A couple of years ago, David Dockery, president of TIU, established the Founders’ Day lecture series. He did so for the reason of learning our history for the first time, or for others to be reminded of our history.

It consists of a “two-day long event where students, faculty and staff of Trinity come together to celebrate the founding of the university and reexamine its history.” Foundational to our history, is a keen sense and awareness of the goodness and grace of God in sustaining his good work through the TIU, our EFCA school.

In this year’s third annual lecture, Doug Sweeney, Professor of Church History, chair of the Church History department, and director of the Jonathan Edwards Center, addressed the theme, “Immeasurably More Than We Asked or Imagined: The Trinity Story.” Sweeney “traced the institution’s history from its roots within the Scandinavian immigrant community to its present focus as a global institution.” (You can read a summary of Sweeney’s lecture here: Sweeney traces ‘The Trinity Story’ in Founders’ Day presentation.)

From its humble beginnings, God has used TIU to train and equip and compel into ministry for the Lord Jesus Christ 23,000 alumni living in 89 countries around the world.

In summary, Sweeney concludes,

Who could possibly have guessed that a school with such a pedigree—founded in a slum, transplanted several times, often tested by expansion and economic strain—would be used by the Lord in such a global way today? God has forged our identity through trial, to be sure. But He has done so in order to bless the church and the world, engineering a way of life and a culture here at Trinity that edifies us all.

It is great to hear once again our history, and to be reminded of God’s good providential plan, his “amazing grace,” that he has done a work that is “immeasurably more than we asked or imagined!”