Cornerstone University and Cornerstone Theological Seminary – The Destination of Choice
Inaugural Presidential Speech
As the Twelfth President
Dr. Gerson Moreno-Riaño, Ph.D.
President
Professor of Government
Cornerstone University and Cornerstone Theological Seminary
October 23, 2021
Thank you, Admiral Vern Clark, for your kind introduction, those wonderful words, your friendship over the years, your love, your mentorship. I will never forget the first time I met the Admiral, I was sitting down in a moot court room, and he said, “young man, I would like to mentor you.” I said, “yes, sir.” He said, “usually, it costs a lot, but for you it’s free.” And I never knew that that would be a journey of four years, that in the fall and spring over four years he would come and mentor me. And I sat there oftentimes just in awe of the amazing opportunity that the Lord had given to me to meet this man of God, a leader among leaders. Thank you, Admiral Clark, for your tremendous service, for being a great American, sir. Thank you.
Thank you, Dr. Kay Cole James, for your tremendous speech, for being here, for your tremendous years of service, for mentoring so many generations of young men and women, for being an example of a follower of Jesus Christ. Thank you for your tremendous service to our country. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Shirley Hoogstra, for being here. You’re on the front lines representing almost 200 Christian colleges and universities. Thank you for your faithful service to Jesus, your incredible wisdom and discernment. Every time I read your newsletters, I am always in awe of the wisdom and discernment that God has given to you. Thank you for your service and love for our great university – Cornerstone. Thank you for being here, Shirley.
And Mr. Josh Wilson, wherever you may be, thank you for being here. You have blessed us with your incredible music. An incredible reminder of amazing grace – where would we be without the grace of God, without God’s amazing grace? And thank you for your tremendous band.
I want to thank all of you for being here this evening to celebrate with us and, really, to give honor and glory to Jesus Christ. He is the reason we are here. He is the reason Cornerstone University exists. Thank you to our tremendous faculty and staff who are here tonight. Thank you to our students who are here this evening. Thank you to our wonderful alumni who are here tonight. I have received letters from our alumni since July 1, men and women who love this institution and are serving throughout the world – 17,000 alumni. Thank you, alumni, for being here and for your tremendous support.
I want to thank our tremendous Board of Trustees. I will never forget the first time I met the search committee. I will never forget that day, it was a day that changed my life. We have a fantastic Board of Trustees led by an incredible, and brilliant Chairwoman. It is a Board of women and men who love Jesus Christ, who love the Word of God, who love the Gospel, who love Christian higher education, and who love Cornerstone University.
We must thank an incredible team of people who have worked tirelessly to put on a wonderful inauguration weekend – thank you to all our Advancement Team and to our Vice President for Advancement for a tremendous weekend.
I always tell individuals that we stand on the shoulders of giants, men and women who have come before us and have done some great things. And I must ask you to help me honor my wonderful mother who is here this evening, a woman of God, a humble woman who carries the burdens of her children and family on her shoulders full of prayer and fasting for them. Mom, thank you for being here; I love you. Thank you for your wonderful example, your love, and your faithfulness to Jesus Christ.
I want to ask you to help me honor the second most important woman in my life, my beautiful wife of almost thirty years. I always tell individuals that God brought my wife to me. The Lord in His goodness provided the most incredible human being to love me, to help me, to sanctify me, to bless me—my wife of thirty years and the mother of my wonderful six children, Ellen, honey, thank you for being here. I love you and thank you.
And I must thank my children who are here; the most beautiful, wonderful children in the world. As I shared with our search committee back in April, one of the things that I love to do the most is to be a father. I love my children. The greatest joy I have is for my children to serve the Lord and to walk with the Lord. And they have become my friends. I love each of you so much. Thank you for being here.
When Shirley and I first arrived to this wonderful, great university, thank you for all the wonderful things you shared about the legacy, the beauty of our great university, Cornerstone University, I met with our Vice President for Advancement who shared with me that he asks himself this question every morning when he gets up, “What would happen to the world, to our nation, if Cornerstone wasn’t here?”
I must confess to you that is one of the most fundamental questions we can ask ourselves. And it is this question that I want to ask us to think about tonight. Why Cornerstone? Why Cornerstone among all the other universities that exist? What kind of university do we need to be as we continue to build on the incredible Cornerstone legacy of 80 years and the work that has been done over the last decade, the incredible work of Cornerstone’s Board of Trustees, our beautiful campus, and our beautiful location? Why this university? And why do West Michigan, and the Midwest, and our country and the planet need a place like Cornerstone University? What kind of university do we need to be? The reason the world needs Cornerstone University is because Cornerstone University is an institution where Jesus Christ has been, is and will be central in all its doings. That is why we speak about an institution where we graduate influencers for Jesus Christ. And I know that Cornerstone’s ability to fulfill its mission is due to no other reason than the fact that Jesus Christ has been this institution’s central influence for the last 80 years.
Ladies and gentlemen may that always be the case. Jesus Christ is the most important person with the most important grace message that has ever been delivered—the message of the good news of God to us. I have always spoken about Cornerstone in the last three months as being and becoming the destination of choice in Christian higher education. That is a high goal. I want Cornerstone to be top of mind, top of heart, for every family in our country. I will put it in a different way, and it is not original to me. I have been deeply influenced by the vision of Bill Gates and Microsoft. When he launched Microsoft, his vision was simple: “I want a PC in every home.” With all the Microsoft products in our homes and places of work, we now have more than just a PC in every home.
And my vision, our vision for this wonderful, great university called Cornerstone University is to have a Cornerstone graduate in every household in America. This is big. It is bold. But we have a great big God for whom nothing is impossible. So, I want us to think through this big vision together. This big vision means that Cornerstone is the destination of choice, the place that far outranks any other institution in the country. It is the university that when individuals think about Christian higher education, they are thinking, “Cornerstone is the place we want to go.” This big vision means that Cornerstone is the university that becomes the place to educate the 35 million adults in our country that have some college education but have not completed their college degrees. It is the place that these individuals look toward and say, “that is where we want to go.” This big vision means that Cornerstone is the place that those who are looking for a top-tier seminary education and for education in and preparation for ministry say, “That is the place we want to go.” The—not a—the destination of choice in Christian higher education. That is the vision for our great university – Cornerstone University.
What must we do to continue to build on our great legacy to realize this vision? What kind of institution do we have to be to become that destination of choice? I want to delineate a number of things for us to consider. One, we must be an institution of great moral courage, courage defined as the ability to discern what is right and wrong, what is true and what is not true and defend the right and true with our very life. That is what courage is and what should characterize the kind of institution that our country needs, that our churches need, and that our homes need. We need an institution like Cornerstone University that can educate men and women to have great courage. Great courage, great courage! I have never forgotten the time I visited some of the catacombs in Rome. It is a must for visit for any believer. And I will tell you, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, then when I left that place, I realized the incredible heritage of faith that we have as Christians, as followers of Jesus Christ. Hundreds upon hundreds of Christians there were persecuted, died for the faith and are buried in those catacombs.
I left that place thinking those men and women had incredible courage. This is one of the things we must continue to be, we must demonstrate great moral courage proclaiming and defending the incredible faith that has been given to us. The faith of Jesus and the gospel. We must be fearless. Our culture right now is being torn apart by fear and anxiety everywhere we go. I am sure you remember, during the first few weeks of the pandemic, how terrifying it was. I would drive the streets of our home in Virginia, and it really, literally, looked like a zombie film. I remember sitting in my home for weeks and feeling like the world was falling apart. It is fearful and it’s anxious out there. Is it not? And yet amidst this, we must remain completely fearless and have incredible courage, great faith, and trust in God. I remember when my children were young, I would say to them, trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. And he will direct your path. It is easy to say that, is it not? It is much more difficult to do.
And for our university to be the destination of choice, to be the place where men and women come to acquire a world-class Christian education, we must be men and women of courage and not yield to fear and anxiety. Not because we have the strength in ourselves, but because God is our rock. He is our refuge, a very present help in trouble because He is the one who covers us with favor as with a shield, because it is He who makes His way straight for us, where there seems to be no way.
For Cornerstone University to be the destination of choice, we must also be a beautiful community that mirrors the kingdom of God. This means that Cornerstone must be known as a place of great hospitality, a place where everyone is welcomed, a place where everyone wants to come, wants to remain, wants to graduate, and wants to come back. A place where no one feels left out because of how they look or where they come from or their economic background. That is what we must be because that is what the kingdom of God is and that is what Jesus has done for us. He did not just die for some; He did not just love some. He died for all, and He loved all.
And we must endeavor and labor daily to commit to our hearts, to love God with all our being and to love our neighbors. This is hard work by the way, ladies and gentlemen. It is easy to say, is it not? It is difficult to do. Humility is not a virtue that human beings are known for or with which they are born. I have realized that one of the virtues of God that we seldom ever talk about is God’s great humility. The fact that God reaches down and continually pursues us nonstop every day. And yet, it is so easy for us to forget that, to stiff-arm God and to neglect the duties that His grace places on us. It is hard work. God help us. We have an incredible obligation and incredible opportunity for our university to be not just the destination of choice, but the place to which everybody wants to come. Oftentimes in the last few days, people have told me, “You’re the first minority president of Cornerstone University.” I sometimes say, “I am just glad that I made it to be president.” And I have sensed a great outpouring of love from day one on this campus.
But we can do more. I had the privilege of meeting with Dr. Julián Guzmán, president of the Urban Church Leadership Center, the other evening and had the privilege of hearing and seeing a number of African American and Hispanic pastors in the community. I have used my Spanish more here in Michigan in the last three months than I have in 40 years in this country. I will never forget how they prayed for me. And after that meeting, many people came to me and some of them said to me, “help us have our children in your school.” And we are going to do it. We are going to do it in great ways.
I say that because as a minority, as a Hispanic, it has been solely by God’s grace and goodness to me that I have been brought to this point in my life. And it is solely by God’s grace and goodness as manifested to me through the goodness of people, of all walks of life, who have invested in me. Next week, I celebrate 41 years in this country. Now, the Lord has blessed me with the opportunity to serve as president of a wonderful university. It is only by God’s grace and dozens of people—African American, Black, Brown, White, American, European American, you name it, whom the Lord brought into my life and used to influence me, to pour into me, and to help me.
I have oftentimes stood back and said, only your grace, oh God. And that is what we need to be saying, too. It is hard work. When I speak about a beautiful community, one that is diverse and represents every walk of life, I oftentimes equate it to living in a family. Family life is beautiful, but family life requires work and humility. It requires that we roll up our sleeves and pray and listen. It is hard work. It does not come naturally to anybody. Cornerstone has a tremendous history of doing that. And yet we can do more. And we will do more together to ensure this university continues to magnify the name of Jesus and represent the kingdom in all its beauty, to continue to be the destination of choice.
For Cornerstone University to be the destination of choice, we must also continue to ensure that we are committed to truth and not ideologies. There is a significantly blurred line between those two things in today’s culture. What is ideological and what is true, and what do we, as Christians, pursue and give our lives to defend and proclaim. This dawned on me two years ago, working through Matthew 4 and the temptations of Christ. As I read and reflected on Matthew 4, it dawned on me that two of the three temptations that Jesus Christ faced were to misuse His identity as the Son of God for personal gain. “If you’re the Son of God, then take your identity and use it for your own personal gain.”
I think this is the great temptation that we face in the church today. I think this is the great temptation that we face in Christian universities and seminaries today. I think there is a great temptation that we as Christians misuse our identity in Jesus for personal, professional, political, and communal gains. In John 4, when Jesus speaks to the Samaritan woman at the well, it is an incredible conversation where identity plays a central role. Who truly worships God, Jews or Samaritans? Two central ideas run through this chapter, identity and worship. And what did Jesus say? “The Father is looking for the true worshipers who worship Him in spirit and in truth.” (4:23) That is what we must endeavor to do. And it is hard work. God help us to discern what is true. The truth will set us free. It is the truth for which students come to our university. Praise God that our university has stood over 80 years, committed to truth, committed to the centrality of the gospel. May this continue forever.
For Cornerstone University to be the destination of choice, we must also be committed to what I call spiritual formation. It is wonderful to hear our speakers tonight speak about the beauty and power of Christian education. I discovered that as a little boy in Bogotá, Colombia, where my mother and father enrolled me in Colegio Berea – an Assemblies of God Christian K-12 school. Colegio Berea had chapel every day. And I remember the importance of biblical education as a child because it was in third grade, in that school, that the principal preached a sermon and called for an invitation. As I bowed my head, the Lord spoke to me and said, “You do not know me.” I will never forget that day.
As I grew older, I began to understand that Christian schools are really important. Christian schools magnify the Lord. Christian schools teach and preach. Christian schools help you to think about what is good and bad, and about what is right and wrong. I understood that Christian schools are also a safe place to learn, to be challenged, to be prepared.
Then I went to Cedarville University and there encountered the beauty and power of spiritual formation through the gospel, through Christian faith learning integration. As an undergraduate, I realized the beauty and importance of coming to a Christian university where students are thinking about Christ in a community of learners, and your character and your heart are being shaped by the Lord through the love of faculty, staff, and students.
I have had the privilege and blessing in the last three months to meet lots and lots of Cornerstone students. And I can share this with you, ladies and gentlemen, that almost every single question that I have been asked by these students has been a question about spiritual formation. They did not ask me about academics. They did not ask me about the latest theory in sociology or biology. What they wanted to know was simple, how should we live? I had one student say this to me in one meeting, “I have five siblings, and we do not get along. Can you help me? Can you give me advice on how to be a good sister?” I had another student, one in a special scholarship program ask me, “What is your favorite attribute of God and why?”
That is profound. These students come to Cornerstone for the wonderful education we provide for them. The wonderful degrees we offer, the incredible learning experiences. But I will tell you that at the end of the day, what many of these students want to know is how we should live. Well, what does it mean to be a good human being, a good mom, a good dad, a good spouse, a good man, a good woman? Many, many years ago, Stanley Fish, a higher education scholar, wrote a book on this issue of formation. And he wrote that it is not the job of universities to be in the business of moral and character formation. In short, argued Mr. Fish, universities should stick to academics. I am sorry. That is just not right. Academics is always about formation, be it spiritual, intellectual, professional, and personal. And Cornerstone must lead the way in the holistic spiritual formation of all its students.
For many years, the Pew Research Center has run studies on higher education and have asked this question to parents, to adults. Do universities teach the most fundamental, important things about life? The answer is that a high percentage of Americans do not believe universities do this. Ladies and gentlemen, praise God that for 80 years, our university has been doing spiritual formation, and my prayer is that it continues until the Lord returns. As we give students great academics, great faculty experiences, great laboratory experiences, those individuals are going to leave, and they are going to live their lives out as a particular kind of human being. And we must do everything we can, by God’s grace, to form those souls and hearts.
A destination, the destination of choice university is one that has great courage grounded in God. It is grounded in trust in our Lord, grounded in great humility, grounded in great love for one another, and grounded in incredible commitment to truth and humility to pursue it, to defend it, to share it with love and compassion, and with conviction. That destination of choice university is also one that believes and cares for the most important, fundamental questions of life that our students are asking and have nowhere else to go. But they come here seeking those answers. And ladies and gentlemen, I pledge to you, that is who we are going to be as we build on the great Cornerstone legacy that has been bequeathed to us.
Lastly, this great destination of choice vision is not something that I can do alone. It is something that requires all of us to do together. It’s something that will require incredible amounts of collaboration, incredible amounts of prayer, and incredible amounts of unity. There is no other way. It is going to require an incredible amount of prayer, deep prayer, serious prayer. It will require that we call on God and ask God to pour his spirit on us, to transform our hearts and minds, to give us wisdom, and to give us help. We do not have it on our own.
I will never forget one day when I was at a large megachurch which shall go nameless. I was sitting in the pews, and the pastor came up and here is what he said. “Our church is so good, so well organized, so well-planned that if the Holy Spirit went on vacation, we’d do just fine.” The temptation for us is to think that our planning and our organizing are going to lead the way to a great future. It is not going to happen. Instead, God must be central to us, in us, and in everything we do. That is the beauty of this institution committed to the gospel of Jesus Christ. The task that is before us, to build on a great, incredible past, an amazing present, and a great foundation to move forward toward a great future with the Lord. But let us not forget that this is going to require an incredible amount of prayer.
I call on all of us here tonight to pray like we have never prayed before for our wonderful university. That God will protect it. That God will guide it. That God will direct it. That God will bring great resources to our university, that God will help us to remain humble and diligent, full of courage and full of love. And that is why I want to ask our Cornerstone family, friends, alumni, faculty, staff, and board members, let us commit ourselves to prayer and expect God to do great things in our midst.
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your support. Thank you for your prayers. Thank you for your love. Thank you for your hospitality to my family and to me. Thank you for your love for this wonderful university called Cornerstone University. More than anything, thank you for your faithful commitment to Jesus Christ. To Him belongs all honor and all glory, and all praise forever and ever. Amen. Thank you.