From October 17 through 19, several Christian colleges came together for the “Renewing Mind and Heart” conference. The conference consisted of discussions and panels about what it means to be a Christian university and what value that holds.
Reverend Dr. Katherine Douglass, a professor at Seattle Pacific University, attended the event because she wanted this topic to influence her teaching.
“I think it’s important for people who are teaching classes and administrators and leaders to really think generally, ‘what does it mean to be a Christian university? What does it mean to try to shape people who live out their faith through their vocation or their career?’ And I think it’s healthier when we do it together and hear voices that maybe challenge our own ideas or give us kind of insight into the ways God works in different places,” said Douglass.
Forrest Buckner, the dean of Spiritual Life and one of the campus pastors, says this is also about student development. “We actually want to be formed as people who are the type of persons who can go out and be as a Christian, I would say, be Kingdom-minded people, people who live in a way that points towards God’s kingdom and how we how we live, what we do and what we work towards.”
The event started with a guest lecture by James K. A. Smith which focused on what the value of Christian universities is, and if we should continue to have them at all. The evening after that, the conference guests gathered with Whitworth students, staff and faculty to enjoy a worship night run by the collective, The Porter’s Gate.
The Porter’s Gate is a collective focused on creating worship music that the members feel is missing in church environments. One of their co-founders, Isaac Cardwell, says that their goal is to create worship music that is different than the norm.
“As I’ve observed the original worship songs that have been written over the past 30-50 years, it often feels like a lot of the same subjects get revisited over and over again. Our goal has been to expand the subjects we sing about to reflect the full range of human experiences, much like the way we experience the psalms as covering that broader range of topics.”
The Porter’s Gate has come to campus before, and the event was a huge success, according to Buckner. “We had them here two years ago, and it was a wonderful gift to have them. We had a great night of worship together. And so, when we called Isaac again- he was kind of the head organizer of The Porter’s Gate- he was very excited to come back and to make it work.”
For those who were able to come, like Alex Fergus, the Public Services and Circulation Supervisor for the school library, this event was a great time to connect with other Christians. “I think that music is a gift from God, and it draws us close to Him and closer to one another in a way that is hard to describe but is deeply true and meaningful and magnificent,” Fergus said.
Moriah Irish, a first-year student, agrees that events like this are a great way to connect with people around campus in a unique way. “It really builds the community. And I know people say that a lot, but genuinely having these collective experiences does help, especially around we kind of agree are important and are fun just to do, without the obligation to do it,” Irish said.
That speaks to what Buckner hoped this experience was like for people. “My hope is, most of all, that they were able to worship God together. That’s, that’s my number one hope,” he said. “My second hope is that they were they were able to see the community, the people of God, in maybe a slightly bigger way.”
To find The Porter’s worship music, check out their YouTube or any music streaming platform.
