Six senior members of the Triangle student newspaper staff graduated Saturday during a commencement ceremony held at Bryan College. Above (left to right): Online Editor Krissy Proctor, Multimedia Editor Andrew Wilber, Sports Editor Sebastian Fischer, Editor-in-chief Cat Rogers and Senior Reporter Jesse Murray. Not pictured: Copy Editor Garrett Lemons. (Triangle photo)

About 220 seniors received their diplomas during graduation ceremonies Saturday at Bryan College.

Of that total, 136 are graduates from the School of Arts and Sciences (A&S), the traditional Bryan College program, and 84 are from the School of Adult and Graduate Studies (AGS), which includes both MBA and Bachelor of Science degree candidates.

Joel Peckman, a communication studies/corporate communications major from Chambersburg, Pa., gave the commencement address for the A&S graduation.

In addition to recognizing the graduates, the college also conferred an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree on Augustine Asir, founder of Word for the World ministry in India, a long-time partner with Bryan.

Although originally planned as an outside ceremony on the Triangle, graduation was moved into Rudd Auditorium due to rain.

The Lions beat nationally ranked Southern Polytechnic State University twice in a doubleheader on Tuesday / Triangle Photo by Brittany Gurley

Sebastian Fischer
Sports Editor

So far, the 2012 NAIA baseball season is seeing the best Bryan Lions in the college’s history. Never before have the Lions received votes to be ranked among the top 25 teams in the nation and never before has Bryan had a winning record (31-11) that puts them in a position to win the AAC conference championship with one month left to play in regular season.

Tuesday the Lions kept their good form alive as they beat nationally ranked Southern Polytechnic State University (Atlanta, Ga.) 5-4 and 12-0 in a non-conference doubleheader on Senter Field.

“The team this year has more experience [than in the years before],” said senior Doug Stroup, explaining the recent success. “We play as a team and understand how much we need each other in order to be successful… against Southern Poly we just played to the level we know we’re capable of.”

The Hornets came out on top in the first inning, scoring one run in the second and three runs in the third inning. However, Bryan rallied quickly and tied the game in the fifth off a solo home run by junior Tyler Latham. In their final at bat, senior Shane Clawson hit the ball to the deep right center, advancing to second base. Clawson then scored on a batted ball by senior DeWayne Boyd to win the game.

The Lions carried the momentum on to the second half of the doubleheader, not giving the Hornets an opportunity to sting.

Stroup led Bryan’s offense with three RBIs and two hits. He also led the Lions for the day with five RBIs and four hits. Senior Kemonte Keesee dominated the game on the mound, only giving up one hit while holding Southern Poly scoreless.

Stroup said this season’s success will depend on the team’s ability to perform regardless of who the opponent is. Against Southern Poly, ranked 15^th in the NAIA, Bryan proved that they’re not afraid of big names.

“We have a good group of guys that love the game and want to see the program succeed, even more so than their individual stats,” he said, confident that his team will continue winning ways.

The Lions play again on Saturday at Cumberland University and resume conference play April 13 at Tennessee Wesleyan College.

As my four years at Bryan College come to a close, I’d like to share a few thoughts about my time here.

I do not write out of anger, nor do I write out of bitterness. I think there are some great aspects of this college; I have stayed for the opportunities and passions that I have gained. However, I am not writing this to explain the good, but to challenge what I think has been truly bad.

I am writing this letter for the students who have graduated feeling as though Bryan College did not provide what they needed and for those still here struggling to find their place within a system that has been designed to prepare us to make a difference in today’s world.

On this campus which provides us the beauty of God’s creation through the wondrously changing colors of fall and the fresh budding flowers of spring, I have witnessed a mentality which takes pride in appearance over reality, that praises the sound of a community’s voices raised in unison in chapel, but does not actively recognize the disunity that pervades our dorms, our classrooms, and our daily conversations.

The natural divide of friend groups should not come with the perspective that your group is superior to or more valuable than another’s because of personal philosophy. However, the Bryan environment feeds this mentality through constantly praising those students who choose to live a certain way, those who speak in terms of worldview or theology, who choose to fight social injustice, or those who leave Bryan College with a promise of marriage. This encourages discrimination among some groups and alienation among others. Unfortunately, I have been guilty of engaging in much of this discrimination as well.

The mentality that appearance trumps reality invades everything that we do here at Bryan: from how we discuss issues in chapel to the way we administer disciplinary issues. Speaking to a member of the administration about the fact that some people do not stand in chapel, I explained that simply because people are standing does not mean that their hearts are engaged in the worship. However, those sitting are simply not pretending to care or not pretending to show respect for something they don’t believe in.

Unfortunately, the response I got furthered my belief that appearance is key, as he replied that if these individuals choose to come to our college, they should also respect the time of worship by standing. However, it is difficult to expect them to stand when those who stand despite of a lack of belief have gained no respect in return.

The way people respond to the rules at Bryan also further my belief that appearance will ultimately prevail. Many of the rules in the Handbook are ignored because when we ignore them, it fosters a more unified and healthier community. If the community functions best by ignoring the rules, the rules should be changed to match what is actually helpful for the community.

For example, if the community is served best by allowing people to keep their rooms clean only if they want to, RAs should not have to choose to not enforce strict room, as they frequently do, for just this reason. Many individuals in authority choose to turn a blind eye to the thwarting of some rules because, quite frankly, the rules are not necessary and frustrate students who already live in a highly regulated environment. They are merely for appearance, to make the school appear different than it truly is.

Even on an everyday personal level, Bryan College has not only created a bubble that hardly looks off the hill except for international and community outreach, but many conversations that would foster healthy and meaningful discussion are shunned. While campuses across the country wrestle with different, powerful social issues each day, we give overwhelming focus to specific issues, such as human trafficking, and often ignore other important issues, like the injustice found in the recent case of Trayvon Martin. Even when we address important controversial subjects, like homosexuality, we present and discuss only a variety of opinions that we can agree with from a Christian worldview. We shy away from voicing opinions that could garner negativity from others.

Four years ago, a fellow senior came to Bryan College as a non-Christian, listened to the rules he had to follow, and held these up against Christianity to see if Christian principles were mirrored. Unfortunately, he found that they did not.

Many students love this place, and for those people, I am glad. However, for those of you who feel out of place here, you may continue to wrestle and to question throughout your time here. Know that you are not alone and that even though others will simply respond that you must get over it because you chose this place; never settle for appearances, but continue to seek and live in the light of truth.

Jesus did not fear going against appearances; He called it hypocrisy. Likewise, I challenge you to continue to stand for truth, in a system that legislates uniformity and only looks at the surface. Change may not happen quickly, or at all in you’re time here, but it’s possible.

- Senior Vincent Smith

“The Problem isn’t Bryan, it’s you.” Healthy? I think not.

As a freshman and a sophomore, I was bewildered that a religion, a God would defend the attitude, “if you don’t like it, you shouldn’t be here, after all you chose to be here and in doing so, you chose to abide by the rules.”

Some at Bryan might not mean for it, or even be aware it can be taken this way, but the rules here have successfully misrepresented Christianity. Fact. I can only call it a misrepresentation after tak­ing four years to learn that Christianity could not be further from the envi­ronment that has been created here.

In an attempt to highlight the unworldly bubble environment that exists here on the hill, I pierced my ear (in 2008, it was against school rules for males to have piercings). I do not like earrings; I have no desire for accessorizing an outfit with a dia­mond stud. This was a challenge.

It was a challenge to the institu­tion, a challenge for the day we live in, a challenge to a rule represent­ing an approach that somehow by filtering the do’s and don’t of indi­viduals, that will lead to a more spiri­tually alive campus with students solely focused on what is important.

In principle, my being here agrees to living by these rules. Yet, I did not agree to mindlessly sit in classes, soak up the environment day in and day out and question nothing. This I did not agree to. Nor should anyone.

Simply put, how can Bryan ever broaden the horizons of potential stu­dents, and those lives that need sav­ing, when it stands firm in a redun­dant collection of useless legalism?

Never have I seen so many people wear “masks,” put on at the start of a day, to protect them as they walk through the triangle, for if some­one dare ask them how things are, they can confidently respond with a false smile when answering, “Good… everything’s good.” No, it isn’t.

Attempts at change, at improv­ing the community at large, gets shot down for fear that any change will take away from the untouchable, perfect environment that already exists. But here at Bryan College things are not good. In fact, they are far from good.

Why do we feel the need to only be good! Take the mask off. Walk down the corridors of Mercer, challenge the problems, and question the rules. The rules that stand firm to challenge, accept. Do not simply follow the yellow brick road and have your college experience spoon fed to you. Mature and come of age in a sound Christian environment, but learn how to tackle the issues of the world, not become experts at avoid­ing them at all costs, thinking you are doomed should you ever be exposed.

These Bryan College eyes that you are wearing are not real. They will get you nowhere when you step off this hill. You will spread the gospel to no one while going about your business as far from James 4:12 as you currently stand.

Friends back home looked at the website noticed the motto “Christ Above All;” of course they did, and of course they should. It is everywhere, as it should be. But what it shouldn’t be is devalued and undermined on a daily basis throughout life on this campus. If we claim to have this approach, why is this so poorly represented in every­thing that makes up the institution?

Don’t confuse this message as a stab at trivial rules and regulations. As a senior, I’m over it. I laugh at the aggravation that these rules cause; it takes up so much of our time and emotion, provoking pet­ty arguments and distracting us from the bigger picture: “Christ Above All.”

For someone to find truth in some­thing as a result of it being portrayed inconsistently and incorrectly, to then have to decipher that in all actual­ity those claiming the name are further proof of the utterly flawed nature of humanity, is surely a backward process.

A special few have spent the last four years ministering to those who had no previous knowledge of Christianity, righting the wrongs created by our insti­tution. For them I am eternally grateful.

To those of you who have ques­tioned why myself, and those similar to me (an athlete, a foreigner, a non-believer or worse, all three at once) even bother to come to a place like this, for it is not where “we” belong, for “we” are the minority: guess what you will become the day you graduate and set foot into the big wide real world?

William Jennings Bryan said, “Never be afraid to stand with the minority when the minority is right.”

I politely ask that you stop standing in the way of our school’s namesake and I, and truly begin to put “Christ Above All.”

“Destiny is no matter of chance,” Bryan also said. “It is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be wait­ed for, it is a thing to be achieved.”

You have passed up an opportunity to lead by example, to practice what you preach, and to share the love that has pre­viously and is continually, shown to you.

Yes, iron sharpens iron, but for what purpose is the iron being sharp­ened if it is never put to any use?

- Senior Harry Sherwood

Director of Worship Arts Jeff Eeningenburg and senior Luke Lillard / Triangle Photo by Maddie Doucet

Brittany Gurley
Triangle Reporter

A new Worship Arts option within the Christian Ministries major, which will help to train students to be worship leaders in either a church or para-church organization, is set to go into effect this coming fall semester.

About five years ago, the Christian Ministries and Music departments and Spiritual Formation recognized the emerging field of worship arts as a career.  After formulating a rough outline of a worship arts track, the departments sought out feedback and advice from experts in the field.  Upon receiving positive feedback, the plan was developed even further.

Jeff Eenigenburg, Director of Worship Arts and assistant professor, is excited about the new option and sees how valuable it will be to students.

“Putting something like this into place could prepare students well to serve in the church,” he said.

The main goal of this option is to train music leaders by giving them a strong foundation in theology, musical training and honing in on a students natural skills and abilities.  Students will be able to choose among guitar, keyboard and voice to focus on in their training.

Although the major itself will focus on the musical aspect of worship, many of the required classes will teach students about the big picture that is worship as well as exposing them to the technical side of leading worship (sound, projection, etc.).

Students within this major will also have a lot of practical involvement.  Aside from leading worship in chapel, an internship during a student’s senior year with either a church or para-church organization will give students a lot of experience before they even graduate.

Because of these changes, a new class will be offered next semester that will be home to the core of worship leaders for chapel.  However, students who are interested in serving in a leadership role in chapel worship are still encouraged to get involved even if they don’t sign up for the class.  The easiest way to get involved is to sit down with Eenigenburg and build up a relationship there.

Something new this past year that helped a lot was a worship leadership forum that met roughly once a month.  All those who were interested in leading worship came together to discuss different ideas and delegate the worship among the chapels.  While there is some evaluation going on about whether or not this will continue next year, Eenigenburg is pleased with the results that it has shown this year.

“I feel like it was a good venue for people to use and connect and plan,” he said.

The Worship Arts option will be housed in the Christian Ministries department, but will incorporate the equivalent of a music minor from the Music department and practical involvement that stems from Spiritual Formation.  Additionally, for those who wish to major in something else but still have the training and knowledge to lead worship in a church setting, there is the option of minoring in Worship Arts.

The Mercer family poses for a photo at the celebration of T.C. Mercer Day at Bryan in 2005 / Photo courtesy of Bryan.edu

Mercer Hall might have easily remained the Administration Building had Dr. Theodore Mercer not been fired from Bob Jones University in 1953.

Mercer had spent a large portion of his life around the Joneses and their school at that point in ‘53, when he was relieved of his duties as Assistant to the President.

He had grown up in Spring City, Tenn., a small railroad town around 17 miles north of Dayton and the current location of Bryan College.

He was one of many children, but also only one of two shared by his parents. Both of his parents had marriages, and children, prior to the one that resulted in Mercer’s birth, according to Dr. John M. Mercer, the late Bryan president’s son and current Professor of English at Northeastern State University in Tulsa, Okla.

Theodore Mercer was five when the Scopes Trial captured the attention of a nation in the throes of debate about whether evolution could and should be taught in public schools.

The ‘Boy Orator of the South’ William Jennings Bryan represented the State of Tennessee in its case against high school teacher John Scopes, who had agreed to go on trial in order to bring the small town of Dayton national attention – successfully. Five years later, The William Jennings Bryan University was founded in the novel town of Dayton.

Three years after, in 1933, prominent evangelical leader Dr. Bob Jones Sr. moved his college, Bob Jones College, from Panama City, Fla. to Cleveland, Tenn., just east of the Tennessee River from Dayton.

Mercer’s education, career and personal life would be greatly impacted by that school and its patriarch. He graduated from BJC with a bachelor’s degree in Religion and English as well as a master’s degree… in Religion, and he began teaching English for his alma mater afterward.

In the Bob Jones English department, Mercer met the woman who would be his wife when the custodian continually misplaced the department’s trash cans, according to the couple’s son.

John Mercer called his parents’ meeting a “funny story.” His father, he said, was annoyed by finding his trashcan out of place every morning and found the young Alice to be stingy for hoarding them. Little did Mercer know, however, that Alice was not rearranging the department’s trash every night.

Only after finally confronting the assumed thief did Mercer realize that he had assumed falsely. In a twist of irony, however, Alice did end up taking something much more valuable from Mercer than his garbage.

In 1953, Ted Mercer wrote a pamphlet to the Bob Jones University Board of Trustees in which he said the summer prior was “the beginning of the end for me I am convinced in my own mind.”

He says in the literature that he felt choosing off-campus hospital and doctor attention over medical services provided by the BJU infirmary during his wife’s pregnancy would harbor bad feelings from the school.

“Mrs. Mercer and I, knowing Dr. Jones as we did, discussed the possibility of my losing my job for failure to comply, but we decided that the selection of a doctor was the privilege of every American and that if I lost my job over this situation, we would be willing to take the consequences, which we are now taking,” Mercer wrote.

John Mercer confirmed that it was his birth that his father was writing about. Choosing to have children off campus, he said, was equal to disloyalty to the school. His father’s pamphlets confirm the presumption.

“I was called into [Dr. Bob Jones Sr.’s] office on June 9, 1952, and upbraided for disloyalty to him and the institution,” Mercer wrote to the Board of Trustees.

A year later, after accusations of further disloyalty and sexual immorality, Dr. Bob Jones Jr., President of Bob Jones University, fired his assistant Mercer. Mercer was one of a host of BJU staff and faculty that lost their jobs or voluntarily left the school at that time, according to his pamphlets.

John Mercer said that the events of that summer were “very traumatic” for his family, but that “[his father] felt that a huge burden was lifted” after his firing. The sexual accusations against his father’s character were “real ridiculous” and merely attempts at smearing his name, John added.

The incident, however, “was the best thing that could have happened to us. I didn’t want to grow up in that environment,” he said.

“I’m sure he was happy he was no longer in that situation.”

Between 1953 and 1956, Dr. Theodore Mercer worked in public relations for Muskingham College in New Concord, Ohio, while the fallout from the BJU incident faded.

The incident, John said, was on the lips of those at Christian schools around the nation; his mother, he added, speculated that immediately after the incident, her husband would not have been in contention at many Christian schools because of it.

However, in 1956, things seemingly came full circle for Dr. Theodore Mercer. After the Scopes Trial in 1925, Williams Jennings Bryan said that he wished to open a school to forward the Christian message in Dayton.

In 1956, the result of Bryan’s wish, William Jennings Bryan University was operating in Dayton on a tight budget and limited resources. As the president, Dr. Judson Rudd’s health failed, the school began looking for the next president.

Three years after his ugly divorce from BJU, Mercer was offered the position.

He accepted; in 2005, at an honorary naming of Mercer Hall, Bryan alumnus Dr. Ronald Zartman said of the late president, “It was a tough ministry [Dr. Mercer] had. The Administration Building was unfinished; the furnace was coal-driven. Times were tough. There were unpaid food bills he inherited. We needed a gifted man – that’s what we got ” according to an article on Bryan.edu covering the heritage event.

John Mercer recalls that in the early years, one of his father’s primary goals for the school was to attain accreditation, an accomplishment that was reached in 1969.

In those first days of the Bryan, John recalls living with friends in Chattanooga and moving to a small house in Dayton nicknamed “The Crackerbox” a few weeks before the college secured a rental for the family on Bryan Hill.

The house that the Mercer family rented is now the home of Academic Vice President Bradford Sample and his wife, said Mercer. It is also held to be the oldest house in “Hill City,” he said.

Dr. Theodore Mercer’s tenure at Bryan was a successful one. Under his leadership, the school completed the administration building and built several dorms.

Mary Rudd Carlson, daughter of late President Judson A. Rudd, Mercer’s predecessor, said in an email that the decline of her father’s health and presidency was eased by the arrival of Mercer and his “amazing energy.”

As her father’s health declined, Carlson remembers the new president spending one entire night with his papers outside of Rudd’s hospital room. When Rudd passed, Carlson remembers Mercer arriving where she and her mother were staying with all of the funeral details planned and ready for signature.

“This was the way he operated,” she said. “For the next several days, our home was Rhea House where they welcomed all of our Rudd relatives and other close college friends at each mealtime.”

On into the 60s, John Mercer points out that his father also navigated the school through desegregation.

His father, he said, “was a proponent of admitting black students and achieved this goal in a way that caused little stir or objection.”

In 1986, at the age of 66 and after leading then-named William Jennings Bryan College for 25 years, Dr. Theodore C. Mercer died unexpectedly just weeks before he had planned to give his last commencement speech and retire.

19 years later in 2005, Mrs. Alice Mercer was present at a special Heritage Week chapel where the administration building that her husband finished was renamed in his honor. The following January, she too died, at the age of 89.

Bryan College, however, will forever bear the fingerprints of President and Mrs. Theodore Mercer.

Mercer Hall is noted for sharing the dimensions of Noah’s Ark. Perhaps fittingly, the building that bear’s the Mercer name, the building that he was most proud of according to his son, played a similar role in Bryan’s history.

Senior Nicole Thomas directs actors in her film "Just a Game" shot in the practice gym on campus / Photo courtesy of Nicole Thomas

Clarissa Stewart
Triangle Reporter

Nineteen students will display their films in the Broad Street Film Festival through a three-night event this weekend in downtown Chattanooga.

The festival began at Bryan seven years ago as a means for film students to showcase their work.  Through the years the event has expanded and moved from Bryan’s campus to downtown Chattanooga with multiple showings of the films and an awards ceremony held at the Tivoli Theater.

The Broad Street Film Festival is now a not-for-profit organization under the Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga and features the films of students from Bryan College, Covenant College, Lee University, Chattanooga State Community College, Southern Adventist University and University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

Broad Street in downtown Chattanooga lent its name to the festival because it is the street where the Tivoli theater, the theater where the awards ceremony is held, is located.

Last year the event was smaller with only one night of film showings and no awards ceremony. However, the multiple day event promises to live up to former years with three event packed evenings coming this weekend.

On Thursday night student films will be shown at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. at the Carmike Majestic 12 in Chattanooga. The film festival also includes an educational component where film students can learn from an independent film maker Friday night. The festival will conclude with an award ceremony at the Tivoli Theater on Saturday night, including awards for best actor, best actress, best director and people’s choice award. Attendees are also invited to an after party hosted by Covenant College.

Bryan junior Amy Morris is the event coordinator for the Broad Street Film Festival and has worked with a leadership team of students and professors from Covenant, Chattanooga State and Southern Adventist to plan the festival. Morris became involved after a recommendation from Dr. Randy Hollingsworth, professor of communication studies at Bryan College.

Morris has worked since the end of last semester to gather information, raise funds and begin planning the festival events. She is hoping to have over 1,000 people attend over the three nights.

The Broad Street Film Festival’s three goals are regional, educational and original work, and Morris highlighted this motto as the reasons students should attend.

“It’s great to see because of the fact that it’s your friends’ work. They’re learning and you get to enjoy that.” Morris said, “You don’t often, going to a small Christian school in Tennessee, get to go to something really classy in the Tivoli. So the awards night is just fun even if you don’t know any of the film makers or don’t get to go to the showings on Thursday night.”

Senior Nicole Thomas, a communications major with a film emphasis, submitted a film in the Broad Street Film Festival for the first time this year.

Thomas said she began writing and planning the film last semester after Chris Clark, assistant professor of communications studies, gave her and fellow senior film major Derek Batt a great opportunity to work with alumnus Matthew Rogers.

According to Thomas, Clark told her and Batt to “come up with something really good to film” because Rogers was going to let them use some of his equipment free of charge.

Thomas explained that Rogers owns a RED camera which is “the best on the market.”

“This particular model is called the Epic, if that gives you any idea how amazing this camera is. It’s a $58,000 camera, top of the line and gives really great quality footage,” said Thomas.

This semester Thomas coordinated a cast, crew and location for the one day shooting of her film. Thomas worked with an actors’ forum she found through Facebook to cast the three actors for her film “Just a Game.” Once the shooting was complete, it took Thomas almost a full month to edit her almost five-minute short film.

Thomas went to the film festival her freshman and sophomore years and said, “The film festival is great for Bryan students because it is really fun… There are some really great short films shown. I was blown away by some of the films; even if I didn’t love the film, there was something to be appreciated.”

Students who wish to buy tickets for either the film showings or the awards ceremony can visit www.showtix4u.com.

Bryan Students will be involved in the "Cover the Night" event, part of Invisible Children's KONY2012 campaign / Photo courtesy of KONY2012.com

Timothy Baldi
Senior Reporter

As Invisible Children’s two Joseph Kony videos continue to go viral across the United States, they plan to hold a special event on April 20 to spread more awareness of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) known for kidnapping children in Uganda and the surrounding countries.

Cover the Night is intended to spread posters throughout major cities across the United States to inform audiences outside the internet about Kony’s crimes and to encourage citizens to write or e-mail their state representatives.

The goal is to make Kony famous, said junior Rose Prince, “like Osama Bin Laden.”

Cover the Night hopes to get the United States involved in saving the victims of sex slavery and child soldiers and to discourage “slactivism” by promoting action and not just “liking” and “sharing” a video on the internet, according to freshman Erica Thompson.

Kony has led the LRA for 26 years, kidnapping girls as sex slaves and boys as child soldiers, said Prince.

Kony has kidnapped approximately 30,000 children according to Invisible Children, some of these children have been forced to kill their parents while in the LRA.

“We are going to do everything that we can to stop them,” said Jason Russell, co-founder of Invisible Children, to an escaped child soldier named Jacob whose brother was killed by the LRA.

“We have seen that stories change lives,” said the second Kony 2012 video “Beyond Famous.”

Participants are encouraged to avoid vandalism or illegal activities while spreading the posters throughout these cities. Some people are contacting their local police departments to make sure their actions are legal before joining in the event.

Several Bryan students plan to join Cover the Night, including several members of the SSTOP team. However, Cover the Night is not an official SSTOP sponsored event because of potential legal concerns.

Students considering participation can contact Prince and sophomore Katie Morgan.

For more information, go to http://www.kony2012.com/ for the option to pledge support for Cover the Night and pledge support for this statement “Joseph Kony is one of the world’s worst war criminals, and I call on my leaders to support the international efforts now led by the United Nations and African Union to arrest him and his top commanders, bring the child soldiers home, and restore lasting peace.”

To learn more about Invisible Children and Kony 2012, visit invisiblechildren.com.

The Bryan Baseball team played at AT&T Field, home of the MILB Chattanooga Lookouts, on Saturday. They lost 4-2 to Tennessee Wesleyan College / Triangle Photo by Josiah Newport

Sebastian Fischer
Sports Editor

April 17, 2009: The Bryan College Baseball team just lost a two-game series against Union College (Barbourville, Ky.) with 6-0 and 6-1 at Senter Field, where visitors are sparse. In Taylor Hasty’s first year as head coach, the Lions are 4-20 and 0-8 in conference play.

April 14, 2012: The Lions lost a three-game series to Tennessee Wesleyan College (Athens, Tenn.) 4-1, 9-1 and 4-2. Their situation, however, couldn’t be more different than four years ago. The last game of the series took place at AT&T Field in Chattanooga, in front of a good crowd. With a win against NAIA No.2 Lee University (Cleveland, Tenn.), Bryan broke the record for most wins at 32 last week, received votes to be ranked nationally and, despite the losses to the NAIA No. 8 Wesleyan Bulldogs, remains in the topflight of the AAC. Sitting at third in the conference, the Lions are 32-16 and 11-7 in the AAC, which is the best record in college history. Under Hasty, Bryan College Baseball has evolved.

Hasty: “The talent level has grown significantly”

“The talent level has grown significantly over the years,” said Hasty. “The guys display a consistent work ethic and a commitment to doing the small things right: making routine plays, throwing strikes and having quality at bats.”

He said that a big part of the team’s success is due to the senior class taking ownership of the program and providing leadership on and off the field. The whole team, Hasty said, plays for each other and continue to work hard instead of patting themselves on the back.

“The combination of talent and team spirit lead to the success we’ve had so far,” he said.

Against the Bulldogs, however, the small things didn’t work as well as they use to this season. Friday’s games were one-sided, as though pitching by Tennessee Wesleyan made it hard for Bryan’s hitters to find their form.

On Saturday, the Lions battled hard and defended well, but couldn’t match the Bulldogs’ strength on the mound. Senior Shane Clawson led Bryan with two hits and one RBI while senior Tanner Brown and freshman Kenny Knudsen pitched well, only giving up seven hits. All four Bulldogs’ runs came on sacrifices.

“Disappointed would not be the right word to describe how I feel about the series,” said Hasty. “We competed and played well against a good team.”

Lions want to avoid meeting Tennessee Wesleyan early during the postseason

Hasty said that the goal for the remaining games of the season is to get back on track and finish strong. Six conference games are remaining, three at home against Point University (Atlanta, Ga.) this coming weekend and another three at Bluefield College (Bluefield, Va.). While Milligan College (Milligan, Tenn.) is threatening on fourth place with a 10-8 conference record, the Lions look to improve to second or stay in third in order to avoid the same post-season bracket as the strong Bulldogs.

Eventually, the goal is to win the conference tournament, said Hasty. Four years ago that would have seemed like an unrealistic dream. Today, it’s within the Lions reach.

(Left to right) Gungor band members Josh Harvey, Brad Waller, Lisa and Michael Gungor will perform at Lee University in Cleveland on April 22

Jesse Murray
Senior Reporter

Lee University’s U-Church ministry will welcome Gungor to the Cleveland, Tenn. campus on Sunday, April 22. The performance will be held at 7:30 PM in the Conn Center.

Gungor presents a unique brand of worship, complete with streaks of pop, indie and folk influence. They have two albums to date, the first being Beautiful Things and the most recent being Ghosts Upon the Earth. Both albums have gotten almost unanimously positive reviews from Contemporary Christian sources. Christianity Today suggests that with the newest album, following in the footsteps of their debut release, Gungor is “pushing the boundaries of modern worship music in all the right ways” and that “Ghosts Upon the Earth proves worship music can be experimental and still accessible.”

David Huey of christianmusiczine.com calls it “one of the best albums of the year, if not the best” while comparing Gungor’s sound to that of Sufjan Stevens, Sigur Ros and Bon Iver.

“Music doesn’t have to fit the mold to move people’s hearts,” says front man Michael Gungor. “And at the end of the day, that’s really what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to make honest music that opens people’s hearts.”

Michael Gungor, whose roots are in Denver, Col, and who is known for his earlier worship hits such as “Friend of God” and “I Am Free,” has made his worship philosophy clear on his website.

“If leading worship is just about bringing a group of people into a room so we can get goose bumps and sing songs together, there’s not much value in that,” says Michael Gungor. “But if leading worship is a means to an end, that we leave this place as a different kind of people, as part of a new humanity that God wants to create–the people that are caring for the widows and orphans, that aren’t bound by the systems of this world but becoming free, becoming fully engaged in our world–then that matters.”

Doors open in the Conn Center at 6:30 and admission is free. Seating is limited, and attendees have been asked to bring a canned good to donate to the Leonard Center Food Bank.

To learn more about Gungor, visit the band’s website at gungormusic.com.