“And he said, It is [too] a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, And to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, That thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.”-Isaiah 49:6
The Holy Bible: King James Version. Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version. Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 2009. Print.
[sic] “too” The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016. Print.
As we enter this season of gratitude and Thanksgiving, I wanted to share my most recent reason for giving thanks here at Warner Pacific University. On November 10, I was deeply grateful and appreciative to have had an invitation to speak at the Tigard Church of God, located in Tigard, Oregon during its Sunday morning service. And as I prepared for this sermon, I reflected on one of the most challenging tasks for Christians, as well as any person serving in civic or sacred capacities. This task is identifying one’s “north star” or fixed and immovable point from which one seeks the widest application of good for the community one is called to—both within and outside of the faith. Even more so is the privilege to do so in the rich and wonderful tapestry of socioeconomic and racial/ethnic diversity that WPU is uniquely blessed with. And since its founding in 1937, in Spokane, Washington, as Pacific Bible College, Warner Pacific University’s “light,” from which it came into being, takes its governance from and is sustained by is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. And I—along with so many others here in this community—am honored to be a part of this career and calling that fulfills this wonderful purpose.
Notwithstanding, it is often very difficult—as seen in our preoccupation with the recent elections—to keep our eyes fixed on this light in a fallen world in which Warner Pacific University certainly exists. Often, our ideologies, disappointments, opinions, passions, and desires do not align with our missional alignment with Jesus Christ and can unintentionally replace our grateful focus upon the light of Christ with “this” or “that.” This is why I titled my sermon at Tigard Church of God, “It is Too Light a Thing: (To Be This or That),” based on Isaiah 49:6. And in it, I reminded everyone (including myself) of Daniel 2:20-21 concerning God’s hand in the affairs of men: Daniel 2:20–21 (KJV 1900): “20 Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of God forever and ever: for wisdom and might are his. 21 And he changeth the times and the seasons: He removeth kings, and setteth up kings: He giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding:” For indeed, for me (and I fervently believe for many others) here at Warner Pacific University, it is too “light” a thing to hold any purpose higher than the purpose we serve in being the “light” of Jesus Christ.
In closing—and within this frame of mind knowing that “faith without works is dead” (James 2:26)—please join the Warner Pacific University Community and me in “being careful for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let[ting] [our] requests be made known unto God” (Philippians 4:6). We do so in what we have identified as the (2) most pressing areas for the long-term sustainability of Warner Pacific University ensuring WPU continues to be a “light” on the side of Mount Tabor in 2037 and beyond:
- Mission Alignment:
We thank God through the Lord Jesus Christ and ask that He continuously cultivates a strong and loving community of laborers within a Christ-centered, first-generation, socio-economically diverse, minority-serving, Hispanic-serving, Asian-American and Native American Pacific Island-serving university in alignment with its expressed mission and in concert with the Church of God (Anderson, Indiana).
Warner Pacific University’s application for full membership has been submitted to the (CCCU) Council of Christian Colleges and Universities, located in Washington, DC, which will increase our opportunity to walk out our Christ-centered calling as a university in the field of higher education “with purpose” and benefit our faculty, staff, and students.
Warner Pacific University has also complied with its (NWCCU) Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities accreditor by appropriately notifying them of its partnership with (MACU) Mid-America Christian University, a Church of God university, to offer mission-aligned and robust offerings in Christian courses as well as theological degrees and certificates. (You will learn more of this announcement and availability of these courses in the coming months.)
In the wake of two consecutive years of multimillion–dollar federal awards, we give thanks and ask that the Lord will continue to grant us favor in these pursuits, which not only serve our students, but allow the university to shift employee salaries (where appropriate) to serve these grant purposes.
- Enrollment:
We thank God through the Lord Jesus Christ and ask that He continuously aids the works of our hands to increase our declining enrollment from 615 students to a minimum goal of 850 with the expectation that He can do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think.
We give thanks and ask the Lord to continue to grant us wisdom in stewarding the investment and on-going work with Archer enrollment services for the marketing and recruiting of students for our online Professional and Graduate Studies degree programs. Archer is an enrollment company with a proven record who assisted one of our sister Church of God universities. We are grateful that this work is off to a great start reaching its initial fall target with several weeks left in the fall 2024 semester, and we look forward to sharing updates as we enter the spring 2025 semester.
