Ian Rugari

Connections

IAS 110

December 7, 2023

Education Manifesto

“The Triune God is a relational God who desires for us to flourish in right relationships”

(2). This sums up perfectly why the four Right Relationships are crucial in my Christian liberal

arts education. They are all separate, in terms of who is at on the other end of the relationships,

but at the same time they are all connected because you cannot truly fulfill one without the other

three. Colossians 1:17, “and he is before all things, and by him all things consist.”

Right relationship with Others. In Dr. Moeschberger’s plenaries, I learnt what it truly

meant to love your neighbor as we are commanded in Galatians 5:14. We learnt a lot from Martin

Luther king Jr. on how he thought we should treat others even if they have mistreated us. Given

the idea that we should love our neighbors, I commit to approaching everyone with a mindset to

respect them and get to know them. I’ll work more on seeking genuine encounters with people

who are different to me, to get to know them for who they truly are.

The concept that stuck with me the most from Right relationship with God is the

importance of cultivating a personal relationship with God. I have come to understand that I have

to learn the Bible for myself. As Christians, we tend to focus more on going to church or

following certain preachers, which is a good thing, but we don’t learn the Word for ourselves.

Especially in today’s world, there can be a lot of confusion when it comes to doctrines, so it is
important that we go back to the Word and learn for ourselves and building an authentic

relationship with God, will guide us in navigating the world we live in today. Given the idea that

we need to build a personal relationship with God, I commit to allocating a time to learn the

Bible and meditate on it.

Relationship with creation was an interesting plenary. This was the relationship I least

think of, especially when it comes to aa Biblical perspective. We learn a lot about how we should

treat others, but we don’t hear much about how we should treat Gods creation. As stewards of the

earth, we are responsible for the wellbeing and preservation of this creation. Not in a

materialistic way but in a way that respects and protects God’s creation for the time he has

provided it for us. We are supposed to adopt habits that protect and preserve this beautiful planet

we call home. In recent history, we have been more interested in what may be out there and I

think this has led to humans having less appreciation for it, especially as generations grow older

and come to pass. Given the idea that we should protect and preserve God’s creation, I commit to

adopting habits that preserve and promote the ecosystem of this planet.

The last plenary we attended in my group’s rotation was Relationship with Self. This

plenary to me was, in a sense, the most convicting as it is hard to accept certain things that might

not be good about oneself. The most important thing I learnt in this plenary was the first reading

which talked about identity. “We don’t know who we are because we are neither reading nor

listening to what the original Author of Our identity-the creator of Humanity-is saying about

us.” This reading identified lies that we are told by the world like, “our life is good enough”,

while God wants us to live a life that is extremely amazing. Given the idea that our identity lies

with our Creator, I commit to going back to the Word, and searching for the lord’s calling for my

life to live out the most of God plans for me.