Dotted across Corban’s campus, groups of student leaders gathered, decked out in navy in gold, collecting pom poms and hand-made signs, ready to welcome Corban’s class of 2027 to their new academic home.

Every year, Warrior Welcome brings Corban’s community together. It’s more than just the move-in boxes and dorm room decorations, photos with Cadmar and games on the field. It’s a time when new students are folded into Corban’s Christ-centered community.

Throughout the weekend, new students and their families had the opportunity to join together with Corban’s leadership, faculty, and staff to share in a litany of events like kick-off, worship at sunset, serve day, the always popular pancake feed, and the pageantry of Convocation.

“It’s such a great experience to worship our Lord together and just be one body,” said senior, Katie Jorgens. “For the first time, both the incoming freshmen and returning students felt like one big group. I know I felt that when I was a freshman. Standing and worshipping together as one body, you begin to feel like the Corban community.”

For Corban’s many new students, the weekend introduced them to the difference of Corban’s approach to community and education, a difference intended to be cultivated during their time here and then carried into the future careers and ministries for which God is preparing them. “Corban just felt like the school that God was leading me toward,” said new freshman, Brody Martin. “It’s giving me an opportunity to grow in Christian community, to learn more about the character of Christ, and keep pursuing ministry even after I’ve graduated.”

Warrior Welcome was punctuated by Convocation. As students gathered in the Psalm Center, new faces and the familiar, Corban leadership and faculty filed onto the stage, dressed in full academic regalia. Another new face, Corban’s president, Dr. John Mark Yeats, took the stage to deliver a message based on the theme passage for the year, Ephesians 1:7-8.

“We are so excited about all that God is going to do in your life,” he said. “As we walk through our theme this year, ‘The Riches of God’s Grace,’ I hope that it is something you can remember on a regular basis. ‘In Christ we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that He lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding.’ I love this word ‘lavished.’ We don’t use that word a lot. But it means it just keeps coming whether we ask for it or not. That’s the amount of grace that God continues to give us, and that is what I pray that you experience this semester and during this season of your life.”

Following Dr. Yeats’ address, Corban’s entire community shared in the Convocation traditions of worship, prayer for the new year, class pledges, and the communal singing of the doxology.

As students left the chapel, they didn’t leave divided—the new and the returning—they left as Corban students, unified and committed to the new school year. Outside, a tunnel of professors stretched from the doors of the Psalm Center to the foot of the clocktower, waiting to welcome them with cheers and applause into an exciting new future of discovering God’s calling on their lives.