It was Eldon's longtime accountability partner, Grantham Church senior pastor Terry Brensinger, who convinced him that a return to Messiah would be the right step forward both for him and for Messiah. "The College is at a different place than when Eldon left," Brensinger explains. "The needs of the College fit Eldon's gifts and personality well. He brings a wealth of experience, a depth of wisdom and compassion, that will be of great value here." In April 2005, Messiah College's search committee — comprised of students, faculty, and administrators — invited Eldon Fry to serve as college pastor.

Eldon will not necessarily be picking up exactly where he left off. He understands that the needs of students are continually changing. "Students are coming from a lot more brokenness than twenty years ago," Eldon explains. "There's a greater need for good mentoring and modeling, in an open and vulnerable sense. Also, students are coming to college with a wider variety of backgrounds and experiences. They're not as homogeneous. They have a broader understanding of orthodoxy. Students are less likely to identify themselves with one church, but with five or six churches or none at all. They don't affiliate themselves as much with a denomination. They may have less knowledge of the Bible. All of this creates the need for a different approach."

In the past eight years, Messiah College has grown larger, and its student population more diverse. Eldon himself has grown and changed, but in many ways — for those who know him best — he remains the same, always coming back to the fundamental truths of God's love. "My dream for Messiah students is that they understand that they are Christ in their world. I want the students to see the potential their lives have to make a difference."


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