vision look like?
“Ask me in a year and hopefully I’ll have a great answer,”
Johnson said.
Prolific player to sideline sage
Former North Central soccer star Stephen Johnson takes new job as assistant
BY CALEB CONVEY
PHOTO BY CALEB CONVEY
New women’s soccer assistant coach, Stephen Johnson
stands inside one of North Central’s new soccer nets.
North Central women’s soc- for the head-coaching job with
cer was in a place of transitional hopes of returning to the Ram
uncertainty this summer, as Al- program where he had notable
lison Meadows stepped down success.
With 16 goals throughout
from her position as head coach.
Recent North Central grad- his four years with the Rams,
uate and former North Central Johnson is placed fifth among
striker Stephen Johnson applied the highest career goal scorers
in North Central history. This
impressive soccer resume was
given an opportunity to expand
when Johnson received a phone
call from the North Central
men’s soccer head coach and
former interim athletic director,
Jake Smith.
Smith told Johnson that the
women’s assistant coach, Andrew Cameron, would be moving up into the role of head
coach, but they wanted Johnson
to take Cameron’s old position.
Cameron’s promotion seemed
like an appropriate progression,
as he spent five faithful years as
the assistant coach — a position
Johnson thankfully agreed to
fill.
“My love for the game has
not left,” Johnson said. “I was
so grateful for the opportunity to
return to my alma mater.”
Although he has considerable playing experience, this is
Johnson’s first year coaching.
Over the summer, he coached
a U-12, C-3 travel club from
Rosemount, MN.
“Coaching this team was
just as educational to me as it
was entertaining,” said Johnson. “Learning how to develop
my team as a group of players
was challenging, but learning
how to develop my team as a
group of people was even more
eye-opening. You really have to
understand who your players
are, from their personality to
their character.”
Johnson hopes to continue
building upon his abilities this
fall, as he doubles his coaching
responsibilities between North
Central and a second Dakota
Rev. season. Johnson is also a
youth pastor at Bethel’s Rock
Church, so he has to keep a tight
schedule and does not want to
waste any time just spectating
from the sidelines.
“I really want to get the most
out of practice,” Johnson said.
“I need to learn where players fit
best, know what they need and
how they receive instruction.”
Cameron has been helping
Johnson along the way.
“It has been a huge blessing to
work under Cameron, in regards
to coaching style I do not think
we are too different,” Johnson
said. “He works with me in every aspect, and he really values
my opinions on players and tactics. Often times we will coach
two different groups at the same
time, so we can really maximize
our practice time.”
Johnson and Cameron have
worked together to improve
the team’s off-the-ball movement, ball control and finishing
by utilizing shooting, crossing
and through-ball drills. Johnson
would like to see team training
translated into game day results.
“On the pitch we are possessing the ball more than in past
years, and our movement is a
definite factor,” Johnson said.
While switching between
a 3-5-2 and a 4-4-2, Johnson
wants to utilize his team’s ability to see the field and play efficiently. An additional strength
lies in the team’s chemistry.
Johnson said his team “feels
like a family on and off the
pitch... and everyone is willing
to receive teaching and implement it into their game.” But
he knows there is still work to
be done. Johnson is constantly
striving to push his players forward towards the possibility of
nationals, which is “very doable
if we are healthy,” he said.
In the meantime, Johnson
wants to teach his team what
his four years as a North Central
soccer player has taught him.
“When I met the team for the
first time, I realized how much
I missed playing here,” Johnson
said. “Now I have a chance to
help them achieve more than
I ever have, and I think that is
the best feeling you can have as
a coach.”