The first Commencement ceremony at Great Commission University was held with grace and blessed by the Holy Spirit.
This year’s graduate from GCU’s online Master of Divinity program received congratulations and blessings from the audience.
Students, staff, faculty and friends of Great Commission University joined the event onsite on campus and online via broadcast. Onsite participants had come from Chicago, Detroit, Houston, St. Louis, Lexington, Riverside, and from the local community.
All participants received grace, joy and blessings through the program and all that was shared.
The commencement speaker, Mr. Osenbaugh, who had graduated from the previous school on campus 39 years ago, and later became the school’s Finance Officer and Superintendent after 20 years of active duty in the military ranking as Colonel, gave an inspirational speech encouraging the audience to boldly go out and proclaim the gospel, not being afraid of failure but with the fear of regret of not having shared the truth when there was time to do so.
He explained through his personal biography how God has led him to become a faithful believer and to proclaim the word in various circumstances, sometimes meeting harsh criticism, sometimes meeting receptive hearts.
Besides his many roles and positions, the speaker also runs a small farm with 30 sheep through which he learns to vividly understand the Biblical parables of sheep. To depict some of sheep’s behavior to the audience, and literally “feed my sheep” (John 21:15-17) he brought a young lamb with him to the stage that he is currently nursing by hand as it was rejected by its mother.
The lamb quickly gained the audience’s hearts and attention, and the graduate was allowed to hold and nurse the lamb as well.
The speaker represented with his person the rich history of the campus which previously hosted the Howe School from 1884 until closing in 2019, and he graciously connected that history to the present and future, which he sees as a blessing from God who has given back to the campus its Christian identity it was originally founded with but which had almost vanished over time.
A time of fellowship following the commencement allowed the visitors to congratulate the graduating student, and to share grace with one another. Main point of attraction remained the young black lamb, named Shadow, until it left the campus with the speaker.
Concluding the commencement ceremony, the audience moved on to a second gracious event on campus, the Dedication Service for the Business as Mission Center at GCU (see separate article).
Reflected the GCU President, “We give all thanks, praise and honor to God for allowing us to greet this day of joy and blessing in our young history, shortly before our second anniversary. God has led us up to this point by his gracious guiding hands, we humbly pray that he will continue to guide and protect us until the purpose of our school is fulfilled and the Great Commission accomplished.”
