President Todd J. Williams’ Blog

This morning,after I was beaten badly in tennis I looked around and realized that yesterday was the first day of fall, - a great distraction from defeat. My family loves the fall season. I think it is our favorite time of year. My wife and I were married in October twenty-two years ago. But that's not why it's our favorite season. We were married in the fall probably because even then it was our favorite season. We enjoy the outdoors and spent many hours riding horses, canoeing, and hiking when we were dating and first married at the camp where we met. Time outdoors has always been a big part of our life. And I suspect we enjoy both spring and fall because the changes around those seasons are the most dramatic and dynamic in nature. We enjoy the changing seasons in nature and talk often of enjoying the changing seasons of life. We enjoy our kids, who are teenagers now. We enjoyed them when they were toddlers and grade schoolers and tweenagers too. We often hear people say they enjoyed particular points of time in their lives and with their children better than others. But we have come to enjoy them at every age and life at every stage. Life is challenging enough with bucking the inevitable, that time marches on and seasons change. Maybe this is one reason why we are at peace and love our work at PBU so much. We cross paths with students in the changing seasons of their lives. They enter PBU having ended one season in life and begin another one, eventually graduating and leaving behind this season for yet another. And through it all we see the gracious, loving hand of God at work in their lives.

Posted by Todd J. Williams, Ph.D at 9:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last week, I spoke in Chapel for Constitution Day here at PBU. Each fall we set aside a chapel service on or about the 17th of September to commemorate the signing of the U.S. Constitution. Every year is a little different and this year I spoke on the Preamble. One particular phrase catches my eye each time I read it, "In order to form a more perfect union". It leaps out at me because it captures the intentionality of our founders and their purposeful approach to almost everything they undertook. (A lesson to be applied to today's culture.) But the phrase also catches their realistic view of the world. They intentionally did not say, "perfect union". They were wise enough to know perfection is unattainable, yet tenacious enough not to concede to mediocrity. They set forth a vision for the pursuit of excellence, the pursuit of perfection, and established a law of the land that would guide us to a "more perfect union". What is required though for this to succeed is an informed citizenry committed to protecting and preserving the ideals of liberty, justice, and unalienable rights by participating in the process of self governance. I stated in my talk last week that in the twentieth century we came to realize that human beings would exchange freedom for bread, or for security. It is my belief that in this new century we will be tempted to exchange freedom for freedom from the burden of democracy. We simply don't want to be bothered. Many recognize that apathy is rampant in American society. We can't accept this. Civic apathy, intellectual apathy, social apathy and even spiritual apathy are born of the same seed. As biblically-minded Christians, we must be "un-apathetic" citizens of our nations, this world, and heaven. The grace we have been shown, the love of God we have experienced, and the transforming power of the gospel in our lives should motivate us to care sincerely and act with responsibility. At PBU we talk a great deal about engagement. It is my prayer that everyone who is part of this community will take that talk seriously and live it out to the glory of God.

Posted by Todd J. Williams, Ph.D at 11:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's official. The summer is over and the students are here. The new year begins. We have had a great start and there is good energy on campus. I have already enjoyed some great conversations with students and am excited about what the year will hold for us at PBU. One encouraging conversation was with a student chaplain who was asking me my thoughts on spiritual life at PBU and how the student chaplains might encourage their fellow students this year. The conversation ranged over a number of topics but I did have the chance to share my conviction that what sets PBU apart is that we take a truly integrated approach and that the faculty and staff here really do make an investment in the students. I asked him to consider helping students see their academics as critical to their spiritual growth. At PBU, we believe that you will not grow spiritually in spite of your academic pursuits and work but because of them. We believe the Lord uses a student's studies to challenge their thinking, strengthen their understanding, firm up their faith, and conform them to the image of Christ. If academics do not play a role in spiritual formation then Christian higher education is a waste of time and money. It is because we take a biblical worldview perspective into every discipline and reject the secular distinction between head and heart and educate the whole person that we see lives changed through a student's time with us. It is because Christ is the center of the curriculum, and co-curriculars, and campus life, as well as spiritual life that we see God at work in our midst here. Students all across the country are entering into a college or university experience that will shape the way they think, and live, and serve. That experience is different here. I am very glad for that.

Posted by Todd J. Williams, Ph.D at 10:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)