Dean's Welcome
Welcome to Regent College! I hope that in coming to Regent, you are prepared for the possibility of your life being transformed.
Being a Regent student involves a process that will test and stretch you. At the heart of Regent’s mission is the challenge to think seriously about the Christian faith. The intellectual dynamic created by having students and faculty from different national, vocational, and denominational backgrounds makes for a stimulating learning environment. We treasure the rich diversity of our community. Within the same class there will be Canadians, Americans, Chinese, Koreans, Australians, and Africans; engineers, nurses, teachers, business people, homemakers, ministers, and missionaries; Baptists, Presbyterians, Anglicans, and Pentecostals, along with many others whom God draws to this school. And we are all engaged in theological education for the whole people of God. You will find your convictions examined and I hope, deepened, and you will be challenged to "think outside the box."
But our mission to think Christianly should be seen as part of a more comprehensive task involving the transformation and integration of our whole lives—mind, heart, and will. This is the perspective from which we approach education. However, the non-academic events at Regent are also important for our mission. In our weekly chapel and midday prayer services, we reflect together on the significance of God’s Word to us today and respond in a variety of worship styles and liturgies; the artistic displays and performances taking place around the College throughout the year point us to the importance of creativity and aesthetics; the weekly Community Groups provide an opportunity for students, faculty, and staff to develop relationships and to care for one another. And the goal is that we become whole people, people who display, as our Global Mission Statement puts it, an "intelligent, vigorous, and joyful commitment to Jesus Christ, His church, and His World."
Bernard of Clairvaux once observed that while some seek to learn for learning’s sake, or out of curiosity, or others out of a desire for mastery and self-promotion, none of these motives are worthy of the Christian. But, he writes, "there are some who desire to know that they may edify others, and that is praiseworthy; and there are some who desire to know that they themselves may be edified, and that is wise." My prayer for you is that in coming to Regent you will be edified and as a result you will be able to edify others. Again, may I welcome you to Regent College, to what I trust will be a life-transforming experience that will serve to the glory of God in your life.
Paul Spilsbury, Academic Dean
