ESTES CHAPEL: Where It All Began
Dr. David McKenna
Part II: It all began in Estes Chapel
During chapel in my senior year, Dr. J. T. Seamands, renowned missionary to India, touched every heart with the urgent spiritual needs of that distant country and asked all who heard the call of God to meet him at the altar. I heard the call but did not go forward. Instead, I went back to our little apartment, knelt by the bed, and began to argue with God. Earlier in the year, I had lost my John Wesley Foundation scholarship because I planned to pursue a PhD rather than go directly to the parish ministry. Admission had already been granted at Boston University and the University of Southern California. As economic backup for these doctoral programs, a small church was ready for us in Scituate, Massachusetts and a teaching position at Los Angeles Pacific College if we moved to California. Why would God open these opportunities and then squash them with a call to India? At our bedside, a monumental clash of wills took place. I knew how Abraham felt when God asked him to go against everything he loved and sacrifice his son, Isaac. Only when Abraham yielded his will fully to the will of God and was ready to obey did a ram appear as an alternative sacrifice in the bushes. I, too, fought for an hour before vowing, “Lord, I will do Your will and go to India, even if I never get a PhD.”
Once God had my will, the ram in the bushes appeared. The President of Spring Arbor Junior College, my alma mater, called and offered me the position as Dean of Men and Instructor in Religion with the opportunity to pursue the PhD at the University of Michigan. It was the call to a lifetime career in Christian higher education and thirty-three consecutive years in positions as president, finalizing at Asbury Theological Seminary. In each case, I accepted the position with the understanding, “If God calls me to India, I will be on the first plane out.”
Strange as it may seem, in all of our world travels, I never saw India. Sixty years after the Estes Chapel service, a surprise call came from Dr. Joab Lohara, a Bishop of the Free Methodist Church of India, telling us about the founding of Immanuel University in Hyderabad, India to serve the Dalits or “untouchables.” He said that after hearing the story of my call to India, he felt inspired to ask if we would let them use our name for the projected College of Education and Leadership. My wife and I prayed about the request and sought counsel, but we knew that this was God’s call to fulfill my commitment. Within months, our youngest son, Robert, Chair of the Industrial/Organizational Psychology Department at Seattle Pacific University, caught the vision for the ministry of Immanuel University and began an annual trip to teach, preach, and coach Indian pastors in leadership development. His address at the dedication of the David and Janet McKenna College of Education and Leadership carried the title, “Closing the Loop,” the story of God’s will that began in Estes Chapel and came to fulfillment at Immanuel University.
In addition to the great singing during chapel services, Estes Chapel has two special remembrances for me. The most important is when Charlotte and I stood at its altar and exchanged our marriage vows that continue after 60 years. I might have been a little nervous then, but nothing like the knee knocking experience I had when I preached my sermon for the homiletics class from that pulpit that had been used by many great preachers. It was the very first sermon I had ever preached for any public setting. I was hoping to at least have a sermon that was better written than my first one for Dr. Robertson. When he returned that sermon to me I immediately looked for my grade. I was perhaps being forewarned that it wouldn’t be good because there were already red marks scribbled on my title page, of all things. As I read on through the pages, with each one marked in red so much I could hardly read what I had typed, I finally got to the last page and saw it. A big read D-! When I met with him to discuss it he asked me what I thought. I responded by saying that I was surprised at the low grade because I thought I had done a pretty good job. He said, “Surprised!!” He went on to say, “I was GENEROUS with you. You didn’t even deserve a D-.” Hopefully, since then, hundreds of sermons later, I would at least get a good solid D, with no minus!