Partnership with Rochester College

Sarah and I often walk along the trails in downtown Rochester, whether the Paint Creek trail to the library, the downtown park, or Dinosaur Hill. At other times, we take the Paint Creek Trail South to the Clinton River Trail and walk all the way to Rochester College. Before I accepted my current position teaching the humanities at Bloomfield Christian, I applied for a job teaching English literature or composition at Rochester College, a Christian college with a beautiful wood and pond and outdoor theatre adjacent to the Clinton River Trail. Last summer, Zac Watson, head of the English department, called and asked me to come in for an interview about teaching composition courses at the college in the coming year. We spoke about composition and literature and Christianity and found we had a lot in common. The following week, Sarah and I walked down the trail to attend one of Rochester College’s Shakespeare productions at the outdoor theater. We were thrilled by the high caliber of the performance. That same week, I accepted the position and teach composition to sophomores and freshman at Rochester College. 

To my surprise, the relationship between Bloomfield Christian and Rochester College continued to deepen in the fall. When I returned to BCS for the new semester, I spoke to Trenton Leach, our new headmaster, about my schedule teaching adjunct classes at RC, and I mentioned that he and Zac Watson were both completing their Doctoral studies at Faulkner University and had attended many of the same classes. Professor Watson hoped to meet with Headmaster Leach in the near future.

Walking down the sidewalk on campus one autumn day, Sarah and I heard someone shout to us and jog in our direction. We turned and saw one of the father’s from BCS. Adam Baron, the father of Sophie Baron, asked if we taught at BCS. He invited us into his office and, and we spoke about our mutual interests in theology, literature and Christian education. A couple weeks later, Dr. Baron emailed Headmaster Leach and I to see if we would be interested in hosting the great C.S. Lewis scholar, Jerry Root, at Bloomfield Christian. Dr. Root had mentored Adam Baron during his time as an undergraduate at Wheaton. We jumped at the opportunity.

Jerry Root was a triumph. He spoke about the Christian imagination in the work C.S. Lewis, describing the ways Edmund’s time as a dragon awoke him to the realities of evil, the ways Lucy’s desire to magically eavesdrop broke her heart because there are some kinds of knowledge that we ought not attain, and the way Lewis’ deep quest for truth challenged Dr. Root to embark on a lifelong quest of his own. Asked by Laurel Wayland how he fans the flame of studiousness in his heart, Dr. Root explained that he loves God more and more as he grows older, so he wants to know more about more about him and his creation, so he goes deeper and deeper into the sources of Lewis’ wisdom, reading Boethius and Dante and Athanasius. In fact, he goes to bed longing for heaven and an ever closer union with Christ.

At the close of the lecture, students encircled Dr. Root, seeking council and giving thanks for the wisdom he communicated. Kenzie Buchan, who visited Wheaton when she was eleven years old, walked away with a confidence that it was the college for her. Students shuffled out of the chapel talking about how they hope to have that same excitement when they are Dr. Root’s age.

All things work together for good. In this coming year, Headmaster Leach has fostered a partnership with Rochester College so that our students can gain college credit without even having to leave the building. I will teach a rhetoric class that provides students with he knowledge and skills offered in the composition classes that I teach at Rochester College with classical readings and exercises, of course. I am grateful that trail I walk to Rochester College each week has led to such fruitful ends, and I know God will continue to brighten our campus through this partnership!