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God gave the growth

June 02, 2025 - Ben Sells

The following is President Ben Sells’ address during Ouachita’s May 2025 Commencement ceremony.

Ouachita’s vision and mission statements do more than articulate our university's purpose – they guide everything we do.

We aspire for them to be more than mere words on paper. We strive for authentic alignment between our stated purpose and your lived experience as students.

To help focus our efforts each year, we select a phrase from these statements to serve as our annual theme. This theme is first shared during Convocation – that first Chapel of the year when our entire undergraduate community gathers. We commemorate it with a patch given to everyone and highlight it throughout the academic year.

"Intellectual and Spiritual Growth" has been this year's theme, drawn from our mission statement: "Ouachita prepares individuals for ongoing intellectual and spiritual growth."

Just as Convocation marks a beginning, Commencement signals the culmination of your academic work. It seems fitting, then, to reflect one final time on what "intellectual and spiritual growth" means.

Intellectual Growth

A commitment to intellectual growth reflects the very essence of higher education. In this regard, Ouachita stands out among the thousands of universities across our nation.

This growth happens at Ouachita because of academically motivated students like you, supported by dedicated families and benefiting from faculty who invest in you personally both inside and outside the classroom.

The evidence of this commitment appears in measurable ways. In Arkansas, Ouachita is tied for first among all universities for the highest four-year graduation rate. Nationally, our career outcomes rate – a measure of the percentage of graduates employed or in graduate school six months after graduation – stands at an extraordinary 99%, far exceeding the national average.

The most meaningful measure, however, is personal. Your professors, who have walked alongside you on this journey, can testify to your intellectual transformation.

Your acceptance into graduate schools and first career positions reflects this growth as well. When it comes to intellectual development, Ouachita cedes no ground to any university in this state or region.

Congratulations, graduates. And thank you, faculty and staff, for making this possible.

Spiritual Growth

A commitment to spiritual growth reflects our identity as an institution of Christian higher education. In this regard, Ouachita stands apart from 95% of universities across our nation.

Ouachita provides fertile ground for spiritual development because of our sincerely held beliefs grounded in Scripture; our conviction that life is lived most abundantly in response to God's love through Jesus Christ; our meaningful affiliation with Arkansas Baptists; and our faculty and staff who model active Christian faith.

This growth is also possible because you and your families purposefully chose a distinctly Christian university.

We foster spiritual growth by integrating faith with learning and living – in classrooms, residence halls, Chapel services, Bible studies, church participation and community service opportunities during your Ouachita experience.

Unlike intellectual growth, there are no standardized metrics for spiritual development at state or national levels. Yet we see encouraging evidence in your increasing love for God with your heart, mind and soul, in lives marked by the fruit of the Spirit, in your love for neighbors and in your witness to the eternal hope found in Jesus Christ.

God Gave the Growth

My Bible reading earlier in the semester led me to 1 Corinthians, where I found myself lingering on a single verse in chapter three. The Apostle Paul writes, "I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth."

Those final words especially resonated with me: "God gave the growth."

Paul employs an agricultural metaphor that people in rural Arkansas readily understand. We know that seeds must be planted and watered to grow. We recognize the complex biological processes that science helps explain. Yet we still marvel – and can't fully comprehend – how a tiny seed transforms into a flourishing plant that bears abundant fruit.

Graduates, today marks a significant milestone in your lives. You’ve been responsible. You've been intentional about your intellectual and spiritual growth, and so much more.

You've earned the diplomas you're about to receive. Your lives will forever bear the mark of being Ouachita graduates. You should be proud of yourselves.

You're likely also mindful of those who helped you reach this moment – the family surrounding you, the faculty before you, the staff and coaches standing with us and the classmates beside you.

Experiencing Ouachita alongside this community has created meaning that will remain with you throughout your lives. For these relationships, we are grateful.

Yet as much as you've personally accomplished, and as much as you've been supported by this great cloud of witnesses, the truth remains: "God gave the growth."

This theme echoed throughout Scripture reveals both a mystery we cannot fully comprehend and a truth we must always remember.

Today, whether you've completed an undergraduate or graduate degree, we celebrate your accomplishments, thank those who've helped along the way and acknowledge that the God of the Bible – all-powerful, all-knowing, and ever-present – gave this growth. The ultimate credit belongs to Him.

Ongoing Growth

Our mission states that "Ouachita prepares individuals for ongoing intellectual and spiritual growth."

Note the word "ongoing." While Commencement concludes your formal Ouachita experience, the word itself means to begin, to start, to keep going.

So, keep being responsible for your intellectual and spiritual growth. Keep benefiting from relationships with others. Keep remembering that God gives the growth. And know that the God who has been with you at Ouachita is the God who goes with you, continuing to shape you into the person He fully intends you to become.

Conclusion

Seniors, most of you arrived in Fall 2021 as the largest freshman class in Ouachita's history. Four years later, and joined by our new graduate programs, today marks the largest commencement ceremony since our university's founding.

We give thanks to the Lord for all who are assembled here and all who care deeply for Ouachita.

And to the Class of 2025, congratulations! May God continue to bless you – and guide your ongoing growth.

Ben Sells