President Todd J. Williams’ Blog

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.