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Home > Resources > Worshiping Communities > Campus > MinistriesPepperdine University
Malibu, California
| Denomination: Affiliated with the Churches of Christ | Size: About 3000 undergraduate students (Seaver College is the undergraduate liberal arts college of Pepperdine University) |
| Website: www.pepperdine.edu/welcome/about/faith.htm | |
Mission
Pepperdine is a Christian university committed to the highest standards of academic excellence and Christian values, where students are strengthened for lives of purpose, service, and leadership.
Campus Ministry
When Jesus encountered those who would become his disciples, some of his first words to them were, "Follow Me." That same journey of following Jesus continues and Pepperdine University Campus Ministry invites you to come along! Through a variety of worship, service and fellowship opportunities, we hope to enrich your Pepperdine experience so that you will "walk, even as he walked" from the cafeteria, to your residence hall, during your studies, in the Malibu community, and around the world, drawing always nearer to the Cross of Jesus Christ.
Convocation/Chapel
The Convocation Series is dedicated to help students build Christian faith, affirm Christian values, and address the moral and ethical dimensions of current issues. It includes a variety of programs that will challenge you to think about your personal values and to connect faith with college living as well as strengthen you for a life of purpose, service, and leadership. Convocation also provides enjoyable opportunities to gather as a community.
Convocation - Wednesdays at 10 - guest speakers and students offering reflections on how God is at work. These programs usually start with a devotional period of singing, scripture reading, and prayer.
Wednesdays at 1 - teaching and reflections from various organizations on campus or conversations with that morning's guest speaker
Celebration Chapel - a student-driven service of instrumental worship and Biblically based teaching on Friday at 10 am
Intercultural Convocation - a conversation for everyone, where we discuss topics you want to talk about in relation to life, ethics, religion, social standards, and spirituality, Thursdays at noon
NOOMA - meet in the Waves Café with only a promise to challenge the way you think about faith, Jesus, and your role in this world! Mondays at 10 pm
There are also weekly foreign language chapels and other occasional options to the regularly scheduled convocations.
Note: students may propose alternative programs for the Convocation series. These must have a clear spiritual development objective that is the main focus of the program and present a Christian perspective on the topic or address an issue related to helping students develop Christian faith. These alternatives must not occur at the same time or on the same evening as another program in the Convocation Series.
Some of their Convocation Program highlights are available in a Video Archive.
Other Highlights
Pepperdine has a unique policy for encouraging, but not requiring, students to attend the Convocation series. All full-time students are automatically enrolled in the Seaver 200 "Convocation Series"; the more often they attend an event, the higher their letter grade will be. There are over 100 options to fulfill the attendance requirement. If they attend fewer than 7 times, they receive an F for the course, and these grades do apply to their overall GPA, though no diplomas will be withheld for failure to attend the Convocation series.
There are nearly 20 opportunities for students to be involved in leadership as convocation assistants, music and tech coordinators, and class chaplains.
Pepperdine Voyage: Nurturing Lives of Purpose, Service and Leadership
Through this project, made possible by a generous grant from the Lilly Endowment, we seek to aid our students in a theological exploration of vocaton. The key programs include curricular and co-curricular components, ministry minor, internships, and seminars.
Through this project students ask these questions:
- What is God's call for my life, and how do I discern that call?
- How can I understand my career as ministry, whatever that career may be?
- And how can I use my natural gifts and talents to serve other human beings, especially the poor and dispossessed?