Brett Flener, a Law, Justice and Society major who is the co-founder of Open Table Nashville, was announced as the 2012 recipient of the Mary Morris Award for Exemplary Service to Society, an annual award given to a member of the Lipscomb family.
The family of Dr. Mary Morris, faculty member in the Department of Education and founder and director of the Center for Character Development at Lipscomb, established award in her memory.
Open Table Nashville, which Flener helped establish as a 501(c)3 non-profit in 2011, is an interfaith community that disrupts cycles of poverty, journeys with the marginalized and provides education about issues of homelessness.
Earlier this year, Lumination talked with Flener about Open Table.
”We’re not really here to ‘fix’ people,” he said. “We don’t see these people as problems. We see them as brothers and sisters to be journeyed with.”
“What we are looking to do, especially through our community houses, is to plug in and say ‘We want to be that family now. We want to be that support system now. We want to grow with you. We want to walk with you even through the hard times.”
The Mary Morris Award for Exemplary Service to Society is conferred on a member of the Lipscomb “family” who has demonstrated a high level of service to the community and the church. Nominees may include faculty, staff, alumni, current students and others who are advocates for Lipscomb University. The selected recipient should exhibit a spirit of volunteerism, engage in meaningful civic activities in the community that help spread God’s light, demonstrate a commitment to Christian missions wherever they may be, be an advocate for Lipscomb University and exhibit vision in creating new avenues to expand Christian principles in unconventional ways.
The announcement was made in chapel on Thursday.