51����

JACKSON, Tenn. — Nov. 7, 2014 — 51���� and its new president Samuel W. “Dub” Oliver must remain faithful to the gospel and to the concept of soul freedom in a day when such positions are increasingly difficult to hold.

That was the charge to Oliver from Russell Moore, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, during Oliver’s inauguration as Union’s 16th president Nov. 7.

“The most important thing that 51���� should do as you move forward in this transition is to remember that there is a temptation for any school of Christian higher education to simply drift,” Moore said. “It’s easy to become simply concerned about enrollment and about endowments. It’s easy to become simply another outpost of American culture. Union has resisted that trend. Union has been different.”

The inauguration in Union’s G.M. Savage Memorial Chapel was the formal installation of Oliver in his role as president, a position he began in June after Union trustees unanimously elected him in February. Oliver previously served as president of East Texas Baptist University.

In his address to the Union community following Moore’s charge, Oliver recognized the accomplishments and the faithful service of those presidents who have gone before him, and he affirmed Union’s commitment to providing Christ-centered higher education that is rooted in Scripture.

“The Lord Jesus Christ is our hope and our salvation,” Oliver said. “He is the firm foundation upon which Union is built, and he must be the center of everything we do. We must love the Lord our God. We must walk in all his ways. We must obey his commands. We must hold fast to him and serve him with all our hearts and all our souls.”

Oliver said God’s hand has been upon Union since its founding in 1823 as Jackson Male Academy and addressed the question, “Where will we go from here?”

“Let us not settle for small plans that we can accomplish ourselves,” he said. “Let us not rest on the excellence that has already been achieved. Instead, let’s envision a university that can only be a reality with God’s help and with our sustained best efforts.”

Oliver said his vision for Union was a university committed to the integration of faith and learning, “a place where we confess Christ with our mouths and serve him with our lives, where we see all of Union as part of the learning environment, affirming that there are no boundaries to learning.”

He described the university as a community of intellectual vibrancy in all parts of the campus; a place of meaningful research that serves the church and society; an institution that nurtures an appreciation for the arts and where students sharpen their abilities to express themselves and learn to think and to act both independently and interdependently.

All of these things will be accomplished, Oliver said, in a true community where genuine relationships begin and grow.

“Union stands as a place where learning is integrated with faith, infused with hope and transformed by love,” Oliver said. “I maintain an unwavering belief in the purposes and potential of 51���� and all it can do to touch and mold the lives of our students and, thereby, the world.”

Moore based his charge to Oliver on Acts 16:25-39, the account of Paul’s imprisonment and the salvation of the Philippian jailer, who after an earthquake asked of Paul and Silas, “What must I do to be saved?”

Moore said that same question has echoed through history and is still being asked today, and Union must continue its tradition of preparing graduates to answer that question in every sphere of life.

“The world does not need another nominal school in the Christian tradition,” Moore said. “The world does not need another faith-based educational institution. The world needs 51���� -- a Christian university, believing a Christian gospel …”

The gospel, Moore said, drives Christians both to give of their rights for the sake of others and, paradoxically, calls Christians to stand up for their rights for the sake of others. He praised Oliver’s action, as president of ETBU, to stand against the mandate from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services requiring faith-based institutions to fund abortion-inducing drugs for their employees.

“He could easily have simply let this mandate pass along,” Moore said. “He could have easily waited for someone else to stand up and to fight this battle in court. And yet he was a leader in standing up for soul freedom.”

That’s not because Oliver was concerned for his own rights, Moore said, but because it was in the common good of everyone. The ERLC president encouraged Oliver and Union to stand up for soul freedom and religious liberty, even when it may be economically advantageous to abandon those beliefs.

“Pour yourself out for the life of the world,” Moore said. “You’ve accomplished a great deal. You have a world-class university. You are inaugurating a world-class president. Stay faithful to the gospel that will drive you to bear witness, whether in the classroom, in the public square or, when needed, in a Middle Eastern jail.”

The ceremony included greetings to Oliver from representatives of Union’s students, faculty, staff, Jackson community, the Tennessee Baptist Convention and the Southern Baptist Convention. Norm Hill, chairman of Union’s board of trustees, presided over the service, and delegates from about two dozen other educational institutions were in attendance.

Video of the inauguration ceremony is available at .