FOR GREATER PURPOSE
Purpose is at the heart of human aspiration. It propels us through difficulty as we pursue our grandest goals. It draws us beyond comfort toward calling and transforms ambition into service. It motivates us to look beyond our own gain and instead act for the greater good鈥攖o contribute to something larger and more lasting than ourselves. It is the North Star that guides people and organizations alike.
IT IS AN IDEA THAT HAS GUIDED PEPPERDINE FROM THE VERY BEGINNING.
Ephesians 2:10 suggests that our purpose is not something we must define alone鈥� and neither is it a subjective pursuit shaped by personal experience and ambition. Instead, true purpose is, in fact, revealed: 鈥淔or we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.鈥� Purpose is not a possession to be grasped, but a gift to be received. We each have been given a divinely planned path in which we get to walk.
This deeper understanding of purpose is what religious scholars call 鈥渧ocation鈥濃�攁 term that belies something deeper than the limited definition of a 鈥渏ob鈥� or a professional role. Vocation stems from the Latin vocare鈥� 鈥渢o call鈥濃�攕uggesting that every person, made uniquely in the image of God, has been summoned to a unique and vital calling.
Theologian Frederick Buechner puts it this way: 鈥淭he place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world鈥檚 deep hunger meet.鈥� Not merely a set of tasks or a professional path, a person鈥檚 calling in life is a purpose that only he or she can fulfill鈥攁 calling to live with integrity, to engage with the world meaningfully, and to contribute to the flourishing of others in ways only he or she can.
At Pepperdine we believe education itself is a sacred calling. Our calling as an institution is to educate students for greater purpose. The educational endeavor is something more significant than mere knowledge acquisition or career preparedness鈥攖hough both are certainly important. A Pepperdine education prepares you to discover your God-given purpose鈥攁nd equips you to fulfill it.
The greater purpose of education is not simply information but transformation鈥攖he shaping of character, the cultivation of wisdom, and the formation of the whole person for a life of service and leadership. To live and learn for greater purpose is to see our gifts as given for the good of others and to learn to inhabit our place in God鈥檚 unfolding narrative.
This is the spirit of Pepperdine: a community drawn together by faith, animated by purpose, and sent forth into the world to freely give what we have freely received.