“You have to understand what you look like to us,” President R. Albert Mohler, Jr. said to the 2024 Graduating Class of Boyce College. You look like the answer to prayer, and you look like the promise to the church. You look like God’s promise that he is not finished with his church and is going to supply his church with a generation of faithful believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, fulfilling all that Christ has commanded.”
On Thursday, May 9 the Graduating Class of Boyce College assembled on the Seminary Lawn to celebrate the 26th commencement of Boyce College, marking a significant milestone for the graduating class as they embark on a new chapter in their lives, equipped with knowledge, skills, and experiences gained throughout their time at Boyce College. Faculty, family, and friends witnessed as 185 students graduated with 159 walking and 26 receiving their degrees in absentia on a beautiful May morning.
Drawing on 1 Corinthians 15:50-58 President Mohler charged the students, “Know your convictions. Know who you are. Know your passion for the Lord Jesus Christ and in that passion and in those commitments, be steadfast, immovable.” Mohler promised the graduates, “Your labor is not in vain, not because of who you are, not because of what Boyce College is, not because of the family that has brought you here… Your labor is not in vain because Jesus Christ is Lord and because Jesus Christ is raised from the dead.”
“My exhortation to you,” concluded Mohler, “is to remember that as we are always abounding in the work of the Lord, the work is never in labor in vain because Jesus Christ is Lord, the grave is empty, and we are here in His name.”
Boyce College Dean, Dustin Bruce encouraged the students from 2 Thessalonians 1:3-4 that just as the Apostle Paul witnessed the growth of the church in Thessalonica, so too have the Boyce College faculty witnessed the growth of this class. “Nothing excites us more than seeing a student who came in four years ago with raw talent and a vague sense of what God may be calling them to, mature into a godly young man or woman with robust expertise and a clear calling on their life,” said Dean Bruce. He continued, “I’ve read your papers, I’ve heard you worship, I’ve seen you serve, and despite all of that cultural pressure, I can say you’re steadfast in your faith, and that’s so encouraging to us.”
Speaking to what comes next for the graduates Mohler said, “We’re going to be looking forward to hearing how some of you preach the gospel. We’re going to look forward to hearing how some of you take the gospel to the ends of the earth. We’re going to learn how some of you show the glory of God teaching in an elementary school classroom. How some of you show the glory of God in your investment in business, how some of you show the glory of God and your involvement in other cultural activities and everything from politics to the nonprofit sector. You go down the list.”
The faculty has prepared graduates with both the requisite knowledge and as whole-hearted disciples of Christ, ready for the future God has in store for them. Many in this graduating class have already secured career placement in fields ranging from church ministry to accounting, with job titles ranging from pastor to business analyst. Others have been admitted into postgraduate programs to pursue advanced degrees.
The commencement ceremony concluded as the graduates stood together to recite the graduate pledge which begins, “As graduates of Boyce College, we hereby declare to the watching world that we are followers of the Lord Jesus Christ who are called to ministry and service by the power of the Holy Spirit.” This pledge makes the Commencement Ceremony at Boyce College so praiseworthy – each of the graduates of the Boyce College Class of 2024 is committed to the Lord Jesus Christ and stands ready to “commit the length of our days to the service of our Savior.”
Honoring Excellent Pedagogy
Kha Do, Assistant Professor of Music and Worship, received the Charles W. Draper Faculty Award. The annual award is named in honor of longtime Boyce professor Charles W. Draper, who died in 2017 after many years of faithful service on the Boyce faculty. Do has served on Boyce College’s faculty since 2019.
