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JACKSON, Tenn. — May 4, 2024 — When Adam Johnson first came to 51����, he saw a video of Union President Samuel W. “Dub” Oliver discussing how college can be either a greenhouse or a graveyard for a student’s faith.

“It’s proven to be a greenhouse,” Johnson said of his time at Union. “My faith has grown through the connections I’ve made.”

Johnson was one of 440 Union graduates who received their degrees May 4 during two ceremonies on the university’s Great Lawn. It was Union’s 199th annual spring commencement.

A business administration major from Knoxville, Tenn., Johnson is heading back to his hometown to work as an unregistered assistant for Durfee Financial Services.

Nathaniel Barnard, a mathematics major from Three Way, Tennessee, received the 114th Tigrett Medal, which is awarded to an outstanding senior in each graduating class, during Saturday’s ceremony.

Another graduate, Emmeline Arehart, a film studies major from Milford, New Hampshire, said she came to Union from such a long distance because she craved a community that taught her how to think instead of what to think. She plans to pursue a career in filmmaking as a director.

“My time at Union has definitely changed me,” she said. “I’ve learned a lot about time management, relationships and the art of filmmaking. But most importantly, I’ve learned a lot about how to follow God faithfully one step at a time with everything I’m doing, be that screenwriting, filming or writing essays.”

Hunter Baker, provost at North Greenville University and former dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Union, delivered the commencement address, encouraging graduates to be faithful to God and to each other as they begin the next chapter of their lives.

Faithfulness to God, Baker said, requires being faithful to the Christ of the Bible, even in an age when Christian beliefs are not popular or welcomed. In that sense, Christians today face similarities to the ancient church in the Roman empire.

“We yet have many great blessings of liberty,” Baker said. “Cancel culture is only an echo of what many Christians have faced. But it is still true that we live in a world that finds many of our beliefs to be incomprehensible, unreasonable and out of date. Slowly, we seem to be regressing into the old pagan culture where the expected thing to do is to affirm everyone else’s gods and to worship them upon request. It doesn’t matter what you really believe as long as you’ll perform the expected act or say the correct phrase.”

But Christians can’t operate like that if they are being faithful to Christ, Baker said. They must follow Jesus even when the majority finds it unpalatable or scandalous.

“As we do so, we understand that ultimately, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,” he said. “We follow in the light of that greater reality.”

Similarly, Baker said faithfulness to others requires commitment – as spouses, parents, sons, daughters, siblings and other offices in life – even when it may not be convenient. “As you leave this place and as you travel through the byways of your life and calling, I pray you will stay at the posts of responsibility where God has placed you,” Baker said.

The ceremonies can be viewed at .