SPU’s Vision for Engaging the Culture, Changing the World

Sixteen years ago, when I came to SPU, there was an exciting venture of getting to know the people of Seattle Pacific, what they cared about, what was being done here, and the rich history of the place. At the same time, I was continuing to grow into who I was going to be as a leader. As those things came together, I found what I believed to be a marvelous alignment.

SPU had a historical commitment to make a difference in the world. We didn’t use the language of engaging the culture and changing the world then, but the theological underpinnings and institutional commitments were there: As an institution, we pursued excellence in education so that we could make a difference in the world. And that resonated with everything I believed in and cared about.

My first priority was and is to articulate a sense of vision for SPU. What is the meaning of this place? What is its purpose? That has meant looking at our history, at our culture as a university, and at what is going on around us — and in the midst of that, clarifying who we are and how we can be responsive to the needs of the world. Out of our conversations has emerged the vision for engaging the culture, changing the world.

Together, we also identified the signature commitments that we make as an institution: knowing and understanding what’s going on in the world, becoming biblically and theologically educated, mastering the tools of rigorous learning, practicing radical reconciliation, and graduating people of competence and character.

At SPU, we understand cultural engagement in the broadest sense rather than only as service projects. Of course, “service” means contribution to the community and the world, and in that way, all of our engagement is service. We serve the world every day.

But when I write and speak about the topic of engagement, I say that we are engaging some of the profound presuppositions of our culture — which tell us that the pursuit of truth is no longer possible. That’s the underpinning for engaging the culture and changing the world at SPU.

Some of SPU’s greatest scholarly work comes when our people challenge cultural presuppositions from a Christian perspective. Whether it’s through scholarship, or social ventures in the city and around the world, we believe educated Christians are called by the gospel to change the world, to make a difference for good.

I believe that the Christian university has a very special opportunity because we may be best equipped with the tools to bring about human flourishing. Across the disciplines, we are trained to engage the culture at the roots. We understand culture. Our training is in engagement.

The early purpose of the university was to meet the needs of society, to make the world a better place. Today universities are so often ivory towers separated from the needs of society, and how that happened is baffling to me.

There’s clearly a tension in the university between withdrawing and addressing the needs of the world. Christian universities will sometimes isolate themselves from the world for spiritual reasons, and secular universities will do so for intellectual reasons.

Neither kind of separatism will work for us at SPU.

— PHILIP W. EATON, PRESIDENT

2014: Blueprint for Excellence (2004)