John Tuttle

Name: John Tuttle
Position: Director of Student Communications.
Education: John Brown University, Siloam Springs, Arkansas, BA in Biblical Studies; Talbot, MA in Philosophy of Religion & Ethics; Talbot, PhD in Educational Studies.
At Biola since: Fall 1986 (in various and sundry capacities)
Your StrengthsFinder top five? Input, Learner, Connectedness, Strategic, Intellection.

1. What do you do in your job (briefly)? I help provide well-managed technology that can truly be an aid to community and to sanctification. This involves overseeing and providing content for websites (including this one), digital signage, blogs, BUBBS forums, and other digital and print communication designed for current students.

2. Five most influential books:
Christ & Culture- Niebuhr;
The Best & The Brightest- Halberstam;
Divine Conspiracy- Willard;
Ragamuffin Gospel- Manning;
Screwtape Letters- Lewis.

3. Your best example of love? My JBU undergrad Bible professor, Jim Walters. Several years into their marriage, his wife Linda developed MS, and for almost 20 years now she has been confined to either a wheelchair or bed. He is honest that sometimes it’s tiring, but his commitment to her has never flagged, never waned, and he serves her out of love, not duty. This is a PDF link to their story (see pg. 16).

4. Why are you at Biola? Wow, I don’t have a short answer. So here’s a long one:

The more I read, whether it's USA Today or the New York Times best-seller list or a philosophy journal, the more I'm convinced that never before has our nation (and indeed, our world) been in greater need of what Christian Higher Education offers. The issues are not getting simpler, while the temptations to find a comfortable niche within the culture are more seductive than ever. But to be “wise as foxes but gentle as doves” is to refuse to be cannon fodder for either political party, or just-another-barcode for the machines of materialism. It is to see through The Facade to The Truth, and to gently, lovingly, help others lose the scales from their own eyes.

And there is nothing more exciting than sitting across from a student, whether in a classroom or at lunch, and talking and listening and watching their eyes and knowing that they're starting to get it! They start to see the why behind the what, the cause behind the effect, and that their faith is not a dry manifest inherited from their parents but instead is so alive and so real that it's almost beyond words... and beyond the black-and-white and the soundbite and the bumper sticker.

And so sharing our stories is at least as important as sharing our expertise. I believe that we at Biola, we in Student Development, are about students’ “critical commitments”—their willingness to take well-thought-through conclusions and live them courageously and consistently. I believe that the worst thing we could do is allow students to leave Biola with nothing except having their biases reinforced; I believe that growth is about challenge and support… and challenges are supposed to be uncomfortable.

And it’s not like it’s a one-way relationship; students show me God in places I never would have looked. We are in need of collective sanctification; we are better together than individually. But so many of them would rather be someone else, instead of the beloved person God made them. I pray that they will not “exchange love’s bright and fragile glow, for the glitter and the rouge.”  See, I told you it was a long answer…

5. Guilty pleasures: Tommy's Burgers (way bad, but way good). Green Day and Simple Plan (yeah, who’da thunk it?). Coupling (the BBC version). I’ve got more; I’m a pretty guilty guy…

6. Your testimony (in 200 words or less): I was raised in a "nominally" Christian home. I grew up as the "good kid," doing well academically but socially/emotionally/spiritually adrift.  When I was 20 or so, having dropped out of college and not really going anywhere, I actually began to wonder why I was bothering to resist my baser instincts and desires; why didn’t I just extinguish my guilt and do what felt good and just enjoy it? And so I did, and spent a couple years even deeper in the wilderness…

Then, I ran into a girl I had once dated, a Christian girl. I was still interested, and I figured it would be big brownie points if I invited myself to church with her. But as the weeks went by, there were Sundays when I felt like the pastor was talking just to me. I realized I was lost because I was on the outside looking in. The hounds were after me and wouldn’t let go, and during one Sunday's invitation (yep, it was a good Baptist church!), I was drawn to the front of that sanctuary as if pulled by a magnet. It was Thanksgiving weekend 1982, and I truly and publicly accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.

7. If God put you completely in charge of creating Heaven, what would it be like?
Hmm, well, for sure there’d be regular concerts, with lots of Rich Mullins and R&B and Lost Dogs stuff, and daily baseball games with Vin Scully doing play-by-play. Lots of places to sit and eat with friends, with philly cheesesteaks and biscuits & gravy and chili rellenos and veal parmigiana. Lots of forests and rainforests and gardens, and my youngest son would never forgive me if it didn’t have lots of waterfalls and rainbows. And lots of extra room, for all the people we foolishly never expected to be there. But you know, He’s probably got all this covered already… and it’s gonna be a wild ride.

8. A book you would insist your children read? Dr. Seuss’ Oh The Places You'll Go.

9. If you could relive any part of your life, what part would it be, and why? Before I met my wife, I had some relationships that I handled very badly, very selfishly. I have some apologies to make.

10. What is the most difficult choice you’ve ever had to make? The decision to stay at Biola after I finished my doctorate. What made it difficult? My wife and I had talked for years about where we would go after I was done; it never really occurred to us to stay. What factors helped you make that choice? Lots of talking and prayer, and taking an honest look at what we were looking for and what we already had. And we came to see what a rich life God had already built for us here if only we would inhabit it... despite all the time we were plotting to leave. John Lennon was no believer, but he had it right: “life is what happens while you’re busy making other plans.”

11. What is the most risky thing you want to try doing? What is keeping you from doing it? I’m probably one of the more risk-averse people you’ll meet, which is why I’m always vicariously encouraging students to take risks and never pass up opportunities. I guess I’d like to live my Christian life with the authenticity, passion, and vulnerability that God wants me to; but I’m not sure I’m brave enough, and I think I’d offend a lot of people, Christian and otherwise…

12. What are five things you are most thankful for in your life right now?
I have an amazing wife and three unique, weird, creative, terrific kids.
I have a job I truly love, which has been a long time coming.
I have opportunities to teach (part-time in Torrey), which is another answer to prayer.
That my daughter has settled into a school where she flourishes and excels.
That my family and I have health.

13. In difficult times, who would you most want praying for you? My wife, whose commitment to me is astonishing; my small group leader, Jerrel Haugen, who is doggedly determined in his desire for my edification.

14. Do you think it is possible to live with no regrets? I guess some of this is semantics, but I don’t see how you can… ‘to live with’ doesn’t mean regrets dominate my life, but it does mean to never forget how I have/do/will fall short, and how powerful and loving God’s grace is, to save me from my foolishness.

15. How much is your self-worth and identity determined by your job and your success at it? That’s a burden God’s helped me get rid of. I used to be driven by wanting to make a mark and rise to the top of my field. Now my drive is to be the best husband, the best father, the best Follower I can be… knowing that I’m going to fall sometimes in all three.

16. What are the most important things you look for when choosing a church? Solid underlying theology; intense small-group emphasis; healthy balance between being and doing; welcoming to strangers and outsiders; focus on community service and social service; multi-ethnic if possible… that’s a really tall order. But I think it's most important to find a place where where your gifts can be used, a place where you can serve, rather than looking for a place that can serve you.

17. What is the most beautiful thing you have ever seen? Holding my newborn daughter, 30 seconds after birth. Good God, and I mean that…

18. What are the 3 questions you most want to ask God?
Why create humans?
What was it like before the Flood?
What’s next on Your agenda, after the whole New Heaven New Earth stuff?

19. In what areas of your life is it most difficult to trust God? Boy, this is connected to the risk question… I grew up with a view of God as a demanding taskmaster, who was gracious only as long as I didn’t screw up. Brennan Manning’s stuff helped me to see that isn’t accurate. So I’m only now learning to trust God in lots of things, because He deeply and inexplicably loves me, and it has nothing to do with my performance.

20. What does contentment mean to you? How close are you to that, now? Wow, right on the heels of that last question… contentment to me means accepting who I am, loving myself as I am, seeing myself as God sees me… that’s not to say that I don’t need to grow and mature; I absolutely do. But I can’t say, “I’ll love myself when I reach this level of piety or that degree of maturity.”

One of my favorite passages is in Luke 7, where Jesus is talking to the crowds about how people had rejected not only His message, but John the Baptist's as well. He says, “We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not weep.” John’s message was the dirge: repent, straighten up, judgment is coming. Jesus’ message was the flute: rejoice, God loves you, come join the party. I know lots of Christians whose faith is all about the dirge… but I want to learn to dance.