Weniger awards honor former La Sierra president, pastor, film professor

Additionally, La Sierra student and student association president Nyla Provost was selected as the La Sierra University recipient of the $1,500 Weniger Fellows Scholarship. Each year the society presents one scholarship to undergraduates at each of the North American Division’s 12 higher education institutions.

The prestigious Weniger awards date to 1974 and are often colloquially referred to as the Adventist Oscars. The event recognizes individuals from the ranks of Adventist education, church leadership, missions and humanitarian outreach, healthcare, the arts and other areas and who embody the thoughtful, kind, and exceptional ethos of Charles Weniger, a beloved English professor and seminary dean during the 1950s. To date, 206 individuals have received Weniger awards.

Richard Osborn, president of the Weniger executive committee in opening remarks noted that the event’s biggest audience is online with 2,000 logging in to last year’s awards. Committee member Donna Carlson, in recognition of the event’s 50^th year provided an overview of Weniger’s life and impact through reports of people who knew him and observed his pursuit of excellence, his intellectual rigor, kindness, integrity and Christian spirituality, and through the insights of his former students – Clinton Emmerson, Jon Osborn and former Congressman Jerry Pettis.

Upon receiving their medallions from members of the Weniger executive committee, awardees on Feb. 15 gave brief acceptance talks and opened windows into their career experiences and perspectives. Oberg also gave the evening’s Emmerson Address.Wisbey, who holds a doctorate in ministry and served as president of three Adventist institutions between 1998 and 2019, reflected on the role of Adventist higher education within the denomination and the world.

"One of the most important ways in which we can faithfully serve the best interest in our church involves the integration of Adventist thinking into a vast array of intellectual disciplines." -- Dr. Randal Wisbey

“I've consistently been reminded that one of the most important ways in which we can faithfully serve the best interest in our church involves the integration of Adventist thinking into a vast array of intellectual disciplines,” Wisbey said. “How will our faith inform our understanding of the natural, social and health sciences and what about the humanities, the performing and visual arts? How will our understanding of current ethical issues be guided in a uniquely Seventh-day Adventist perspective if we do not rely upon the professors, scientists and theologians who serve our universities and colleges with distinction and deep commitment?

“I strongly believe that Adventist higher education provides a supportive environment as well as conceptual assistance, not only to students, but also to the wider church addressing these significant issues effectively and with integrity.”

Harty’s background prior to leading the Loma Linda media team is a mosaic of media and ministry experiences, including serving as field producer for Adventist Development and Relief Agency and the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, as chief executive officer for Faith for Today, and in Hollywood as tech support for major film studios and television networks. He noted the importance of collaboration in achieving success.

“If I didn't have the incredible pastoral colleagues that share such incredible insights, if there wasn't the incredible content, and then it goes without saying the incredible music department here, if that didn't exist, if that content wasn't there, I'm not sure I'd be standing here,” he said. “But I feel any achievement is a collaboration. I think it's also a composite. I think of the composite of all the people that have invested in me and trusted in me.”

“One of the things I learned [is] the importance of ministry being connected to some kind of local community or church."  -- Stew Harty, La Sierra University Associate Professor, Film & Television Production; LLUC Media Director

Harty cited the impact of former Faith for Today executive director and Weniger executive committee member Dan Matthews, song writer Jeff Wood, and Mike Tucker, former director of Faith for Today television ministry who “went against all typical leadership strategies and decided to trust me,” Harty said. “I could just go on and on with the people that have invested in me and trusted me through success and failure, and last but not least, my current boss and dear friend Pastor Randy Roberts, whose collaborative leadership style is what makes it possible for a lot of the media content so many have expressed appreciation for.”

“One of the things I learned while working with a variety of different media ministries [is] the importance of ministry being connected to some kind of local community or local church. And that is one of the reasons I stay here. …I am better about enjoying the journey, but I still am inspired [by] the impossible possibility. I think that the opportunities for media to engage and connect with our communities around us has yet to be seen.”

Oberg, in delivering the evening’s keynote address titled “Simple, Not Easy” draw upon the biblical stories of Jairus’s ill, near-death 12-year-old daughter and the woman with the 12-year chronic issue of blood.

“How are these two connected each to the other? What's the relationship? One is near death and one is walking dead,” Oberg said. She weaves a narrative that takes the listener inside the mind and heart of the ill woman, of Jesus, and of Jairus and his entourage who are attempting to hasten Jesus to the bedside of Jairus’ sick daughter.

“Jesus puts the bleeding woman in the middle of the circle. Seats are at the table with all the privileges and relationships, grants her access to everything,” Oberg said. “It turns out solidarity solves her [deepest] problems.

“While Jesus is still talking to this daughter that no one wants, the messenger comes to announce the news. It's too late. The little girl has died. Go home, Jesus, the 12-year-old, just getting old enough to be good for something. She can marry, she can have children soon, and she is now dead. So a daughter no one wants lives, and a daughter of privilege dies, and Jesus defaults on this mission.

“The story is the characters. Here’s a community that created its own priorities. Who has capacity for people who need to tell us our whole truth?“I learned in 20 plus years of pastoral work that it's easier to talk about Jesus than talk about what Jesus talked about,” Oberg said. “It's easier to pray to Jesus, sing to Jesus, talk about Jesus, than to care for what Jesus cared for. In our tradition, we are strong on acts of charity, but we are shy on acts of justice. Acts of charity don't solve our systemic problems, however, they keep people vulnerable.

”To right social wrongs and to shape solutions for struggles, this is what Jesus asks us to care for." -- Chris Oberg, CEO, Path of Life Ministries

“It is social action that we need to solve social issues, and this is sacred work, and I'm so delighted to know [former La Sierra religion professor] Charles Teel taught me this is authentically Adventist work. We were abolitionists after all, circulating petitions to send to the government, aiding and abetting, withholding purchase of products created on slave farms, riding rail cars, protesting segregated seating. In the 19th century, we sought to reform inside toxic structures.”

“Care more, Jesus might be saying, pick your social concern. I have one. Someone here tonight has capacity to join a commission, state, city council, somewhere. Choose your topic and join a commission with the vulnerable in mind. Some of us have capacity to write letters from home. It's a good time to be writing encouraging letters to elected officials who are fighting for the vulnerable.

“Someone here has capacity to gather your network for one social issue and create a small collaborative, write checks, make phone calls, do your thing, get on it with the vulnerable in mind.”

Oberg cited the recent construction of 80 affordable housing units on “Adventist-owned land” in Riverside, which has a wait list of 4,000 families. The project moved quickly through city approval processes. “The good folk in La Sierra showed up, turned out, wrote letters and simply said, ‘yes in our neighborhood, and we will stay here and live here and work here and play here.’

“To right social wrongs and to shape solutions for struggles,” Oberg said, “this is what Jesus asks us to care for. He asks us to do what is simple, not easy."