“A brand is not an icon, a slogan, or a mission statement. It is a promise … you make and keep in every marketing activity, every action, every decision, every customer interaction.”

Kristin Zhivago, Business Marketing

Call it a brand, a market position or a distinction. Lenoir-Rhyne College is widely recognized as a small college where faculty and staff offer a very high level of personal attention and a sense of community and friendship is pervasive among the students.[1] Those who are intimately familiar with Lenoir-Rhyne College might even articulate these qualities as part of our “ethos”, which Robert Benne refers to as the way “our account of reality is lived, embodied and expressed.” [2] Other expressions of our “ethos” include the celebration of the beginning and concluding events of the school year in worship, a small, strong theology department, a Lutheran President, a significant Lutheran presence on the board and faculty, a reasonably well-protected chapel hour with significant but voluntary level of participation of the campus community, and engagement of the Christian faith in selected fields of study such as psychology, philosophy, biology and nursing.

Has this “ethos” been intentionally cultivated from and centered in a Christian vision like the one stated in our mission: “true vocation and the most useful service to God and the world are best discerned from the perspective of the Christian faith?” [3] Does a Christian account of reality provide the umbrella under which all facets of life are gathered and interpreted? For example, does one friendly community member nurture and care for another expressly as a child of God? Do faculty members give personal attention to their students in response to a sense of vocation? Is the Christian account of reality as pervasive in the classroom as in chapel? Do we want to present Lenoir-Rhyne College as unambiguously Lutheran? Or do we want to be an intentionally pluralist institution that respects our sponsoring heritage but attracts our students and faculty on secular grounds and holds the Christian account of reality as just one voice among many equal voices?

As the Director of College Planning and Assessment, I will lead Lenoir-Rhyne College through a comprehensive planning process that establishes a road map for our future. Standard planning practices suggest that we examine our internal capacity and assess these strengths and weaknesses against market forces and other trends (demographic, economic, regulatory, legal, public policy, technological, etc.) that could have an impact on our future direction. An underlying assumption is that by studying these factors, Lenoir-Rhyne College’s quality or ability to become or remain competitive may be improved. While these factors are important, they are not sufficient. We need to complete this assessment through an exploration of the core values and Christian vision that shape our behaviors and ethos and then look for the intersection of these values with market forces and the environment.

Through the planning process, my goal is to facilitate an intentional articulation of these questions: Who are we? Who do we want to be? What promise will we make and keep in every activity, action, decision and interaction? How will we choose to be the bearers of the promise God makes through the Gospel and the Church to the world?