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CIU’S MISSION AND MESSAGE
Welcome to CIU, a biblical university that is mission driven with a specific
message. Our purpose is stated this way:
CIU educates people from a biblical worldview to impact the nations with the
message of Christ.
Our message is two-fold: one part is about who you are becoming in Christ, and
one part is about how God wants to use you to reach the whole world. It’s summed
up by our motto:
To Know Him and to Make Him Known.
Notice that we did not say CIU is a perfect university. That goes for the institution
and for the people who make it up – faculty, staff, and students. We are not perfect
and believe that we will not be this side of heaven. But that does not mean we have
a pessimistic view of the Christian life or of Christian growth. On the contrary, we
believe that genuine and ever-increasing freedom and fulfillment – many people
within our heritage have called it
victorious Christian living
– is the birthright of
every Christian. Here’s what CIU’s third president Robertson McQuilkin wrote
about it:
Freedom – power to be all that I was meant to be. ... Free at last – from
the dark cloud of guilt for sins past, from the dominating control of a sinful
disposition, and from apprehension or fear about the future. Free! ... And then
there’s fulfillment.... God’s design was to have us fill up on Him as the grand
possession, the ultimate pleasure, our true identity. Only then will we be filled
full. And then, no matter what things, enjoyment, or approval we feel is lacking,
we can still be full!
[McQuilkin, J.R. (Ed). (1997). Free and Fulfilled: Victorious Christian Living in
the 21st Century. Nashville: Thomas Nelson.]
We believe passionately that all true learning consists of and is expressed in
terms of a transformed life. We speak of education in three dimensions: content,
character, and competence. Of course, you’re going to be exposed to a mountain
of new information and encouraged to learn it deeply, not merely to memorize
minutiae. We also hope you will gain an understanding of your natural and spiritual
gifts and grow in your capacity to exercise them with great skill. But all is lost if you
amass knowledge and hone skills apart from a transformed life. Every aspect of
CIU – classes and academic studies, student life, residence life, chapel and prayer
days, relationships, ministry skills development, and student activities – has as its
core ambition to help you in your spiritual formation. This is not an
aspect
of your
CIU education; it is the
essence
of your CIU education.
Spiritual Formation at CIU
Spiritual formation is the divinely ordained transformational process by which the
Holy Spirit leads believers to embrace the Lord Jesus Christ through the Word of
God, and by that relationship become progressively more free from sin and more
like Christ. The Spirit’s formative work occurs in the context of a vital engagement
with a community of believers.
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