May It Always Be True: Educating Students in Faith

A collection of heartening chapel addresses from John Brown University President Charles W. Pollard that speak to the intense spiritual experiences of university life, offering encouragement both to current students and those who graduated years ago.

Chapel services are a central part of the Christian college experience for thousands of today's students, as well as faculty and staff members, and can be a time for leaders to inspire and encourage students to pursue their work with delightful fervor. That's what Charles Pollard has tried to do in the chapel addresses he's delivered during his time as president of John Brown University. ''I left [a career in law] to teach English literature because I wanted to teach undergraduates and to consider with them the important questions of life,'' he writes. ''Why are we here? Why is there joy and pain in life? What is beauty or truth or love? How should I treat others? Is there a God and does it matter? That desire to ask these questions remains an animating part of my work life.'' MAY IT ALWAYS BE TRUE brings Pollard's addresses into a published collection that all of us can benefit from, whether or not we have access to a regular university chapel program.

The chapters are organized around the rhythm of the academic year (opening day, first semester, Advent, second semester, and baccalaureate) to explore broader topics like, ''Who am I?'' ''Finding Advent amid distraction,'' and ''Saying farewell.'' As a result, MAY IT ALWAYS BE TRUE speaks to the pattern of life that resounds in so many of our souls, whether we still inhabit a university or only remember the call of our college days.

Charles W. Pollard has a dual background in law (earning his degree from Harvard Law School and practicing in Chicago during the early 1990s) and English literature (with degrees from Oxford University and the University of Virginia). He moved in 2004 from Calvin College, where he was an associate professor of English, to John Brown University, where he now serves as president. Charles and his wife, Carey, have four children (Chad, Benjamin, Emma, and James) and live in Siloam Springs, Arkansas.