BLUFFTON, OH – Bluffton University welcomed alumnus Eric Frey Martin '08, director of constituent engagement for Mennonite Mission Network, as the featured speaker for the Nov. 5 Forum presentation, "Moving at the Speed of Love: Finding Purpose in Mission and Service." 

Frey Martin invited students to slow down and rediscover meaning through curiosity, patience and service. 

He opened with humor and reflection, sharing a personal story from his Bluffton student days that illustrated how haste can lead to unintended consequences. The anecdote set up his central theme that "speed equals violence"—a phrase he used to describe how rushing, even with good intentions, can create harm or disconnect. 

Tracing this idea through history, Frey Martin reflected on how the early Christian church’s rapid spread within the Roman Empire led to unintended distortions of its original message of gentleness and charity. "Sometimes, even if it’s not physical, speed equals violence," he said, noting that efforts to act "efficiently" have too often come at the expense of compassion and reflection. 

In contrast, Frey Martin invited the audience to consider the "speed of love," citing theologian Kosuke Koyama’s idea that "Love has a speed [...] It is the speed we walk, and therefore the speed the love of God walks." He encouraged listeners to slow down enough to notice, listen and act with intentionality, "moving at three miles per hour," the pace of presence and relationship. 

To live into this idea, Frey Martin offered three practices: curiosity, patience and service. 

Curiosity, he said, allows people to move from judgment to understanding. Quoting the line "be curious, not judgmental" from "Ted Lasso," he urged students to ask questions and seek perspective rather than assume. 

Patience, which he notes is "the first word that Paul uses to describe love," helps people resist the world’s constant pressure for power and speed. "The faster we travel, the less we will see," he shared, encouraging the audience to live at a pace where "the kingdom of God will only be sensed by those with eyes to see and ears to hear." 

Finally, service, he said, decentered the self and opened people to connection. Referencing Philippians 2, Frey Martin emphasized that servanthood is not about obligation but liberation, but "a way out of our self-centered lives and into the abundant and freeing call of seeing all of creation as interconnected." 

Frey Martin concluded by reminding students that moving more slowly, with love and attentiveness, aligns them with God’s pace and purpose, "Curiosity, patience and service help us find meaning in a world that often feels too fast."