Upcoming event: Pastors and Church Leaders Conference

Church Relations Council

 The Church Relations Council has been a guiding force for Campbellsville University since 1978

The Campbellsville University Church Relations Council (CRC) is a primary constituency organization providing support for the Christian higher education mission of the university.  Comprised of pastors, other church staff, and key lay leaders, the CRC serves in an advisory capacity to the President and administration in maintaining closer relations between CU and area churches.  Established in 1978, the group meets twice annually while the CRC Executive Committee meets more regularly with the administration.  CRC members assist the university in helping identify donors, helping recruit students, sponsoring key projects and programs, and supporting the mission and core values of the institution.  Standing committees include the Academic, Campus Ministries, Development, and Public Relations Committees.  The Church Relations Council remains an important link in connecting Campbellsville University to the local church and in helping fulfill CU’s commitment to providing a Christ-centered higher education experience in the Baptist tradition.

2008 CRC Leaders

Executive Board members, from left: Rev. John Chowning, CU vice president for church and external relations and executive assistant to the president; Rev. Joseph Owens, CU trustee and former chair of the CRC; CU president Dr. Michael Carter; Helen Henderson, secretary; Rev. Dennis Bickers, current CRC chair; and Rev. Matthew Smyzer. (CU photo by Linda Waggener)

CU Church Relations Council annual spring meeting features Trustee and former CRC chair, Dr. Joseph Owens

 "If you wonder why I'm passionate about the work President Michael Carter is doing for the next century," Dr. Joseph Owens said at the Campbellsville University Church Relations Council banquet, "it is because Campbellsville, through the power of almighty God, helped me to look beyond what I could see, so that I no longer feel as if I have to, I get the privilege to be a part of this vision."

Owens used Joshua 17: 17-18 as his text and shared how his attitude had changed from that of "is this all I get?" to a deeply held belief that we are called to "look beyond what we can see."

"Joshua told the house of Joseph they were a great people who would have more than just one allotment," Owens said. "They looked and all they saw was a mass land full of trees and asked Joshua if that was all they were going to get?"

Owens said that when he came to CU as a student 35 years ago, he came as a poor young man from Lebanon, Ky. with that very attitude.

"I had no vision," he said, "I had no desire to have a vision. And as a matter of fact, I wasn't sure I was comfortable around people who talked about Jesus all the time. I was a disc jockey at home and all I wanted was to go to school close enough so that I could keep my job spinning the tunes on the radio. That was as far as I could see."

Owens said that when he arrived on Campbellsville's campus, "They housed me in Carter Hall where there were at least three decent floors but the fourth had bats -- and my room, well, I looked at it and I said, 'is this all I get?' "

He spoke of the people who helped him find guidance and helped him acquire an attitude adjustment. He said of his experience as a CU student that leaders taught him not to complain, not to be lazy, not to be afraid.

"It was Dr. Al Hardy who told me, 'no this is not all you get,' and put me in work-study. I found myself in classes like Dr. H.E. Coker's Greek. I said there's no way, and I was right, I got an F in Greek. He told everybody in the class not to be like Joe Owens -- he's lazy, he complains, he has a spirit of entitlement, he doesn't want to do the work.

"The next semester I took Dr. Coker's class again and I received an A. It was Dr. Coker and professors Clark, White and many others, who helped me understand and to look beyond what I could see."

Owens said Campbellsville University equipped him and sent him out with the ability to look beyond what he could see.

"All I could see when I came here was the immediate," he said, "I had no idea I would receive a wonderful Savior, and if that was not enough, God sent a beautiful young lady from Jacksonville, Fla. all the way here to became my wife of 34 years.

"This university has already climbed high mountains. We have received accolades not only in these United States but also abroad. It would be so easy, having reached this point, to begin to think that God ought to automatically give something to us.

"It falls into our hands that there's a lot of land out there to be cleared -- new donors, new students, new faculty, new programs, new buildings."

Owens said, "We've got to do the hard work and go clear the land. Will there be challenges? Yes. But we're marching for an almighty God, and He expects us to live up to the people that he has made us. Let us receive the challenge tonight. Let us not complain, not be lazy and not be afraid. Let us look beyond what we can see."

New Church Relations Council members whose terms will run until 2010 were installed at the banquet. Those in attendance at the spring meeting were: Michael Caldwell, Pastor, Pleasant Union Baptist Church, Campbellsville, Ky.; Donald Green, deacon at the Good Hope Baptist Church, Campbellsville, Ky.;  Bill Henderson,  Pastor, Friendship Baptist Church, Campbellsville, Ky.; Terry Moore, Moderator, Oldham-Trimble County Baptist Associations, LaGrange, Ky.; Shelby Reynolds, Pastor, Eubank Baptist Church, Eubank, Ky.; Michael Rice, Pastor, Macedonia Baptist Church, Glasgow, Ky.; and Corrie Shull, Pastor, First Baptist Church, Campbellsville, Ky. New members who were unable to attend the spring meeting were Doug Davis, Pastor, Perryville Baptist Church, Perryville, Ky.; and Don Reed, Executive Director, Elkhorn Baptist Association, Lexington, Ky.

For more information on the CRC, contact John Chowning, vice president for church and external relations and executive assistant to the president at (270) 789-5520 or by e-mail at jechowning@campbellsville.edu.

CU story and photos by Linda Waggener,
assistant director of university communications

Dr. Joseph Owens, CU Trustee and featured speaker at right, talked with Church Relations Council Chairman Rev. Dennis Bickers at the annual meeting of the CRC at Campbellsville University. (CU photo by Linda Waggener).