Part One of Reflections on “What Makes Grove City College Home?”
By Rev. Chad Lawrence ’96 · Contributing Writer
GCC
“Home is where one starts from. As we grow older/
The world becomes stranger, the pattern more complicated /
Of dead and living.”
— T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets, “East Coker,” section V
If T.S. Eliot is right and home is, indeed, where one starts from, then home is both a nurturing pod and a launching pad.
It is where our roots begin to grow deep and receive nourishment, where shoots are sent out and begin to explore and where wisdom is planted within and cultivated. It is also the place from which we are launched into the wider world to explore and discover, to expand and reproduce.
When I graduated from Grove City College, 30 years ago, I never anticipated landing in so many different places. There was the year in Tyler, Texas, with Youth With A Mission, where I met my wife, followed by brief stints in Brazil and Colombia serving as missionaries to street children.
Next, there was the longer season in Bakersfield, Calif., where our first three daughters were born and my unforeseen-to-me vocation of teaching began.
Then, we moved back across the country for three years at Trinity Anglican Seminary in Ambridge, followed by the longest stint to date: 13 years in Beaufort, S.C., serving at an Anglican church and as the founding headmaster of Holy Trinity Classical Christian School.
My journey since leaving Grove City College has been varied and surprising. All the while, the foundation laid during my time here has served me remarkably well.
Though my myopic vision obscured my appreciation of the gift I was receiving at the time, I look back and see the many ways that God used my years at the college to prepare me for where I would go and what I would do.
The grounding of Grove City’s Christian community protected me during my particularly vulnerable years as an undergrad, tilling the soil of my heart, preparing the way to receive the Gospel. The broad, robust Christian liberal arts education opened the door for my future teaching, theological studies and pastoring. I now look back upon my years in Grove City with much gratitude.
“We shall not cease from exploration /
And the end of all our exploring /
Will be to arrive where we started /
And know the place for the first time.” — T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets, “Little Gidding,” section V
While I am not sure my exploring is over, I surprisingly find myself back “home,” “knowing the place for the first time.”
We’ve been back here in Grove City for four years now, and, undoubtedly, one of the real joys has been interactions with the current students and faculty: whether through hosting student teachers in my position as dean of Grove City Christian Academy, or enjoying the vibrancy the college students bring to our worship and life at Grace Anglican Church, or cheering on the Wolverines from the sidelines or theater seats or teaching a class as a guest lecturer in the education department or rejoicing in the privilege of having coffee with a brilliant professor.
Truly, it is as if I am knowing the place for the first time, now with clearer vision, and it is good to be home.
As Grove City College celebrates 150 years, my hope and prayer is that my alma mater will continue to serve as the same nurturing pod and launching pad for others as she was for me. May she be “home” for many others, for many more years to come.
