Campus Blogs

When I became a Christian at the age of 16, I memorized Romans 8:28. I learned it in the King James Version, but the NIV makes it easier to read. “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who are the called according to His purpose.”

In 2004 I began my work at Fresno Pacific University. One of my sons was a student here and as a father, I thought it would be great to work where my son was going to college. Being a Christian university made it even more appealing. Consequently, my two other sons were destined to attend and graduate from FPU as well.

The Facilities Office was much simpler back then but had many challenges. God allowed me to advance in the department from technician to director. Each level of growth continued to stretch me and my experience in both my Christian walk and my intellectual understanding of the department and its complexities. There were many times I would question if I had made the right decision in advancing in the department. When this would come up, the scripture in Romans would remind me of God’s promise to me: “All things would work out for my good.” This promise would give me peace in every situation I would face. Often after a season of prayer, he would provide his perspective to my situation.

When COVID 19 hit the university and everyone else, it was a very difficult time for all of us in facilities, but our work embraced the principles of GEIST—GROW Strategically, ENGAGE Collectively, INNOVATE Creatively, SERVE Courageously, TRANSFORM Purposely—especially two of the principles.  

As the director, I struggled through the process like everyone else. Trying to keep some sense of normality was a challenge. Engaging Collectively, we decided to make changes slowly and not simply jump from one thing to another. The crew in facilities was great about keeping level heads and working as a team through the process. With the campus being shut down, we began to consider what we could do during this time.

For many years I was in production management. In that fast-paced world, we often had to remind ourselves that circumstances are always filled with challenges and opportunities. You would have to look for the opportunities in every challenge that you face. The opportunities were always there if you were willing to look for them. In Matthew 7:7 it tells us: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” 

With COVID 19, the obvious opportunity was that with the campus closed, we had a “perpetual summer.” This meant that we could Transform Purposely by working on things that we normally would only have a few months to complete. This included dorms repairs, office repairs, outside landscape repairs and many other things too numerous to mention.

We would continue to struggle with staff absences due to COVID 19 but would continue to work with those we had available. It was during this time that we were able to give the university a considerable face lift, with many outside structures and upgrades. Our staff was tireless in getting these things accomplished with the perpetual changes that COVID 19 imposed on the FPU community and everyone else. Many of us felt like first responders when it came to taking care of the COVID 19-related issues, trying to stay safe and keep everyone else safe in the process.

Now we are facing other challenges with our economy, supply chain issues and high inflation which call us to Innovate Creatively. As a department we are looking at everything we do to find more efficient ways of doing things as well as how we can do more with less. We prepare for the future by purchasing inventory items that may be hard to get.

We continue to hold onto the promise that, “All things work together for the good of them that love Him and are called according to His purpose.”

The Fresno Pacific University Board gathered this last Saturday to celebrate with Dr. Joe as he moves into retirement. André Stephens, Ph.D., will assume presidential leadership in only a few weeks. Transitions can be a time of anxiety and uncertainty. But they can also be full of hope and anticipation.

Presidential transition has been an important focus of the work of the board this spring, and we held a special meeting to consider the appointment of Dr. Joe’s successor. On behalf of the board, thank you to all who participated directly in the search process and to the entire university community for your prayers. Please continue to pray for Dr. Joe as he departs and for Dr. Stephens as he joins us on our path.

The board rejoiced, with thanks to the Advancement team and to all who carried the project forward, as we cut the ribbon on the new Warkentine Culture and Arts Center. The project is fully paid for, and we are ready to place the facility into service. We also rejoiced that despite challenges in student recruiting and enrollment that have been driven by the pandemic, God has provided the resources to see us through these last few years. Yet, we recognize significant budget challenges await us in the next years. Please pray with us for God’s continued providence and guidance as we navigate this together.

It seems fitting that during the social distancing of the pandemic we built a space intended bring people together. And it is in engaging the communities, engaging one another, that we carry out our mission. We are reminded that God keeps the church in the world to carry out his work. Let us keep his purposes firmly in mind and guiding us as we build the future of all who work and study in our spaces.

I had the opportunity this spring to teach the senior capstone class in the History major. A capstone course is one in which we bring everything together, require the kind of work that shows the students ability to work as a historian in this case, with a professional quality. We also engage with serious philosophical topics. What do we know, or can we know in our profession? And what are the limits of that knowledge? How do we make convincing arguments and write or produce persuasive historical narrative? What is the relationship between faith and history, and what is the role of faith for the historian?

One of our foci was on how, when, and why, the Christian interpretation of a “providential” history had been replaced in the secular, Western historical tradition by the understanding of human progress in history. And given the experience of the 20^th century, we asked, was this faith in progress warranted? These are just a smattering of the questions and topics we engaged about the writing of history in world cultures.

The seven students in the class (yes it was a small one, even smaller than we like, but this is balanced by some other classes of 30, 40, and an occasional 50) showed their professional ability in two ways.

First in the class they had two write an historiographical essay. This is a history of the history of a topic. The classic one I introduced in discussions was the historiography of the French Revolution. How have historians treated the Revolution? There is a classic interpretation—it happens to be Jacobin and Marxist. And there is a revisionist version, or a liberal revision, if you like, reaching back at least to de ’Tocqueville, and represented today by Francois Furet (also a historian of the collapse of Soviet communism).

Students chose their own topics and researched in professional resources (academic journals, specialist encyclopedias, monographs (books by professional historians) to produce an assessment of the topic. They produced professional level analyses of, for example, the historiography of the Holocaust, Seventh Day Adventism, the Mongol invasions and empire, genocide, and the history of women in the US. Each was a detailed analysis of how the topic has been treated, the evidence used, and how it was interpreted. These essays were some of the more astute I have seen in my years teaching (which by now are many…).

It happened that at the same time, these students were writing and presenting their senior theses. These are the result of a year-long, two course process of selecting, researching, and writing carefully crafted papers and presentations (30-80 pages) on topics of interest and importance. In each case the students who completed and presented their theses produced professional level work. They examined the most important and reliable scholarship (secondary sources). They debated the differences of interpretation. They engaged with and weighed the meaning of relevant historical data (primary sources). They avoided the simplifications of textbooks (tertiary sources). They rose above summaries to produce historical interpretations that can be relied on and brought insight and depth of understanding to their work.

All of us who are professors in the history program guide these senior theses. The students choose their topic and work with the professor who works in the area of their choice. If you are going to write a professional level paper on a topic, you should work with a professional in that field.

Over the last thirty years, one of the major movements of university education has been the professionalization of majors. Having a university degree has come to mean being ready to work professionally in a particular field of study or in a profession itself. We have adapted our emphasis on the liberal arts, which looks to broad ranging considerations, to develop this professionalism at the same time. It is difficult, but it can be done, and the result is a thoughtful, aware, professional graduate. I was proud of our students at the end of the semester. They had, of course, worked hard to finish by the end of the semester, but most importantly they had shown themselves to be worthy of their degrees, and to be ready for the professional world that awaits them. It was a pleasure to cheer them on at commencement as they walked proudly across the stage.

What do a 2,000-year-old text and California’s Central Valley have in common? This question could sound like the set-up for a really awful joke, but it’s a query that I regularly ask my students to take seriously as we study the Bible together. Given that the Bible was written long before smartphones, electric cars and social media, just what relevance does this text have for today? The answer: quite a lot, actually!

Just this past semester, for example, I had the joy of journeying with students as they explored the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew. On the one hand, there are parts of this text that have such value that they have endured for centuries, both in Christianity and beyond. For example, Jesus’s articulation of the “Golden Rule” in Matthew 7:12 encourages his audience to do to others as you would have them do to you. The relevance there is clear. On the other hand, though, some parts of this text could seem incredibly out of touch. After all, I haven’t seen many one-eyed or one-handed Christians walking around, despite Jesus’s clear warning about removing such body parts if they might lead to sin (Matthew 5:29-30). So, where can the stalwart student discover the significance of this text for today?

I challenge students to face this question directly as they consider how this ancient text might address the needs and the questions of 21^st-century audiences right here in the Central Valley. So, for the major written assignment for the course, students choose a social issue facing our region and learn more about it. To do this, they venture off campus to meet with regional leaders who can shed light on the realities of life in the Central Valley. Some students interview leaders at the Poverello House to learn more about homelessness. Others check out the Marjaree Mason Center to find out about the impacts of domestic violence. Still others head out to the United Farmer Workers (UFW) office to learn about how immigration policies affect the agricultural workers who keep the Valley’s agricultural production running.

No matter where students choose to conduct these site visits, they inevitably return to class with a renewed sense of the social issues facing their region. At this point, we consider together how Jesus’s instructions about social issues in his context and culture might translate into ethical imperatives for the settings that they visited. As they consider what Jesus instructs in the Sermon on the Mount, I ask them to imagine how those instructions might be translated into a sermon inspiring to the parts of the community that they engaged. Often, students will craft moving sermons that make it clear that they understand how Jesus’ words roughly 2,000 years ago continue to echo into the modern-day world of Fresno.

Whether they realize it or not, students who complete this assignment are contributing to the realization of FPU’s strategic goals, or GEIST. This plan calls for FPU to “Innovate Creatively” and “Serve Courageously.” As students wrestle with the ways in which a text that is over 2,000 years old can be relevant to the Central Valley today, they develop biblically based and innovative solutions intended to serve some of the most vulnerable populations in our region.

While I always hope that class assignments will challenge students to innovate and serve more eagerly, this particular assignment has had a special impact. A few years ago after one student conducted her site visit at the UFW office, she returned to class energized by the experience. She told our class, “I thought I might want to be an immigration attorney before this visit, but since doing this assignment, I now know for sure that this is what God wants me to do with my life.” That student went on to become a regular volunteer with the UFW as a result of this encounter orchestrated by a classroom assignment.

For that student, the ancient words of the Bible came to life as she read them alongside the “text” of communities in the Central Valley. Both the ancient words of Scripture and the revelation of God’s Spirit at work in our region worked together in accomplishing another aspect of GEIST: purposeful transformation. I pray that FPU students will continue to encounter God both within the “texts” of both Scripture and experience as they pursue their educational and vocational goals.

The last time I was in the classroom at FPU was the spring of 1999. Earlier this month, I completed my master’s degree here. I’m almost a little upset because I realize I could have gone through this program many years ago. Yet, I look forward to the work ahead with newfound knowledge and excitement.

I knew I would learn and grow, but I did not anticipate this much growth and purposeful transformation. After having been removed from the student perspective for so many years, I appreciate their journey and plan to keep it in mind as I serve the students and employees at FPU. Of course, the M.A. Strategic and Organizational Leadership program taught me a lot about leadership. Still, more importantly, it equipped me to engage individuals and organizations in their efforts to be transformed.

In IT, one of the questions we often pose to software and hardware vendors is whether they use their own products. This is a valuable indicator of their belief in the product and provides them unique insight into its strengths and weaknesses. I got to experience FPU’s product during the last two years. I was on the receiving end of the emails, and I accessed the student systems. All of this affected the viewpoint of my work. The more barriers we remove and the more streamlined an experience students have, the more time and energy they can pour into their studies.

Five years ago, just as Dr. Joe was starting his term, I wrote a Connections article about the excitement I felt when I began my time at FPU as a student, likening it to the enthusiasm for Dr. Joe’s arrival. Of course there were trepidations, but also some assurances that God would lead me/us through the journey. If I was going to be successful, I needed to engage with my community actively. So here I am again, reflecting on the recent lessons and looking forward to the next chapter. Reflection is an integral part of growth.

A large part of the master’s program involved self-reflection assignments. Each week we responded to a series of topical questions. While the point values were minimal, their significance became much more meaningful. The prompts guided my journey of growth and transformation. I realized I was experiencing leadership development during the program, and I acknowledged it was proportional to my efforts. The more I poured into my studies, the more meaningful the content became. I appreciate the many perspectives we were exposed to in the curriculum.

I love FPU. This place changed the course of my life. FPU is where I met my wife, where she got her bachelor’s, teaching credential and master’s, where I started my career, and where our spiritually adopted daughter got her bachelor’s, teaching credential and master’s degree. This institution transformed and continues to transform my life, fulfilling in part the intent of GEIST. I encourage you to reflect on your time here at FPU and acknowledge the growth and purposeful transformation you’ve experienced.

On the Friday before commencement, like the rest of faculty and staff (and probably students for that matter), I sat at home gearing myself up for yet another on-campus, end-of-the-year event. This one was the Multicultural Celebration at Butler Church. My wife, Karen, and I grabbed a quick bite to eat, locked up the house and began walking to my last scheduled function before Saturday’s graduation ceremony at Selland Arena. You may already be able to deduce that my heart may not have been in the right place that night. My introverted fatigue (yes, I am an introvert—most people would never guess that) was shouting at me to take a rain check and just pass on this one. I chose to push through, and boy am I glad that I did.

When I arrived, I was greeted by a room full of visibly excited and ostensibly elated students and their families. I was drawn in immediately. Bre Wyse showed me to my seat up in the front of the room and sat me next to our amazing student body president that I’ve had such a wonderful time getting to know and work closely with over the course of the past four years. Veronica Mendez Garcia welcomed me with a smile and a friendly hello (since she’s a public figure around these parts, I feel comfortable mentioning her by name). I felt honored to be sharing a row with her. She is the epitome of a “transformed” FPU student. The Veronica of four years ago showed but faint glimmers of this poised, confident, professional, ready-to-address-an-audience woman that I witnessed that night. My heart swelled as I considered the number of folks on this campus that invested mightily into Veronica to help tease out all the God-given potential that was simmering just below the surface. She connected wonderfully to the room and truly motivated through her brief soliloquy.

As the ceremony went on, a young man spoke about how he had overcome numerous obstacles during his journey and that, as a first-generation student, he managed to pull though to be the first person in his family to hold a bachelor’s degree. I was fairly certain I heard what amounted to be the FPU equivalent of a “yo, Adrian, we did it”-like proclamation from the student to his peers in the room. At this point, if there was a dry eye in the house, I wouldn’t have been able to ascertain it through my, what must have been, dust-induced moist eyes. Go figure it would get so dusty in the worship center at just this time.

As the program drew towards the end, a young woman who four years ago happened to be in a CP152 First-Year Seminar course with one of the best instructors the FPU Collegium has ever witnessed (I’ll give you one guess who—OK, it was me), recited a beautiful prayer in Spanish over the audience. Her composure, grace and eloquence were acknowledged by all. How had this student matured so much in four years? She truly is such a tremendous example of the type of scholar/citizen that blesses us for four years and then goes out to make a profound impact on the world.

The night couldn’t have been more perfect for me. Celebrating these monumental achievements with these magnificent students reinvigorated my heart and made me so incredibly excited to be attending commencement the next day. I was mindful of the notion that those of us who get the privilege to engage with these students are richly blessed by this experience. We meet them well into their developmental journey and God graciously permits us the privilege of walking with them for a brief season of life.

We—the instructors, coaches, mentors, advisors, supervisors and friends—not only teach but also get to learn with our students AND through them. Purposeful transformation, I’ve discovered, takes place in all of us through this profound educational ecosystem called FPU. I remain humbled and honored that God has chosen me to be a participant. The Multicultural Celebration was a welcome and beautiful reminder of just how fortunate we are to do this work.

Engage and transform. These keywords are two of the essential pillars of Fresno Pacific University’s GEIST paradigm. We seek to engage collectively and transform purposefully. In my role as director of government relations and external affairs these two ideas frame my everyday work. Let me give you a couple of examples.

In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the regulatory and relief landscape was changing by the day, if not the hour. I am sure you remember that period too. New advice, new rules and a series of legislative proposals at the state and federal levels to address the economic and health impacts of the virus. FPU very ably activated the Emergency Management Team to work with leadership on the campus response. The EMT, led by members of several of our departments, created and implemented policies and procedures to help our community stay safe—and importantly stay compliant—in the face of ever-changing standards.

While all of that was happening, there was also a series of conversations taking place with lawmakers in both Sacramento and Washington, D.C., to ensure that FPU and institutions like ours were properly considered in rule-making processes and additionally, that our financial needs were adequately addressed in the various COVID relief bills. Engaging with our association partners and sister Christian colleges and universities in California, we were able to transform the initial CARES Act from its original text, which did not include independent non-profit colleges and universities, into a bill that not only included our schools, but that used a funding formula that recognized the unique contribution our sector makes to higher education nationwide. As you’re now aware, those funds have proved to be vital to us here at FPU. I want to be clear; this was not the result of any one individual’s advocacy work—certainly not mine alone—but was the byproduct of collective engagement and collaboration on behalf of our institutions and students from a wide range of colleagues in similar roles at hundreds of private non-profit schools.

More recently, California’s lawmakers in 2021 passed the first increase to the Cal Grant award for students at independent non-profit universities in over two decades and are considering major Cal Grant reforms during this 2022 legislative session that would create a new, much more stable framework for our students and schools. The Cal Grant award is such a foundational financial piece for so many FPU students and their families that this remains our key advocacy priority.

On both last year’s increase and this year’s reform efforts we have been engaging our incredible students to tell their stories of transformation to legislators. These powerful testimonies of personal and educational life-change, made financially possible by the Cal Grant, are the most effective way to communicate to those in Sacramento why it’s essential our Valley students get the support they need to come to FPU. So, through a series of meetings with state legislators, FPU undergrads have been able to do just that. As a result, we are confident the necessary changes to the Cal Grant system will be made.  

These are two examples of our growing legislative advocacy portfolio. We’re currently working on issues that impact student-athletics, student life, financial aid, admissions, advancement and facilities. As our needs grow and evolve it’s highly likely that in the months and years to come, I will be reaching out to your department, your team or perhaps even you personally to engage your expertise and experience in this effort to engage collectively and transform purposefully.  

In another month Yvette and I would have served here at Fresno Pacific for five years. As we had sensed the call to come, we now believe it is the time to leave. All that we discern God wanted to do through us is completed. Our goal was to set a foundation for the next leader God sends to FPU. We had sufficient time to ask God questions, but the most valued time we spent in Fresno was listening to the questions God asked us.

Our natural tendency in education is to analyze, ask and investigate. This is part of the learning process. Sometimes we become so filled with knowledge that we are deaf to the one voice that is important. All we see, hear and think chokes the Word God spoke. Several years ago, I shared a quote with this community: “God speaks to those who take time to listen.” I first heard it during an all-night prayer meeting, months before going to college. I am frequently reminded of this saying. It comes to me in business, in relationships, in new partnerships and in listening to controversial voices that fight each other daily.

A few weeks ago, I read and heard a question Jesus asked of Peter. A question that comes to most of us but is often ignored because our eyes see more than our ears hear, and our thoughts reason more than our hearts believe. So, the question comes and goes, and we ignore its source. Jesus asked Peter this question that comes to us: “You of little faith, why do you doubt?”

The question does not come to us for an answer. It comes to us as a discerner of the heart. All that we see around us, even our expectations of the future, points to a reason to fear, to doubt and to question the validity of the truth that has constructed the ages. Jesus stepped out on the water which created a fear in his disciples. His response: “take courage… do not be afraid.” When fear and doubt entrap our thoughts and sight, we doubt the promises of God. This question should always haunt us, because it is a question about our relationship to God: “why do you doubt?”

We commend Peter because out of all 12 disciples, he stepped into the supernatural with Jesus. This act likely didn’t enter the minds of the other 11. But he, as many of us do, became distracted by what we all would agree was the reality of the situation. So, the question was not about the reality of the situation, it was about the reality of his heart.

God’s questions are all about our hearts. He knows the answer, but we fail to discern the obvious. Our hearts do not honor him through our trust. Maybe if we would take more time to listen, our trust would grow and his word would become our courage to fight all fears. His word will raise the questions to our hearts, then give us the faith to believe. God will speak to those who take time to listen. It is his voice that grants us peace and joy to overcome the thoughts that bind us. Possible will only continue at FPU as long as we in community honor God with our trust.