SPU Mission & Vision Statements

The “Signature Commitments” of 2013 eventually evolved into “Core Themes.” In February 2022, the four “Core Themes” morphed into five “Strategic Priorities.”

In a Response article in 2015, President Dan Martin laid out SPU’s Strategic Plan, designed to transform SPU to meet the demands of the future. He notes that “the very first catalog of SPU (then, Seattle Seminary), from 1893-94, says, “We believe in teaching for the future. Education for Character will be our constant motto.”

During Dan Martin’s presidency, the mission statement was slightly edited (removing the phrase “seeks to be a premier”) and it was further supported by four “signature commitments” stressing academic rigor, theological literacy, multicultural competency, and character formation.

At their May 2002 meeting, the Board of Trustees adopted a new mission statement that “calls SPU to be grounded in faith and open to the world.” In this article from SPU’s magazine Response, President Eaton says that “we will seek to be faithful and obedient to God’s call for this place and this time. . . . we must always remember that a calling has a context. We seek to understand this place and this time very well, so that we may shine the light of the gospel more effectively.” To underscore the vision expressed by the new mission statement, Eaton alludes to Isaiah 54:2: “enlarge the site of your tent, and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out; do not hold back; lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes.” He notes that “our stakes…anchor us to our Christian roots, our history and our faith. But we are called as well to be radically open to the world around us.” Two years later in his remarks about the new Statement of Faith, he said he “argued hard” to keep the meaning of “Christian” in the mission statement “left open,” believing “this will serve us well with the various and broader constituencies with whom we engage.”

During Curtin Martin’s presidency (1991-94), SPU’s mission statement in the Undergraduate Catalog was set apart from the “Defining Christian Mission” section and read as follows: “As a community of learners, Seattle Pacific University seeks to educate and prepare students for service and leadership. We are committed to evangelical Christian faith and values, and to the excellence in teaching and scholarship for the intellectual, personal and spiritual growth of students” (p. 2). The catalog also listed the 11 goals for students, but without the explanation for each one developed in previous catalogs.

During David LaShana’s presidency (1982-91), there was no mission statement separate from the six tenets of faith listed in the “Defining Our Christian Mission” section. However, the Catalog did detail 11 goals for helping students become “Scholars and Servants” (p. 3). Goal 1, “growth toward mature Christian faith,” alludes to the tradition, reason, and experience of the Wesleyan quadrilateral. Goal 2, “maturing intellectual, social, spiritual, and emotional judgment” outlines many features that characterize Christian universities as “sacred liminal spaces”: “the ability to empathize, to recognize one’s own assumptions, to see many sides of an issue, to see the provisional nature one’s grasp on truth, to live toward increasing clarity of moral and religious commitment, to come to decisions based on thorough critical deliberation, and to assume responsibility for these decision.” Goal 8, “Growing interpersonal and cultural sensitivity,” demonstrates a long standing commitment of the university toward cultural competency.