New Ohio Christian University president defines vision for university

CIRCLEVILLE - Describing his vision for a Christian-based education in the modern world and pledging to make sure Ohio Christian University is taking steps to ensure its graduates earn jobs in areas where they can influence the culture, Jon Kulaga Wednesday was officially inaugurated as the university's 11th president.

"At OCU, we seek to educate students to enter every culture-shaping profession in order to win as many to Christ as possible," Kulaga said during a two-hour ceremony at the Circleville campus. "We need OCU students at the right seat, at the right table, saying the right things to the right people in order to flavor and preserve the culture. ... But this means we need to strengthen all the majors we offer so that our graduates are among the most desired. It means we take seriously our call to offer the best major we can for pastors, but also for those called to politics. For missionaries, but also teachers, business leaders and writers."

Kulaga, an ordained elder in the Free Methodist denomination, has served in higher education for nearly 30 years with stops at Spring Arbor University, Kansas State University and Central Christian College of Kansas. Among his plans for OCU are doubling enrollment to around 9,000 students in the next six years, adding dorms on the Circleville campus, adding retail space for a bookstore, shops and fitness center and enhancing the community environment. He also is looking to create regional campus sites across Ohio and in the greater Atlanta area.

During the ceremony, individuals representing faculty, staff and the student body spoke well of their early experiences with Kulaga since the new president began working with the university last August. They described a man who interacts regularly with members of the student body, has shown care for students, faculty and staff alike and is committed to offering a Christian-centered education.

Much of Wednesday's program was focused on the Christian aspect of OCU's mission. New York Times best-selling author and national radio commentator Eric Metaxas told the audience that Christians find the answers to the big questions of life in their faith and that a good Christian education shows that Jesus is at the center of scientific reality. He also challenged the concept of same-sex marriage and made the case that because of his or her DNA being unique from the mother, a fetus is an individual person at the time of conception.

Metaxas urged parents to send their children to a university that provides that Christian-centered approach.

"There can be no substitute for a Christian-centered education," Mataxas said. "....I promise you that if you want education, or you want your kids to have education, never send them to a place that cannot begin to answer the most important questions about which we've been speaking this morning. They cannot begin to answer what is good? What is truth?

"You send somebody like that into this world and what are they going to find? What are they going to do? Who will they marry? Will they marry? Will they have children? How will they raise their children? Good luck."

Kulaga, whose own address hit very strongly on the "Christ" in Christian-centered education, summed up his approach to leading the university by responding to the writings of American Quaker philosopher and theologist Elton Trueblood. 

"We do not expect, for the most part, to find the gospel centered in a burning conviction which will make men and women ... go to the end of the earth, alter the practices of government, redirect culture and remake civilization," Trueblood wrote about a half-century ago.

Kulaga said society and the role of Christian education have changed since then.

"Actually, at Ohio Christian University, with the guiding, helping, directing hand of the Holy Spirit, that is exactly what we expect," he said. "In fact, it's not only our expectation, it's our mission."