...For the Lord Jesus Christ.

Last of a four-part series of issues, news, and changes affecting spiritual development and Biola students.

Transformation is a word that has shown up a lot in Biola documents over the past five or so years. The Biola “vision statement” includes reference to “a community of grace that promotes and inspires personal life transformation in Christ,” while the three Biola “values” are listed as “truth, transformation, testimony.”

Fleshed out further, the vision statement says that one of the requirements for transformation is a “clear focus and a unifying vision of what it is to be transformed in Christ; a shared understanding of what spiritual formation means will permeate the Biola community.” In addition, there will be a “coordination of efforts across campus; the many programs and departments that are involved with some aspect of spiritual formation will have greater coordination and communication on this subject.”

But the efforts are fragmented

It’s no secret that there are multiple opportunities for spiritual development for undergraduate students. Chapel is required 30 times a semester, and there are over a hundred Chapel options each semester, developed and run by multiple offices. There are at least a dozen short-term student-led missions trips that go out each year, and there are at least that many local ministries that serve Southern California on a regular basis. The Institute for Spiritual Formation offers spiritual direction and mentoring to undergraduates.

And those are only the ‘official’ categories. You may have the opportunity to be in a mentoring relationship with a faculty member. Living and learning alongside 3000 other young Christians may cause you to develop both a vulnerability and a strength you would’ve never expected. And your weekly church experiences certainly should provide opportunities for you to both grow and serve.

But as noted earlier, this wealth of opportunities often occurs in unconnected, isolated “silos” that students may stumble across, rather than being directed towards. How can these opportunities be better coordinated and integrated, without losing their individual character and distinctives? Who is responsible for coordinating the development of this “clear focus and a unifying vision of what it is to be transformed in Christ,” this “shared understanding of what spiritual formation means”?

A new Associate Dean, Todd Pickett

One big piece of this puzzle is now in place. This summer, Dr. Todd Pickett will start as Biola’s first Associate Dean of Spiritual Development.  For the last three years, Todd has served as Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences at Biola, and for nine years before that was a faculty member in, and chairman of, the English Dept. He has a BA from Stanford University, an MA from Trinity College Dublin, a Ph.D. from UCI, and is completing another MA in Spiritual Formation and Soul Care at Talbot. He is married to Dottie, a marriage and family therapist, and they have two children: Carly and Abbey. We talked with him while he was moving into his new office.

Smells like new paint.
Yea, do you like the colors? I couldn’t decide whether to go with Gumleaf, Arizona Agate, Safari Tan or Antique White. My wife says lighter colors make an office feel bigger, so tan and white it is.

How did an English professor end up as Associate Dean of Spiritual Development?
Actually, it feels a bit like coming home. My own history has always bounced between the academy and the church, between the academic and pastoral. Initially, I went to college thinking I’d be going into church ministry. However, Stanford didn’t have a department of theology, so I did the next best thing: I majored in Greek for the sake of New Testament study.

When I returned to the US after my MA in Ireland, I was hired at a Christian School where I (officially) taught English, New Testament, world views and Latin--and (unofficially) got to pastor my some of my students through those messy and confusing teen years. That was great.

After three years, however, I decided to go on and get a Ph.D., but the church I grew up in, Mariners, persuaded me to join them for one year as an interim pastor. While teaching literature as my day job for the last 12 years at Biola, I’ve been moonlighting as a wanna-be pastor—preaching at my church, and more recently, doing spiritual direction and teaching spiritual formation classes. It’s been an interesting journey, but I guess God knew what He was doing because now I find myself in a ministry position within a university. That’s perfect for me.

Do you think your literary background has prepared you for this in some way?
Of course, the concepts, narratives, and metaphors of the Scriptures, divinely inspired as they are, continue to be my primary source for understanding how we grow. After that, centuries of spiritual theologians in our tradition are helping me understand how the Holy Spirit tends to work in God’s people.

But in addition, I’ve always used novels and poems for formational purposes (though of course I love reading for this stuff for its own sake). Literature, whatever else it does, reveals how hearts and mind are formed by lived experience. That’s the terrain of spiritual formation as well, which asks, what has formed us and how does God want to re-form us? My course on the "Novel and Vocation," for instance, explores how a secularized culture experiences calling with out a caller, how we ourselves struggle with questions of identity and calling, and how the Scriptures invite us to understand calling in the richest sense.  My course on Dostoevsky speaks right to some central issues in spiritual development: what does it mean to be formed by the love of God rather than the dynamics of sin, shame and guilt?

How would you describe spiritual development?
That’s a big question. Of course, it can go by other names: sanctification, spiritual formation, spiritual growth, etc. Here’s one way to think of it. Everything we do is forming our spirits in some way, whether for good or ill. In a biblical spirituality, our aim is to be formed chiefly by the Spirit of God. This makes spiritual development relational at its root. It is not first about being good; it’s about being connected. We want to be the branch to His vine, the sheep that trust the Shepherd, the plant rooted and grounded in His love.

Spiritual development, then, involves (among many things) discerning how the Holy Spirit is inviting us more deeply into the loving and transforming work of God in our lives. He calls us to bring the truth of who we are to the truth of who God is—not just cognitively, but relationally and experientially.

There’s so much more to say here . . .

What spiritual disciplines have helped you most lately?
Well, here too, there’s a lot to say. The role of the spiritual disciplines is easily misunderstood.  But (skipping all that), one important “meta-discipline” for me has been that of honesty. I’m a pleaser by nature, and we pleasers tend to put the best face on things. That is to say, we’re not always entirely honest with ourselves.

The meditative reading of Scripture also been helpful to me. Finally, I’d say the disciplines that lead me to rest in God are critical. I’ve lived a lot of my life feeling that I have to be good enough, to atone in some vague way for my weakness. Besides being unbiblical, it’s exhausting in a way that ironically never produces rest.

Will you be over chapel?  What’s the plan?
Yes, my office will oversee chapel—and be a resource for many other things.  We’re thinking, “These students are here for four years (more or less). They live together, eat together, study together, pray together, and worship together. How can we help them discern the loving work of God in their own lives and each others, and open to it more intentionally?”

We're in the process of hiring a Director of Chapel Programming, and together we’re going to be asking: What could be done with chapels to allow students to listen, reflect on, and respond to the call of God? What might spiritual friendships look like in the dorms?  How can small groups of students help one another open to the work of God in their lives? What does it look like not only to study the Scriptures, but to read them with an open heart? How might the rhythms and disciplines of the spiritual life be integrated into campus life? How do ministry and service lead to spiritual formation (rather than pharasaism or moralism)? How might diverse worship experiences be an invitation to open our hearts wider? For that matter, what is the role of worship and music in spiritual development? What does it mean even to eat contemplatively, allowing God’s gifts to form our hearts?

There’s lots to explore here. It’s very exciting.

So, professor, does this mean we’re going to hear a lot of poetry in chapel now?
Not necessarily. I want to be sensitive to those who may struggle with “metrophobia.”

Metrophobia?
Fear of poetry.

Ah. So what should we call you?
Todd or “hey you” are both fine.

Todd invites anyone interested to visit his Facebook page, to see more of his family and his life. Todd will officially begin his new position on July 1 2008.