Caleb Pickering received the Mary Morris Award of Exemplary Service to Society in a ceremony at Thursday morning breakout chapel in Collins Alumni Auditorium.
Pickering thanked his family, his church and his mentor, Richard Goode who won the award last year, and he urged students to use their time at school wisely.
“At the simplest level, service to God and to man is the sacrifice of your time so that you can give that time to others,” Pickering said.
This award is given every year to a member of the “Lipscomb family” who demonstrates a high level of service to the community and to the church.
“The criteria for the award is they exhibit a spirit of volunteerism, they engage in meaningful activities in the community to help spread God’s light. They demonstrate a commitment to Christian missions wherever they may be and that they are an advocate for Lipscomb University,” Phillip Camp said before he handed the award to Pickering.
Pickering helps Green Street Church of Christ’s ministry to the homeless. The Nashville church’s congregation recently decided to allow homeless people to sleep on its property and sometimes even let them into the sanctuary to sleep.
“Even at times when the local government and others are opposing them, they have decided to stand and fight for this,” Camp said. “They try to meet the needs of their homeless guests while also maintaining their dignity and offering them real friendship and real relationships.”
Beginning in 2000, the church started partnering with a group of Lipscomb students called “Fools for Christ.”
According to the Green Street website, “Every Wednesday hundreds of college students and homeless would gather for a meal, worship, and fellowship.”
By 2001, Pickering was leading this group. “Our ministry at Green Street now is not a whole lot different than what it was when I was in the ‘Fools,’” he said.
“We believe in engaging the community around our church on a level playing field. We accept all who come to us as they are…”
To this day, that Wednesday night meal is served regardless of weather or holidays.
Pickering highlighted the sacrifice made by himself and those around him.
“A life of service is a life of sacrifice, and when one member of the family must make a sacrifice the other members must do the same,” Pickering said.
The Mary Morris Award has been given each year since 2006. Morris was a faculty member in the Department of Education and started and directed the Center for Character Development. Diagnosed with colon cancer in the fall of 2004, Morris died in 2005. She was 36.
Pickering, the ninth Morris honoree, says he is blessed to be a part of a church that shares his same mission and passion.
“I have found that the homeless are not the homeless. They are a group of individual persons, each (with) a unique story that needs to be heard,” Pickering said. “Only by engaging their story can we begin to find any kind of solution to their problem or the problem as a whole.”